Travel Journal
We were getting very tired of eating off of paper plates so made a decision to find a local potter and buy 2 “special” plates for our journey. We found Saddle Rock Pottery run by Bruce and Cynthia Lovold. They invited us to their gallery which was even more in the middle of nowhere than we already were. Nice folks and some really nice work.
They were very interested in our trip and told us all about how they built their “dream barn” to satisfy their needs to be artists.
Why is it that each geographical area seems to have its own special food dish? In the Southern Tier of NY it is “Spiedies”. These are chunks of chicken, pork or venison marinated in a special sauce and grilled.
When we hiked into Two Harbors, Minnesota each gift shop and service station seemed to advertise “Wile Rice”. We picked Buddy’s Mercantile as the place we would inquire/purchase some of this delicacy. Buddy’s daughter gave us a lesson on what wild rice is and how to cook it. It is actually lake grass seeds that are harvested by hand by grabbing bunches of it and shaking the seeds into the boat. It is then blanched (some claim to blanch by hand…..), dried and packaged. The different versions of the seed, depending on how processed they are, will take from 30-70 minutes to cook in boiling water.
The Upper Peninsula of Michigan had a dish called a Pasty. years ago we kept ordering them by using a “hard A” like in children’s paste. We were finally corrected and now use a “soft A” like ‘pass-tee” to order them (I love it when someone speaks up and corrects what are, in local areas, horrible errors in dialect).
These are a baked sandwich containing chunks of meat, potato, carrot and whatever other vegetable the chef wants. They originated from the mining days when a miner could carry one into the mines and have a well balanced meal all in one pocket sandwich.
We also learned of and tried a special meat called Cudighi Sausage. This was somewhat local to Ishpeming, Michigan. It was very tasty and did not contain as much fat residue after cooking.
As native New Yorkers we still favor the spiedies but the pasties, sausage and wild rice are now on the menu every day or two while we are in the area.
Pie seems to be big on the North Shore also. Self proclaimed “world famous” Betty’s Pies is 4 miles north of Two Harbors. We passed by it day in and day out going to and coming from our hikes and noticed the huge parking lot was always packed. We finally decided to fight the crowds and see how good it was. Laurie tried the Butterfinger pie and I tried the Great Lakes Fruit pie with the crumble topping. They were special and BIG. There are other pie shacks along Route 61 but we don’t have the caloric capacity to try them all….even with all the hiking!
Back home in NY we are witnessing two industries growing very quickly. They are craft breweries and craft distilleries. A far cry from the times of prohibition we would say. The Minnesota culture seems to promote growth in both of these industries, especially the breweries. We are currently just north of Two Harbors and enjoying the fruits of Castle Danger Brewery’s labor.
Back in Duluth we found many breweries right near our campsite in Canal Park. Our favorite is Bent Paddle Brewery. The Canal Park Brewery comes in a close second.
We stopped into the Vikre Distillery and sampled some of their whiskey and vodka. It was actually very smooth and had subtle hints of this and that.
We actually had a chance to stop at a neat little restaurant on the Lakewalk in Duluth right in the middle of our daily 8 mile hike. The SHT route takes you right downtown so a hungry and thirsty hiker can fill up. Fish and chips and a flight of local beer. Just enough energy to get us back up the hills to the ridge overlooking the lake with “Superior” views.
In case any of you were wondering how we get back to our vehicle after a long hike…..The motor scooter is our vehicle of choice during this trip.
We have used our tandem bicycle on trips like the Appalachian Trail near the Skyline Drive as it is a straight, albeit hilly, shot from one trail head to the other. On the Finger Lakes Trail we usually choose our separate mountain bikes as there are many dirt DEC roads the tandem would not like. On the Appalachian Trail in the state of Maine we used two vehicles as the logistics and distance involved there prevented any sane person from biking 30 miles after hiking 15.
Transporting the scooter is not as difficult as we once imagined. It weighs almost 400 pounds soaking wet so lifting it is not an option. We initially had two 10 inch by 10 foot folding ramps but found them to be too skinny for safety sake. It would suck to slip off one and lose the scooter. We upgraded to two 18 inch by 10 foot ramps that strap to the ball of the hitch for safety. Below are some pics of the uploading and downloading of the scooter (are those real words in the scooter world?)
After all our days of hiking on the Superior Hiking Trail we opted for something different today. We decided to rent kayaks and head out to mingle with the “big guys”. The freighter schedule called for one Laker (1000 foot ship that is so big it cannot leave the Great Lakes) leaving port at 8pm and a Salty (700 foot ship that can fit through the locks heading to the Saint Lawrence Seaway headed to the Atlantic) arriving after that.
We went to the beach at Burlington Bay at around 7pm. This beach can be used for swimming but only the strong (read…crazy) will go swimming in this chilly water. The water high temperature on the Northern Shore in August is 66 degrees F. Instead of swimming we met Christy, an “entrepreneur” who rents kayaks out of the back of her minivan. She took us up to Agate Bay about 2 miles away and launched us into the lake right between a lighthouse and the Laker.
The Laker belched out its steam and set off all sorts of alarms seeming to say “I am ready to depart” but it actually never left port.
We stayed out paddling around until shortly after nine before coming in to watch two families of ducks “rumble” over which family had the rights to the kids bread crumbs.
Now that we are hooked on the serene sense one gets on a calm night paddling in Lake Superior we will look into purchasing two kayaks to bring with us westward. It is not the money that will prevent us from buying but the logistics of carrying them throughout our journies. If we can find some way to load them onto our rig without getting in the way of our tandem bicycle and/or our motor scooter and ramps we will do it.
AND…the verdict is…….No kayak purchase on this trip. They are definitely in our near future though.
We have been hiking 7-10 miles per day on most days for the past few weeks and have completely fallen in love with this trail. After 135 miles we have run out of expletives to describe the beautiful views and sights to each other. Below are a number of our favorite pictures so far. Many of the pictures do not do the scene justice but you can get a feel for what we are looking at each day.
We always wondered what taking off and landing on the water would be like. Turns out it is much smoother than landing on a runway. This is when the lake is calm the pilot told us otherwise, all bets are off. We got hooked into this by taking a nice evening bike ride down the point on Minnesota Avenue. The “end of the road” was an airstrip that had an sign for seaplane rides. We were fairly easily talked into joining a family of 4 for the 7:00pm flight. The pilot told us that the more folks on board, the longer he can afford to fly. The conditions were also very calm and the skies were clear.
We took off and immediately the pilot gave us an interesting history lesson of the area that helped us see the sites at ground level in an entirely new way. After a very smooth ride we landed 45 minutes later without incident.
It truly was a thrill to fly this way. The pilot asked us if we wanted to stick around and watch them take the plane out of the water and “wheel” it into the hanger using his mid-sized John Deere lawn tractor.
He also noted that a plane from Canada was landing and that the border patrol had been called to clear the plane and it’s passengers for entry into our great country. Why would anyone fly illegal things into the country and call border patrol on themselves?
We were treated to some awesome views of the Lake Superior Shoreline and the City of Duluth, Minnesota.
The gift shop had a wonderful selection of flying memorabilia.
