Sobol's Grand Finale at the Velodrome

With Michael on the verge of leaving town for the big skies in Colorado, he decided to make one final appearance at the National Sports Center's Bicycle Velodrome for an evening of races. All the photos from yesterday can be seen here: http://exposure.evidon.net/gallery/5765730_nAKqx

Minneapolis to Stillwater

The Twin Cities have become known as a great place to own a bike. In the past decade there has been a substantial amount of work put into creating a network of bike trails all around the city and stretching out into the countryside that allow for bikers to get outside the city limits without having to necessarily worry about their safety riding along the shoulder of a two-lane highway.

One of the main arteries that stretches out of the metro area is the Gateway Trail, which runs northeast out of downtown St. Paul. My friends Michael, Mariya and Joel were planning a trip out to Stillwater, following the Gateway Trail most of the way, and they asked me to join them. I stopped counting the good reasons to go along after I had to start using my toes (and quite honestly I don't think it would have been possible to ask for better weather).

Before leaving there was a little bit of work that needed to be done to my bike before it was ready to roll, and Michael was kind enough to stop over to my place and get it working. We then made quick work of getting to Dinkytown to meet up with Mariya and Joel before beginning our day. Our plan was to get out to Como Park by way of the UofM Transitway and Como Ave. in order to reach Wheelock Parkway, which provided the most direct link from Dinkytown onto the Gateway Trail.

Having reached the Gateway Trail, it came as a welcome distancing from most car traffic. The trail runs through North St. Paul and Oakdale, seemingly out in the countryside yet you are occasionally reminded of the fact that Twin Cities suburbs stretch out farther than desired. Making short time of the Gateway Trail, we took a quick break upon leaving the trail onto 75th Street heading due east into Stillwater.

While this was not my first time down in the quaint town along the St. Croix River, the majority of the previous trips were going “through” and not “to” Stillwater. All four of us were too tired to work hard at finding the best place to hang out and have some food and drinks so we opted for the Freighthouse, a large restaurant along the river with plenty of outdoor seating. The food was underwhelming, but it was nice to sit down and enjoy the evening.

We wandered around town afterwards for a while but the light was beginning to wane and we wanted to get going again so as not to get home too late. For anyone that has been to Stillwater, you will already be aware that in order to leave the city heading west you must first deal with a very steep hill which at this point in the night was not exactly what I was wanting to do. But then again there were not too many other alternatives so up we went.

Flying back down the Gateway Trail in near pitch-black darkness was quite a surreal experience. Normally backtracking can become monotonous when biking, but the sense of disorientation became stronger as the trail stretched on in front of us. Fortunately Michael had biked this path many times before because I would have never been able to spot the exit back off to Wheelock Parkway.

Once more on city streets, it was easy going back in to Minneapolis with traffic having died down considerably by 11pm. I attempted to sit down at home and begin looking through the photos I had shot on this bike ride, but I was completely unable to stay awake and gave up on that notion.

To see the full galleries of photos from the trip to Stillwater, click here: http://exposure.evidon.net/gallery/5675855_dRJyJ

Click here to see the map of our journey: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=2161300

BWCA: Day 3

Having gone to bed around 9PM last night it was no issue waking up at 6AM and breaking camp within the hour. Mitch and I were both excited at the prospect of catching a glimpse of some wildlife at this early hour, and we wouldn't be disappointed. No more than two minutes after pushing off from our campsite, we spotted a moose grazing along the shoreline. Mitch had previously seen a moose while driving along the Gunflint Trail, but for both of us this was an impressive sight and a rare glimpse at wildlife at its finest.



We were quickly back on track along the Frost River and for the next couple hours meandered downstream making a number of portages around rapids and beaver dams. One of the portages had a down tree across the path so we opted to run the rapids instead of hoisting the boat over the tree. However, up until this point our portages had been relatively short... that is until we reached our big 300 rod portage for this day. Both of us powered through it and were back on the water within 35 minutes.



The sun never really came out today, but the still water was a welcome trade-off. There were a few more short portages that followed and it was here that we began to feel the effect of our big portage. As we began the final portage of the day it began to drizzle which persisted until we had reached the campsite. Both of us quickly set up camp and had everything situated within 25-30 minutes. No more than about five minutes after setting up the rain began to come down hard and persisted for almost two hours. We managed to keep ourselves occupied with various improvements to our tarp shelter, including a drainage system that allowed us to collect rainwater.


The day ended peacefully and I was off to bed early to recover some energy for the final section of our journey.

BWCA: Day 2

I certainly wish I could have slept better, but that wouldn't have allowed me to be up at 4AM for some pre-sunrise dawn photos which considering the chilly wind turned out quite nice. Both Mitch and I finally got up at 7:30AM and broke camp by 9AM. By this time the chilly wind had turned warmer, but was still extremely strong and provided us with some terrific headwind to get our day going. A short 13-rod portage got us off of Cherokee Lake and on to Gordon Lake. Gordon was a much smaller and more sheltered lake and as such the wind was far less of a factor here making the paddling much easier. We meandered our way north on Gordon until reaching the main bay where our next portage was located.

Upon arriving at the portage site we saw a group of paddlers coming out from the portage so we waited until they had loaded up and left before approaching. While killing time on Gordon Lake, we came across an outcropping of rock that stuck out over the water with deep water underneath. My climbing mind began looking for possible routes, but that would have to wait for another day...

The portage through to Unload Lake was our longest for the day at 140 rods, but we pulled through and sped across Unload to the shot portage to get to Frost Lake. Earlier we had discussed possibly staying at a campsite on Frost Lake, but upon closer inspection we were unimpressed by the campsites and decided to push on. The next few campsites were a decent distance away and spread far apart, but we were almost certain that the remote locations of these sites would provide a more favorable camping spot.

Getting on the Frost River required another long portage (130r.) so we stopped beforehand for lunch. [Note to self: avoid eating food just before loading a 70+lbs. pack on your back and trekking any long distance.] Along the Frost River we ran into a number of beaver dams that required short portages to continue further, but the two of us got into a rhythm and were quick to get back on the water each time.

Our main option for a camp site was to be on Bologna Lake, just off of Chase Lake which is part of the Frost River flow. The next site was another 60-90 minutes further downstream, so we were hoping that this would be a good spot. As we made our way across the lake, a bald eagle swooped out of the trees and snatched a fish out of the water about 30 yards ahead of the boat, a sight that is truly awesome to behold. The campsite turned out to be quite comfortable and the remainder of the evening was quite calm. Mitch and I began discussing the next day and we both agreed to wake up early in the hope of seeing some of the bigger wildlife that is known to roam in the area.


To see the full gallery of photos from the BWCA, click here: http://exposure.evidon.net/gallery/5104228_yNfAT

BWCA: Day 1

The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness has long been a destination in Minnesota that I have wanted to visit and explore. And after having discussed trip ideas for quite some time with Mitch [blog link], we had finally set the dates and were about to begin the drive north out of the Twin Cities and away from civilization. Leaving town around 6:30AM with coffee in hand, we headed due north towards Duluth and on to the North Shore Drive.

Before getting up to our launch site we had to stop in at the Superior Forest Ranger Station in Tofte to collect our permit and grab a new copy of the map we would need for navigation. With every permit that is issued you are required to watch a short movie which talks about the "Leave No Trace" program that they want all visitors to adhere to. Once you have finished watching the film you are given a short test to ensure that the information has actually been processed. With all of the paperwork completed, we were back on the road heading north out of Tofte towards Sawbill Lake, our entry point into the BWCA.

Having already packed our gear for launch at home, getting the car unloaded was a breeze and we were on the water by 11:30AM. Our initial destination for the day was to be at one of the 18 campsites on Cherokee Lake, a large and quite popular destination in the BWCA. However in order to get there we first had to paddle the length of Sawbill Lake and complete our first portages of the trip, three 80-90 rod portages [wiki: rod(length)] through Ada Creek and Ada Lake. With beautiful weather persisting throughout this first day, we were already enjoying ourselves thoroughly and were happy to observe only a few boaters on Sawbill and none on the connection up to Cherokee Lake. Our plan of attack for finding a campsite was to look along the west shoreline for a site with a good view of the lake that would allow us to take in the sunrise. We passed no more than three campsites when we came upon a site on a peninsula that was situated about 15 feet above the water line and had a great fire pit. I made the executive decision to stay at that site and we began establishing camp.

Most camp sites on this lake are quite heavily visited and as a result leaves a limited amount of firewood in the vicinity. So after we had set up the tent and the rest of our gear, Mitch and I paddled out to an island directly across from our site on the lake to have a bigger selection of firewood for the evening. Quickly finding more than enough wood for our needs, we ended up staying on the island for a while and lounged out in the sun.


Dinner was a spectacular meal put together by Mitch prior to leaving the city - marinated steak, potatoes, onions and carrots bundled together in a tin foil packet along with butter, seasoned salt and pepper and tossed over the fire. Needless to say it hit the spot and left me content to sit around the fire for the remainder of the evening and soak in the peacefulness of the BWCA.


To see the full gallery of photos from the BWCA, click here: http://exposure.evidon.net/gallery/5104228_yNfAT

It's Been A Long Time...

Yes, it has been almost a month since my last post. This stems not from a lack of adventures to blog about, but instead from my desire to spend less time in front of the computer. The weather here in Minneapolis is steadily improving making life outside more bearable and far more enjoyable.

Taking into account the writing, formatting and designing that I do for each of my blog posts, I would estimate that it takes me approximately 1-2 hours... I tip my hat to bloggers that are able to maintain a thriving blog as I am now aware of how much time and effort goes into that process.

Blogging has certainly been a great way for me to flesh out my thoughts into writing and publish it for others. Just as the majority of this blog already does, I will be focusing on my travel experiences, which I hope will become more frequent as time passes. My next post will most likely be in conjunction with my upcoming trip to the BWCA during the first week of June.

For now you can see photos I took of Matt with his dog Nora down along the Mississippi River by clicking on the image below...

On the Namekagon River

This past weekend I was fortunate to get up north for a weekend of canoeing on the Namekagon River in Wisconsin with Mike and Matt. The Namekagon River has been designated a National Scenic Riverway and as a result offers some fantastic back-country boating only a few hours removed from the Twin Cities. Earlier in the week the weather forecast predicted sunny skies all weekend long, but by Friday it became clear that we would be dealing with some rain at some point. After taking a few extra precautions, we left town around 5pm and headed due north along Interstate 35. The three of us finally arrived around 8 or 9pm at County K Landing(N31.2) and set up camp for the night. The number before denotes the distance from the confluence with the St. Croix - our final distance would be exactly 35 miles.

I went to bed excited to try out my new Exped sleeping pad for the first time, and it was way beyond my expectations. I haven't slept that well in at least a couple months. However, I did wake up a few times throughout the night and noticed that it was raining quite substantially. I realized in the morning that the tent had standing water sitting in it, but having a 3.5" thick sleeping pad meant that I had stayed dry all night. Nonetheless, we had to break down camp and get on the water in the driving rain which no one really enjoys. It was during this time that I made the decision to leave my camera gear behind in the car as the weather was not showing any sign of improving and while my camera on its own would be able to handle the rain just fine, the other camera gear I had brought would not have fared as well... At the time it was strictly a liability decision, but that would change by the end of the trip - I'll explain later.

Though the rain still continued as we launched our boats, we were very happy to be on the river and moving. As we moved forward the rain slowly began to let up and allowed us to dry off and warm up. If memory serves me right, we had a good clip going for a while and went 10 miles before pulling off to take a break at Whispering Pines Landing (N21.3). During our brief stop here we discussed our possible camp spots for the night; most of our attention was focused between the McDowell Bridge and Namekagon Trail Landings. Based solely on looking at the map, which you can see below, we decided that we would aim for the campsite at N6.2.

The following hours went by quite peacefully without seeing any other people, which gave us plenty of opportunities to look for some of the water fowl and other wildlife that was in the area. Some of the highlights included a few bald eagles, bufflehead, loons, a kingfisher and osprey. While seeing all of this wildlife up close, at no point did I concern myself with the decision I had made to leave my camera behind. As I quickly began to realize, not worrying about shooting photos allowed me to really experience these creatures in a much more natural way.

As we approached the campsite we had previously decided on, it became immediately clear that this would not be our campsite - the landing was eroded and the spot for tents was on a slope. Figuring we would find a more suitable campsite further on, we continued downstream only half a mile before stumbling onto a great campsite at N5.8. We ended up with a good 3-4 hours of sunlight to hang up some of the gear that had been soaked the previous night and get a good fire going. The rain held off for the rest of the evening and through the night and we hoped that there would be some sunlight for our last day on the water.

Unfortunately, the sunlight did not show up for its early morning appearance, but as we made our way downstream once again, the clouds began breaking up and soon we were flooded with sunlight. The remaining 10 miles we needed to cover were extremely enjoyable, most notably when we watched as an osprey dove into the water from up in a tree and came back out with a fish in its claws. Quite an impressive sight and one that I have never witnessed before. We arrived safe and sound at Riverside Landing where I stayed behind while Mike and Matt drove back to County K to get the other car so we could begin the journey back home. Most of that time was spent playing with Matt's dog Nora, who has an infinite supply of energy. I have every intention of returning to the Namekagon River in the near future, and it will make no difference to me if in rains or shines .

Photos from this blog post can be seen here: http://exposure.evidon.net/gallery/4765781_6iFMU