Duluth Vs. Superior

First, an announcement...I have just completed making a reservation for a solo camping trip to Hardin Ridge Recreation Area which is located in Indiana, about halfway between Indianapolis and Louisville.  I will be there for Labor Day weekend and won't be leaving until Tuesday, so anyone who wants to join me shoot me a message and let me know!  While I don't mind camping alone it's always more fun to have a buddy, especially for those hikes.

Crossing the bridge from Superior to Duluth

While we decided on a whim to hit up Duluth for a rainy day diversion while staying in Bayfield, a few other bloggers have stopped in the area deliberately.  The folks from Oh the Places They Go wrote up such a nice post about their time exploring Duluth that I thought I should give it another try.

Barges and boats

The tourism websites made such a big deal about the Canal Park area that we headed there first (after purchasing our replacement polarizer!) but quickly found out it was not the place for us.  Not only is parking limited and expensive, all Canal Park had to offer was a collection of shops, a movie theater and restaurants.  Basically an outdoor mall with insane parking, and the place was packed mid-afternoon on a weekday.

Just around the curve was the William A. Irvin, a cargo ship turned museum.  Parking is only available across the street in a pay lot (again, not cheap) and the tours are guided only for $12 adults.  I rolled my eyes and paid up because Wayne loves a ship tour, especially barges and tugboats.

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If you want to walk around a barge, my money (the same $12, as a matter of fact) votes for Museum Ship Valley Camp in Sault Ste. Marie.  Not only do you get to tour a barge, (self-guided) but you get to view 100 other maritime related exhibits while you do it.  And you can walk away from the screaming kids if they are present at any time.

Cargo holds - imagine them holding 44 elephants to get an idea of the size of the ship

My problem with guided tours of this type is that the guide just spouts a litany of facts that I don't have the time to wrap my brain around.  All I took away from this tour is the tidbit about the elephants and that this particular barge was a bit fancier than normal because the shipping company brought important investors/guests aboard.

We did get some nice views of Canal Park and the nearby bridges from the deck.

Our first glimpse of the "fanciness" was the the brass railings in the always-immaculately-clean-engine-room.

For the most part, it was a ship.  It had things like rivets and anchors.  I was not impressed with the "luxurious" guest suites and dining area so skipped taking pictures of those.

We just couldn't get into Duluth.  Too crowded, too industrial.  We stopped for a very expensive lunch at The Duluth Grill which I frequented the last time I breezed through.  It was delicious, but lunch with tip was over $50...and we drank water. An appetizer, a turkey burger, a slice of lasagna and a slice of chocolate cake to split, in case you were wondering.

Arthur M. Anderson

Back on the Wisconsin side in the town of Superior life is a little simpler.  Wayne was excited when he spotted the Arthur M. Anderson in dry dock.  It was the last boat in contact with the Edmund Fitzgerald before it sank.  If you want to see some good exhibits on that topic, head over to the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum in Whitefish Point, Michigan.  We've been there, but I haven't posted about it yet because it was before we started the blog when we did the Lake Michigan Circle Tour.  That was a nice trip, I'll share it with you eventually.

Wisconsin Point Light

I convinced Wayne to turn down the road that leads to the Wisconsin Point Light.  Minnesota Point and Wisconsin Point create the longest freshwater sandbar in the world at ten miles.  It was quite an unusual drive up the narrow strip of road with woods giving way to beach here and there on both sides of the car, and the occasional views of the harbor includes those barges and an ore dock.

Wildflowers in the parking area

We only got out long enough for me to test out my polarizer, which as I mentioned before didn't seem any different than the one I owned that cost half the price.  Perhaps durability and longevity is the key factor.

We stopped at Amnicon Falls State Park to walk around for a bit and it was the best part of the day.  Photos to come tomorrow because I got enough that they need their own post.  One last photo from the Wisconsin side of port, we spotted a black bear crossing the road soon after leaving Superior.  If we would have been a few seconds later coming down the road we probably wouldn't have been able to avoid hitting it, it moved like lightning!

And a fun little mural on the way home will make its appearance on Monday.  Ah...Wisconsin!  If you missed my post from last August about my trip up to Superior you can read it here.

Backyard Bears Video

I know I told you about our backyard bear visit in Gatlinburg already.

Something's going on with the young bear's hind leg.  Looks like a healing injury of some sort.  Maybe even human intervention?  Looks a little too symmetrical to me.

But here's the YouTube video version of our visit.  Click on the YouTube symbol or the little box in the lower right hand corner to view it in Full Screen.

We really enjoyed our rental house and I'd recommend either the 4 bedroom Mountain Extacy property we had or the 5 bedroom Mountain Splendor property next door to anyone.  I bet the bears are frequent visitors, just remember to lock up that garbage good when you take it out!

Linking up to Saturday's Critters for the first time thanks to Linda!

Hanging With the Ladies

No Monday Mural today, too much to talk about down from Tennessee still.

I spent some time with the ladies I shared a house with, I swear.

French Toast made by Pam

I kept trying to get them out in the woods with me, but they had their own ideas.  I did talk them into taking a drive through Cades Cove.  We took separate cars though because I wanted to do some hiking in Tremont.  

Little River Road

We went as far as the Townsend "Y" together to see some wildflowers on the Chestnut Top Trail, but first I had to veer off onto the side of the road to capture the vivid Columbine blooming on the rock face along Little River Road.

Then it was on to the Chestnut Top Trail for a wildflower stroll with the ladies.

I had an opportunity to put all my new-found knowledge to good use and tell them the names of just about everything they pointed out.

Wild Stonecrop

A butterfly enjoys the Beaked Violet

I saw some Fire Pink when we were in Kentucky, but I was happy to see a little red here in the Smokies too.  The "pink" refers to the shape of their petals and not their color.  The tips of the petals are notched or "pinked" (think of a pair of pinking shears).  The deep tubular corolla evolved to use flying insects and hummingbirds as its primary pollinators, giving it a better chance of the pollen being passed on than with crawling insects.

By now I'm sure you're thinking to yourself, for goodness sakes, how many wildflowers must Pam show us?  Well, there are 1500 kinds of flowering plants in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, but I promise not to show you that many.

One-Flowered CancerRoot - the only one I've seen

After they were done looking at the flowers they stopped along the Little River to pose for some photos before they left for their drive through Cades Cove.

On Saturday even more Newfie cousins showed up.

Sunday breakfast 

That's three Newfie cousins with three daughters and an extra non-Newfie friend thrown in for variety.  When they got started on the "remember when" tales with the convoluted family tree that goes along I felt kind of sorry for poor Deena!  

3 cousins and 3 daughters

She took it in stride though and by the end of 24 hours I hope she felt like family.  You know them Newfies, nothing but foolishness.

Goofy Newfies

While the cousins played catch-up and drank tea I dragged Deena and Darlene to Porter's Creek to hunt for Lady Slipper.  

When we came back we had some more visitors to our backyard after supper.

If they were hoping to get some scraps they were in for a disappointment.  We made sure to latch the bear-proof lock on the garbage storage outside.

Mom and cub just grazed underneath our deck for awhile and we all hung around watching them.

It was a short time we had together, but full of laughter and friendships both old and new.  Hopefully we'll all meet up again soon...the bears can stay in the Smokies where they belong though.

Today we drove as far as Indianapolis, tomorrow it's all the way home but I don't think it will be long before I'm back on the trails of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  I even picked out an RV park in Townsend for us to stay at next time so I can explore the other end of the park more!

Curry Mountain Trail Bear Encounter

Last night I got a text from Sharon saying that she was going on a hike with Gene and Judi on Curry Mountain Trail and that I was welcome to come along.  Gene and Judi used to have a travel blog as well so I was eager to meet two more people who share my love of travel and hiking.

Before we even got on the trail I saw a few new-to-me wildflowers just walking from the Metcalf Bottoms parking lot to the trailhead.

Hairy Buttercup

Robin's Plaintain

And while we didn't come up with names for everything, Gene and Judi were a wealth of information when it came to helping me identify plants.

Gene consults "Wildflowers of the Smokies"

Rue Anemone

Sweet Shrub

The trail ascended pretty quickly in the first mile but got a little easier after that.  Judi set a pretty good pace on the hike, but stopped often to point things out to both myself and Sharon.

Cabbage White Butterfly on Star Chickweed blossom

Sharon said Judi likely picked this hike because it's the only trail she's seen a bear on.  We told her to keep a look out for us while we watched our feet on the trail.  Good thing we were, because there was some pretty fresh bear scat on that trail and it wouldn't have been nice to step in!

Gene and I brought up the rear most of the time, me because of the camera and Gene because he's dealing with some plantar fascitis issues.  We traded horror stories and remedies...I won't bore you with foot issues this time, we have more interesting things to talk about!

Crested Dwarf Iris in the middle of the trail

Often Gene would drop behind to trim nuisance branches.  I thought bringing a light saw along was pretty neat and might suggest it to Santa for Wayne this year.

I got pretty excited when I spotted the Squaw Root by myself.

It was so warm in the sun on the trail that I told them it felt like Wisconsin in June.  When Judi and Sharon kept surging on ahead I yelled out for them to let us know when they spotted that bear.  

Around the 2.5 mile mark I decided to turn around and head back down. My allergies have been acting up the last few days and the pollen was so high my eyes were starting to burn and itch.  I told my hiking companions that they'd probably see that bear with my luck, but they said I'd be more likely to see a bear hiking alone.

On my way down I kept my camera ready just in case, and kept an eye out for that fresh scat as well.  Not long after I passed it I came around a bend.....

Mama Bear was just as startled to see me as I was to see her!  She grunted and her two cubs each ran up a different tree.  She moved to stand guard under one of the trees and that increased her distance to about 40 feet so I snapped a few photos.

Baby Bear closest to me scampering up the tree

I thought I was noisy on my way down the mountain, snapping twigs, tripping over rocks, crunching through leaves.  Either I'm quieter than I thought or Mama was distracted.

Two cuties for the price of one

I snapped all the shots in about 30 seconds and then gave Mama the room she needed by starting to move slowly down the trail.

Baby Bear #2 keeping an eye on me

As soon as I was a safer distance away I texted Sharon and let her know about my bear encounter.

Baby Bear #1 waiting for the all clear from Mama

That was a lot of excitement and it wasn't even noon yet!  I took another short hike on an old service road near Sugarlands Visitor Center later in the afternoon and met some more wildlife...but I'll save that for next time.