Tag Archives: Duluth Minnesota

Touring Duluth on Skis

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Tour-Duluth-2013It’s an annual event.  Hosted by the Duluth XC Ski Club, the idea is to ski all the trails in the city – in one day.  We loved the idea, but Old Man Winter hasn’t cooperated to keep the snow long enough in recent years.  This year that was hardly a problem.  In what seems to be a recurring theme for us, we skied the Tour pelted by heavy snowfall, wintry mix and rapidly accumulating wet snow.  And loved it.

The tour is a do-it-yourself affair and participants can ski any trails in any order.  But we chose to follow the suggested route, starting in the west at the Spirit Mountain / Magney-Snively trails and working our way east.

It won’t surprise anyone to learn that Rich and I were the first to arrive and blazed the trails for those to follow.  There was already a heavy accumulation of new snow and more continued to fall, pelting our faces and IMG_9597obscuring our vision.  No matter, the accompanying fog veiled the beautiful views of the harbor that normally grace these trails.  We had a quiet and mostly solitary ski around IMG_9598the connecting trail systems.  I was quickly reminded how narrow and hilly the Magney trails are, although I had no fear of the steep downhills this time as our speed was checked by the sticky new snow.

Returning to the Nordic Center, more skiers were gathering and heading out on the trails.  It was a festive atmosphere.  Inside, we helped ourselves to hot chocolate which tasted divine.  16k behind us, and we were off to a great start.

Our next stop was the Piedmont XC trails.  This one was completely new to us, and turned out to be a charming spot with a fascinating history.  The 5.5k of classic trails wend though aspen and birch.  But what made it unique were the signs.  About 45 hand crafted wooden signs provide humor, puns and inspiration to skiers all along the route.  It was in the parking lot following our enjoyable sojourn out on the trail, that by pure luck we met Jerry and Glen.  The youthful 88-year-olds originally carved the trails out of the woods in 1960 and maintained them until the city took them over in 1980.  And it is they who take great pride in posting the signs.  We thoroughly enjoyed their stories and marveled as they headed off for their daily ski.

Piedmont-green-achersPiedmont-e-z-riderPiedmont-Dippety-Dew

I next skied at Snowflake Nordic Ski Center, while Rich took a break at home (he was, after all, only a week out of the hospital…).  I chose the 5k loop, which I navigated twice enjoying its gentle rolling terrain.  Visibility had improved, and the skate deck was snowy but firm – probably the best skiing of the day.

We skied our final kilometers on the Lester/Amity IMG_9600trails, in our own back yard.  By then the snow coming down had an icy edge, and what was on the ground turned soft and heavy.  It was harder going than before – or was it just that I was tired by the middle of the afternoon?  I managed a spectacular fall trying to ski a steep hill that I normally avoid.  What was I thinking?

There were two more trails on the agenda, but the pull of a warm house and hot shower were too strong to overcome.  For me, the fact that they were short and classic-only also may have contributed to my malaise.  Having topped 40k, we figured we’d done enough.  We could attend the evening ski club dinner without shame.  We’ll just leave those two for next year.

A Social Ski

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There’s no denying it.  After the Birkie  the pressure is off.  No more push to get in more and more kilometers.  No more anxiety over doing a weekly long ski.  Now is the time to go out and ski for the mere pleasure of it.  That sounds bad – like it’s a grueling regimen and something we “have to do” when training for the Birkie.  Not so, really.  I enjoy the demands of that process too.  But there is a difference.

This morning dawned clear, sunny and cold.  I was very surprised to see the temperature had fallen below zero.  But at this time of year the rising sun quickly warms the air and by mid morning it was already in the mid-20s.

A friend came over and the two of us walked over to the Lester/Amity ski trails.  We donned our classic skis and headed down the tracks. This was not a speed session, it was all about sharing a love for the outdoors, the sport, a workout and friendship.  We talked as we skied, covering myriad topics as we poled and kicked.  Hesitating at intersections became a good excuse stop and talk some more.  We ran into a good friend and fellow skier, and of course spent time talking to him.  It was the epitome of a relaxed outing yet we still covered many kilometers at a decent pace.

IMG_9544The day had all the nuances of a spring day, with warm sunshine, brilliant snow, deep blue sky and warm temps.  The snow and trail conditions were far too good for spring skiing, but we had all the benefits of what felt like balmy weather.  Kids from the local grade school were out with teachers and parents practicing their skiing skills.  They couldn’t have picked a better day.  Adults populated the trail, all happy to exchange greetings and exclaim over the beautiful day.  I’d never seen so many people out mid-day.  It was the kind of day where I wanted to stay out and keep skiing forever.  In fact, I’ll admit to returning to ski again later with my skate skis.

At this stage in the winter, every day of skiing could be our last.  One good melt can turn the trails into either an icy or a muddy mess.  It made this ski even sweeter.

Yes, there are benefits to having the races behind us.  Social skiing is definitely one of them.

Sneak Preview

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It was a year ago this week that I started my retirement.  How odd it was to get up on Monday morning with no place to go.  More accurately, no place I had to go.  It was a liberating yet oddly displacing feeling.  But I didn’t linger long, easily filling my days with long neglected projects, hobbies I’d suppressed for years, family, friends, grandkids! and of course workouts.  Cycling, running, skiing as much as I like has been a treat.  And I have enjoyed starting my “retirement job” as a freelance writer.

I’ve developed my own rhythm to my days.  With Rich still working, I have a large degree of independence.  Rich works remotely from our home in Duluth, so he is present, but occupied.  I enjoy pampering him with fresh muffins mid-morning, and he freely admits that his life is a lot simpler now that I am available to handle the myriad home duties that we used to squeeze in after work hours.

But all that is about to change.  Rich has announced his retirement as of April 26.  Before long he will join me at home daily with an unstructured lifestyle.  No doubt that will take some adjustment, accommodating his plans and needs into my new retirement schedule.

This week feels like a sneak preview of that routine.  With Rich home recovering from his surgery, he’s here all day every day.  But it’s not really a fair test.  He’s flush with small projects, just like I was in the beginning.  And more significant, his physical activity is necessarily restricted.  That’s huge.  As much as he’d like to be out skiing, he’s settling for short walks and trying to be a “good boy.”  I’m not sure how long he can last.

We are entering a new era.  After almost 30 years of marriage, the most free time we have spent together was 17 days on our one and only two-week vacation.  But we’re ready for the challenge.  Rich is already planning to do part-time consulting.  I’m hoping that can fund our “exotic travel” account.  I have my writing and hobbies.  And we look forward to more family time.  Best of all, we can indulge our love of doing long-distance outdoor sports together.  In fact, several more long cycling trips are in the planning stages.

I’ve decided I like the preview.  I’m ready for the full length feature – bring on Rich’s retirement.

Chasing the groomer

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With multiple recent snowfalls of 3″ or more, skiing – and grooming – the local trails has been a challenge.  The groomers just finished covering all 65 kilometers on five IMG_9511ski trails in Duluth on Wednesday when they were buried again the next day with fresh snow.  The deep soft snow makes skiing slow and tiring but incredibly beautiful.  And after one and a half winters of meager snowfall, we cross-country skiers are thrilled with this turnabout.

I headed over to the ski trails early this morning.  I was eager for a morning ski, the quietest part of the day with few other skiers making the rounds.  Having just been groomed two days ago, I figured the likelihood of another pass by the groomers was low, and I’d just deal with the deep snow.  And I was right.  Mostly.  As I completed my first loop around the system, I saw the Pisten-Bully heading my way, coming up from the very bottom of the trail.  I waited for the massive machine to pass then skied the opposite way to give him a head start, hoping he’d stay ahead of me clearing the trails for my second lap.

With all the loops, side trails and connectors, grooming the system has to be something like a mathematical equation, figuring out the most efficient route to hit each section once and only once – or twice in the areas where it is double-tracked for classic.  My math background liked thinking about that optimization problem.

I was pleased and impressed that the trails were being groomed again so soon, and decided to investigate Duluth’s trail grooming.  Who is behind this task, and how do they get it all done?  I learned that it was no accident that we were seeing increased activity on trail maintenance.  The City of Duluth has a team of people for grooming, and for the first time in years they now employ three people for the task.  In addition, they have added two new pieces of equipment – a snowmobile and a Ginzu Groomer owned by the Duluth XC Ski Club (DXC).  The result is that they can send out two separate teams of groomers to tend two locations at once.  The new equipment also enables them to maintain ski trails when there is no new snowfall by regrooming the existing base of snow.

The future looks even brighter, thanks to the Park Fund that was approved by Duluth’s voters in 2011.  The city plans to purchase another Piston-Bully and another track-setter in two years.  Those are our tax dollars at work – I heartily approve.

Let’s hear it for our groomers!  And let’s hope the snowfall continues to keep them busy.

Skiing with two young bucks

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IMG_9517 trimmedI’m not even sure why I tucked my little camera into the pocket of my ski jacket before heading out to the trails early this morning.  I already took pictures there yesterday, and it was a cloudy and dreary morning.  But I’m glad I did!

We are fortunate to live right across the street from some nice ski trails embedded in the woods. I was about 2/3 of the way around my first circuit when I spotted two deer standing on the trail a little ways in front of me.  That wasn’t so unusual, but I got my camera out anyway.  It was only then that I noticed their antlers.  And when they began to tangle with each other right in front of me, I knew I had something unique.  I enjoyed watching them sparring and playing in close proximity.

To be honest, the skiing wasn’t all that great this morning.  The snow was crusty and slick from yesterday’s warmup, and had lost the allure of soft new snow.  But it was worth being out there for the show.

7 Bridges (or more) Road

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IMG_0377You learn something every day.  And I learned quite a lot today!  It all started when I went out with my camera, taking advantage of the mild afternoon to practice taking photos.  We live just across from Amity Creek at the start of Seven Bridges Road.  I thought I’d follow the water upstream hoping to find some scenic wintry shots of ice and snow.  Rich recommended walking upstream – literally, on the ice.  But the gurgling sounds and tinkling melodies of flowing water under the ice made me feel queasy about that approach, so instead I chose to walk the road and periodically followed the deer tracks down to the creek’s banks.  As it turned out, the creek offered limited photo opps, so I turned my attention to the road and bridges.

IMG_0409Seven Bridges Road is a treasure.  I grew up taking family drives there, marveling that this winding, steep tree-lined road following Amity Creek could lie within the city of Duluth.   As its name implies, the road crosses the creek seven times in its short 1.5 miles.  Or so I thought.  Lesson number one for the day.  Since moving here, I have become intimately acquainted with this road, frequently running, cycling or walking up to its top and beyond.  So I know that there are in fact eight bridges.  But I always thought the bridge at the top of the road was the “extra” as it appears to be around the bend and on the start of Skyline Parkway, and therefore didn’t count.  Today I learned differently!  In fact, it is the legitimate seventh bridge, and the one at the bottom, just beyond our house is the imposter.  It was not built with the original bridges, but came many years later as part of Lester Park.

That leads to lesson two.  I was always under the impression that the marvelous stone bridges were built by the Works Progress Administration (WPA), but as it turns out, the bridges predated that project by two decades.  Samuel Snively built the original road and wooden bridges in 1899-1900, and it was he who engineered the route that continually criss-crosses Amity Creek.  But without proper maintenance it all deteriorated within ten years.  The road was handed over to the Duluth Park Commission in 1910, which turned out to be good news.  According to the History of Seven Bridges Road,  “During 1911, the roadway was regraded and graveled, and several first class stonemasons from the Duluth area were hired to build the bridges simultaneously.  Each bridge had a concrete and reinforcement bar arch structure, and was artistically faced wtih native basalt and bluestone rock collected from the creek bed or blasted from nearby outcrops.  The cap rocks consist of pink opal granite quarried in St. Cloud, Minnesota.”  Nine stone-arch bridges were built that year.

Nine?  Yes, there are two more bridges above what I thought was the top of the road.  Following what is now a hiking and snowmobile trail, sure enough I found them.  Lesson three.  These bridges apparently fell into disuse by automobiles in the 1930’s when the road was extended to Hawk Ridge.

And that rogue first bridge?  It was built in 1928, to replace an earlier bridge which connected carriage paths on either side of Lester Park.  It was only a poor replica of the other bridges, lacking much of their finer detail.

Just over a century after Snively first started his road and bridges, a restoration project was begun on the bridges.  From 1996-2007 each of the eight bridges was restored to its original condition – that included the Lester Park Bridge, which is now identical in construction to the seven others.

I may not have advanced my photography skills today, but I did learn what a wonderful heritage we have, right outside our doorstep.

Bridge 1 d

Lester Park Bridge

First Bridge

Second Bridge

Third Bridge

Fourth Bridge

Bridge 6 a

Fifth Bridge – most expensive to build

Sixth Bridge

Seventh Bridge – least expensive

ridge 9 c

Eighth Bridge – trail bridge

Ninth Bridge – trail bridge

 

Photography 101

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Who knew that starting a blog would lead to another new interest?  I enjoy illustrating my blog posts with pictures, but my little point and shoot camera has limited capabilities.  So when the marketing gods wooed my husband into upgrading his fancy camera to the next new model, I gladly inherited his old one.  It seemed a prudent way to test the reality of my yearnings.  Would I really invest the time to learn how to use it properly?  Would it be worth lugging around instead of the small lump that so easily fits in my pocket?  Only time will tell.

I have a million pictures of Christmas Day, when it seemed justified to keep shooting photos with my new toy.  I took it to Bentleyville, the huge Christmas light display, and was quite pleased with the way I was able to capture the lights in the dark.

I ventured out at sunset the other night to capture the beautiful colors and enjoyed discovering the long shadows the sun cast across the snow.

And today I headed down to Canal Park where the lighthouses provided a stark white contrast to the deep blue of Lake Superior.  I deemed one picture good enough to grace the top of my blog pages, providing a new wintery theme.  I even tried getting a bit artsy with my shots.  Perhaps I still need a bit of practice on that front.

So far so good.  And I haven’t even ventured off “Auto” mode yet.

Residual Rollers

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The recent blizzard in the Midwest missed us entirely.  Or almost.  Although the skies were dark with ominous clouds overhead yesterday, they didn’t produce a single snowflake.  But the wind was fierce and frosty.  The temperatures belied the chill brought by the stiff wind, and we could hear it whistling through the trees through most of the night.

Some time before morning, the winds dropped, the clouds disappeared and we woke to a clear and chilly day.  As I headed out for my morning run, the promise of a brilliant sunrise lured me down to Brighton Beach to catch those early morning rays. Upon reaching the lake, however, I found the sun obscured by the thick steam rising from the lake.  The sharp plummet into single digits was extracting the heat from the lake, and seemed to leech the color out of the sunrise.

Despite the relative calm of the morning, the lake was still heaving from yesterday’s blow.  From a distance it appeared to be flat and quiet, but at Brighton Beach the swells curled and crashed onto the shore, producing a chilly spray that rained down upon the rocks.  The sound of of the pounding water and the rhythm of the action was musical and mesmerizing.

Interestingly enough, the waves seemed to be confined to that particular section of shoreline.  As I continued my run up the North Shore, the water quietly lapped the rocks without any fanfare.  Brighton Beach and its large rocks must be uniquely positioned to facilitate the crashing of the waves.

IMG_9395 trimmedOf course I didn’t have a camera with me during my run, and the day nearly slipped by before I returned to try and capture the waves.  It was almost sunset by then, and to be honest I had a feeling I had missed my chance.  But as soon as I approached the IMG_9410shoreline, I could hear the thunder again and see the spray.  The residual rollers continued.

The waves weren’t huge by any standards.  It was the way they materialized out of the flat lake that was so intriguing.  The rocks near the water’s edge were encased in a slippery coating of ice that added to IMG_9419the appeal of the scene.  And in the west was a beautiful sunset that lit up the sky – unlike the sunrise that failed to produce any color.  My little point and shoot camera felt slow and unresponsive as I tried to catch the waves in action, and my fingers became clumsy as the cold penetrated my thin gloves.  But I was glad I had returned to see yet another magical moment on our Great Lake.

A Black and White World

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We woke up to a black and white world this morning.  Snow was falling at a brisk pace and about two inches had accumulated already.  Our surroundings were masked by the deep white powder which transformed all color to a palate of only two hues.  It must be the brilliance of the pristine white snow that renders all other colors mute.

IMG_9329Normally in winter, I prefer to work with the snow rather than against it when going out for my workout.  However, I knew that enough snow would not accumulate in time to send the groomers out on the ski trails.  So I donned my Yaktrax and headed out for an early morning run in the falling snow.  Traction proved to be tricky, as I found unexpected icy patches beneath the snow, and in the deeper untraveled sections the snow clumped and unclumped under my feet.  But this run wasn’t about speed or quality, it was for the experience.  The snow muted all sound and obliterated any long distance view.  I was hemmed in by snow covered trees, in black and white.

Heading down to Brighton Beach I experienced the full force of lake effect.  The NE wind came right off the lake, transforming the snowflakes into crisp pellets that felt like pins and needles on my face.  I was toasty warm inside and frigid on my exposed skin in the bracing wind.  The lake was slightly roiled up and looked decidedly chilly.

I may be biased, but I found some of the prettiest views when I returned to our own neighborhood around Amity Creek.  Who can argue with living in such beautiful surroundings?

    Particularly our own flavor of black and white!IMG_9347 trimmed

Winters of Yesteryear

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The high school Nordic ski team just skied by…  on roller-skis.  It’s December and it looks more like September.  The plants outside our front door are greening up again.  I went Christmas shopping yesterday, and passed fellow shoppers in the parking lot who were not wearing jackets.  It just didn’t feel right being so warm while toting Christmas gifts.

When I was growing up in Duluth we always had snow.  Lots of it.  In grade school, our favorite Friday celebration was to walk home from school on top of the huge snowbanks that lined the streets.  They were high, well over our heads.  We had a little red ball that we put on the antenna of our car so others could see it over the snowbank, coming around corners.  (Okay, so cars don’t have antennas any more either.)  We made igloos out of the snow piles from shoveling the driveway.  Big ones that we could sit inside.  Streets were so narrow due to the plowed snow that parking became a problem, or more accurately, navigating around parked cars was a challenge.  And we had legitimate Snow Days, home from school to wait out a blizzard.  At least such is my memory of winter.

IMG_9300The snow we had on Thanksgiving was just a teaser.  I keep telling myself that we didn’t always have snow for Thanksgiving.  And that holiday was early this year.  It’s not time to panic just yet.  Never mind that last year’s dismal lack of snow lurks in recent memory.  We still might have a good snow winter.  Please?