Hiking in Duluth

Our family spent some time hiking/geocaching in Duluth over the weekend. Our biggest accomplishment was hiking to the top of Ely’s Peak on Saturday afternoon.
Hiking in Duluth
By Allan Olson
I would never have guessed that this late in the season hanging out near lake Superior and climbing several hundred feet high above the flat ground that we wouldn’t be freezing this time of year. It was crazy beautiful outside this weekend and it makes me wish we would have more nice fall weather like this last weekend.
We left home early Friday morning with our destination to the big city of Duluth, with plans to hang out with my cousin and family all weekend long geocaching and playing games and whatever else we felt like doing. That afternoon the fun began, as my cousin and our boys all took off to play in the woods. We visited an area named Hawks Ridge, apparently right in the peak of bird watching season – in particular for hawks. We climbed and we trudged through brush but eventually we found some geocaches and didn’t find a couple others. During part of our adventure we did spot a very large barred owl “whoo” was not happy we woke him from his afternoon nap. My cousin’s kid had never seen an owl before and was pretty excited about it. I can honestly say I’ve never seen an owl that early in the day before. We eventually abandoned the woods and headed further into town. My cousin had a tip on a cache on the old bridge that at one time crossed Lake Superior into Wisconsin so we went in search of that one, but once again came back empty handed. Our percentage wasn’t very good today so we were on the road again to Minnesota Point –another new spot in Duluth for us to visit. The point  - if we would’ve walked the sandy beach, stretches on for over two miles. We passed on this for the day due to the lack of daylight and waning ambition. We did grab some others that were much more accessible to help build up some numbers.
Saturday morning, after a hearty breakfast and a quick run to a store for my cousin to grab some home improvement supplies, we were off to another day of adventure – this time joined by the girls and our wives.
The morning’s destination was called Ely’s Peak – near Proctor and it certainly was a peak. I’ve never considered where we live a flat land – that’s the Dakota’s – but we certainly have nothing here that I have seen yet that compared with the climb in front of us on Saturday. We started the day with a simple grade and found ourselves on a trail in between two large walls of rock looking for a geocache. My cousin finally spotted it way above our heads on a tree on top of the rock wall. As much fun as the kids think it would’ve been to climb that rock face, they were thankfully smart enough to find the path up there. Nikolai was the first to arrive and carefully reached to grab the container from its perilous spot, as his parents watched knowing he would be careful, but still panicking a little due to the great height.  He retrieved and replaced the container back safely and we were soon on our way. At our next cache we had already been climbing and I looked up and said, “I really don’t want to go that high,” – my idea of traveling that high is not climbing but rather driving. An older group of people also hiking that day enjoying the day informed us that “it’s worth the view.” So while the kids ran and climbed with easy the rest of us trudged behind and at each level I kept thinking, “aren’t we at the top yet.” We finally made it to the top a whopping altitude of 1,109 feet.  It truly was a magnificent view as we could see in all directions for what appeared to be endless miles. We took some photos and headed down the “mountain” as my cousin’s wife heard of an abandoned train tunnel nearby and she was destined to find it. With some help of those more familiar to this location, we found the tunnel we were looking for and it was also pretty cool. In the tunnel there was also a group learning the beginning stages of rock climbing. I wish I could’ve borrowed someone with that gear for a short time as there was a geocache in the vicinity that required climbing gear. Regardless – the discovery of the tunnel also was the discovery of the path we needed for two more geocaches and on the way back to the vehicle we found we were close to two more geocaches so my cousin and I – gluttons for punishment went for them while the wives and kids headed to get the vehicles.
At that point of the day, we split up again, my cousin, Nikolai (we bribed him with ice cream) and myself went caching on a trail picking up 14 – while the wives and younger kids headed back home. It was an amazing and fun day enjoying the awesome fall weather outside.
Back at the house, I cleaned up from all the exercise and then my wife, Abigail and I walked to my aunt’s house just four doors down from my cousin’s house for a short visit before going back for a late supper, some adult beverages and ending the night playing a new board game.
Sunday morning, the intent was to get an early start, I didn’t get up until 8 a.m. and when I did – the rest of the house was sleeping. We eventually left the house about 11 a.m. in search of just a couple more caches so my cousin and family could get find #1,000 before the weekend was over.
We were home by dark and I was living up to the rest of my plans for the day – doing nothing.
This weekend, I will be back on the road again, as Nikolai and I will be attending a large geocaching event in the metro area with another friend. On Sunday, we will be getting our stuff ready for the next few weekends of deer season and the rest of the year will completely fly by with all of the stuff that we will be busy with.
In all it was a great weekend and I’m looking forward to another weekend in the future of the same type of adventures with my cousin and our families.

Please remember to watch out for the buses that are carrying our most precious cargo. Also snap a photo or two to preserve a lifetime of memories. Thanks for reading, and have a great week! Feel free to drop me a line at cltimes1@arvig.net or stop by the office for a visit.

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