Driving, Geocaching and Photography

Abigail with my camera on some ice from Cass Lake. 

By Allan Olson

This past weekend we enjoyed all of the activities in the title of this column, and it made for a busy couple days.

Very late on Friday my wife and I went to dinner with her co-worker, and then the two of us headed to a movie to celebrate the end of prom season. No more 1:00 a.m. nights for her, and more time available to spend at home with the family, which also translates into more co-parenting instead of dad doing it all.

I managed to stay in bed until about 9 a.m. on Saturday. After not getting to bed until about 1 a.m., I figured it wasn’t really sleeping in, rather just getting my requisite sleep. Once up I assisted Marcus in making pancakes, and at about 11:30 we all headed out the door for a full day of just driving around.

Last Wednesday Nikolai officially got his driving permit, so we ventured out with him behind the wheel on the backroads of the Chippewa National Forest, heading for a geocache at the Third River Flowage site. Since I was in the back, I also stuck my camera out the window a few times trying to get some nature shots. I only managed to really get one good photo, the rest were just – eh…, including the shots from the Third River site. Abigail found the geocache, and I got to visit with some other forest travelers about the fish species in the lake.

We continued our journey with Nikolai behind the wheel, now focusing our attention on some rummage sales in the S. Lake, Sand Lake and Marcell areas. Our trip on Saturday had three goals – get Nikolai driving, do some geocaching and hit some rummage sales, so it was way more diverse than our normal itinerary. 

At the rummage sales, the kids found a few treasures and my wife and I picked up a few books each. Aside from that, the biggest treasure we found was the fry dogs served at the S. Lake community center. For those who don’t know what a fry dog is – it’s a hotdog with fry bread wrapped around it; delicious! For the kids, the biggest treasure they found was at a rummage sale at a church or community center, I don’t recall which it was, but it was closing down, and a guy at one table really wanted to get rid of some games, so he offered eight of them to the kids for $10. Their big haul included Texas Hold ‘Em, a new poker chip case with unopened chips, Pictionary, pick up sticks, a game that required a VCR (can’t play that one at home) and a couple of card games. They were pretty excited about it. At another stop, a couple of them came back with stuffed animals and/or wicker baskets in the shape of animals. Why I let them get those items I’m not sure, but I guess there were more expensive items they could have picked out that would have been about as useful.

I finally called a halt to the rummage sales, since I had spent a little more than half my budget and it was getting late in the day and most of the sales were closing up. I decided it was time we got back on the trail of some geocaches. We found more lake accesses, another campground, drove by the Laurentian Divide – but since getting to the cache at that location required an extensive walk, I decided to forego that one for this day, and eventually we wound up in Grand Rapids. We stopped at a couple of stores, stocked up on some staples for the house, set our course for one more geocache, and then food before finally turning toward home. 

I specifically targeted that geocache because the last time the family was in that area we couldn’t recover it. This time I came equipped with the right tool, and it only took three attempts before I had it in my hands.

We finally managed to make it home just after 9 p.m. I really hadn’t intended on being gone that long, but it was a fun day.

On Sunday, the kids did some work in the morning and then Abigail and I headed out to take some photos. She got a nice compliment from one of our readers last week after some of her photos appeared in the paper, and we decided to see what she could come up with this week. We drove down an old forest road along the northeast shore of Cass Lake, and at the end we spotted some swans. I tried a couple shots but the tree branches were obscuring my view, so I sent her out with the camera. She managed to get a few take-off shots, but since she didn’t know to use the zoom, she missed out on an opportunity to get a spectacular shots of the big birds in motion. She then took photos of the ice out on the lake, of ducks and geese, of a pile of deteriorating ice, and of the adjoining lake. We managed to put together a few more nice shots to add to her portfolio.

Meanwhile, I was trying to determine where the smoke that we could see was coming from, and finally decided to head into town to see if we could get an answer at the fire hall. It turned out that the fire call they were out on was not the one that I was seeing the smoke from. That smoke was from a controlled burn, while the one the firefighters were at was pretty well over, and they were already coming back to the hall.

That afternoon, my wife and I and Nikolai attended an awards banquet at Upward Bound. The food was delicious and it was good to see students recognized for their work. That evening the boys and I played catch and Nikolai took some batting practice.  

In all, it was a very well rounded weekend, and while I could say that this coming weekend will be the same, I really have no idea. I’m torn between going to a geocaching event on Saturday or going fishing. I think the deciding factor will be the weather.

Please remember to watch out for the buses that will be 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.