Saturday, June 8, 2024
This morning, after a carby self-serve breakfast at the hotel, we set off to explore. The trucks-towing-boats had largely cleared out of the hotel parking lot by the time we departed. As we passed through International Falls, we stopped at Smokey Bear Park. In addition to viewing the 26-foot-tall statute of our national symbol of forest protection, we hoped to visit the Koochiching Historical and Bronko Nagurski Museums. (Nagurski was a local football hero who played for the Chicago Bears.) Alas, both museums were closed.
—— Smokey Bear Park ——
As we departed I-Falls, there was a line more than a mile long of vehicles (mostly trucks-towing-boats) along the edge of the opposite side of the road waiting for their turn to cross the border into Canada. We continued the short drive to the Rainy Lake Visitor Center for Voyageurs National Park. There, we got our second Passport book stamp for this park, read through the exhibits, talked with a ranger, and viewed a (Canadian) film romaticizing the Voyageur lifestyle. BTW, Voyageur is the French word for traveler, and here refers to French-Canadian frontiersmen who transported valuable furs along a vast chain of waterways that includes Minnesota’s border lakes. According to the film, these indomitable canoers “lightened their toll with French folk songs, gay and rhythmic, or hauntingly sad”.
We followed paths behind the Visitor Center to docks on Rainy Lake. From here, the Park Service boat leaves for Kettle Falls but unfortunatley, we were too early in the season to engage in this experience. This park is very water oriented and many boaters explore the waterways enjoying the views, great fishing, and island camping.
We were boatless and so went back to the car for our hiking boots and embarked on a two-mile round-trip hike along the Oberholtzer Trail. This trail led us through thick hardwood-conifer forests to several water overlooks. We heard many birds singing but had only got occasional glances of them. Jane’s Merlin app quickly identified five bird species based on their songs. Meanwhile, our skin sensors detected hundreds of Minnesota’s state bird, the mosquito. Forest wildflowers were blooming in the open sunlit areas along the trail.
—— Oberholtzter Trail ——
After our swatting hike, we were chased out of the park by hoards of giant mosquitos and in the safety of the car explored some of the surrounding area. Then, we parked at the trialhead of the Tilson Creek Bogwalk that a park ranger had recommended. The Bogwalk boardwalk lead us through a tamarack bog, an unusual ecotype that we’ve never before experienced. Suprisingly, mosquitos were absent here and the flat level hike was very pleasant. The ground was too soft and wet for us to walk past the 0.7-mile boardwalk, so we retraced out steps back to the car. During the winter, this area becomes a popular spot offering a complex system of ski trails.
—— Tilson Creek Bogwalk ——
After the Tilson Creek Bogwalk, we drove around exploring some more before returning to our hotel room in I-Falls. We noted that the line to cross the Canadian border had vanished. After resting awhile in our hotel room, we headed to nearby Sammy’s Pizza Restaurant and Tavern where we enjoyed a veggie pizza and beer before heading back to our hotel room for the evening.