Adventures in Gopherland

Pickerel Lake, Try 1: Hiking the Mississippi National River and Recreational Area

One of the goals of our Adventures in Gopherland was see as much natural wonder in Minnesota as possible, particularly visiting National and State Park sites. Much of the year in Minnesota, however, is unfavorable for such excursions due to the climate. Before the summer turned to autumn last year, then, we attempted to visit the Mississippi National River and Recreational Area (hereafter referred to as the Mississippi NRRA) and were met with only moderate success. This weekend we will be repeating our venture, so I want to first go back and reflect on Try #1.

The Mississippi River is probably the most important river in the United States and as it stretches south to the Gulf of Mexico it defines state boundaries and fuels American commerce and economics. In Minnesota, however, the Mighty Mississippi is much less mighty and begins as just a trickle coming out of a lake fed by rainwater (which we visited recently). It expands by the time it reaches the Twin Cities, but it is still a faster and narrower river than it becomes as it travels south. The Mississippi NRRA protects the river as it winds first through Minneapolis and then through St. Paul, before it turns and bee-lines it for New Orleans.

The Mississippi NRRA is unlike other national park areas in that it is a river and, as such, can only be partially experienced on land. To see the river properly, one must boat on it. There are plenty of access points, so this is an easy task for people who own canoes or kayaks, but we own neither. For us, there are rental stations where you buy a code online that allows you to unlock a locker with a kayak, life preserver and paddle. We looked up such a place on Pickerel Lake in the Mississippi NRRA and drove to the locker. Standing in front of the locker, I pulled out my phone and discovered that rentals need to be made half a day in advance.

Frustrated with myself for not reading the fine print, I was ready to head back home when Katie pointed out a trail along the banks of the Mississippi and suggested that we still enjoy the beautiful day. I conceded.

The trees and wildflowers along the river were quite pretty in the sun and it was a pleasant walk. Even though it had not been our goal, it was refreshing to stroll along the not-so-mighty Mississippi. We planned to return and kayak, but we were prevented by first weather, then the end of the season, then coronavirus from returning.

The Paddle Share program has now reopened with 1 renter per day and intense cleaning every evening to allow for outdoor activity during the present crisis, so we plan to return and boat on the Mississippi today having read all of the fine print.

That, or we will tell you all about why we need a Pickerel Lake, Try 3.

Little House in the Quarry: Visiting Western Minnesota

Last October, Katie and I visited western Minnesota, where evidence remains of three people groups who had been there: the Native peoples who congregated in Pipestone, the German immigrants who established a settlement in New Ulm and a little girl who lived on a prairie.

There are fascinating places to visit that visitors can only see if they are willing to drive far away from the beaten path. Knowing this, we embarked on a long drive to a part of Minnesota the blank part of the map. We drove by Sakatah Lakes, through Mankato, by Minneopa and continued west.

Our first stop was in the tiny town of Walnut Grove, Minnesota through which flows Plum Creek. In 1874, a young girl named Laura Ingalls arrived in Walnut Grove where she lived in a dugout along the creek. She would later recount her adventures there in her autobiographical “On the Banks of Plum Creek”, the fourth book in her “Little House on the Prairie” series.

Her dugout no longer exists, but every building from her time that still exists in the small town has been moved to be a part of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum there. The museum is located at the center of the three-block town and has an array of small buildings and a walkway connecting them. There is a gift shop and visitor center, of course, but there are also the schoolhouse from the 1800s, the house her neighbor lived in, a quilt her family made and a replica chapel and dugout based on the historical records.

The museum is an enshrinement of their local celebrity, but it also houses memorabilia from the television series that came from the books. The Little House on the Prairie TV show ran from 1974 to 1983 and takes place in Walnut Grove, MN. Most of the cast of the popular show made pilgrimages to the town to visit the museum and fill it with TV props and autographed photos.

We walked through the buildings, felt the cramped quarters of the replica dugout and perused the collected artifacts. When it came time to leave we climbed back in our car and continued due west, further away from civilization. We stopped next at the border of Minnesota and South Dakota in the town of Pipestone, home of Pipestone National Monument.

As can be guessed from the name of the town and the monument, they are the location of a deposit of pipestone, a smooth red rock that can be easily carved. It is the material from which many different tribes of Native Americans make ceremonial pipes. According to the guides at the monument, the quarry is the largest known deposit of the stone and of particular note with the stone quarried there is the deep blood red color, an attribute that carries spiritual import to many peoples. Pipes made from this quarry were traded far and wide and have been found in settlements as far away as Louisiana.

The quarry is still active and Native families can still come and harvest and shape pipestone the using the methods that have been used for hundreds of years. We watched a local craftsman carve a pipe, peered into the mine and then took a walk around the area, marveling at the waterfall, the fields of sumac and the quartzite cliffs. Geologically, the quartz formed a layer above the pipestone and the quartz’s tough resistance to erosion is what protected and preserved the soft underlying pipestone.

After Pipestone, our journey took us back east to New Ulm, a city which is proud to have the largest German American population per capita. Although we were wary of that statistic, we wanted to visit for two reasons: we wanted to see their giant statue of Hermann the Cheruscan (nicknamed “Hermann the German”) and we wanted to celebrate Octoberfest as a part of their city-wide, month-long celebration.

We started by finding Hermann. He wasn’t hard to locate as stands tall on the top of a hill surveying the valley below him. The statue depicts the German warlord dressed in elaborate armor celebrating his victory over the Romans at the Battle of Teutoburg Forest in the 800s. His sword is raised above his head and his eyes are fixed on the Eastern horizon, back toward his German homeland. The funds to build the statue were raised from many German settlements in the Midwest and it was built in New Ulm as the city was a center for German American heritage even in the late 1800s.

It was unclear where we could eat to fully enjoy the German heritage of the city, so we chose a restaurant with the German name and sat down, only to receive some of the worst German food we have ever had, accompanied by curt and surly service. We imagine that most visitors find a more inviting environment than we experienced, but we had enough and left the town behind as soon as we could.

In visiting a museum, a quarry and a statue, we saw glimpses of a poor family living in a tiny dugout, people groups coming together to trade finely carved pipes and German immigrants recreating their homeland in rural Minnesota, so when we came home again, we had not just traversed Minnesota, but time itself. Below are photos from our adventures:

Photos from Walnut Grove:

Photos from Pipestone:

Photos from New Ulm:

I’m Greek, dat’s fer shore: The Minnesota Greek Festival

I am Greek. I wasn’t born in Greece, nor was my mother nor my grandparents, but I am proudly Greek American by my heritage. Whenever we are in a new area, then, we seek out the inevitable Greek Festival hosted by the local Greek Orthodox church. The festivals are a staple of many Greek American communities and are a key way that Greek Orthodox churches raise money for their communities. I have been to festivals in Rochester, Tampa Bay, Buffalo, Denver and elsewhere. Naturally, then, we had to check out the Minnesota Greek Festival.

Moving to Minnesota was more of a culture shock than I was expecting. Previously I had lived in upstate New York, western Pennsylvania and the Front Range of Colorado. Each area is a melting pot of cultures to a degree with the vast majority of people having grown up elsewhere and having moved to the area. This is not the case in Minnesota. Very few people that I met during my first few months here were born outside of the state and almost all of those non-native Minnesotans moved to the state after marrying someone who did grow up in the state. People stared slack-jawed when I would tell them that Katie and I had never lived in the state nor had we visited until we interviewed and arrived in a moving truck. As such, Minnesota has a much more distinct culture than any other place wehwe lived. I wondered how the Minnesotan identity and Greek identity would co-exist for Minnesotan Greek Americans.

The festival was busy when we arrived, so we parked several blocks away and wound our way through the residential streets back toward the festival site. We could hear the bouzouki music echoing over the housetops a ways before we could see the site. The festival was held at the Greek Orthodox cathedral in TwinC and the church was beautiful. It was quite crowded so we easily followed the crowd to the ticket vendor and then to the food booths. (Side note: I do believe that I am objectively accurate in saying in my recent posts that the State Fair, Chain of Lakes, Twins game and Greek Festival were all crowded, but I will admit that I am beginning to lose my bearing due to self-isolation and may soon start remembering any event of more than 10 people as overwhelming and claustrophobic.)

Katie and I got in different food lines to divide and conquer and we reunited with pastitsio, gyros, a Greek salad and dolmathes. The tables outside near the food booths were packed, so we wandered into the church with our food until we found the sanctuary which had been set up with circular tables ringing a dance floor. Finding one empty table, we wound our way to it and sat down. No sooner did we sit then the music changed and a line of Greek dancers holding hands appeared and started dancing around our table. After they finished dancing around our table, the dancers headed out onto the dance floor and began to demonstrate several different Greek partnering dances. We watched as the lines of dancer broke apart and reformed rhythmically, while they jumped and moved their feet in complicated ways. Well, some of them did. The group of dancers clearly had a range of talents: they all looked good dancing, but several dancers had simplified the more complex steps and the vertical jumps ranged from small bunny hops from some dancers to jumps multiple feet into the air from another dancer as if he were competing in a track and field event.

After demonstrating their dances, the dancer began to lead willing volunteers in a dance, at which point we retreated to the gift shop area with local art, imported goods from Greece, baked pastries and merchandise with Greek puns. Before too long, we left.

In reflecting the elements of the Greek Festival were much the same as they would be elsewhere and the church was almost identical to other Orthodox churches I have visited. The people we interacted with, however, were thoroughly Midwestern. Despite the jostle of the crowd, people were gracious and there was a strong sense of Minnesota Nice. Vendors were largely dark-haired with Greek features…and Scandinavian accents from living in Minnesota for generations. It was at once strange and familiar, interesting and comfortable.

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Quarantine Chronicles: Road Trip Up North!

As Minnesota begins to open up, we are able to get a few more visits to other places around the state! It has made for a very different travelling experience. When we roadtrip we usually get to check out local coffeeshops and breweries, stop by odd attractions and keep a loose schedule. This trip found us eating food in the car and not experiencing much outside of very public areas. While we didn’t get a full taste for each city, we did get a glimpse of St. Cloud, Itasca State Park and Bemidji!

In St. Cloud we stopped at the Munsinger Gardens – a free public garden space right next to the river. The flowers were absolutely beautiful!

Our next stop was at Itasca State Park to see the headwaters of the Mississippi River! We learned that the pine trees in the state park are some of the oldest in the state – they have been there since the early 1700s! We were excited to see the start of the Mississippi River since we’ve been to New Orleans several times. It’s hard to wrap your mind around the fact that a giant river starts out so small…but it is still very muddy!

The final landmark was another quick one – the hometown of the legendary Paul Bunyan, commemorated with the famous Paul and Babe statues!

It’s a Wonderful Day for Baseball: Watching the Minnesota Twins

We now live in a world without sports, where instead of basketball or hockey games, ESPN has been forced to air old college football games. The opening day of baseball came and went with no one throwing out the first pitch. I miss sports, even though I am well aware that people are wisely not gathering to play sports in this environment.

Before the current situation arose, Katie and I had hoped to fully experience sports in Minnesota. After all, Minneapolis-St. Paul is one of only a handful of cities in the U.S. with a professional sports team in the NFL, NBA, NHL and MLB. In the end, we saw three of four and I got refunded on my Timberwolves NBA tickets. You can see here where Katie wrote about the Vikings NFL game and Wild NHL game. Our first game, however, was a Minnesota Twins game.

Before coming to Minnesota, I had planned a Twins game to be part of our introduction to the state, so when we had been in the state for just over a week, we headed to Target Stadium to watch some live baseball. It was the beginning of August and the Twins were in first in the AL Central, but they were facing their chief rivals, the Cleveland Indians, who trailed their record by only one game. The game would decide who left the stadium as the division leaders.

Katie and I have become baseball fans over the past few years. Six years ago, we both had favorite teams, but we both generally avoided baseball because it can be really boring. Over the past few years, however, we have attended a number of Colorado Rockies game and have been converted into baseball fans. If you want to talk about the the ERAs of the Rockies’ bullpen or the details of Nolan Arenado’s contract, we would love to talk.

The Twins are in a different league from the Rockies in two ways. First, they are literally in the American League instead of the National League, meaning we can cheer for both teams as they do not compete with one another. Second, though, they are also in a different league because they are really skilled and successful, unlike our beloved Rockies. Watching a game and cheering for the favorite to win is a strange, but welcome experience.

We negotiated our way through the city and arrived at the stadium, climbing up the stands to find our seats. It was a busy day at the ballpark and we arrived early enough to people watch as we waited for the game to begin. The people behind us were introducing their son to baseball for the first time and explained the game loudly in their thick Minnesotan accents.

We bought our ballpark food and settled in to watch the game. We were cheering for the home team and cheered all the harder as they fell behind 1-0. Strangely the crowd seemed distracted as if we cared more about the Twins success than they did. We continued to cheer until the sixth inning when the Indians scored 5 runs in the top of the inning to make the score 6-0. Our cheering faded as the game appeared unwinnable without a miraculous turn around and the rest of the crowd agreed. What had appeared as a lack of enthusiasm previously became clear disinterest as the conversation in the stands turned to the Vikings and what their shot would be in the upcoming season.

The Twins went on to score a couple more runs, but the final score was 6 – 2. Still, those final runs were significant: both were scored on home runs and with them the Twins “Bomba Squad” tied and then beat their previous franchise record for the number of home runs scored in a season.

The game ended and the crowd remained seated. Then we were told that there would be fireworks after the game and suddenly the packed crowd of disinterested fans made sense.

We stayed for the fireworks display which was impressive from our high vantage point in the nosebleed seats. We then joined the throng of people exiting, found our car and headed home.

I miss live sports and I look forward to when I can next stand in a stadium and scream and cheer for whatever team I choose to root for.

Three for One: Exploring the Chain of Lakes

This weekend the world has opened up enough where we live for us to go paddling for the first time this calendar year. As we prepare for this, my mind wanders back to last summer and our first times paddling the waters of Minnesota. Our very first trip was with Katie’s parents (see this post), but it was quickly followed by our independent exploration of Minneapolis by kayaking through the Chain of Lakes.

Minnesota is known as the Land of 10,000 Lakes, but there are more than that: 11, 842 of them according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Most of them dot the landscape north of the Twin Cities, but there are still plenty left over to make everyone live not far from a lake, wherever they are in the state. That includes Minneapolis, where the city grew up around the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers and eventually enveloped several lakes as it expanded. These lakes are interconnected and known as the Chain of Lakes.

On the recommendation of a friend, we visited the largest of these lakes and rented two kayaks. Many Minnesotans own their own kayaks or canoes, which would certainly be cost effective if we planned to stay for multiple years because rental prices are steep. Climbing into our kayaks, we pushed off into the waters of Bde Maka Ska.

The lake Bde Maka Ska is a point of controversy in Minnesota (albeit a friendly Midwestern sort of controversy). You see, it was originally named Lake Calhoun after John C. Calhoun, the antebellum politician from South Carolina. It was recently renamed to its Native American name after people raised the issue that John C. Calhoun was a slaveowner who fought for pro-slavery goals in the leadup to the Civil War. Defenders of the original name feel the name change was unnecessary and complain that no one can pronounce “Bde”. The result of the disagreement is that street signs say something different than business signs and the park is labelled differently than the map, making it really confusing to newcomers.

After getting the feel for our rental kayaks in Bde Maka Ska / Lake Calhoun, we headed into a small lagoon that connected to the Lake of the Isles. It was a beautiful Saturday in August and there were a lot of other boaters on the water. We formed lanes of traffic as we navigated the narrow passages in the lagoon and out into the Lake of the Isles. This lake was forested on all sides, but the skyscrapers of downtown towered over the northeastern side of the lake.

Our route took us to the northwestern side of the lake where we entered a long canal and paddled through lilies, under green archways of trees and down long passages to Cedar Lake. It was a beautiful part of the city on a beautiful day and it made perfect sense why so many other people were out paddling the same waters we were. After some time in Cedar Lake, we turned our boats around and headed back the way we came.

When we paddle this weekend, it will not be as crowded and we will be much further from population. No, this weekend we will be boating in the Boundary Waters of northern Minnesota, being as socially distant as humanly possible. It promises to be a fun time that we will no doubt write about soon. Until then, we can savor the memory of a beautiful day on the Chain of Lakes.

Deep-Fried Hot Dish on a Stick: The Minnesota State Fair

Long time ago, in an era that is slowly fading from memory into legend, people used to congregate together in groups without the fear of widespread infection. Weird, I know. If we turn our attention back a year to last summer, we were initially acquainted to Minnesota through one of these mass gatherings: The Minnesota State Fair.

To say that the Minnesota State fair is a big deal in the Gopher State is to sell it short. The State Fair is the highlight of the year for many Minnesotans and there are people who visit it nearly every day during its two-week duration. It was at the top of our Minnesota bucket list, so we drove to a parking garage half an hour away from the state fair site and waited in a massive line to be packed into a standing room only bus and brought to the sea of people at the State Fair (If this causes you anxiety, remember that this before coronavirus…but it was still quite overwhelming).

We got our tickets and headed in. Initially we did not have a perfect idea where we were as we were physically being carried along by the massive sea of people. We edged our way to an out of the way corner, consulted our map and then dove back into a stream of people headed toward the animal exhibits. That was, until we saw the hotdish.

The Minnesota State Fair is many things, but if it has two primary identities, it is quintessentially Minnesotan and it is quintessentially a State Fair. As such, the sign reading “Deep Fried Hot Dish on a Stick” made us know that we were indeed in the exact right place. Hotdish in a Minnesotan version of a casserole and food deep fried on a stick is a State Fair version of, well, food. We bought the deep fried hot dish on a stick and it was surprisingly delicious.

Secure in knowing we had already accomplished the most important aspect of the state fair, we began to explore. We headed into the sheep barn and saw hundreds and hundreds of animals pens filled with ewes, rams and lambs, some fully wooly, some recently shorn. As we walked through the aisles, we saw groups of people gathering around 4H students who were showing off their sheep. We then walked through the chicken coops and headed out to the agricultural part of the fair.

The thoroughfares of the state fair featured currents of people going different directions. Ahead of time, we had read a notice about how to walk at a state fair and had laughed at it. As we jostled though the crowd passing the “All You Can Drink Milk Bar”, the notice no longer seemed ridiculous. We found the dairy tent, where there were giant sticks of butter that had been carved into statues of the dairy princess and her attendants. Outside a parade was passing by, full of marching bands and elaborate floats. On the other side of the parade, was the agriculture building, featuring flower exhibits, largest crop competitions and craft beer flights.

Not far away, the state fair changed from an agricultural expo into a carnival, with giant ferris wheels, teacup rides and mud shows. We found the local sport radio’s booth and a kids karaoke venue. Eventually, however, the slow-moving crowd ground to a halt and became a non-moving crowd as people pressed closer and closer together to see the person being interviewed at the Minnesota Public Radio booth. We were at the inconvenient proximity of being too far to see or hear anything, but too close to be able to escape the crush of people. I raised my camera over my head and snapped a picture to identify who was being interviewed. The shock of untamed white hair confirmed that it was then-candidate Bernie Sanders. No wonder the crowd was big.

We fought our way out of the crowd and, exhausted, made our way back the pig and cattle barns. Like the sheep barn, they featured hundreds and hundreds of animal stalls, dotted with information booths and judges. Tired, we made our way back out of the fair, onto the bus and back home.

There will be no state fair this year for understandable reasons and that is a sad thing. I happy, however, that we got to enjoy it last year and eat, for the first and last time in our lives, deep fried hotdish on a stick.

Quarantine Chronicles: Minneopa State Park’s Bison Drive

When you can get out and see something without leaving your car, it makes for a perfect pandemic activity!

We visited Minneopa State Park in the fall to do a candlelight walk and when we arrived, we learned that they have a bison drive! We’ve gone on bison drives in Custer State Park and Rocky Mountain Wildlife Arsenal so we were excited to find a time to see another one.

We were really surprised when we arrived at the Minneopa Bison Drive because the whole herd was gathered near the entrance! We’ve never had it so easy when it comes to locating the herd! And we were delighted to see that there were about 10 calves in the herd. The acreage can sustain about 30-40 bison, but they’ve slowly been working to get to that number. The DNR recorded 20 bison in 2018.

Since there wasn’t a drive to do, there isn’t much to write! Enjoy the pictures of the bison! If you’d like to learn more about the bison herd at Minneopa State Park you can read about it on their website!

Quarantine Chronicles: Frontenac State Park

Continuing the state park saga, we consulted the “60 Hikes Within 60 Miles: Minneapolis/St Paul” for another manageable hike and an excuse to get out of the house!

We grabbed Subway to go, then drove up to the tiny town of Frontenanc located on the Mississippi River just south of Red Wing. It was a beautiful day for a drive and a mini roadtrip along the Mississippi River was perfect!

Frontenanc State Park is a popular camping destination, but we were looking forward to a picnic lunch followed by a hike along the bluffs. When we arrived, we were amazed at how full the parking lot was – we were lucky to find a spot, and it looked like many of the picnic tables were already full! We’re assuming that it was exponentially busier than the state parks in MN because it’s closer to the Twin Cities – so we ate our lunch in the car (windows rolled down!) and set off on the hike!

The suggested loop in the book would take us on a few of the park’s trails – starting out on the paved Riverview Trail. This is a wide accessible trail that offered view points to the river below.

We broke off from that trail to take the Upper Bluffside Trail – a more narrow dirt path that goes closer to the edge. It was during this portion of the hike that we started to spot birds swooping and diving. We’re certain that at least one of them was a hawk!

From the Upper Bluffside Trail there’s a steep switchback staircase that takes you down to the Lower Bluffside Trail. This was probably the most challenging part of the hike – it’s almost impossible to get out of the way of people passing in the opposite direction and the number of people stopped along the way to catch their breath made it even more tricky. It seems like most people were doing the loop in the opposite direction from us and I’m really glad we weren’t trying to go UP those stairs!

On the Lower Bluffside Trail you’re practically at water level and the humidity of the air feels dramatically different from the top! The vegetation and flowers were also noticeably different. We were able to watch two bald eagles along with turkey vultures and hawks – they all make their dwelling in the trees and the bluffs!

Finally, we reached the point where there were long switchbacks to get us back up to the top via the Interpretive Hike, and it confirmed for me that the route we took worked much better than ending the hike with the rock staircases! We were still beat by the time we got back up to the top and reached the car. Somehow, we managed to add a whole mile on to the hike suggested in the book! (This isn’t the first time we’ve done something like that!) But we enjoyed doing the larger loop and we’d recommend it for anyone who won’t mind tackling the steep staircases!

Quarantine Chronicles: Minnesota Landscape Arboretum

When everything got shut down in Minnesota, we weren’t sure how much of our bucket list we’d be able to tackle this summer – touristy destinations aren’t exactly known for social distancing! But we were delighted when the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum announced that they would be opening their Three Mile Drive in time for folks to enjoy their tulip display!

As my husband’s teaching semester wraps up, we were able to sneak away on a weekday last week – which was good because the weekend dates kept getting sold out!

The Minnesota Landscape Arboretum is part of the University of Minnesota. They carefully cultivate their gardens to feature plant displays and protected natural areas They also specialize in cold-hardy plant research and we have the UofM Arb to thank for 27 apple varieties – including Honeycrisp!

We were glad that the rain held off for our afternoon drive after it had threatened all day. It was an odd experience to feel like you were in a packed environment – there was a long line of cars before and behind us – but to be completely isolated from everyone else. The cars slowly snaked along the Three Mile Drive with everyone slowly down to take pictures of the trees and gardens starting to bloom. I was surprised by the variety of trees and enjoyed peering at the smaller gardens we couldn’t walk to – at least at this time!

It was a wonderful opportunity to get out of the apartment, drive with the windows down and delight in the amazing smells floating through the air! For more information on the Arb, visit their website!

Enjoy these highlights from our drive!