Temperance River State Park

In late August, my son and I ventured north of Duluth to explore and camp at Temperance River State Park. Neither of us had ever been to this park, so it was going to be a new experience for both of us. We picked this park to camp at due to its proximity to miles and miles of the Superior Hiking Trail. Before we booked our reservations at the park, we did our research to find a good location to hit the trail from daily. This park was the place to be for hiking.

After a four hour drive, we arrived at the park. The park is located along Highway 61 and sits right on the western shore of Lake Superior. When we arrived at the park, we found the park office and check in. We learned that our campsite was not located anywhere near the park office, and was in fact located about ¼ mile back down highway 61. So we got back in the car and headed south. As we pulled into the campground, the road took us on a loop that drove up close to the Lake. We were hoping our camping spot would be located right near the water, but that was not the case. We traveled inwards from the lake and found our campsite. We set up our tent, got everything ready and made a simple meal of hot dogs, chips, beans and smores. Nothing beats a cheap hotdog cooked over a hot fire!

So we were already for a night of good sleep in the tent. However, much to our dismay, we soon learned that our campsite backed up to Highway 61, we just couldn’t see the road through all the trees. As we laid down and attempted to sleep, all we could hear was cars cruising by on the road. Finally, about 11:30 p.m. traffic seamed to slow down and we finally fell asleep. But not for long. At exactly 6:30 a.m. we heard the unwelcomed sound of semi- trucks braking down to 45 miles per hour, the speed limit in front of the state park. Once they got past the park, we could hear them shifting back up to a higher speed. Lesson learned, don’t camp along Highway 61 unless you are super close to Lake Superior and the waves coming in can mask the car noise.

Other than the obnoxious vehicle noise, this was a great park. It sat right on the shores of Lake Superior, which is visually stunning to look at no matter the time of year. Another perk of this park was the location to the Superior Hiking Trail. We did not have to drive to any trailhead, merely walk across the Highway, hike through the park and connect up with the trail. Another bonus at this park was the drinking water. Not too far from our campsite was an artesian spring. It flowed constantly and we filled up our water bottles before every hike. We actually brought water from home to drink, but the parks water tasted so good that we used our water to wash dishes. On our last day at the park, we even filled up our bottles to take a little taste of the park home with us. Lastly, from the perspective of someone who lives in a major metropolitan area, the darkness at the park was awesome for stargazing. We even saw shooting stars several times every night.

I would highly recommend this park to anyone interested in visiting the north shore or hiking on the Superior Hiking Trail. My only recommendation would be to reserve a campsite along the water’s edge so you don’t have to listen to traffic going by.

Paddling the River

Knock another item from my bucket list, I finally was able to fish and kayak the Mississippi river.  This is something that my son and I have talked about for a couple of years, even going so far as looking for fishing kayaks on Craigslist.  This whole adventure has intrigued me for awhile and quite honestly, I am not sure why.  When my son and I visited the Sportsmen Show a few years ago, we chatted with a company who was giving away a fishing kayak and who also offered rentals for daily fishing trips.  We spent quite a bit of time at their booth and came away excited to experience a trip like this.

Move forward a couple of years and a chance visit to Groupon and before you know it, I had a coupon for a 6 hour trip from the very company we talked to, Clearwater Outfitting, www.cwoutfitting.com, located in Clearwater, Minnesota.  It was going to be a bit of a drive for us to get to the store, but we found out that it was well worth it.

We checked the weather prior to leaving and it looked like we had selected a fairly decent day.  A bit of a breeze but no rain so off we went.  It was a little over an hour drive to the store and as we pulled in, both my son and I were more than ready to ditch the car and spend a day on the river.  Now we are not big river people in fact neither of us had spent much time fishing or even floating or boating on the river.  My wife was a bit hesitant on us going from a safety point of view.  Our summer and especially the month of August has been quite wet with most areas receiving 5+ inches of rain for the month.  Since we didn’t know anything about the river, she was concerned that the flow would be fast and the depth would be deeper than normal.  We did come to find out that this was far from reality.

Once we arrived, we checked in and needed to go through a safety briefing, which turned out to be a video on what not to do when out on the river.  There was another couple in our safety briefing who were heading the opposite way of us but were also going to be spending the day on the river.  After the video, we were fitted for life jackets and then given a briefing on fishing the river and where the fish had been biting.  Another perk, which we didn’t realize how great this was going to be, was that lunch was included, and what a lunch it was.  More on that in a bit.  We signed out the equipment and down to the river we went.  By the way, the people working in the shop were fantastic.  Very friendly and you could tell they were very passionate about paddling and were intent on ensuring we had the best experience possible.

As we stood by the shore, the person helping us gave us some final pointers and off we went.  Initially, due to some bridge construction, we needed to go upstream and towards the middle of the river so that we could get around the construction obstacles in the water.  Not sure if it was the combination of going upstream, the wind blowing and me not really feeling comfortable on the river, but the first few minutes of the experience were a bit shaky to say the least.  My son and I maneuvered our way around the construction stuff and settled in on the side of the shore where the wind was minimal.

Once we moved into the shore area, we began tossing our lines in hopes of landing our first smallmouth bass.  The individual who was helping us did warn us that the bottom was fairly rocky and that if we happened to get our lures stuck, that to release the lure, we would just need to go upstream a bit and then tug it free.  I moved a bit ahead of my son and saw him head towards shore.  I waited for him as I wasn’t sure if he had landed a fish or what the deal was.  Much to my chagrin, he actually had hooked a tree limb so once he was free from that we moved downstream little by little.

Now since we were new to this whole river paddling thing, one item we needed to figure out was the timing.  We had a map of the river, but what we didn’t have was a good idea on how long it would take us to paddle and fish.  We did know that a lot of smallmouth had been caught near the end of our trek so we knew we wanted to save some good time for that.

About 30 minutes into our trip, my line went tight and both my son and I were waiting to see our first smallmouth.  I pulled in the fish and we were soon treated to our first Mississippi river northern pike, a very disappointing fish, fun to catch but disappointing from a species point of view.  We continued paddling and looking at the map.  We knew the area we wanted to have lunch so once we saw the spot, we focused on getting there as our stomachs were grumbling a bit.

What we didn’t realize about the spot we picked, was that the river and wind were going to be a bit of a challenge.  We paddled and worked our way to the sand bar and once we had beached our kayaks, we were more than ready to dive into lunch.  We ripped open the bags and to our amazement, the sandwiches packed for us looked amazing and tasted even better.  We both inhaled them, the chips and the cookie and then my son commented, “that was the best sandwich I have ever had”.  Not sure if it was because we were hungry or what, but I totally agreed with him.

We climbed back in the kayaks and continued our journey down the river.  A bit while later, my line went tight again and this time I was able to pull in the first smallmouth of the trip.  A lot of fun catching it and once it was in the boat, both my son and I hoped that it was a sign of things to come.  As we paddled down the river, both of us were enjoying the scenery around us.  The landscape around was very wooded and sparsely populate or at least that is how it looked.  Another item to note, most of the river in this stretch is very shallow.  In many areas, we could have gotten out and walked in the water, not at all what we had expected.

As we approached our landing spot and the spot which we had been told many smallmouth had been caught we both agreed we would take our turn through this area.  The current had picked up in this area so that presented a bit of a challenge for us, OK me more than my son.  You see, I actually got myself hung up on a rock and without my son’s help I may have ended up tipping the kayak, and yes I had this very vision in my head.

We cleared the faster flows and settled into a spot that was calm and was calling out to us that this was a hotbed for fish.  My son’s line went tight and I paddled back upstream to see what he had caught.  He landed his first and only smallmouth and used his GoPro to record the event.  A lot of fun to see him catch something and to be so happy to finally land a fish.

This was the last fish we caught for the day as we climbed out at our landing spot and waited for our ride.  Both of us had thoroughly enjoyed the day, I mean how could you had not.  We helped the load the kayaks on to the trailer and on our way back, our driver told us about a fishing contest they were hosting in October.  I had a couple of thoughts float through my head and could almost read my son’s mind.  We came to our senses and decided we were going to have to wait for another year for that.

On the ride home, we both talked about what a fantastic day it was.  No, we didn’t catch a stringer full of fish, but sometimes that isn’t what fishing is about.  Sometimes just spending time with your son in the outdoors weighs more than any fish you can land.  I highly recommend you give kayak fishing a try, I know my son and I are in discussions to experience this again.

End of a Season

Now that the summer months have passed us, it is time to reflect on the fishing season.  I will have have say that in my eyes, this past summer of fishing was extremely successful and probably one of the best I have ever had.  Both my dad and I caught fish consistently, we caught bigger fish, and with what happened on Labor Day weekend, I caught the biggest bass of my life, what a way to cement the best summer of fishing I have ever had.

Labor Day weekend is always kind of depressing as it signals the end of those summer weekends and the most dreadful thing of all, the start of school.  The other item about Labor Day weekend is the weather, it is pretty much hit or miss.  The summer ending weekend for 2016 was pretty windy and actually kind of cool.  What that meant for fishing is that it was going to be limited as we were not even able to get the boat off of the lift.  Now normally my parents are a bit cautious with the whole taking the boat off of the list when it is windy, but I knew they weren’t being cautious this time as our neighbors who are on the water no matter what, didn’t even touch their boat.  Guess my weekend of fishing was going to have to be performed from the dock.

With the winds howling, the weekend was pretty dismal for fishing. The 20 mph winds were making casting a bit difficult and you had to throw a lure with some decent weight in order to get any distance on it.  Most of Saturday was spent landing a couple of small bass and northern pike by my grandpa and dad. Even though I wasn’t catching much I still kept fishing.

At sunset, dismal turned to fortune.  I launched my worm towards the neighbor’s dock and it seemed my lure had caught a wall of weeds.  My rod went down and at first I thought I had caught either the bottom or a pretty big stick.  Once my line started moving around I knew that was wrong but my immediate thought was that it was a big northern.  I started to fight it and after fighting the fish for a few seconds it jumped and revealed itself to be a monster bass. We didn’t have a net so my dad took off to grab one but I knew I couldn’t wait.  The bass took the lure under the dock and with my heart beating faster than it had in quite awhile, I was able to coax it out from under the dock and somehow I managed to throw it up onto the shore.  I hurried over to the shoreline and discovered that the fish was barely hooked and it probably should’ve fallen off.

My dad came back down with a net and his eyes about popped out of his head when he saw me holding a bass that weighed in at over 5 pounds.  I brought it up to show my mom and neighbors and their first comment was that I should have it mounted.  I thought it would be better if I set it free for someone else to land and experience the fun that I had just experienced.

What a way to end the season.  All in all, a great year for fishing with a ton of bass caught and me being crowned the fishing champion of the family.

Superior Hiking Trail

The 4^th week of August ended up being the week we checked out the Superior Hiking Trail, located in Northern Minnesota. We attempted to go earlier in August, but due to the State of Minnesota’s new campground reservation policy, we could not plan a semi-spur of the moment trip. Apparently, all sites can now be reserved a year in advance, and if you don’t know quite when you can go, and don’t reserve at least 9 months to a year in advance, you are going to have a hard time getting a site to camp at. More on that in a later posting.

We headed up north to our camping destination, Temperance River State Park. We had never been to this park and did not know what to expect. We arrived in the afternoon and checked in at the park office. We were told that our site was located in the lower campground, not the campground where we checked in at. This turned out to be both good and bad, more on that in a later posting as well.

The first trail we attempted was the Temperance River Trail. We began this trail on Tuesday afternoon and hiked about 5 miles that day. The trail followed the Temperance River, basically from the end of the river (which ends in Lake Superior), following the river westward. The trail was relatively flat, there were a few areas where we had to go up some rock type steps, but it basically ran up one side of the river to a bridge. You could then cross the bridge and walk back down to Lake Superior. When the trail entered the state park, it was basically a series of stairs you followed down to Lake Superior. Once you reached the lake, you could climb out on the rocks and rest, which is exactly what we did. My son and I sat out on the rocks for an hour or so, just watching the waves come in and crash to the shore. It was a beautiful day and was nice just to sit and enjoy the view. This was a nice trail because once you got past the first mile or so, there was no one else on the trail.

On Wednesday, we decided to tackle the Carlton Peak Trail. This trail left from Highway 61 at a parking area for Temperance River State Park. The trail follows the Temperance River for a few miles and then turns inland. The trail was marked quite well and easy to follow. We hiked through forest and a few marshy areas. In one such area, I must have scared up some ground bees, because shortly thereafter my son started screaming at me to run. By the time we had slowed down, he had acquired 3 nice bee stings. Lucky for him he is not allergic to bees and had a knife along and was able to get the stingers out of his leg.

The trail continued on until we reached a very rocky area, which was the assent to the top of Carlton Peak. This was the hardest part of the hike, and included a very quick ascent to the top of the peak. We were not sure if we were even on the trail as we basically climbed up a sheer wall of rock to reach the top. Once on the top, we took in the view and sat down to rest. According to the guidebooks about this particular trail, we were supposed to be able to have a great view of Lake Superior from the Peak. What we noticed instead was the view to the lake was blocked by trees, but the view of the forest behind us was pretty spectacular. After a short rest, we started back down the peak and headed back to the trail to return to the trail head. This trail was an out and back, so we saw pretty much the same scenery on the way back. We came across the bee area again and this time thought we had made it through unscathed. My son was commenting on how we had passed the bee area, and just then, “bam” another bee got him and he again yelled at me to run. We got past the bees with only one sting for him, zero for me.

Guess being the trail blazer has its benefits.

My Tournament Story

As you may have read a few weeks ago, my dad and I recently signed up to do a fishing tournament on our home water in Southern Minnesota. Since this was our first tournament we didn’t have high expectations for the day and we just hoped to catch one or two fish.

We arrived at our cabin around 4:30 on a Friday night to prepare our boat and to get all of our stuff ready. Also, we had to go to a meeting for lake selection and for a couple of other rules. We got the lake we wanted and also got a pretty early starting spot at 8th.

The next morning we woke up around 6:00 am in preparation for the tournament. Our breakfast consisted of some bagels with peanut butter on them. We loaded up the boat and shoved off to head to the boat launch. We arrived at the boat launch and went through the necessary check in procedures. We were told that the weather report looked perfect for the day. We sat in the launching area waiting for the seven boats in front of us to launch so we could hit our spot and start fishing. The spot we had chosen was the same area we had been fishing all year which consisted of a marina and heavy cover. One of the boats that launched before us was able to reach our spot first so we started a little further down the lake. At right about 7:30, we had a fish on and landed a small 12.5 inch keeper. Small, but it was just big enough to keep. By the time we reached our spot the other boat had left so we were able to fish it. Before I knew it the line was whipping out of my rod. I thought I had a monster bass, but by the time I got it on the boat we figured out it was a big northern, not the target species but at 26 inches it was still a good fish. Just a little later we had a “double header” which meant that my dad and I both had fish on at the same time. We landed them and they turned out to be a 3 pounder and a 2.5 pounder. After catching a bunch of small 10 inch bass we decided to move to a new spot. At this new spot we caught a few more small keepers. At about noon we turned around and headed back to our starting spot. We pulled in a few nice fish and culled out some of the smaller ones.

For the rest of the afternoon we didn’t have any more bites so we headed back to the weigh in site to make all of our fish stayed alive. The tournament we were in had a “small fish award” which gave $200 to the boat with the smallest fish. A few boats had weighed in before us so we had an idea of the competition. Our small fish was weighed first, it weighed 1.1 pounds, but we were edged out of the prize by .01 pounds, a real disappointment. We finished the weigh in with a 10.91 pound bag which finished us in the top 20 out of forty boats. We didn’t win but we felt it was a good showing for our first tournament.

We finished the day with a steak and shrimp dinner banquet at the local VFW. It was overall a fun experience and one I would recommend to any fisherman.