Arrowhead RV Resort, Ely, Minnesota
We have a red-wing blackbird. It’s been with us ever since we got here. It likes to sit on the telephone poles in the field across from us. And it . . . well, I don’t know exactly what it’s doing. It’s not singing. I guess you could call it a whistle? Blaine told me this morning it brings back memories of when he was running track in high school and they did ‘wind sprints’. He said they would run, the coach would give a blast on his whistle and they’d change direction and run again – – over and over. He didn’t like that whistle then. He doesn’t like it now. Neither do I. It gets really annoying after a while. Fortunately for me, I’m a mom. I got used to mostly tuning things out a looong time ago.
We got a late start to our day because we were waiting for fresh, warm, homemade donuts! They make them here at the campground and today, they were free! They provide the donuts in a bag and you choose your topping – plain, powdered sugar, regular sugar or cinnamon sugar. We did the cinnamon sugar because Blaine didn’t want the messy powder. Boy were they good! It’s such a cute little machine they have! I can’t really describe it, but it’s kinda like a conveyor belt process. Anyway, just know they were really good! But seriously, what donut isn’t??
Today’s adventure was a walk around Bass Lake.
Spectacular!
We could hear this waterfall way before we saw it!
Wish we could get closer!
Maybe on the other side. . .
Fall leaves!
It’s close to our campground and seems to be extremely popular, even though it’s over 6 miles long if you do the entire loop. You can take a short-cut and lop off just under 2 miles. We planned on the entire 6 miles. We’re certainly capable of it, despite it being a bit rugged, but we spent so much time bent at the waist, we ended up only doing the shorter version.
We discovered fresh fruit all along the trail!!!
At first, it was blueberries. Just a few, and they were much smaller than what you buy in the store, but then we remembered buying ‘wild blueberries’ at a farmer’s market in (oh, I forget where – somewhere in New Brunswick or Maine I think) and they were really small. Anyway, they were good and we kept picking and eating and picking and eating. Made the hike considerably slower, but tasty!
Then Blaine got a text from a friend, and while I was waiting on Blaine, I discovered two wild strawberries! They were tiny too, but tasted just like regular strawberries! The good ones, not the tasteless ones they want you to buy in the grocery store. It was fun having Jason “hike” with us for a bit today! 😊
We kept seeing these other red berries too, which I told Blaine were unripe black raspberries – darn! And then, he decided not to believe me and tested one. They turned out to be wild red raspberries! As good as they other fruit was, these were by far our favorite! Too bad we let so many go by! And then there weren’t any more. ☹
But there were more blueberries! We found a large patch and just kept picking and picking and picking until we filled most of a pint bag we had with us! We ate about half with our lunch and saved the rest.
It’s good we had berries to enjoy because the trail, while very diversified as far as scenery, was stinkin’ hot today!
We decided not to taste these. : )
And since there were no high rocks to stand on, Blaine decided to climb a tree. . . .
Looks like someone hammered pegs into this stump. : )
At about half way around, there was a sign for a “toilet”. Blaine went to ‘investigate’ and this is what he found.
Never seen anything like that, in all our travels! : )
Remember when I said this trail was diversified?
Uh oh. . . .
Trail maintenance needed.
Sometimes we move stuff from the trails we’re on, but this job is a bit too big for us.
We have no idea why the water was this color.
Pretty though!
We were surprised to find people – including kids and dogs – swimming here.
Wish we could join them!
Terrific place for lunch!
This dog loved jumping and swimming around, and he didn’t seem to mind being so far from shore.
There was a little pool in the midst of the waterfall.
How cool is that!
The kids were having a blast!
A young couple who were hiking, stripped down and jumped in . . . . in their underwear.
I confess, part of me wished I was brave enough to do that!
It was still a tad early in the day for us to put an end to it, so we went in search of a Jeep road. It wasn’t really much, but it was somewhat scenic and fun to explore!
Sorry. We didn’t drive through it. Just stopped to look. : )
And the road that was still on the gps, suddenly came to an end.
What happened to the road for cryin’ out loud?
Have no idea what that is.
We took this side road for a while, only to discover it was someone’s really long driveway! Ooops!
Blaine had to back up and get us outta there.
Homemade brats from the local grocery store for dinner. They make all different kinds of flavors – including blueberry. I kid you not! Since Blaine had stopped at the store by himself and I wasn’t there to help choose a flavor, he played it safe. Just regular beer brats for us. They were pretty good, but I still prefer Johnsonville and Blaine still prefers Pressler Meat Market’s Hungarian mild sausage in our home town. Needless to say, he doesn’t get that very often anymore.
Oh. The other strange thing about these brats? They’re already fully cooked. I’m guessing they boil them? We couldn’t think why at first, and then it dawned on me – – we’re in the middle of the boundary waters area. A lot of people take long trips on the water. I would guess that if they have pre-cooked meat, that would make things easier for them. But cold brats? Ewwwww! Hey! Maybe the blueberry ones are for breakfast! 😊