Remember how I complained about how the CSA just gave us a box of greens with no guidance at all? Well, it turns out that we DID get a flyer with information on which veggie was which and what to do with them. D'oh.
Anyway, the big leafy green thing turned out to be some form of arugula. Now, I've only ever seen arugula in its curly form, but that's what the flyer said, so I'm believing it. We also got pac choi, tatsoi, mizuna, mixed field greens (the Cow Food), radishes and dill.
So! I'm a little panicky about how we're going to eat all of this. I tried to find any sort of hope that greens can be preserved...but there wasn't much. I have some leads and ideas (which I will post about later if they come to fruition) but for the purposes of this post...this is what i did with the arugula.
I found a recipe for arugula pesto and decided that i had nothing to lose. Plus, it indicated that it can be thrown into the freezer for up to six months. Score!
Arugula Pesto
2 cups arugula
6 cloves of garlic
1/2 cup of walnuts
1/2 cup of olive oil
1/2 cup of parmesan cheese
I don't have a food processor. I think I had a roommate with one at some point. I thought to myself "Well, I could buy a whole new appliance for the already crowded kitchen, or I can figure something else out." Which is how I came to make pesto in the blender.
Oh, man, was the blender unhappy with me. I made the pesto in two batches to make it easier on the poor, confused appliance. It's never seen greens before. I tried to chop the walnuts before throwing 'em in, but they were still probably a source of frustration for the wee little blades.
After lots of pressing go, stop, stick spoon in to mix things up, repeat...it finally began to look like pesto. I tasted it and ZOW does it ever have a bite! The garlic provides quite a punch and the arugula adds quite a zing to it as well. I kept it spinning around until it was perfectly mushy.
Then I extracted it from the blender and put it
in a ziploc bag. I sucked all of the air out with a straw and
then put it into another ziploc bag (don't want freezer burn!).
Ta-dah! One CSA pile of greens, handled. I put some on a
cracker and tried it. Yeeeeeeeeeeee HAH is it potent. I
think I'll enjoy putting it on sandwiches.
It looks like I'll be posting about my garden roughly once a month. That'll keep me from saying "OMG you guise! I has a bean and a tomatoe!!!" every time somthing interesting happens. Well, lots of interesting things have happened. If you click on the "gardening" tab on the left of my Vox page, you'll see how my garden grows.
First off, I think my corn is in fine shape. Ever hear the old saying "knee-high by the fourth of July"? That means that your sweet corn should be about...well, knee-high by the Fourth of July. I don't think I'll have a problem at all, seeing as it's still about 10 days from the fourth and the corn is up to my waist.
The peppers also look good. I'm not sure if I'm happy about this or not - but they're all surviving. :) I kind of figured that some of them would die off, but all 14 plants are looking good. Many have little flowers from whence I expect peppers to pop at any time. There is one Banana Pepper that is quite the prodigy - it's already about 4 inches long.
The tomatoes are also growing like champs. I am not using cages this year - I'm just staking them up with thick branches and tying them on with old nylons. Finally, a use for my off-white nylons. I bought them for an Alice in Wonderland costume and hadn't worn them since. Anyway, the tomatoes are big and bushy and look great, surrounded by very happy marigolds. The tomatoes have some flowers so perhaps I'll be seeing some Roma and Big Boys soon.
The onions are a bit of a mystery. I had the little onion bulbs. The instructions said that if I wanted green onions, I should plant them in bunches of 3-4 about 4 inches deep; and if I wanted cooking onions, I should plant them singly, about four inches apart, close enough to the surface so that the tops are almost showing. Well, the green onions are tall and delicious (I yanked some up and had wimpy little 3-inch green onions with dinner! Should have waited...), and I peeked at the progress of the cooking onions. They look a little bigger, but not much. How big will they get? Also, the greens are super-tall and bending over, and don't appear to be getting much taller. How do I know when they're ready to harvest? For someone that loves onions as much as I do, I sure am clueless.
Carrots - thinning out the carrots has been a sad task. I'm trying to keep them an inch apart at the very least...I don't want weird mutant carrots that can't grow properly because they're too close together. I thinned one out today and gave it to C to eat. (He wanted a carrot...I said "okay, here's one!"). It was about the length of a straight pin and about as thick. He brushed off the dirt and delicately took a bite out of it. "Does it taste like a carrot?" I asked. He looked thoughtful. "More like dirt than a carrot, but I can definitely tell it's supposed to be a carrot." I guess we'll have to wait until the end of summer before it actually tastes like a carrot. :)
Beans - very strange. I was expecting them to climb, but they're just keeping to their little bushy forms and not making use of the interesting
Pea Tower is looking fantastic! Only three of the vines survived to produce peapods, but that's okay. It's good to have moderation somewhere, right? Anyway, peapods are popping out all over the place. This afternoon each of us had a peapod right off the vine. Everyone thought they were delicious. I almost wept with happiness. My vegetables are a hit!
I'm afraid that I won't mention the cucumbers other than to say that they are still there and I still have hope - although it's kind of waning.
The squashes look good, to my surprise. I rigged up a couple of branches for them to climb on (sort of like a sawhorse, about 4 inches off the ground) and they seem pretty happy. Big happy leaves, orange flowers. Like the peppers, I'm surprised that they've all survived. Three acorn squash, three butternut squash. Living it up in my garden.
The sunflowers have taken the biggest hit. Two of them fell prey to a rainstorm (they were too close to the edge of the roof, they just collapsed under the water) and one of them had a broken stem. Incredibly, the broken-stemmed one kind of wilted down to the ground and then kept growing upward, with its stem on the ground. Sort of like a sideways S-shape. It looks great, it's just about two feet off the ground instead of four. The fourth sunflower is about 4 feet tall and looking good.
So, what have I harvested so far? Three green onions: too early, but they tasted delicious; and four peapods: a big hit, they were fantastic. Tonight I am planning on picking the ready-to-go peas and beans and incorporating them into a stir-fry. I'm also going to use the Pac Choi from the CSA box.
I guess I'm happy with how well the garden is going. But I'm also scared to death. Here's this garden, that I started, and it's producing vegetables. Whether I like it or not! It's an interesting thing to see how something I started is thriving, with my help and on its own. The age old question 'what the hell am I going to do with all of these vegetables?" keeps coming to mind.
Anybody want some peppers? Squash? :)
Finally, after months and months of waiting! It's time for the first CSA box of the year. Oh joy! We called our friends, wanting to open it all together so that we could divvy things up and be merry.
Well, our friends couldn't make it. So it was just P and myself.
I opened the box...
and found a lot of leafy greens. A LOT of leafy greens...and not much else. I suppose it's early on in the season and the colorful, familiar veggies aren't ready yet. I'm not complaining.
P, on the other hand, said "What is this! This is cow food!" He took a leaf of one of the bundles, bit into it, and grimaced. "That's awful," he said, taking a fork to a leftover piece of sheet cake. We did eat a couple of radishes. They were very good.
Okay, so I'm becoming more aware of my ignorance when it comes to different kinds of leafy greens. I recognized exactly two out of the nine items in the box: the radishes and the dill. Everything else...I'm hoping that one of you fine readers will see something you recognize and help a poor new CSAer out.
Hoo boy! How am I ever going to eat all of these veggies? I doubt they're preservable (except for the radishes and dill, the two things that other people will help me eat!), so I'd better start snacking. Good thing they're good for me.
You've gotta admit, I tried. I tried so hard to get outside and enjoy the great outdoors this weekend. I'm trying to NOT feel like a complete wimp.
Friday was gorgeous. Sunny, mid-sixties, partly cloudy. P got off of work and we ate a quick dinner (stir-fry, yum) and headed out to Quarry Park (I've written about it before, here) for the Long Hike (through the Scientific and Natural Area). All was going well until we got about half a mile into the park.
Then...it became apparent that the sweet, bugless bliss of spring had ended.
It's hard to relate what it's like to be swarmed by mosquitoes. We didn't have any bug spray on us (strike one - how embaressing! It's not like we're amateurs) so we were doomed. There were points in which I looked at P's back and there had to be dozens upon dozens of mosquitoes on his shirt, in his hair, on his neck, everywhere. We were too far in to head back so we just steeled ourselves and walked the 2.5 mile loop as fast as we could. Now, I'm not entirely sure how fast we walked, but I believe less than an hour and 15 minutes went by, according to the car clock.
In any case, it was completely unenjoyable and miserable, and we swore to bring bug spray next time.
Sunday was just as pretty as Friday, so we got out our bug spray and headed for an unexplored green blob on the map, Rum River State Forest. It was Memorial Day Weekend and we didn't have reservations anywhere, so we figured on just a day trip, some hiking, cooking on the grill.
Eh, Rum River State Forest didn't have much to interest us. Snowmobile trails criss-cross the park, and we found shotgun shells all over the place. Neither snowmobiling nor hunting appealed to us, so we looked at the map again and headed for Lake Mille Lacs.
Mille Lacs on Memorial Day Weekend = PACKED. Very crowded. No campsites available but that wasn't a surprise, so we planned on hiking for a few hours, making dinner, and then heading up the fire tower to watch the sunset.
We took the Landmark Trail and the Hiking Club trail. The Landmark Trail is an interpretive trail for the site the Native American village that once stood on the shores of Ogechie Lake. I love interpretive signs, but these weren't all that great. They were informative, but sometimes the same information was printed on different signs. That just didn't make sense to me.
All was well until we got to the Hiking Club trail. Then...out came the mosquitoes and the ticks. Again. We got out the trusty bug spray and did our best, but it was just incredible. I'm a lifelong Minnesotan, I've seen my fair share of mosquitoes. And I'm not a wimp, either. But we were doused in spray but still surrounded by buzzing swarms, and between the two of us we must have picked off hundreds of ticks - Deer ticks as well as Wood ticks. At one point P pulled up his pant leg and we found about 30 ticks between the top of his shoe and his knee. Yikes!
So began another fast hiking session, like the one at Quarry Park earlier that weekend. There were points on the trail that I almost wept. We stopped whenever there was a break in the canopy and stood in the sunlight - we weren't swarmed as much in the sun, so we took the opportunity to pick off ticks. We did see a really cool beaver lodge though - one of the beavers was swimming in the lake next to it, and another ran across the path about 15 feet in front of us! It was pretty cool.
I also got to see my first ever porcupine in the wild. I've seen the RESULTS of porcupines (poor doggies with quills in their muzzles), but not an actual one lumbering along. So the hike wasn't a total wash, we saw some neat animals. But were we ever glad when we got back to the van and headed to the picnic area for dinner!
While on the drive to the picnic area, I saw a woman walking out of the woods. She had the same frazzled, miserable expression that I must have had. Behind her was a man...wearing nothing but a speedo. He was swatting himself with his shirt. I was telling P about them while we were setting up the grill...and they pulled up in their car right next to us! It turns out that they were also hiking and overrun by ticks. The woman was kind of freaking out about it - she'd never had a tick on her before, and here she was with dozens clamping on. I told her to go into the outhouse (thankfully, a large well-lit one), and turn her clothes inside out to make sure she got them all. While she was doing that, we got to talk with the speedo man.
Speedo man was a cowboy from Mexico. He told us about the tick repellant they use there: locust powder. They crush up the bodies of dead locusts into a fine powder, put the powder in a sock, and apply it to themselves and their horses by hitting themselves with it. He said the horses loved it, because it meant no ticks! The poor woman was so tick-covered and miserable that they packed up and headed out without stopping to eat - which was too bad, because I thought they were kind of cool.
After eating, we drove to the fire tower. I felt good about myself hiking up all of those steep stairs - a few months ago, I would have been just dead from the exertion. It was a beautiful view from the top. We had the place to ourselves for about 10 minutes when a group of loud, boisterous young'ins came bounding up the tower after us. They were friendly, but I kinda wanted to enjoy the sunset with just P. We climbed back down and went back to the Native American village site and watched the sunset from there, whilst being eaten alive by mosquitoes.
There's so much at Mille Lacs Kathio, I know that we didn't even scratch the surface. I hope to come back someday when the bugs are so oppressively bad - maybe in the mid-autumn, when all of the leaves are changing. There are a lot of trails that look interesting and we could rent canoes there, as well.
Memorial Day has come and gone! That means that it's now safe to plant everything in my garden, even the finicky tomatoes. I'll admit, I did the actual planting the day before Memorial Day, hopefully I won't jinx it... :)
I planted two tomato plant this year - Big Boy and Roma. Tomatoes have been kind of a thorn in my side over the years, so I decided to just buy the plants and save myself whatever agony might come from starting them from seed. The tomatoes are surrounded by a half-circle of marigolds - marigolds and tomatoes go well together, the marigolds fend off tomato pests like white flies.
I love onions. I planted these several weeks ago. The two rows on the right were planted with the bulb right next to the surface, they will grow into big table onions. I planted the row on the left about 4 inches down, they're my green onions.
I also, obviously, love peppers. I've planted red peppers, orange peppers, green peppers, red hot chili peppers, Anaheim greens, and banana peppers. I think I'll wind up with way too many and will spend some time this summer figuring out how to store them for later usage. P's mom does canning at home and I have a book with info on freezing vegetables...I haven't had much luck freezing peppers in the past, I think I might have to do some more research.
The peas weren't growing up the driftwood pole very well, so I got out some string and attached it to the pole to make it easier. One of the pea plants died, but four of them are still going strong and climbing up the pole.
The beans are doing well, but I don't have a clear picture of them. I also planted some acorn squash and a few butternut squash. If something doesn't work out, I'm planning to plant a few spaghetti squash as well. I wish I'd picked some up a the store!
The sunflowers are doing "just okay"...they took a beating from a rainstorm and haven't looked the same since. The corn is still growing well...11 out of 12 of the stalks have survived transplanting. They're about 6 inches tall and I'm sure they'll be knee-high by the fourth of July.
Once again, I'll reiterate (mostly to myself) that if the garden doesn't work, if all of my plants die, if all I get is a single bean and it tastes like crap...it's all just a fun experiement, and I won't freak out if it doesn't work. Disclaimer done!
Sometimes I'll go to the market and see a fruit or vegetable that I've never had before - and I'll buy it with the intent of seeing what I can do with it. Here's two examples - one that worked, one that didn't.
Last fall, the grocery store had a huge bin of Hedge Balls in the produce section. I was intrigued by them because they look like little green brains. I bought one, hoping to find a way to cook it so that it retained its brainy appearance. That way, I could put it on a plate and give it to P saying "brains...brains...you need your brains...".
I tried stabbing it with a knife to see what the inside was like, and couldn't even chip it. I went to my trusty internet to find out how the darn thing was cooked. Turns out, you're not supposed to eat Hedge Balls. The best use I could find for it was to stick it beneath the kitchen sink to repel insects. Live and learn, eh?
The next time we went to the grocery store, the bin of hedge balls was still there. Only now there was a large a sign saying "NOT FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION". That's probably a good idea. Throwing something like that in the produce section with a bunch of confused yet daring Minnesotans is probably not a good idea. I wonder how other people tried to eat them.
I recently picked up a Spaghetti Squash to see if I REALLY could cook it up like spaghetti. P was game, so last night I hacked it in half and gave it a whirl.
This is what I did:
Hack in half.
Scoop out seeds and pumpkin-like gunk.
Line pan with tinfoil.
Place face down on tinfoil.
Stick in oven at 350 for 40 minutes.
Remove from oven, use fork to scoop out insides...which bear a remarkable resemblance to spaghetti.
Split into two bowls.
Add spaghetti sauce and meatballs.
Sprinkle parmesan cheese if one desires.
Eat and marvel at how it's just like spaghetti, only a bit crunchier and lacking the starchy-taste.
Actually, it lacks starch altogether. It's a sneaky way to get ones vegetables. It was very good, I would definietly make it again. I've seen pictures of the 'spaghetti' served right in the shell of the squash. I think it looks really cool that way. It seemed to lack much of a taste of its own, so I can see it being an excellent vessel for cool sauces and spices. I found one recipe for its use in a hot dish.
I don't have any pictures of my Spaghetti Squash because we ate it too quickly! I stole a couple of pics to give you all the idea. It was the perfect amount for two moderately hungry adults.
And now, for a short post.
Eagle Park is the new, big park that is being created in my town. I'm on the Trails Task Force, so I get to be involved in it from the very beginning. I like the direction that the planning is going in: restoring the land (much of which was farmland and pastureland) to its natural, prairie state; creating paths for hiking; adding interpretive signs to the garden area at the trailhead; making it fun for adults and kids.
The first step is to rid the land of invasive species and plant native species of plants. There have already been folks out to kill off the invasive grasses and shrubbery. Saturday was the first public work day: the local Boy Scouts and the fellows in the Sportsman's Club came out and donated their time in various ways. People brought in their bobcats, holediggers and plows (erm...I'm not sure of the exact name of some of this equipment, but it was stuff you'd use on a farm) and started digging up sod where the first trail is going to go. The Boy Scouts were mainly on hole-digging and tree-planting detail: we planted Mountain Ash and Crabapple trees.
There was somebody there taking pictures, but I'm not sure if he was working for a Newspaper or not. If I find an article, I'll post a link to it.
It was hard work on a hot day, but everyone was really great (especially the Scouts, who were absolutely tireless and excited about the work)! I'm looking forward to the next work day (in two weeks), when we'll be doing more trail work and planting some shrubs.
WARNING: This is a long post. I apologize for that, but I have a lot to say and there's no LJ-cut feature in Vox. Thanks for being understanding, folks!
This weekend turned out to be a bit different than most. We had a lot of stuff to do on Saturday (I'll write about what I did later), so we couldn't go camping that night. However! P had to go to a meeting up in Moorhead on Monday, so we packed up the van and headed on up to Maplewood State Park on Sunday afternoon. The plan was to hike around, camp over Sunday night, then he would drive to his meeting (very near by) and leave me at the park with a daypack to explore on my own. I thought it was an excellent idea. I'd never been to Maplewood before and had heard very good things about it.
It is important to point out that I had an EXCELLENT time in spite of the situations that I describe further in this post.
It's up by the North Dakota border. I've never been north of St. Cloud on I-94, so it was all new for me. Maplewood has both hardwood forest and prairie, and it is pretty large relative to other Minnesota State Parks - over 9,000 acres. It has an extensive trails system, three campgrounds, horse and backcountry campgrounds, skiing and snowshoeing in the winter, all sorts of good stuff.
We got there on Sunday afternoon and asked the Ranger if the Knoll Loop campground was open yet. It's got the best campsites - secluded, wooded, some overlooking the lake. Not only was the Knoll Loop campground open, but we were the only campers. We got campsite #50 overlooking Grass Lake.
We decided to check out the interpretive trail. I'm kind of a nature geek, so I enjoy the little signs along the path. I have to say, Maplewood has some of the best interpretive signs I've ever seen. Short and interesting, with follow-up questions to encourage folks to look around with their new knowledge. Very cool. Oh, the trail was GORGEOUS. It's finally getting to be beautiful out, the trees and grass are green and lush, the birds are singing, the sky is blue, the meadows are wide open to toss around the frisbee, the wind smells like spring with hints of the pines, the hilltops reward you with breathtaking vistas shimmering in the golden sunlight...you get the idea. And we had it all to ourselves. We sat on the hilltop just northwest of the Knoll Loop and watched a perfect sunset. The clouds even formed into a dove in the deep pinks and purples that heralded the end of a perfect day. Really, they did. Look at the picture.
We slept well and the next morning, P was off to his meeting. We agreed to meet at the Hallaway Hill Overlook sometime between 3 and 5, giving me plenty of time to explore. I took my daypack with sunblock, sunglasses, a supply of granola bars and jerky, a water bottle, a map, a book, and was ready to go. The temperature was warmer at about 9am than it had been the entire day before. With P gone, I was pretty sure I might be the only person in the park.
I headed south and whoa nelly! How about some steep hills! My thighs and butt were put to the test right away. Maplewood is a very hilly park. I felt strong and invigorated as I explored the lower loop around Cow Lake. At the top of the loop, I saw the overgrown path to the abandoned Cow Lake hike-in campsite. Curious, I took the path and wound up at a tiny bridge with a fallen tree over it. I climbed through the branches of the tree and was confronted by the Guardian of the Cow Lake Campsite: very Lord of the Flies. I had seen enough so I turned back.
And this is where things started to turn interesting.
While heading west on the loop, I heard a sound in the distance. The sky was still clear, but it was unmistakeable. It was thunder, it was getting closer, and I was in the middle of nowhere with just a daypack and not even a tent to go hide in.
I will say this: sure, there are people that would say "Why don't you just ~*prance in the rain*~ and ~*dance in natures beautiful shower*~." Believe me, there is a time and a place for that. But I'm wearing jeans, I have just one shirt, it's still in the AM sometime (I have no phone or watch) and P isn't coming back until late afternoon. I dont want to be soaking wet all day long.
Anyway, I look at my trusty map and see that the main campground is about a mile and a half from where I am. As the thunder gets louder and the air starts to feel damp, I powerwalk through the woods to get to the campground.
The sky is turning black when I get to the campground. There's nobody there. There's always the bathrooms for shelter, but I don't want to hang out in a porta-potty for however long it rains. The lightning and thunder are upon me and the rain is starting to come down. I see a llittle building in the distance and make a run for it. I fling the door open and just as the skies open and the rain comes down hard....
...I take shelter in the fish cleaning shack by the lake.
If you all know me, you know that there are a few things in this world that I just loathe. Hate, even. I hate fish. I hate the taste, the feel, I don't like their staring, unblinking eyes, I don't like the thought of my feet touching them in the water, nothing. Above all, I hate the smell of fish.
So hanging out in a fish cleaning shack, with buckets of fish guts (well, mostly empty but there were some guts in there) wasn't the greatest place to escape the rain. But there was a lightbulb hanging from the ceiling and I had a book...so I leaned against the wall and read some more of Dune.
This was no quick little rainshower. It went on and on and on. The good thing was that there was no wind - especially since the upper walls of the Fish Cleaning Shack were screens. If it had been windy, I probably would have gotten just as wet as if I had stayed outside. Instead, I got to hang out in the dry, read a book, and pick the ticks off of myself.
Finally, finally, FINALLY there was a break in the clouds and birds started singing. I looked at the map and saw that the next closets shelters were either the Interpretive center or the Ranger station, each about 1.5 miles away. I stretched my legs a bit and headed out. I stuck to the main road because the trails were probably very muddy, and powerwalked to the Ranger station. The thunder started to rumble again...apparently the storm wasn't over. With the station in sight, I ran the last 100 feet or so as the rain started pouring down again.
The ranger was surprised to see me. He was cleaning the office because the two cars that had camped last night had both left, and nobody new had come in. I looked at the clock - it was 2:45. The Ranger said that it had started raining about 11:15. So, I spent about 2 and a half hours in the Fish Shack. And now I had to get another 2 miles down the road to the picnic area/overlook trailhead, to meet P. Luckily, the Ranger took pity on me and gave me a ride through the downpour.
We got to the picnic area and I asked to be dropped off at the shelter. "There is no shelter," the Ranger said. I looked at him in disbelief. It was still pouring. Did he think I was going to stand in the rain? "There's a little overhang by the bathrooms," he said. "You can hunker down in there."
So I "hunkered down" under the overhang: probably a 2 foot by 3 foot space that was not wet from the rain. I don't know how long I stayed there. I went into the bathrooms to see if they were worth hanging out in, and the lights weren't working, in either the men's or women's. So my choices were to hang out in the overhang, in the rain, or in a dark bathroom. I chose the rain. At least I had a book. And of course...the continuing sport of picking the ticks off of myself.
After a while, the rain finally stopped. P and I said that the first one there should climb up to the overlook to wait, so once the sun came out and the sky cleared for good, I hiked on up.
It was beautiful. Gorgeous view, warm breeze, birds flying and singing. I got out my book and sat down and read, enjoyed the view and the weather, and waited for P (who eventually arrived and we had a fine time hanging out together). So even though it might sound like a total nightmare, I had an overall great time. There are so many paths that I didn't get to see, so many things to do. I definitely want to go back.
Tick count: What I hope is an all-time grand total of 53 ticks were
picked off my person, most of which I found while in the Fish Cleaning
Shack. 52 Wood Ticks, and one Deer Tick hiding in the hem of my shirt.
I hiked about 5 miles in just under 3 hours (if the rain start time was accurate). I was pretty motivated the last mile or so, but dawdled a bit at first. I've been wondering how much ground i can cover if I'm hiking moderate terrain, by myself (nobody else to set the pace). So now I know I can do a mile in about 40 minutes. That's not bad.
So that's the story of my Maplewood State Park visit. I'm sorry it's so long, but there's no lj-cut feature on Vox.
This weekend, we felt like getting the bikes out. We wanted to go camping too...so we weighed our options, threw the bikes in the van, and headed out to Sibley State Park.
It's about a 45 minute drive from our house, which makes it a good place to go for last-minute planners like us. We swung by the ranger station on the way in to make sure there were campsites open (it was a beautiful Saturday in May AND the Minnesota Fishing Opener). Assured that there were sites available, we drove to the Lakeview campground to pick one out.
YUCK! It was pretty much my nightmare campground. All of the sites were right up next to each other, there were no trees or bushes for any sort of privacy, the electric sites were mixed in with the non-electric sites, so there were vans and RVs and motorhomes of all shapes and sizes, whirring and playing music and filling the air with electrical noise. NOT the wilderness experience I enjoy. Well, we picked the best one we could find (actually, we picked three) and headed back to the station. Just as we were walking in, the ranger was giving our #1 choice to the people in front of us. D'oh!
We got into our #2 choice spot and immediately got the bikes out. We wanted to take a look at the Oak Ridge campground, which was still closed until Memorial Day. Man, what a hard ride. Lots of hills, it was one of the first times I'd gotten the bike out since the Lake Ann trip last month - it was a real challenge. But it was worth it to see the GOOD campground. Friends, if you ever go to Sibley, GO TO THE OAK RIDGE CAMPGROUND. Lots of vegetation, privacy, facilities looked great and weren't too prominent (at the Lakeview campground, the foglamps above the bathhouse were on full blast all night long). Pine trees, rolling hills, and access to the Mount Tom Trail.
We ditched the bikes and started hiking. After biking up hills to get to the trailhead, we kept walking up hills to the top of Mount Tom. Oh, it was a BEAUTIFUL hike. I wished that I had brought my camera with. Once to the top, there was a great lookout tower built by the Civilian Conservation Corps back in the day. We hiked back down, grabbed our bikes, and coasted back to the campsite to light the fire and relax as much as possible whilst being surrounded by hundreds of other campers.
The next day we woke up and went for another bike ride - to the west, alongside the lake. It was pretty much flat so it went quickly. Then we packed up the van and drove it to the group camp to check it out. Turns out it's not a group camp site - it's like a summer camp, with little cabins and activity buildings such as a mess hall! It can house up to 128 people and I thought it was just the coolest little thing. Then we drove up to the Mount Tom parking lot and hiked up to the Little Mount Tom lookout, which wasn't as impressive as the big one, but had a nice bench upon which we sat and relaxed for about an hour.
I think that we biked about as much as one could bike in the park. There are trails on the roads, but if I wanted to bike on roads, I could do that at home. We had the Mount Tom trail pretty much to ourselves, but I think that was due in part to the fact that the adjacent campground was closed. Once the Oak Ridge campground reopens, I think it'll be a popular attraction. We saw a few deer, and we saw a giant wild Tom Turkey strutting about in front of two female turkeys. Not wanting to interrupt their romantic interlude, we kept walking.
So, to recap: Oak Ridge Campground. Enough
in the way of trails for one daysworth of biking. Hiking: There
was a trail far to the north that looked interesting, but we'll have to
come back another time. Mount Tom is a nice hike and a great
view. If you're into boats, Lake Andrew looked like a good place
to be. I'd go back again to hike the north trail. I think
it'll be gorgeous in the fall.
This weekend we had two goals: get outdoors, and find somewhere to burn our burnables. We have a habit of collecting papers with personal information on them and waiting until a bonfire...and then torching our records. It's cathartic.
Since we weren't able to get going until about 7pm on Saturday night (and we had to be back by noon on Sunday), we decided to Van Camp at Charles A. Lindbergh State Park by Little Falls. It's a small park - only 436 acres with a museum and some living history houses - but there are campsites and a few hiking trails and a fire ring at each site in which we incinerated our documents.
We got there at around 8pm and got the fire going. We stayed at site #35. The campground isn't very impressive, all of the sites are VERY close together and the tent pad was either missing or not prepped for the summer yet. We're not allowed to gather firewood at the campsite - but there didn't seem to be any for sale, either. Kind of annoying...we only had about 8 logs with us so once those were gone...no more campfire. That was alright though - I brought a lantern and my mandolin, P brought his guitar, the rain had stopped and the wind was blowing through the pines. We jammed at the campsite until about 11pm and then fell asleep in the van.
The next morning we got up and decided to take the Official Hiking Club trail.
I'm not sure exactly how long it is, but we spent about three hours on it. There are many scenic overlooks to the Mississippi River and I particularly liked the Northern section of the trail - it goes through an open prairie surrounded by needle trees swaying in the breeze.
I should mention that it was, once again, about 60 degrees and raining lightly. I swear, the weather DOES improve in Minnesota once summer gets into full swing.
It's a nice little park. Great variety of trees, including young and very healthy looking Elm trees. When I was a kid, there was an epidemic of Dutch Elm Disease in Minneapolis. I remember my dad spraying down the Elm trees in our yard - the authorities had told everyone that spraying down the trees every night might keep them alive. Nevertheless, one day I came home to find half of the full-grown trees on our block spray-painted with a large black X. Within weeks, every Elm tree in my neighborhood had been chopped down. I still remember the hollow, dreadful feeling in my stomach when I saw the X's on the trees. It's good to see that they're making a comeback.
I have to say that of all the kinds of forest in the world, I prefer the Boreal forest. The Great Pine Forests of the north, filled with owls, wolves, hawks, deer, hidden streams and silence under the heavy canopy. I do enjoy a good mixed forest though, so I can see things like needles hanging on the branches of shorter hardwood trees.
Speaking of owls, last night we were camped very close to a Barred Owl. The Barred owl has a very distinctive call - "Who, who cooks for you? Who cooks for you all?" We didn't get to see the owl, but it was very cool to be so close to it and hear it call over and over again. This page has a bit of info about the Barred Owl, as well as an Mp3 of its call. We didn't see any deer or even any evidence of deer, but I bet that's due to the small size of the park and its close proximity to Little Falls.
All in all, it was a nice little park for a day trip. I honestly don't think there's enough to warrant a longer trip there - there are only 7 miles of hiking trails, the campsite is cramped (but with very nice looking, modern facilities), and there just isn't that much ground to cover. We did not have a chance to tour the Charles A. Lindbergh house or any of the other buildings on the grounds. We also noted that there was a canoe rental on site for the creek that runs through the park, not the Mississippi river. It's nice and it was what we needed. If I were to go back again, I'd make sure to find out where the darn firewood was...there was a sign saying "firewood at ranger station", but there wasn't any to be found.
One last thing: I noticed that the birdhouses were still
open. I had seen the open-birdhouse phenomenon at William O'Brien
earlier this summer. I asked the ranger why...he said that they
were specifically for bluebirds, and they left them open so that other
birds wouldn't move in. They will be closing them this next
weekend.
Recent Comments
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Jim Lanning said:
[this is good]Your corn is huge. when did you plant? Jim read more
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