John's race started an hour after mine so he got to play with the camera both at the start and end of my event while I didn't get any pictures of him. Ready to roll on a beautiful morning:
We ran on cross-country ski trails for a good portion of the race, which was great fun. Wide, grassy, rolling, and they made me want to come back in the winter to ski on them. The back portion of the course was on mountain bike singletrack with some good switchback climbing. I enjoyed that part as well.
I'd been letting an inner thigh muscle heal since the last FKT I ran (time off at Boundary Waters helped a lot) and I was unsure how it would do at this distance so I started conservatively. Everything was going great and my legs were feeling super peppy, so I started pushing the pace during the 2nd 10-mile loop. Negative splits, baby! Those are always fun.
Running to the finish line:
Happy with my sub-4 hour time:
Fun race, glad we did it!
We enjoyed the nearby campground at Lake Elmo. It would be amazing if something like this existed near other cities - a huge quiet park with a bunch of trails, 2 campgrounds at reasonable prices, and close to St Paul. There's even a permanent orienteering course among the little ponds, which mostly reminded us that a) we don't practice this nearly enough and b) Midwest vegetation can be a bit thick sometimes.
Also! John found a couple sandhill cranes hanging around in the park, that was pretty cool:
We went over to see Minneapolis one morning and took a walk over the Mississippi River. Not sure we've ever walked over this particular river before. Admiring the big lock:
And the city skyline:
And the well-organized cascade:
John found (and kept) this little sign - could be useful, you never know. For example, "This is our truck":
Crazy-looking art museum on the University of Minnesota campus:
And now... something ridiculously large. The Mall of America! I tend to avoid malls but it seemed like we should see this one. Four floors and not-quite an Escher painting:
Um... there's a giant amusement park in the middle:
You could get in a LOT of walking distance here. Perhaps a good option if someone were to spend a winter in Minnesota.
Butterflies!!
Well, that was fun, now let's go back outside.
Charles Lindbergh statue, imagining him as a boy pretending to fly:
Checking out the state capitol building in St Paul - I never plan to hit the state capitals (heck, I can't remember what half of them are), somehow we just keep ending up in them. We always enjoy walking around the buildings. And usually in them, although St Paul's was closed by the time we got there. Too much mall time, I guess.
Nice statues and beautiful marble:
Minnesota's Liberty Bell:
An excellent design for a tribute to firefighters:
We also got to visit with my cousin Staci and her husband Bob - we haven't seen them since our wedding, way too long ago! It was wonderful to see them and catch up. Plus John got to climb on their roof and check out their new solar system. John on a roof = happy man :)
We enjoyed Minnesota a lot and look forward to coming back. Still so much to see!
But for now, we must move on. Two more highpoints awaited. Partway across Wisconsin (after an excellent night at a Harvest Hosted dairy farm), we found Timm's Hill. It's in a small, wooded park, quite a change from the farm fields we crossed to get there. The parking lot isn't large, but Howie (our trailer) fit just fine since it was early on a weekday and almost no one else was around.
One short uphill hike and we found this tall tower at the top - cool!
Views from the top of the tower are perhaps some of the best in Wisconsin:
And there's a lake with an excellent cafe/coffeehouse next to it:
All smiles at highpoint #47!
Our Wisconsin highpoint webpage:
http://www.kipley.com/marcy/highpoints/wisconsin.html
We enjoyed a night in the Northern Highland state forest, in the trees near Clear Lake. More driving to continue northeast into Michigan's Upper Peninsula, or the UP. "Youpers" have a lot to say about their isolated part of the state, and it was fun trying to get a sense of the area.
We set up Howie at a state park instead of trying to drive it up to the next highpoint, and that turned out to be a good call. We had a lovely chat with the lady at the L'Anse visitor center about the Michigan highpoint and our drive vs. hike options. She told us how the Highpointers Club had come to Mount Arvon this year. The club's first meeting 30-something years ago was also in Michigan, but people thought the highpoint was a different peak back then! So it was the club's first time to Mount Arvon. Too funny.
Driving up the dirt road:
We opted to hike up the new trail that was created a couple years ago. You can also drive to the top, but we were happy to walk to this one (~2 miles one way). The trail is a bit rough in places but really interesting - along a creek, near a cute waterfall, winding through the trees. Definitely worth hiking.
Well-marked trail:
The little waterfall:
And the top of the trail, with just a bit of road to get to the very top:
The brochure we got from the visitor center:
There's a picnic table and grill at the top, and the leaf makes it look like there's a flame going:
Our attempt at an "M" for Michigan:
Now I'm the highest point in Michigan! Wish I'd situated the camera better for the background sunlight on this one:
It's a well-marked register box:
A view of Lake Superior, which is surprisingly close. I think we could see Mount Arvon from the campground too.
And we're at 48 total highpoints so far, woo hoo! It was a great way to close out a summer of highpointing:
http://www.kipley.com/marcy/highpoints/michigan.html
Which leaves only Alaska and Florida. We think that's pretty funny so we might just sit on those two for a while :)
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