Out of Our Rut Blog Welcome Page

Welcome to the Out of Our Rut blog landing page.

Who we are:

We are a couple of former engineers that lived and worked in the Rochester New York area for over 30 years. When we were laid off from two different companies, one day apart, we took that as a sign to change things up. We had built a beautiful home on 50 acres and loved the place, but with plenty of time on our hands, we began to travel more and realized that when we were on the road for weeks on end, we didn't really miss all the “stuff” we had back home. Plus the work involved with maintaining our home and property seemed to be the only reason we would head back home. That prompted us to get out of our rut and sell 95% of our possessions and our home and move into our 38 foot motorhome and travel the country full time starting in June of 2016.

Chris and Jack Hiking in Washington State

At Pullout Along Rugged Oregon Coast

Our mission:

To explore the country with a strong bias towards outdoor activities. Our passions are hiking and geocaching with some mountain biking on the side. I am an avid photographer. I guess working at Eastman Kodak for 32 years had an influence in that. And while we live in a motorhome and stay in many campgrounds, we really are not campers. We seldom have campfires and don't have a corn hole game. We rarely stay at a campground for its amenities. We pick a place that is near where we want to explore. We think of it more like our home happens to have wheels and can move around. Our desire in these travels is to slow the pace. We didn't want to see if we could get to all the National Parks as quickly as possible. We like to keep a travel day to less than 200 miles and if the place warrants, stay for a week or more.

At Geocaching Headquarters in Seattle for #10,000

The blog:

For friends and family (as well as us) to keep track of what we have been up to, we have created this blog. It chronicles where we've been and what we've done as we wander around the country. Each stop along the way will, at minimum, get mentioned in the blog. Some longer stops in areas we enjoyed may get multiple blog posts in order to give that stop it's due. Generally the blog has lots of photographs as I find it difficult to eliminate photos I like. The blog will talk about the campground to some extent, but it shouldn't be considered a campground review. We seldom seem to exhaust the things we want to explore before we exhaust ourselves and need to move on. That means we may completely skip some activities or places in an area that others may consider essential. We look at that as a reason to come back in the future.

Pretty Sunset in Quartzite Arizona

At the Window in Big Bend National Park

This landing page:

The problem with just about any blog is that fact it is chronological. This is fine since that is how the events occurred in real life. But since our blog is so much about a given location, it can be difficult for somebody to find a specific blog post for a given location. I even find it a challenge to remember when we happened to be at a given location if I wanted to look something up. For instance, if someone asked about Twin Falls Idaho. I know we stayed there but it might take me awhile to figure out that we were there in June of 2017 to get them to the right post. If I could only look at a map of all the places we have stayed and have an easy way to get to the relevant blog post.

Since I already use Google My Maps to keep track of our locations, I have created a special map that has all of our stops since going full time. None of the routes are included in the map since that just seems to clutter it up and don't really add value. By clicking the link below the map, an interactive map with all of our stops will open in another window. It is then possible to move around the map and zoom in an area of interest. Clicking on any pin on the map will pop up the name of the location along with a link to the blog post(s) associated with that stop. Since I am nearly always 2 to 4 weeks behind in the blog, some of the most recent map points may not have a link to a blog, but they will in time. The GREEN pins are locations that happen to include one of our annual or yearly reviews.

So if you want to see what we found to explore in a given area, this should provide a much easier way to find the blog post.

Click HERE to open interactive Google map

2025 Year End Review

With 2025 coming to an end, we are celebrating nine and a half years of living on the road full time in our 38 foot motorhome. We began and finished the year at our RV lot in Titusville Florida at The Great Outdoors (TGO). We purchased the lot almost 2 years ago. It’s a fairly basic lot with a nice flat concrete driveway and the standard full hook up utilities but it does have a 10 foot by 12 foot shed which is very convenient for working on projects over the months we will be stationary here. The resort has a lot of nice amenities but we don’t take advantage of most of them. I must admit that I do miss the occasional winter spent out in southern California and Arizona where the hiking and views are a lot nicer.

We started out 2025 wrapping up some of our doctors appointments in an attempt to get our old bodies in shape for another six months of travel. Our plans for the year were to explore some of the upper Midwest. As we looked into what we wanted to see and do in Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota, we picked out a few events that were both location and date specific. These types of stops have a much firmer window that form the rough outline and timing of our journey.

The first event was to take part in a Habitat for Humanity build in Marquette Michigan in the Upper Peninsula. The two week window for the RV-Care-A-Vanner program was from mid to late June. The second planned event was to attend the Oshkosh Air Show in Wisconsin. This weeklong show runs in late July. With those two points on our map we have quite a bit of distance and time to fill in before, between and after these events.

It is definitely a time consuming task to map out a route, plan our camping stops and figure out how long we want to stay in areas along the way. We spent a few weeks over last winter researching things to see and do in various cities along the route. Where is the good hiking or points of interest?  I use a Google Map and a website called Furkot to piece together a plan. As we get a better handle on our route and timing, we can start to make reservations at various campgrounds and by the end of April we had a 70% of the nights reserved out through Labor Day. We have found that after then, we can be much more serendipitous about our planning for the route back to Florida.

Below is a map of our route for the year. By starting and returning to the same place, the map is a bit confusing. I have a link below the map that will open the actual Google Map which allows others to zoom and pan around to get a better view of the route. Clicking on any of the pins for a travel stop will pop up a window with the name of the stop as well as the blog post related to that stop.

Click HERE to open the Google Map

We left Titusville in late April with just over 7 weeks to make our way to Marquette. While getting the rig serviced in South Carolina, we needed to make a quick drive up to Ohio for a death in the family. It was nice to see so many relatives and friends even if it was at a sad time. We continued our journey with 2 weeks in a few state parks in the southern Appalachians.  In Cincinnati, we got a chance to get together with family and have some Skyline Chili and Graeters Ice Cream. We managed to sneak in a stop at a National Park and get our motorhome windshield replaced in northern Indiana. Then we worked our way up north through Michigan stopping at a few Elks Lodges before crossing over the Mackinac Bridge into the Upper Peninsula. The time spent working with the Habitat for Humanity affiliate in Marquette was quite rewarding and we learned a few construction tricks.

We had about 3 weeks before the Oshkosh Air Show and we got to explore the western side of the UP at a few different campgrounds before working our way south into Wisconsin. We really enjoyed the air show and you’ll read more about that later in this post. Then we continued west into Minnesota where we spent the next 37 nights at various county and state parks. I was able to talk my wife into a side trip into eastern North Dakota to experience what others have called the Disneyland of geocaching - more on that later as well.

It was about this time that we “called an audible”. We had previously planned to head back to Marquette and help out again on the Habitat build and see how it had progressed since our stop in June. But after we had talked with some fellow campers while in Minnesota, we decided to return to Minnesota to check out the north shore area along Lake Superior. This gave us the opportunity to even meet up with my nephew and his wife from Cincinnati while they were in town for her high school reunion. By then it was late September and we figured we better start making our way south to avoid the cold and snow that is inevitable for this area.

We stopped in the Apostle Islands in northern Wisconsin for several days where we got a chance to explore some of the unique landscape along the shoreline. As we headed south, we got to experience a cranberry harvest up close and personal and visit Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin both in Wisconsin. We continued through parts of Iowa, Illinois and Indiana with Chris making a return to her college town of Peoria after 40 years!

Coming through Tennessee, we got to spend a week back in the mountains to see the fall colors before timing our drive through Atlanta on a Sunday morning to minimize the traffic. A few days in a state park in Georgia and a couple of overnight stops at Elks Lodges and we made it back to Florida. It felt good when we returned to TGO after being gone for 190 nights. Things have definitely slowed down over the last two months as we get back to doing some work on the motorhome, our lot and getting in doctors appointments.

Here are a few more maps to help show where we spent our time. These “heat maps” are shaded to reflect the number of nights spent in each state - dark red is more nights, pale red is fewer nights. The first one is just for 2025. We camped in 13 different states this year with Florida, Minnesota and Michigan coming in the top 3 spots. The second map is similar but includes all 9.5 years we’ve been fulltime. The final map is the full 9.5 years but divided down to the county level to get a better understanding of where we were in each state.

Our 2025 Camping Map

Our 9.5 Year Camping Map

9.5 Years at County Level

Lots of people ask “how much does this lifestyle cost?”  Well the table below should help answer that. It doesn’t include items that would be spent if we were living in a sticks and bricks home like groceries, dining out, health care, clothing. But it does include camping costs as well as fuel for both the motorhome and the car as well as the miles driven. We did put on more miles on the rig this year but not significantly more.  Nothing else was all that surprising. Since the actual table has so many years now, I only include the past six years.  One other aspect is that the cost per night here at TGO is initially an educated estimate but I won’t have our last rental income check for the year until mid February at which point I will update the spreadsheet and this table.

Just the Stats for the Past 6 Years

The table does breakdown the type of places we have camped into four categories: boondocking, state parks, private campgrounds and Elks Lodges. While we tend to like state, county or city parks over private campgrounds, location is our most important consideration when picking a campground as well as availability and do we fit in the site. This year we did bump up our state park number a little bit compared the past couple of years. Our overall cost per night worked out to be just over $32 - a bit higher than many years but again not significantly higher.

Like we have done in past year end reviews, we have looked over the 49 stops from this year and tried to identify our favorites. After the votes were tallied, we came up with 8 clear winners. Don't look at this list as the best campgrounds we stayed at during the year. I will provide the name of the campground we stayed at but these winning stops are based purely on its location or what we found to see and do in the area. I will also warn readers that one place on the list might be a mediocre location if you’re not an avid geocacher but we found it to be quite entertaining.

For each winning stop, there is a short description of what we liked about it, a link to the first blog post for that location which will provide much more information about the stop and some of our favorite pictures from the stop. Since I am behind on my blog writing, there are some of the stops without the link to the post but this will be updated as they are written. In chronological order, here are the top 8 stops for 2025.

• Cloudland Canyon State Park, Trenton Georgia - We had done a day trip to this park back in 2021 and fell in love with the park and it’s wonderful hikes and views. We managed to get a spot for 5 nights and found it to be a rather roomy site. The final 8 miles into the parking lot is up a rather steep and curving road. It is doable in a rig our size but not necessarily fun. We repeated one of our favorite hikes the West Rim Loop. By staying in the park for multiple days, we were able to hike Sitton’s Gulch Trail which follows the base of the valley along a creek. This park is not too far from Chattanooga so we spent one day exploring some of the sights in that town including the Chattanooga Choo Choo. Cloudland Canyon is a nice relaxing place to visit in northern Georgia.

Cloudland Canyon Blog Post

Cloudland Canyon View

Large Overhanging Rock

• Union River Big Bear Campground, Silver City Michigan - Situated in the far western part of the Upper Peninsula, this private campground is pretty much surrounded by the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park. We stayed here for a week after completing our Habitat build in Marquette. It is a remote location that didn’t have any cell coverage for our devices but there was reasonable WiFi that worked in our rig. There are many hiking trails within the park and we take advantage of many of them. The main feature of this area are the numerous waterfalls - more of them than can be seen in the time we were here. We had found a decent guide that rated the falls on beauty and ease of getting to the viewing location and we managed to hit a great number of the better ones. The only real problem with this stop was coming in early July - the bugs were pretty bad at times. If you can time your visit for the fall colors, I bet the views would be spectacular and the bugs would be less of an issue.

First Porcupine Mountains Blog Post

Lake of the Clouds

Beautiful Bond Falls

• Hancock Recreation Area Campground, Hancock Michigan - This stop isn’t all that far from the Porcupine Mountains but there is so much to see and do in this area that it would be a challenge to attempt both areas from one campground. Situated on the Keweenaw Peninsula that juts out into Lake Superior, this part of the UP was formerly a big copper mining area. Several of the old mines and facilities have been taken over by the National Park Service and offer a wide range of interesting tours. We did head up to Copper Harbor to explore an old lighthouse and fort. This area is known for some excellent mountain biking be we didn’t get a chance to try any bike trails and only got In minimal hiking since there were so many other things to see and do and we only had 5 nights in Hancock.

First Keweenaw Peninsula Blog Post

Shaft-Rock House at Quincy Mine

Eagle Harbor Light House

Incredible Stone Building in Calumet

• Camp Scholler Air Show, Oshkosh Wisconsin - Usually I don’t try to rank our tops picks for any given year, but this stop was so much fun that it was easily our favorite place of 2025 and rates up with the Albuquerque Balloon Festival and the Lake Havasu Pyrotechnics Show as bucket list destinations. Similar to these other two, Oshkosh is only on the list because of the event that takes place every July - the EAA Airventure Show. There are around 12,000 mostly primitive camping sites in a 400 acre field so you’re not here for the camping experience. But for a full week, you can join in with roughly 100,000 other visitors each day and partake in everything aviation related. We are not at all into airplanes or flying but we still had a great time. There are 4 hour long airshows each afternoon and two nights during the week are nighttime airshows with planes, fireworks, laser lights and drones which were some of the most incredible events to behold. My blog post listed below will provide all the details about attending and what you’ll see while at Oshkosh. Add it to your bucket list!

Oshkosh Air Show Blog Post

Large Group of Warbirds During Air Show

Colorful Aerobatic Biplane

Nighttime Air Show Begins

• Bear Paw Campground Itasca State Park, Shelvin Minnesota - In mid August, we spent 9 nights camping inside Itasca State Park in northern Minnesota. The park’s claim to fame is being the headwaters of the Mississippi River. It’s one of the few places along this 2300 mile long river where visitors are encouraged to walk across from one side to the other. It’s only about 15 feet and ankle deep so it isn’t all that impressive of a feat. There are many miles of hiking trails to enjoy. The 11 mile paved bike path right out of the campground can be linked with a gravel one way wilderness drive for a great 17 mile loop around the lake.

Being there for an extended time, we were able to venture out of the park to see some other sights. The Heartland Trail a little southeast of camp was a wonderful bike ride out of the town of Walker. Possibly the highlight of the stop was a day trip to the town of Detroit Lakes to see the trolls. These 6 art installations are scattered all around the area and we found it is a full day to get them all in since most of them are not right at a parking area but require a bit of a walk. But the effort was worth it.

 First Itasca State Park Blog Post

Calm Waters of Lake Itasca Near Sunset

The First Few Feet of the Mighty Mississippi River

Chris Mimics Ronny Funny Face Troll

• Turtle River State Park, Arvilla North Dakota - Located 25 miles outside of Grand Forks is the small town of Gilby North Dakota. Small is an understatement - population ~240 people! The nearest campground was this state park about 10 miles away. Why did we want to go to this blip on the map in the middle of farm fields and not much else? That’s easy - geocaching. We had heard about Gilby on a geocaching podcast we routinely listen to and it sounded quite intriguing. When we put together our travel plans for Minnesota, I realized that we were only going to be 150 miles from Gilby and talked Chris into heading there. This place is known as the Disneyland of geocaching mainly because of one very creative cache hider named Trycacheus.

We spend 3 full days driving all over the backroads of Gilby in search of some of the most creative caches we’ve done over our 15+ years of geocaching. Most of the hides involved some sort of puzzle that must be solved in order to open the final cache container and each puzzle was very unique. Some were complicated and required a fair amount of thought while others were simply cute and fun to solve. Brainpower was used for most of them but a few required strength or throwing accuracy. In our 6 nights there, we found 71 caches with 50 of them having over 100 favorite points. We were there a couple weeks before some big geocaching event but that probably worked out in our favor so we could enjoy the time spent solving them in solitude. There were a few other things to see in the area but not many. So if you are a geocacher, this is a must do stop, otherwise you will likely skip this part of North Dakota.

 

 Blog Post from Gilby

Giant Anvil Weathervane is a Geocache

ET Phone Home Bike Cache

Geocaching Swiss Army Knife Cache

• Black Beach Campground, Silver Bay Minnesota - This stop wasn’t planned until a couple weeks before staying there. We only decided to consider checking out this part of Minnesota known as the “North Shore” after several people talked about how beautiful it is and a tour of the state should include seeing it. It’s an area that extends about 150 miles northeast of Duluth to the Canadian border near Grand Portage all along the northern shore of Lake Superior. We worked 4 nights into our schedule to check it out. There are a fair number of campgrounds along the route and some of the state parks looked nice but didn’t have availability during our timeframe. We picked Silver Bay because it was roughly halfway along the North Shore so we could easily explore in either direction.

There are numerous places to see with lots of waterfalls and other attractions. Gooseberry Falls and Split Rock Lighthouse were two of our favorites. One day was spent exploring all the way up to Grand Portage just before the border crossing. We did a beautiful hike there and found lots of places to stop at on our drive back. If you do make it to the area, you should really check out Betty’s Pies in Two Harbors. Had we only known to include the North Shore as we were planning our tour of Minnesota, we would have allotted more time to explore.

 Blog Post Not Written Yet

Split Rock Lighthouse Reflection

Gooseberry Falls State Park

Black Beach

Finally Saw the Northern Lights

• Top of the World Campground, Tellico Plains Tennessee - This was our last long stop before heading back to Florida for the winter. We really enjoy spending time in the Appalachian Mountains and doing so in the fall is even better. Having spent most of our time in these mountains on the North Carolina side near Asheville, we picked this out of the way campground to spend a week exploring. We found some quirky things to see in the area including tours of Mayfield Dairy and Sweetwater Valley farms where we saw robotic cow milking equipment in action.

There are many nice hikes to do in this area but it might be most famous for Cherohala Skyway - a 43 mile stretch of road from Tellico Plain TN to Robbinsville NC. It’s a very scenic drive through the mountains and we had (accidentally) timed our visit to be near peak autumn colors. This road ties into another drive called the Tail of the Dragon and many car enthusiasts come here from far away to drive these roads. The day we drove a section of it, there was an Aston Martin car club enjoying the drive - a total of 38 from vintage ones like James Bond drove to brand new models. They would have been much more fun to drive than the Jeep!

 Blog Post Not Written Yet

View from Our Campsite at Top of the World

River View Along Cherohala Skyway

Indian Boundary Lake TN

Below is a map showing all 435 places we have camped in the past eight and a half years. For additional information on any of them, click on the link below the map which will open the actual Google Map I use. Pan and zoom on the map and by clicking on any pin, a window will pop up with the name of the location and a link to the blog post(s) for that place. Those interested in hiking, mountain biking, geocaching or nature photography, may find some of the posts useful if you plan to visit an area we have explored. Our blog posts are more about the interesting locations we discovered during our stops and less about campground reviews so don't expect to find much information about what campground is the best in a specific area.

Click HERE to Open Interactive Google Map

We still haven’t made any plans for where 2026 will take us but I’m sure we will come up with something in the next couple months.

North Shore MN Part 2

Map of this blog's locations click this link to open the map

With just one full day left in Silver Bay, we decide to get in another hike. We had looked at lots of options that sounded good but most of them were a bit of a drive and having driven close to 200 miles yesterday, we opt for a popular hike that is less than a 5 mile drive from camp. A section of the Superior Hiking Trail called the Bean and Bear Lake Loop. Since we haven’t been doing a ton of hiking this year, a 7 mile hike with a bit over 1000 feet of elevation should be a good workout for us. From everything we’ve heard about the hike, it sounds like the views will be worth the effort.

On our way to the trailhead, we stop at Silver Bay Marina again. Our Great Lakes shipping app showed that there should be a ship docked at the nearby Northshore Mining facility and we were curious what activity was visible when one was being loaded. It turns out that there isn’t a whole lot to see from our vantage point but there were some sounds like some work was being done. It probably would be more interesting to see the ship depart and head out but trying to time our visit for that seemed unlikely.

Northshore Mining

Freighter at Dock

The parking lot at the trailhead is very large and from the looks of things, there are also some ATV trails coming out of this location. There is decent signage to keep us on the correct path although we do take a small detour to look for a couple of geocaches early in the hike.

Start of Bean and Bear Lakes Trail

Up We Go

It was definitely a pretty day and just enough trees were beginning to change colors to make it even nicer. The trail is never too steep and some sections have nice stone steps placed to prevent washouts during rain storms.

Lake Superior in Background

Colorful Bushes Along the Trail

At the 2 mile mark, we hit the beginning of the loop portion of the hike. Looking at the elevation profile in advance, we didn’t see a big reason to go one way versus the other. We head left and go around the loop in a clockwise direction.

Early Fall Colors

It takes another three quarters of a mile of uphill before we get our first glimpse of one of the lakes. Heading the direction we went, Bean Lake is seen first. The trail then parallels the lake although we are about 170 feet above the surface of the lake so you get a much more commanding view of the lake and surrounding forest.

Bean Lake

We continue along the path that at times is right along the edge of the drop off. About a half mile later, we spotted the second one - Bear Lake. It’s a little smaller but still pretty. There are similar rock ledges along the trail offering great views.

Approaching Bear Lake

Bear Lake

Around 3.5 miles in, we come across a spur trail that heads to a primitive campsite. Since it was about lunchtime, we decide to check it out as a lunch stop. The only problem is the campsite is close to lake level so we have to climb down a rather steep and challenging trail losing 80 feet of elevation which we will just need to climb back up 20 minutes later. Nobody was using the campsite so we had the place to ourselves and it was very pretty.

Bear Lake at Water Level

The trail eventually works its way back up to a little over 200 feet above Bear Lake, and lines up with Bean Lake. We found a couple of good viewpoints before spotting a large rock outcropping that has a great spot for a selfie. We take a few minutes to soak in the beauty.

Bear and Bean Lakes Lined Up

Selfie Time

Chris Admires Fall Colors

When returning to the main trail from the overlook, there is an intersecting trail so be careful to select the proper one which heads generally south. The trail back down on this section of the loop was nice as well. We had only come upon a few other hikers all day. Although being a Wednesday may have been the biggest reason for the minimal traffic.

Boardwalk Along Trail

With our detours, we came in at just under 7.5 miles and 1464 feet of elevation by the time we got back to the car and took us a little more than 4 hours including all of our stops. Definitely a very nice hike and we appreciated we didn’t have to drive far from camp to get to it.

Chipmunk

Since we were back home by 2 PM, Chris decided to to take advantage of having full hookups and get some laundry done since our next few stops will not have sewer hookup at our site. It was still nice out and fairly early, so I decide to head out to attempt another geocache. This one was an old one from 2001. It is actually along a different section of the Superior Hiking Trail down in the direction of Split Rock State Park. It looked like I could park along Route 61 and have less than a half mile walk to the cache site. Of course when I arrived at the place I intend to park and hike from, I noticed the no parking signs. About 1/3 mile further down the road is an official trailhead parking lot. It would add a bit to my hike but my legs had a little more energy left. It was an uphill climb to an old shelter that looked to be ready to fall over. On the walk back, I took a bike path along the lake and stopped at the small beach area near the parking lot. This added almost 2 more miles to the hiking tally today.

More Stairs to Climb

Old Shelter on Trail

Beach on Lake Superior

I thought I was done, but while driving home, I saw a sign for the marina, and I remembered there is a geocache hidden out on an island that I had considered going for a couple days ago but Chris had talked me out of doing it. Below is an aerial view of the marina, Pellet Island and a red X at the location of the cache. The cyan line is drawn along the length of a quarter mile long break wall out to the island. It sounds simple enough, walk along the break wall out to the island, find the geocache, sign in and walk back - how tough could it be?

Marina (L), Pellet Island (R)

Well the break wall is constructed of huge boulders that are now covered in algae of some sort. Most of the rocks probably weigh at least a ton so they don’t tend to move much when you step on them but they didn’t fill in the gaps between the boulders with smaller rocks, so there are spaces big enough for a leg or whole body if you happen to slip when jumping from one to the next. The picture below doesn’t do a good job of showing the wall but this one was not designed to be walked on.

Looking Out at Pellet Island

I had about 2 hours before sunset which I hoped would be enough time for the round trip. It was slow going since I needed to constantly evaluate what the best path would be. Occasionally I would hit a spot that forced me to backtrack a bit and pick a different route. The good news was the algae wasn’t slippery although if they were wet I’m guessing they would be very dangerous. There were many time when I was using all four limbs to get down one boulder and up the next. It didn’t help that you could frequently see the water sloshing between the rocks.

Getting Closer

About halfway to the island, my phone rings. Chris wants to know when I’ll be home for dinner. I truthfully tell her I got sidetracked but don’t give her the full details! About 2/3 of the way out, I noticed there seems to be a bit of a gap in the break wall. It’s not clear if it was intentional or damaged by a storm, but it did make getting past there even more challenging. But I had spent too long already to give up so I proceeded on. The last couple hundred feet was fairly easy, the gaps in the boulders were filled in and some vegetation was even growing. But when I get to the island, I need to climb up the rock face on the edge of the island about 10 feet. Someone was nice enough to build a ladder of sorts although at first glance it looked to be of questionable stability.

Ladder Up to Island from Break Wall

I carefully evaluated how sturdy the ladder was and found that all but one of the 12 rungs were very secure and the whole thing seemed to be anchored to the wall firmly. So up I go. The cache was still 300 feet away and I initially took a poor approach and needed to retreat for a safer route but I made the find. It was a quarter to six, so I called Chris to fess up and tell her I needed another half hour just to get back to the car. I checked out some indeterminate piece of equipment - maybe an old fog horn? The ship was still at the dock being loaded with iron ore pellets. Standing at the edge of the island and needing to come down the ladder was a little unnerving but I safely made it.

Old Fog Horn?

Northshore Mining Viewed from Island

Ready to Descend Ladder

As is slowly may my way across the break wall, the shadows were getting longer as the sun started to set. But after 25 minutes I was back to the safety of pavement and made my way home. What an adventure!

Made it Back Before Dark

Our 4 nights in Silver Bay flew by but we have reservations at Spirit Mountain Campground in Duluth just 65 miles away for another 4 nights so we should be able to see some of the sights on the western end of Lake Superior. Sitting about 800 feet above Duluth, Spirit Mountain Recreation Area has a 73 site campground and we found it wasn’t all that busy while we were here. They offer all sorts of activities including an alpine coaster, zip line, mountain biking trails and a scenic chairlift. In the winter months, the activities switch over to skiing and snowboarding. After getting setup in our site, we headed to the chairlift area to take in the views of the city.

View from Atop Spirit Mountain

That first night, the weather changed and it became rainy and foggy. The forecast for our stay wasn’t looking good so we made the best of the situation and head into Duluth to watch a big freighter come under the lift bridge into the very busy port of Duluth. Our app showed the 704 foot long MV H. Lee White coming in around 11:30 AM. We bundled up and put on our seldom used rain gear. We arrive near the lift bridge 45 minutes early so we could explore around while we wait for the ship to arrive.

Lift Bridge in Duluth

Light Station Across Channel

Crossing Lift Bridge

Given the poor weather conditions, there weren’t many people out. We decide to cross over the bridge and wait for the ship to arrive out of the wind by standing next to the building on the southern side of the channel. It was kind of mesmerizing to watch the waves lap along the length of the channel.

Waves Crashing

Nearing Light Station

When we were able to make out the ship through the fog, we got into position to watch it come into port. The lift bridge horn sounds well in advance of the ship being there and it lifts up vertically as opposed to a pivoting bridge. A few minutes later the ship makes its way under the bridge.

Bridge Raised

Freighter Approaches Bridge

By now we were very cold and a little wet. We head back to the car to eat the lunch we had brought and then go to the Lake Superior Maritime Visitors Center which is adjacent to the lift bridge. The old Corps of Engineers building is on one side and the newer museum is next door.

Beautiful Old COE Building

Maritime Visitor Center

There are so many interesting display and artifacts scatter around the museum. We take our time enjoying them if for no other reason than to warm up.

Old Ship Signs

Fresnel Lens

Old Tugboat Steam Engine

There are many models of all sorts of Great Lakes ships from early shipping days to the present. One room is a replica of the pilot house of a typical freighter.

Model Boat

Replica Pilot House

Of course there was a large display about the Edmund Fitzgerald. It left the port here on the afternoon of November 9, 1975. It sank in a severe storm a day later. There are all sorts of memorial ceremonies planned for the upcoming 50th anniversary but unfortunately we aren’t able to stay that late into the season.

Edmund Fitzgerald Display

The weather wasn’t looking to get any better so we just head back to camp. We did discover that the fog was much worse up on the mountain and at times we couldn’t see some of the other rigs or buildings that were near our site. We wake up the next morning to find it just as foggy. We waited until lunch, hoping the fog would lift but it didn’t. We decided to brave the fog and discovered that driving just 5 miles to the south on Interstate 35 got us out of the thick fog. It wasn’t a sunny day to the south but it wasn’t too bad.

We picked a few stops that sounded interesting and would get us to a couple new Minnesota counties to add to our increasing list we have found geocaches in. Our first stop was Moose Lake State Park. The Agate and Geological Interpretive Center is at the entrance to the state park and fun to wander through and see all the examples on display.

Beautiful Sample

Agate and Geological Center

We also headed over to the William Munger State Trail that passes through town. It looked like it might be a nice biking trail but we only walked enough of it to find a cache in this county before continuing south. We drove south another 5 miles or so to get a second Minnesota county. We picked one in the parking lot of a restaurant just off the interstate. This one required us to check out a statue of Bigfoot outside of the pizzeria. We needed to count various items on the statue that required a careful look so it took some time. The place was open but no customers were there yet for lunch so we didn’t feel too conspicuous. However, just as we were calculating where the final cache container was, the waitress walked out to ask us what we were doing. She said that she and the owner have noticed people staring at Bigfoot and then walking to the edge of the woods behind the building but didn’t know why. We explained a bit about geocaching and told her we would come in after finding the final and explain to the owner as well. The final was attached to a telephone pole up beyond reach but a cement block was nearby and provided just enough of a boost for me to reach it. We head in and explain the whole concept of geocaching and this specific cache so they will know what’s going on in the future.

We really didn’t have any other goal for the day so we simply turn back towards camp. We did make a slight detour on the way back into the town of Cloquet. We are big Frank Lloyd Wright fans. He is a famous architect that designed many unique homes and commercial buildings. We’ve actually visited quite a large number of his homes over the years, but Cloquet has the only gas station he designed.

Frank Lloyd Wright Service Station in Cloquet

Sign at Gas Station

Wright had designed and built a home for an oil executive from Cloquet and was able to convince the man to allow him to design and build a service station. Built in 1958, the place is still open today mostly in its original design and function. We didn’t need fuel but could have filled up if we wanted.

Frank Sells Gas

We head back to camp to discover the area was still covered in a thick fog. We stopped at a local store to pick up something and I asked the cashier about the weather conditions and she explained that this area has a tendency to get heavy fog but it usually is very localized - good to know.

It was foggy again in the morning of our last full day. This weather really has hindered our ability to enjoy Duluth. There are two older geocaches in the Duluth area - both placed in 2001. We hoped if we left the foggy mountain we might find reasonable weather. Our first stop is a fifteen minute drive south of camp. A parking lot and trailhead on Becks Road allows access to the trail we need. It turns out there are quite a few intersecting trails in this area, so it takes a bit of navigating to finally make it onto the DPW rail trail - Duluth, Winnipeg and Pacific railway. It isn’t a long hike to the right trail but it is rather steep and muddy in sections. Our cache is hidden near a several hundred foot long tunnel but on the far side. There are all sorts of anchor points mounted in the rock cliffs just outside each end of the tunnel. It looks like a popular destination for local climbers. We found our goal and headed back to the car to go to our next stop.

Mushrooms on Way to Tunnel

Outside Tunnel

Inside Tunnel

Our second old cache is along the Superior Hiking Trail less than a mile from the zoo. By now the skies are starting to clear up a bit. It was about a half mile walk along the trail mostly following Kingsbury Creek. It was pretty and we found the old cache without a problem. We’re starting to discover that there are numerous hiking and biking trails in the Duluth area. If we had more time and better weather, we could have found a lot of things to do here.

Great Mushroom

Kingsbury Creek

We head back to camp for lunch and discover that even here, the fog has started to burn off. By mid afternoon, we were seeing sunshine! So we head out to explore a bit. Skyline Parkway is a scenic drive that goes right over Spirit Mountain but covers around 25 twisty miles of road with several scenic pullouts along the way. We decide to follow the parkway and stop when the mood hits us.

View at Spirit Mountain

Overlooking Dock on St Louis Bay

Duluth View

We had heard that Enger Park and Tower were a must see in Duluth but we hadn’t made it yet since the reason for going there is to take in the view and with all the fog, that wasn’t going to work. Situated on a hill overlooking the port and city, this park is 600 feet higher than lake. The beautiful stone tower was built in 1939 and stands 80 feet tall.

Enger Tower

I think everyone else in town was here today since it was a Sunday and the days long fog was gone. We climb the 5 stories to check out the views. Since there are windows at each level and the views are decent at any of them, it wasn’t too crowded in the tower. At one point we heard a horn and realized the aerial bridge was being lifted for a tour boat to pass underneath.

View From Tower

Bridge Up for Tour Boat

The park itself has all sorts of paths and gardens and was pleasant to wander through. Of course less than an hour after arriving at Enger Park, we saw the fog bank rolling in from the Wisconsin side. The bridge had been lifted again to let another huge freighter into the port. Our window of nice weather was closing fast.

Japanese Garden Area

Here Comes the Fog Again

I think Duluth got short changed due to the weather. But we need to continue on our way to Florida. Next stop the Apostle Islands in northern Wisconsin and we’re hoping for better weather since it too is on the shores of Lake Superior. We spent a total of 48 nights in Minnesota this year at 9 different campgrounds. We also found 214 geocaches during our travels in this state and picked up 45 new counties. Below if the map showing which counties we have in total.