Minnesota DNR Avian Adventure Conclusion: Itasca State Park

Minnesota DNR Avian Adventure Conclusion:

Itasca State Park

"The lake was Itasca and the stream, a twelve-inch-deep rush of cold clarity over humps of boulders, was the Mississippi River. I crossed it in five steps. The Father of Waters, beginning a two-thousand-mile journey to join the source of all waters, was here a newborn – small and pure." —William Least Heat-Moon's "A Backroad Journey Around America"

What a summer this has been!  We finished our journey on Oct. 25th – less than one week before they wrapped up the Avian Adventure Geocaching Challenge at the end of the month.  We were super excited about the final trip to Itasca.  This is, of course, the quintessential Minnesota state park, and I had never been there this late in the season before.  We spent the night before in Pierz – this means that we only had a 100-mile trip to get to the park.  This set us up perfectly.  Our goal was to get to the park nice and early so we could spend a bit of time at the park and make sure that we were there at the same time as the park ranger (it would seriously suck if we made it all this way only to run into a problem and have the ranger station be closed...!).

We got to the park right around 1 pm.  This was just about perfect – Marcus had just woken up from his nap and was ready to roll.  I had already completed the final clues for the final geocache (remember we grabbed a copy of the sheet when we visited this part earlier in the season for the regular Avian geocache here), so I knew where the actually starting point was, but Luke wanted the entire experience, so we stopped at the park headquarters to grab another copy of the sheet so he could complete it, too!
Just a reminder: the clues were posted right outside the door of the main visitor center.

We walked into the visitor center and learned that it was a youth deer-hunting weekend.  Fortunately, the area we needed to go to was not impacted by the deer hunting.  

While Luke sat down and worked on the final questions for the coordinates, Marcus and I went and checked out the exhibits.  The visitor center at Itasca has a super-cool exhibit area, so if you go, make sure to save some time to see it.  It is like a lodge with all sorts of animals and displays that are really neat.

I think that Marcus could spend hours here and not get bored.  There are a lot of different dioramas of birds and bears.  Marcus loves these.  He thinks it is super cool to get so close to the animals.  I don't think he understands that they are not "real" (live) animals and that they have been set up.

"Bock Bock."  What all birds say, including trumpeter swans.

"More birds..."  (State bird, in fact!)

After Luke completed the puzzle, we were off to the next point – which was at the headwaters of the Mississippi River.  Itasca is a huge park (over 32,000 acres or 50 square miles); it is actually the second largest state park after St. Croix State Park, and it was about a 9-mile drive to our next stop.

We finally made it to the next stop... this was at the headwaters of the Mighty Mississippi at the Mary Gibbs Mississippi Headwaters Center.  It looks really cool and has a restaurant, a museum, bathrooms, and a gift shop... too bad for us that it was all already closed for the season!  (It was open last time we were here, and there were people from all over the country and world everywhere.)

Well, I got a few things ready at the car; Marcus and Luke explored the area and found an actual phone booth.  Needless to say that Marcus LOVED it.

One of the cool things about this area is that it had a huge outdoor display that included maps of the Mississippi River and lots of information about the river.  We all checked it out.

We didn't spend too much time reading as we had to trek on ahead to find the first geocache location.  We headed down the path toward the headwaters.

In the early parts of the Mississippi river it meanders a LOT – even on our way down to the actual headwaters we crossed it twice.  Marcus and Luke even walked down and checked it out.  

Quite still at this time of the year.

We were really close now... to both the coordinates and the headwaters.  We have been here quite a few times before (although it has always been in the summer or early fall), and it was nice being here when it was not quite as crazy with people as those more popular times of the year.  It was still busy (constant flow of people on this day), but it was also pretty peaceful at the same time.  The air was a little chill, but the sun was out, and it wasn't too bad at all.

We made it to the headwaters, and the GPS told us we were very close to our first clue.

It didn't take long for us to find it.  This little film canister was tucked into a custom-made shelf on the back of the toilet sign.  Very clever... but we have seen enough of these this summer that they didn't stump us.  We entered the coordinates and realized that the new set was going to bring us right back up to the parking lot.  There was also a clue on the sheet that looked like a combination to a lock... hmmm...

We had plenty of time left (we now know when the park rangers were set to leave for the day and we didn't have to worry about the office closing), so we took a bit of time to explore the headwaters.  Marcus loved it.  Not a surprise because he loves all things water.  I think his favorite thing was going in a circle; first, we would walk across the log bridge, and then we would cross back over walking on top of that iconic line of rocks that mark the start of the river.

Watch your footing!

Marcus: "I got this..."  ... or maybe not quite ready yet to solo it...

Looking out on the north leg of Lake Itasca.

This picture is actually from Wikipedia showing the outlet of Lake Itasca and the start of the Mississippi River.
The wooden sign declaring the river flows 2,552 miles from here down to the Gulf of Mexico is at the left side of the photograph.

A map from Wikipedia showing the shape of Lake Itasca with its three major arms.
The river actually starts by flowing north out of the lake as seen here (north is up).

Quite a few people were at the headwaters on this day!

Vonnie making the crossing.

It looks like someone fell in judging by the angle of this picture, but no one actually ended up getting wet.

We played for a while, but eventually we knew it was time to go and find our final prize: the final "Bock Bock" card!

Marcus LOVED this sculpture – it had lots of turtles.

Right up near the front, we found the lock box that contained our final prize... and now we had the combination and were ready to roll!

We were all so seriously excited about this final stop... I couldn't stop smiling, and Marcus knew this was a big deal.  We got the lock opened on the very first try, and then we were in!  We spent a long time just hanging out and looking at all of the things that were in the box.  We read the log book (in a funny moment we forgot to sign it and had to come back the next day actually) and just enjoyed the moment.  This was an awesome day!

Here are a few more pictures from our awesome day!

Marcus found a water pump and was very sad to find out that it was turned off for the season.

This is the eponymous Mary Gibbs, namesake of the Visitor Center.  This part of the park was named after her for her efforts to preserve the headwaters area.

My boys!  The water here is fairly shallow, and as you can tell, he is pretty undaunted after having crossed over the stream a few times already.

The final geocache photo of the year!  

Now the grand adventure is over.  It is kind of hard to believe that we completed this.  (We actually had attempted an earlier DNR Geocaching Adventure and completed a dozen or so parks back in 2010, but we were not as serious as this year... and Marcus wasn't around yet, just Sandy).  It is also pretty awesome.  The final step in our adventure was not actually another trip, but instead it was an upload.  The Minnesota DNR keeps a website to track all of the finishers.  The rules are simple: upload a picture, and make sure that you have a copy of the final card in it.  They have kept a similar website for the people who finished the previous DNR geocaching challenges.  The link is below if you want to check it out.

MN DNR Avian Adventures Final Finishers Photo

When I posted this final blog our picture was the second one on the slide show.  The actual slide show contains the pics of the 43 groups of people that finished the Avian Adventure.  Seems like a pretty elite group to be a part of to me... I also think that Marcus was the youngest finisher!

A Big Boy Bed for Marcus

A new bed for Marcus

A typical Marcus night.  See how he has surrounded himself with
blankets on the floor.

I am not sure if I have talked about this before but Marcus loves to sleep on the floor in his bedroom.  If I were to guess he probably sleeps on the floor about 70% of the time and on his bed the remaining 30%.  I don't know why this is but I have a a theory- and have for some time.  I think Marcus likes the floor better because it gives him more space to stretch out.  When we travel and he sleeps in a hotel room bed or the bed at his grandparents he never sleeps on the floor (who knows I could be wrong and his floor may be more comfy than those).

Anyway, the point of this story is that I think Marcus is ready to move to a twin bed and I think that this sounds like a fun challenge to build.

I started looking on pinterest to see what plans were out there already and I started finding a few that I really liked.

Bed # 1

This one is actually my favorite.

• What I like:I like the clean lines and the simplicity.  I also like the low height on the top bunk.   
• What I don't like:  I am not crazy over the ladder.  I prefer a staircase or a least a removable ladder. I think for the moment it is better not have anything to temp Marcus.
• What I am not sure about:  I am concerned that having the solid sides would really cut off the light and make it a bit scary.
• Other comments:   I found this one on pinterest and eventually found the link to the sight it originally started at.  It was not helpful- there were no plans and the website was in a language I did not recognize.

Bed # 2

As you can see this is fairly similar in style and look..

• What I like:I like the height of the bed. I like that it had a staircase with it.  This was the first bed that really gave me a chance to visualize what that would look like. I also like how they set up the second better and offset it.  I plan on doing the bed right under but I thought this was really cute.
• What I don't like:  The lines seem a lot busier here and I am not crazy about that. 
• What I am not sure about:  The stairs on this design are permanently attached.  I would prefer a design where the stairs offer a few more features.  This made me look for some that were removable and offered storage. 
• Other comments:   This website this linked to.  www.watchmedaddy.blogspot.ca actually did have directions that were pretty decent but they didn't provide any of the dimensional measurements.  

Bed # 3

This is actually a Kura Reversible bed from IKEA.  I actually looked at it not because I wanted to actually buy it but mainly because I wanted to verify some of my ideas against a version I could actually see in a store- verse just in my imagination.

• What I like:I like the clean lines, the simplicity, and how fun it looks.
• What I don't like:  Once again the ladder, also I am not super keen on putting to much Ikea stuff in Marcus's room.  I worry about it somehow coming apart.
• What I am not sure about:  My biggest concern on this one is the quality.  I just really want to make sure Marcus is a solid bed that is not going to fall apart!
• Other comments:   Just in case you are curious this runs $199.00 at Ikea.  

So now that I spent a ton of time dreaming up the bed-  I knew it was time to actually get down and design it.  This is really my first foray into actually designing a piece of furniture-  so far I had always found almost exactly what I wanted on Ana White's website or in the book.  I did look in both places and this provided the inspiration for how to build the bed I am imagining.

Finally, I went online and found google sketch up-  this is a program that can be used to draft projects- even things a simple as a furniture project.  It took me a few moments but I quickly figured it out and started drafting.  Here is the draft of my project (excluding the staircase- will do a later blog on that).

Here are few things about this bed-

• Height- 50" - this is about 5" taller than the ikea bed for contrast.  This should give enough room on the bottom for Marcus to be comfortable (or at least that is hope) and still allow me to easily look over the top without straining.  I will want to do that someday when he is the top bunk.
• Bottom bunk- the bottom bunk is almost directly on the ground.  There is actually a 2 x 4 at this part of the bed-  and I will be using a bunkie board as well- so I think this means that mattress will be about 6" above the ground.
• On the top I expect the sidewall to be approximately 5"-6" higher than the mattress. 
• What you can't tell by looking at this is how easy the plans I created are.  All in it only uses three types of lumber (2x4, 1x12, 2x2)  and only three different lengths of cuts (36", 50", 75").

I have to admit that I am excited and nervous at the same time. I really want this to turn out well and I hope I don't make any mistakes in the process.  One of the craziest things about woodwork is that every time I do it I learn something new, I make a new mistake, and I become a little bit better.

Wish me luck!  Hopefully the next post will show some updates on this project.

Coniferous Biome: Savanna Portage State Park

Coniferous Biome

Savanna Portage State Park

—McGregor, MN—

How did the town of McGregor, MN, get a Scottish name...?  Well, the Chamber of Commerce section of the town's website has an article about the history of McGregor and the etymology of the town's name.  Here is a snippet:

"How McGregor came to be called 'McGregor' has always been a bit of a puzzle, even in the minds of long-time locals. Just for fun, let's have one more look at what we think we know about good old 'gregor...." —Robert O. Harder, McGregor Area Chamber of Commerce website

I love it.  It's a puzzle even to the people who have lived a long time in "Old 'Gregor."  Really piques the curiosity, doesn't it?

Anyway—back to geocaching.  We finished the regular Savanna Portage state park geocache (previous blog) and headed over to the starting point (whose coordinates are already given to you when you enter the park) for the Coniferous Biome Geocache that was also at Savanna Portage.

When we were at the Ranger Station, we had grabbed the clue sheet for the biome; however, we also already knew something: that even if we solved it the coordinates would only bring us to the starting point that we were already given... pretty pointless.  In all of the other biomes (and the final avian geocache), the starting coordinates brought you to the place where the clue sheet was posted not the first point of the multicache.  I had read about this one beforehand, so to be honest, we didn't bother to do it.  We have all of the cards anyway, so we could, but we didn't.

The first location for the biome geocache was completely across the park (about three miles away) from the regular avian geocache at Savanna Portage, so we got in the car and headed over that way.  This is actually a really big park (see the map on the right), so it took us a bit of time to cross it, even in a car.

A colonnade of trees in fall colors lining our way forward.

When we got there, we had a bit of a fun surprise (or at least Marcus thought so); the parking lot was right next to a playground!  Since we had spent most of the day cooped up in the car driving across the state, Marcus was pretty excited to see it.

"What is over there?" me wonders.

In addition to have a really cute park, the view was pretty amazing.  We played for a few moments, and then we were off to find our FINAL biome geocache.  There are a lot of pictures on this post, but it was one of the prettiest hikes we have done all year.

Loon Lake.

We did a short hike by the lake and saw some crazy guys in the water... it was way too cold for that!  But we also found the first stop of the biome multicache.

We were really impressed with the nice location markers at all of the stops in Savanna Portage State Park.  We entered the coordinates into our GPSs and headed off!

The trail we took followed along the lake.  It was great!  We could see lots of fall colors as we went around.

Busy beaver!  We've seen his handiwork a couple of places around the lake.

Loon Lake is almost like a pond and has lots of little coves where people took there boats out to fish on this fine afternoon.

Eventually, we turned off the trail and headed into the woods to find the geocache.  This was a quick one... only two stops!

We had to go off-trail a little ways to get to the final stop.

Marcus examining his box full of loot.

"What have we got here?"

The final biome card!

This is the last card we needed to get in order to find the final avian goecache.  To say that I was ecstatic would not be overstating it.  We were all really happy.  Marcus and I headed back to the car while Luke hiked the rest of the way around the lake and met us back at the car.

Here are some final views of the Loon Lake.

(There were actually lots of boaters on this lake, but none in frame in any of these photos.)

All in all a wonderful little tucked-away state park.  High up in the hills and the deep woods with plenty of lakes.