Yesterday we drove MN Highway 1 to Ely. Fresh, deep powdery snow covers the ground just seven miles north of Finland, MN. From a railroad crossing called Murphy City to about 12 miles west of Isabella, the highway follows the continental Laurentian Divide, about 2200 feet above sea level. That's about 1600 feet above Lake Superior, where my wife and I live on the North Shore. We have less than an inch of snow on the ground at the shore. A mile east along Highway 61, more snow; it seems each small river emptying into the lake attracts its own lake effect accumulation.
Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center, six miles from our place, and 1000 feet higher elevation, offers one of closest places to go cross country skiing. Easy trails follow Sawmill Creek to the Baptism River. Nearly 1500 school children travel to Wolf Ridge every week, staying there for three or four days. The trails are groomed for them.
The City of Silver Bay, 12 miles west of our place, grooms trails that link to miles of trails in Tettegouche State Park. Skiing from the Penn Blvd access reminds me of the slopes of Mt. Bachelor near Bend, Oregon, minus the 13,000 foot volcano. The trails are lined with spruce and birch. You can ski a short loop for half an hour, a mid-range loop for an hour, or a difficult loop for two hours. To ski all the way to the Trail Center at Tettegouche, you want a vehicle parked at both ends. It will take you all day one way.
A Superior National Forest Lodge (you can't stay there) on Lake Gegoka, 8 miles west of Isabella on Highway 1, offers the best cross country skiing in the area, I think. The loops of various lengths are groomed. You can ski the loops for an hour or all day, ski across the lake or around it. Not exactly virgin timber, but close.
When we returned home from our day in Ely, we hit the Internet, and were ready to click the submit button to spend our Travelocity Hotel Gift Card for a few days in Sedona, Arizona in January. We were there in February 2007, but only for two nights and one day. We want to take a road trip this time in our new Honda Odyssey. Total cost, about two weeks to see everything we want to see on the way, and roughly $2000. You easily could spend twice that much in Sedona alone at one of the nicer resort hotel/spas. We also have a cruise of the Norwegian coast in mind for June, which would cost the equivalent of five trips to Sedona. We can't do both. Besides, the trip to Arizona would be a gathering with friends from the Chicago and Los Angeles areas.
My wife has been second guessing the Arizona trip. She likes January in Minnesota. We have an active social life here. I will register for a ten week series of sessions at the Grand Marais Art Colony, 45 miles further north on Highway 61. We ski once a week at least. Normally, the third week in January is the coldest and snowiest. Most years I have spent two hours a day that week plowing our 300 foot driveway with my John Deere lawn tractor. Last year it was warm and it rained.
The National Weather Service in Duluth just reported the second snowiest November on record, 29 inches. Only five inches fell here in Little Marais on the shore of Lake Superior, but less than a mile inland at elevations more than 600 feet above the lake, more than a foot of snow is on the ground. Cold and snowy is my forecast guess for this winter.
For more information on cross country skiing, see the internet links below. Andrew Slade publishes "There and Back Guides." He published Skiing the North Shore in 2007. His earlier guide published in 1997 shows how quickly the fees for a ski pass have risen. Individual season pass, $5 in 1997; husband/wife three-year pass $21. 2007 individual season pass $15, no discount for couples. Now, $55 for an individual three-year pass. You'll want read Andrew's blog, and the Minnesota DNR link for information about trails and fees.
Andrew's blog There and Back
The DNR link MN DNR Ski Pass and Trails info
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