Simer's Trip Report

“I need a thread to post my trip reports on - no need to start a new thread for every little trip.

It's still thinking about being spring up here in Northern MN, there is still quite a bit of snow in the woods. I had to get out, Haven't been out since November, It felt good to be back on the trail. I had new gear to try, a new sleeping bag and it was my first attempt at using a pepsi can stove.

What a beautiful night. I headed west on the snowmobile trail, with no destination. I didn't hike very far, 2-3 miles, before I noticed the perfect campsite, a rock face over looking a small pond. It is beautiful even though everything is brown. The wildlife knows that it's spring time, rabbits, ducks, birds, and chipmunks are all active. As the sun went down I watched the birds, the glassy water of the pond made for some cool pictures. I went to bed as the stars were peeking out, A chill in the air I hope that my new sleeping bag will keep me warm.

Woke up once during the night to put on my fleece pants, it got down to 34 degrees, my rei travel down 45 kept me nice and warm with a few extra layers on, that's good to know, I love this sleeping bag. What a perfect campsite for morning sunshine, the sun was shining in my face all morning as I cooked breakfast, then I packed up and hiked the short morning hike back.

It was a short, quick overnight trip but quite enjoyable. And I faced my fear of a solo trip, I made it just fine, I'll work my way up to longer trips, I know I can do it.”

“Good one, simer190.”

“Pictures

And you will also notice that the SHT Album has been updated, don't ask me why it took 6 months to get it updated, but it's there now.”

“Good trip, good report, good pictures. Looking forward to the May trip.”

“looks like an awesome campsite.

nice”

“Glad you had a good experience, simer. What a great campsite. Good that you are getting out and doing it. You have plenty of time in the future to buy a house and do the yard work during nice spring weather like some of us. :-P”

“Simer, what did you cook for dinner and breakfast?

In less than a month up there in northern Minnesota, the wild leeks will green in the bog areas all over. Great to flavor soups, potato and rice dishes.”

“I didn't take off 'til after dinner. For breakfast I had good ol' oatmeal. Wild leeks huh? never heard of it. Hey, are ya lookin for a trip up here in a few weeks? I'm headin down to the pow-wow trail on may 7th.”

“Cool pics and report.”

“Be careful. Back in the 60's, while under the influence, I took a Wild Leek in Minnesota and got arrested for indecent exposure. Tell Prosecutor that's called entrapment.”

“Simer, wild leeks are actually very easy to identify since they are one of the very first ground plants to turn green in May at that latitude. Most of the time it actually smells like onions when you get near them. They usually grow in clusters, so harvesting wild leeks is easy.

I'll be hiking around the North Country Trail backpacking and trout fishing the first two weeks in May. Fresh cooked trout for breakfast and dinner.

Where is the Pow Wow Trail?

Snake Eyes, the correct charge in your case is assault with a friendly weapon, or assault with a dead weapon, as the case may be. In your arrest back in the 60's, did the evidence stand up in court?”

“In the 60's it stood up fine. Thank God there's no such thing as double jeopardy.”

“I might have to look into these wild leeks...

The pow-wow trail is in the boundary waters, south east of ely here.”

“Don't ask why it took me a year to get this updated... mostly because I pushed it out of my mind.

But here it is, the updated journals from what was my journey - a learning experience.

My Website - Journal Entries”

“simer: 9 days and 90 miles is longer than any solo trip I've ever done. Even though you didn't make it as far as you'd hoped, its still quite an accomplishment.”

“I'm gonna be a bit slow on TRs for this summer, but I can share a few pictures.

Voyager Trip Pictures”

“pretty cool show, huh?”

“you better believe it!

My friend Ernest arrived just as the first band started playing, instruction - some band from nyc, they were pretty good, they drew a small crowd but i enjoyed the music. Downset followed them, I jumped in the mosh pit and gained a few bruises and got leveled once, no warning followed them - we hung out 2 rows back or so before they announced that less than jake was playing on the main stage so we made our way over there. Then we headed back to the second stage and watched ghostface killah. After that was The Used, I wasn't too excited about them but it was fun to watch - at least the titties. Then snoop dogg came on after a 45 minute wait, we basically sat in back after taking a few pictures - i've never seen so much weed smoking in my life. Then the whole reason I went came on stage - Korn rocked the world, it brought a tear to my eye to finally be standing before this great band. Talk about mosh pits and a packed crowd, korn was awesome. Then Linkin park came on - they were amazing, both linkin park and korn put on a great show. It was well worth it, I love it.”

“but it was fun to watch - at least the titties

lol, always my friend! always!”

“Let me guess, A Trip to the Minnesota State Fair, extension, held in Wisconsin.”

“haha, that statement stems from when the used commented to the chicks flashing them "we don't want to see your titties, why don't you turn around and show somebody who cares"”

“Saturday I had sea kayaking class until 4:00, from there I headed out to the angleworm trail - a 2 mile hike to where my dad was set up. We spent the evening doing a little bit of night hiking by moonlight and we played a game of cribbage before heading to bed.

Sunday we day hiked the angleworm trail, about a 12 mile loop, lots of nice views and campsites along the way. The whole time out we didn't see a single person, very nice area, hasn't been affected by the blowdown, and it has a lot of old growth pines along the way that haven't been touched by the lumber companies. We headed back to the campsite and made it to bed after it got dark.

Monday morning we headed out after breakfast, and my dad made his way home. I'll attempt to get up my pictures from my last couple trips, I don't know if I'll be able to though.”

“Nice trip report!!!...OMG I have not played Cribbage in years.....it is great to spend time with your dad.....”

“Sounds like a good trip. Look forward to seeing the pics.”

“Spring Break in the black hills - not a whole lot to say about it, wasn't a backpacking trip - sort of a tourist/skiing trip, but it was fun.

Pictures”

“Nice pics!”

“Wasn't a drop of snow out there besides the homemade stuff on the slopes, so it wasn't great skiing, 50 degrees and very windy. Didn't snow until our final morning, which made for a bit of a rough ride out.”

“I didn't even realize there was skiing there. Kinda like people not realizing we have skiing here in Alabama.”

“Cool pics, Simer! Too bad you didn't get any of Deadwood!

Rushmore and Crazy Horse are sites I always wanted to see, also. Thanks for posting them...”

“If I ever get filty rich I'm going to drop a ton of cash to help get crazy horse finished.”

“I'll look at your pixs when I get home, simer.
Dang company has webshots blocked.”

“We did spend a bit of time in deadwood, lead, sturgis, rapid city and a few of the other small towns, nice little towns out in the middle of nowhere, a little different than I'm used to back in Minnesota, but no I didn't get any pics of the towns.”

“Hey, Just a few pictures from last weekend, my dad, brother and a couple of his friends came up - No backpacking, Just enjoying the outdoors, and a little bit of hiking along the north shore, and not even real camping... Spent 2 nights in the camper cabin in savanna portage, only took one wrong turn on the way there.

The first night was spent hiking around the state park and sitting around the campfire, as seen in the first few pictures. Then Sunday we headed up the north shore, spent some time in jay cook and gooseberry falls state parks, hiking and enjoying the early spring weather. Nothing real eventful, but there were a few good pictures.

http://community.webshots.com/album/304761956IksgmD”

“Pictures, for anybody that likes to look at pictures. Yeah, I know webshots sucks... w/e.

Canoe trip down the Namekagon/St Croix river this past week.”

“Hey Simer, maybe I missed it. What happened with your yoga date?”

“Hey Matt, looks like you did the same trip I did a couple of weeks ago. The point (Lost Point Cabin) where the St. Croix and the Namekagon come together could have been purchased by me for $800 back in '63. Damn!”

“kind of hard to look at pics with no link”

“you're right!

http://community.webshots.com/album/551803571wDupZX

Yoga date hasn't happened yet... sometime coming up.

I'll be doing this same trip at least a couple more times this summer.”

“Pictures if anybody is interested,

4th of July in Duluth:
http://community.webshots.com/album/551435529QWJtFP

5 day backpacking trip on the SHT last week, awesome trip with 10 boys, crazy... but a good time:

http://community.webshots.com/album/552613610UHkSKI”

“looks like a great trip and a great bunch of guys...i'm showing my ignorance here but what is teh SHT?”

“Way to go, simer190. Looks like a nice trip and you have some good pictures in that collection.”

“i'm showing my ignorance here but what is teh SHT?”
thriftyhiker
3:05:19 PM
7/27/06

I'm guessing but Superior Hiking Trail”

“that's explain the pictures of the "big lake" ;) thanks ewk”

“He's got it, Superior Hiking Trail along the North shore of Minnesota. Awesome trail, a little over used, but great views and everything along the way, this was my 3rd or 4th time hiking this section of 36 miles.”

“Pics are up from a month of hiking in the Wind Rivers Range of Wyoming. Basically we hiked the entire spine of the winds, from south to north, 30 days total, hiking through the snow most of the time, though every day was 75 and sunny - could have left my rain coat at home, crazy weather. Included 2 days of climbing thrown in the middle, a few days of fishing, but mostly backpacking all the way through.

http://travel.webshots.com/album/564168745ERpcda”

“wow great pics.
so what is next?”

“I wanna go.”

“Well hpm you can go too for a mere $3500

What's next? Currently I sit and watch the grand teton get struck by lightning. Pretty damn cool

I'm on a roundabout way back to mn. Then I work for 2 months before I come back out for another course in the canyons of Utah.”

“Awesome, thanks for sharing your trip!”