Last Weekend – Jay Cooke

Camping was the way we spent last weekend. We all had a pretty good time as usual. Even better is that the weather was cooler so everyone was comfortable hiking. Very nice…I love the Fall.

Moose Lake State Park is north of the Twin Cities and while there we went up to Jay Cooke State Park and did a bit of rugged hiking. Though it had been raining prior to our arrival it didn’t rain on us. However, it did make for some muddy, slippery conditions among the rocks.

Of course my biggest mistake was forgetting to put on my hiking boots and having to do it in my sneakers, which are very old and not meant for this type of hiking. Then there is my age, short legs and lack of decent balance on slippery slopes – but I did *not* fall once.  Ok…held up the pack several times with my sloth like speed over some of the boulders, but none the less I came out rejuvenated (perhaps a bit of exaggeration) and ready for more hiking…on less challenging terrain.

It *is* fun to do that though, I was just pretty disappointed that I couldn’t navigate the trail as well as I would like to have.

All that said, Jay Cooke is an absolutely beautiful place. Unfortunately the skies were gray, which we all discussed and none of us could ever remember going to Jay Cooke with blue skies above us.

Crossing the Swinging Bridge.

The water is root beer colored in the St. Louis River and some of the Northern Minnesota rivers due to the naturally occurring acids. These rivers start from the wetlands which support a wide variety of plant life, such as spruce and tamarack trees, evergreen shrubs, cattails, sedges, grasses and sphagnum moss. When these plants die and decay, they release acids which color the water a root beer brown.

I just liked the swirls in the water in the photo below.

Tough to capture reflections on a cloudy day in this water, but beautiful scenes, none the less.

After we were done running around Jay Cooke we drove on up to Duluth, Minnesota to see some more sights. (you can see that in a previous post, just click on Duluth!)

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