I don't quite know how to pronounce the name of the State Park I visited this weekend but wow, I really enjoyed it. I didn't have the camera (Mrs. B and Mini B took it on their trip to Texas) so I don't have any pictures of my own but I did pull these off the net.
I left straight from work Friday night and arrived at the park at about 10:30 that night. I decided to just sleep in the back of the van the first night. That brought back some memories!
Saturday I headed west on a stretch of the Superior Hiking Trail which ran through the park. After several miles of some serious hiking I came to the top of Mt Trudee. The view was awesome. The pictures posted here are clearly taken in the fall. I saw a much greener landscape but it was a gorgeous site nonetheless.
I finally arrived at camp at about noon. After setting up my tent I ate lunch and then decided to take a nap. It looked like rain so I scratched my plans to day hike and settled in to read a book. I made it through most of The Heavenly Man, which is a great book that has been on long-term loan from Tim Douglass. When he first gave it to me (several years ago) I just couldn't get into it. Not because it wasn't interesting but because it was so compelling. You see at that point I still felt unstable in some ways with regards to living by the Spirit. But this time I felt very different. I still have a few pages left but all in all it was a great book and I've been really encouraged by reading it. I spent the remainder of the day listening to the rain and praying and thinking. Sunday morning I woke up, packed up my stuff and hit the trail. I didn't see a soul the whole time I was on the trail both Saturday and Sunday until I was about five minutes from my car. I thought that was crazy it being the Memorial Day weekend and all. I did see some bear prints on the trail but no bears.
On the way home I swung through Hibbing, MN. I went there because my Woofie (my grandma) had told me that some of her grandparents (or their parents?) had first immigrated there (you can probably tell I can't remember many details of the story right now). Well, Mrs. B and I have planned to get the full scoop and check it out one of these days (evidently I still have some family up there which I think is cool) but I realized that I was close by and so I drove over just to take a sneak peek. While eating lunch at Sammy's Pizza I realized that I wasn't the only one with ties to this mining town on Minnesota's Iron Range. Click here to find out who else has a history with Hibbing, MN. According to the locals he doesn't have anything to do with the place now though (which I think is kinda sad) even though they have a festival in his name (which I think is kinda weird, not that they have the festival per se but that they do it even when he is alive and doesn't attend). Anyway, it was a pretty small town that used to have a lot of mining going on. I'm not sure what all happens there now but they do have a community college and a 50 million dollar high school.
All in all it was a great trip and I can't wait to go back with the rest of the family!
