Outdoors Posts

A Duluth Area Cross-Country Skiing Decision Tree

Feb 19, 2022 1 Comment

What follows is an incredibly scientific and very carefully curated guide to Duluth area cross-country ski trails.

1. Do you want something unavoidably intense?

If yes, proceed to #2

If no, proceed to #5

2. Do you have a lot of time?

If yes, proceed to #3

If no, proceed to #4

3. Do you prefer constant climbing followed by constant descent, or insidious but varying slopes?

Up then down: Korkki

Beat me up: Mangey-Snively
 

Korkki

The Korkki trail, located off Homestead Road between Duluth and Two Harbors, is a single loop out and back with cutoffs at various kilometer points. Like Lester Park, it features a steady rise on the outward ski and a steady coast downward on the inbound trail, only it is more intense in this trajectory, and reaches its climax at the far end of the loop, where there are a bunch of aggressive hills. (map)

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Lake Trout Fishing Gone Wrong

Feb 18, 2022 No Comments

Seth Trobec gets taken for a ride in this ice-fishing video gone wrong. Trobec’s buddy, Cody Mjolsness, leaves the fish house and takes off on his snowmobile to pick up a friend … but the fish house is still attached to the snowmobile, with Trobec inside.

The video was shot Jan. 14 at Canisteo Pit Mine Lake, about 60 miles northwest of Duluth.


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Latest photos from Jupiter’s moon Io, or maybe Duluth’s beaches

Feb 13, 2022 No Comments

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Fall 2021 on the Kabetogama Peninsula

Feb 11, 2022 No Comments

This trail camera footage shows the various wildlife in the Kabetogama Peninsula of Voyageurs National Park, about 115 miles northwest of Duluth, from September to December.

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Video: Five wolf pups emerging from a cedar tree den

Jan 12, 2022 No Comments

The Voyageurs Wolf Project has released more trail camera footage from last summer of pups from the Paradise pack of wolves at Voyageurs National Park, about 110 miles north of Duluth. The den is under the roots of an ancient cedar tree.


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Great Lakes Now: Resilient Duluth

Dec 27, 2021 No Comments

“Great Lakes Now checks in with Duluth mayor Emily Larson in an update on the improvements being made to the Lake Superior city’s waterfront, which resiliency efforts were featured in a ‘Resilient Duluth’ segment in June. “


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Moment of Nature: North Shore of Lake Superior

Dec 26, 2021 No Comments

Today’s episode of CBS Sunday Morning concluded with the usual “Moment of Nature,” segment. The focus of videographer Scot Miller was the north shore of Lake Superior. The televised clip was only a few seconds long, but the expanded version, embedded here, is a full minute.


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Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour returns to Duluth

Dec 17, 2021 No Comments

After a one-year absence, the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour returns to Duluth on Jan. 7-8 at DECC Symphony Hall. This stop on the tour is hosted by the Duluth Cross Country Ski Club, and proceeds from the event benefit local community ski projects. For more details on the event visit the PDD Calendar entry.


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Oshkigin Spirit of Fire

Dec 05, 2021 No Comments

The story of how the past century of fire phobia has really mucked up our forests isn’t new, but this new 16-min video with gorgeous photography tells it in a personal way. Featuring Vern Northrup of Fond du Lac, Damon Panek of Red Cliff, and Lane Johnson of the Cloquet Forestry Center.

 


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Lake Superior Aquaman Fashion Week

Dec 03, 2021 No Comments

 

(On the ‘gram @lakesuperioraquaman)


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Video: Elusive Northern Minnesota Lynx

Nov 29, 2021 No Comments

Lynx sightings are fairly rare in Minnesota, but having one strut by a camera in daylight hours is a real catch. This brief slow-motion clip shows a Canada lynx in Voyageurs National Park, about 100 miles north of Duluth. The video was captured by a Voyageurs Wolf Project trail camera. The project is focused on understanding the summer ecology of wolves in the park, but its cameras record all kinds of wildlife.


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North Country Trail in Wisconsin: Green Undies in Gordon

Nov 06, 2021 1 Comment

There generally isn’t a lot to say about a good hike, nice weather and beautiful scenery. They are enjoyable, but they don’t help create a classic story one tells his friends about and sits down to record in an essay. Good stories involve things not happening as planned. Something must go very wrong, very right or very strange to have a good story. If someone shows up in green underwear, for example, it at least provides the foundation.

So before I write about the numbers and geography of my hiking, let me assure you that green undies are coming up.

If you’ve been following along on my North Country Trail in Wisconsin series, you know I’m slowly hiking 214 miles across the Badger State. I started in 2017 and as of this writing have completed 65 miles, taking my sweet time.

In the summer of 2020 I hiked from Pattison Park to the edge of the town of Gordon and ended part four of my essay series there. I thought I was done for the year, but just a few days after publishing the essay I headed back to Gordon for one more trek.

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Video: Bobcat kittens pestering their mom

Nov 04, 2021 No Comments

A bobcat and her two kittens put on a little show for a Voyageurs Wolf Project trail camera recently. Although the University of Minnesota research project has caught bobcats on camera numerous times, this is the first clip that includes kittens.


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Things I saw on Park Point

Oct 09, 2021 No Comments

I woke up this morning and said to myself, “I’m going to Park Point to take pictures of mushrooms in sunbeams,” and indeed I did (some sunbeams not included). Along the way I saw many strange and wondrous things, it was like The Odyssey. Pics below the fold:

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Successful transplanting of phallus impudicus

Oct 03, 2021 No Comments


 

I successfully transplanted these phallus impudicus (“impudent phallus,” aka the common stinkhorn) from one end of town to another in my diabolical plan to expand the range of this deLIGHTful species.

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