Minnesotas Eagle Mountain was next on the list, and this really require some remote driving, since it is located north of Lake Superior in the direction of Canada, this it's is not very close to any other highpoints apart from Wisconsin's.
After driving some very well maintained gravel roads, the 6 mile round trip hike could commence. Nature was beautiful with much resemblance to the Nordic countries. Including some planked pathways above some small marshes.
As usual there is the mandatory lake close to the highpoint, in this instance Moose lake. The year have been reported in media as one of the most mosquito infected years to date, and this specific hike was already touted in guide books as possibly the fastest one of all due to the nuisance of mosquitoes...
Luckily the temperatures were a bit milder up north so keeping some covering layers of clothing was not exactly pleasant, but it wasn't too torturous either. And the nice views definitely made up for much of the flying pests. Close to the summit one should take care looking for stone cairns marking the trail dividing into a spur leading to the highpoint.
The high point was marked with a USGS marker declaring the roof of Minnesota, and also a large plaque with information about Eagle Mountain (of which there is several in the state).
On the way back along the lake shore of Lake Superior there were plenty of beautiful scenic areas including a number of waterfalls going down towards the massive water reservoir containing around 10% of the worlds surface freshwater (and more than the other 4 (3) great lakes combined). Note the people happily playing around close to the cascading waterfall, which had 3-4 20+ ft drops.
The Minnesota HP marked my official 'half-way done mark' with the 25th state highpoint ascended. Iowa would be the halfway mark for continental US which many complete rather than the full 50 state list.
Stats:
State: Minnesota
High point: Eagle Mountain
Elevation:2301 ft (701.3 m)
Date: July 3, 2011
Total elevation to date: 94 289 ft (28 739 m)
Access: Hike, class 1
Difficulty rating (of 10): 4
Potential Difficulties: MOSQUITOES! There are so many that you can actually get anemic within an hour or so...
No comments:
Post a Comment