Calumet and the Mesabi Trail

After a ride in the country, Santini, NCW and I reached our destination near Swan Lake. The day was cloudy, but warm, and occasionally the sun would break through the clouds and brighten the leaves that are near peak of their color change for the year. These maple beauties live in NCW's back yard.

Desiring a wilder setting we drove to Calumet. And began a couple of mile hike along the Mesabi trail. The leaves were mostly yellows with a sprinkling of reds and still some greens. We mostly stayed on the trail and remarked on the relative silence and the beauty of the forest. The only excitement was the sudden appearance of a porcupine, a shy beast who waddled off to hide somewhere in the trees. See Santini's blog for details and photo.

Here, NCW is trying to figure out Santini's camera so that she could take a photo nowhere near the large hole in the ground near Calumet, after we failed to go through the rusty gate asking us to stay out. A photo was eventually successfully attained.

Santini and NCW went ahead of me for a while and I took a photo as they walked down the Mesabi trail in the general direction of Marble. Santini and NCW for scale. The leaves were mostly yellow.

A grove of aspens on the Mesabi trail near Calumet. They look a lot like birch trees, and there were some birch groves, too, but I liked the clumpiness of these aspens, (sometimes called poplars, I think.)

There may be biking and perhaps a visit to Bob Dylan's boyhood home in Hibbing. Or the Hull Rust mine. And a walking tour of Coleraine. Opportunities are wide open.