Twelve Steps to Bayfield

Trying to make the most of a cool gray weekend, we hopped in the car and headed for Bayfield. The freeway drive was extraordinary, due largely to the frost on the willow bushes in the swamps. We took a slight detour to Jay Cooke State Park to see the new swing bridge and look out over the magnificent river.

In Duluth we stopped at the Northern Waters fish shop to pick up a couple of Sitka Sushi sandwiches, which we ate at a picnic table looking out over the frigid lake.

Birdwatching being what it was, we also took an interest in these juvenile ring-billed gulls.

The highway along the south shore of Lake Superior was as pastoral and lovely as ever.

Bayfield itself was pretty dead, though we spotted a juvenile and an adult loon in one of the little harbors on the south side of town.

We also stopped at Bodine's Fish Warehouse to pick up some fresh herring. (We didn't buy all of it.)

It rained on Saturday so we made our way to the Big Waters Film festival in nearby Washburn. The theatre there holds 120 people. Here you see director George Desort,,who spent eighty days kayaking solo across most of the lakes on Isle Royale.

On the way back to Bayfield we hiked out the Houghton Falls

... and on to the big lake.

I don't have time to describe the spicy Mexican stew we made or elaborate on the exploring, the reading, or the saunas. But I will mention that on the way back to Minneapolis we took a shortcut on County road C south of Superior and ran into some nice clumps of winterberry.

Flocks of snow buntings were everywhere on the highways near the big lake. I'm sure we saw a thousand birds all told, though they were all in flight, dashing off into the woods at our approach. By the time they get to Alaska and the Yukon, spring will be right around the corner.