Saturday, July 12, 2014

Beaver Lake and Chapel Lake

We have no pictures to post for two days.  Yes, we did have the camera and no, there was nothing spectacular to photograph.  We did find plenty of mosquitoes and sable flies though.

For two days in a row, now, we have driven 30+ miles westward to find what we hoped would be interesting hikes.  Yesterday we hiked in the woods to Little Beaver Lake, enjoying the quiet serenity of the forest and the beauty of the blue lake.  We were able to enjoy all this because it was windy enough to keep the mosquitoes at bay and the flies on the beach.  We had one incident where I sat down for lunch on top of a mossy hill of ANTS!  Just as I got settled John yells “ Get UP! Get UP!”  I’m going “What? What?!”  The tiny ants were all over me!  Needless to say, we moved on!

On the highway back to camp, we spotted two very large birds on the side of the rode.  Big enough to be Emu’s but not.  They had long necks and legs, gray wings with rust and red spots around their faces.  Since we don’t have any cell service I could not look it up on the internet so today I asked a ranger.  They were Sandhill Cranes!  What beautiful creatures, its too bad we didn’t get a picture and have not seen anymore of them.

Today’s hike was supposed to be to Mosquito Falls along Mosquito River but John took a wrong turn and ended up on Chapel Lake Trail headed to Lake Superior.  It was a flat, forest hike and very boring.  The most excitement we had was watching chipmunks scoot out of our way and spotting a red-headed woodpecker.  As soon as we got within 300-400 yards of the water we started swatting sable flies.  These annoying creatures are impervious to bug spray, swarm all over you and bite through t-shirts, socks and blue jeans, at times drawing blood. Plus there was no wind and it was quite warm.  Before we even saw the water I made John turn around and run back up the trail!   And the stupid flies followed us 1/3 of the way back!  They are horrible!!

We never saw the falls or the river.

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