Visiting MN- in Nov

Wow, it has been almost two months since my last post.  Yeesh.  So much has happened.  I actually wrote a post in November of my trip out to MN but never got a chance to publish it.  So.  Here it is.  I will write something else as an update in a few more days.

This past week I went to visit my mother in MN.  We planned to go explore the North Shore area since I had never been there before and make an adventure out of it all.  My check in luggage was a MASSIVE duffel since I had to fit 2 pairs of snowshoes, snow gear, trekking poles and winter boots in it.  My friends called it the body bag it was so large, haha!

Of course, after I landed I had to stop at REI since that store is my happy place.  Someday I will get my Grivel G1 SA+ ice axe or the Black Diamond Raven Pro ice axe.  Someday…

Till then, I will keep admiring them and wishing I had one.  I looked at mountaineering shoes and hell those are expensive!!!  Somehow I seem to find the more expensive outdoor hobbies, haha!  Minnesota was cold.  Of course.  But coming from Boise, it was COLD.

 

This is the map of the general route we took: https://goo.gl/maps/dvQVFGbuYJC2

Our first destination was Jay Cooke State Park.  This park had been utterly destroyed by the floods in 2012.  A dyke broke and water cut the park in half and swept the foot bridge over the St Louis River off its moorings.  It took over a year to repair and reopen the bridge.  The day was frigid.  Maaaybe 12F if we were lucky.  With a negative degree wind chill.  Luckily we hiked through the woods and were mostly protected from the brunt of the wind.  Mom wore her blaze orange sweatshirt.  I was impressed by her.  We hiked roughly 3mi in the cold.  We had the park to ourselves.  Not enough snow for the snowshoes, but deep enough.  My thighs were pretty cold, even with two layers of pants on.

 

 

We spent the night at the Lighthouse Bed and Breakfast (https://lighthousebb.org/) in Two Harbors, MN.  And WOW!  What an amazing place!  It is run by the local Historical Society and is still an active lighthouse.  Built in 1891.  Sold in 1970 to Two Harbors/Lake County Historical Society (https://www.lakecountyhistoricalsociety.org/).  Updated into a B&B in 1998.  So cool!  We got to go up to where the light is located and look out the port holes overlooking Lake Superior.  The entire place was renovated to classic parlor early 1900s style.  We had the entire place to ourselves, so we spent the evening hanging out in the parlor.  Our room overlooked the harbor which had the massive iron ore

 

For more info on the history of the Lighthouse, here is the link: https://lighthousebb.org/lighthouse-history I think it is so cool that local volunteers come in 2x/mo to check on the bulbs of the lighthouse and make sure it is functioning optimally.  The US Coast Guard turned over management rights of the lighthouse to Two Harbors in 2001.

 

It snowed on and off.  In the am it was near whiteout flurries for a bit.  We saw deer all over the area at the property.  Quite tame-ish.  Apparently there were once about 40 resident deer at Two Harbors and they had to take action to attempt to lower those populations.  (I am guessing via hunting and/or trapping/relocation).  We then went to Split Rock Lighthouse State park.  The buildings were not open yet, so we hiked toward Corundrum Point using the new book we purchased as a guide (https://www.amazon.com/Hiking-North-Shore-Minnesotas-Spectacular/dp/0979467527) .  Unfortunately, the guide did not match what the trail actually did.  We went down stairs at a boardwalk toward the shore.  Mom was apprehensive about having to climb back up but we found there was a bypass if we came back that way.  We ended up not getting to the point but on the south side if the point at Corundrum Mine which did not have an overly impressive view.  We turned back and took an alternate route back.  What was meant to be 3.7mi was most likely becoming a longer hike than planned.  Mom’s feet were hurting greatly.  I eventually got her to stop at a rest stop along the Gitchi-Gami paved trail (http://www.ggta.org/) that follows Hwy 61.  I then ran back to the truck and picked her up.  We decided to continue on to Grand Portage and skip the other hikes we had planned to give Mom’s feet some rest.

 

Along the drive we saw a bald eagle alongside the road eating deer carrion.  And then a juvenile bald eagle being harassed by crows.  Numerous deer.  A red fox greeted us at Grand Portage at the parking lot.  It circled the truck and sat outside the door.  *sigh* I wish people would not feed wildlife.  This behavior may be cute, but it is not natural and puts the animal in danger, as well as people.  We took the short trail to lower falls on the Pigeon River.  The north shore of this river is in Canada.  It was cold outside, but the views were amazing!  The weather has caused the waterfall to freeze in many spots and have giant ice flows and sheets on the river down flow.

 

We crossed the border here into Ontario, Canada.  The Border Agent wanted to know why we were going to Canada.  I told him so that I could saw I went to Canada.  He smiled, gave us our passports back and let us on our way.  Thunder Bay, from what I saw of it after the sun set, it nothing to rave about.  A standard industrial city with not much else.  Boring hotel.  Boring city.  It snowed that night.  Yay, no frost!!  We decided to go to Kakabeka Falls (https://www.ontarioparks.com/park/kakabekafalls) and explore those.  It was Veterans Day in the US and Remembrance Day in Canada.  The boardwalk was slippery, but the fresh snow helped for traction.  These falls were not quite a horseshoe shape.  You could cross a bridge to see the other side.  River depth was fairly shallow.  Falls in the winter are so majestic.  We planned to go explore Fort William Park, but I missed the turn so we decided to go back to the US and hit up the other state parks we missed the day before.

 

 

 

First park was Judge CR Magney State Park (http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/state_parks/judge_cr_magney/index.html).  This man helped create many state parks in Minnesota.  So naming a park after him is very apt.  We hiked the Devil’s Kettle waterfalls trail.  Holy balls!  For a roughly 2.3mi round trip, over half of it was either solid ice at an incline/decline or stairs.  The guidebook did warn there were 177 stairs down to the falls.  I was worried about Mom on the stairs.  She managed to get down to where you can get to the overflow base of the kettle falls part, but was uncomfortable climbing up more stairs to get to the prior falls overlook.

 

This park, just as many others in the area, is open to hunters during deer hunting season, which is the first two weeks of November.  Perfect timing.  So we wore blaze orange while hiking.  Good thing mom bought blaze orange sweatshirts before I arrived.  And here I thought she was overdoing it.  Nope.  She was right on.  Like mom often is.

The day was VERY windy and the lake had massive whitecaps that would crash onto the shore.  We stopped so I could marvel at the power of the water and take photos of the areas where waves would hit and freeze the entire area.  It was so cold outside that the mist froze on the ground, trees, etc. around where the waves made contact.  We stopped and walked the grounds of Cascade River State Park, Temperance River State Park, took photos of Lutsen Mountains sign (teheehe, such a cute little “mountain”) and the Naniboujou Lodge.  I wish we could have stayed here.  The lodge looks so beautiful.

 

It was recommended to me that we eat at Sven and Ole’s Pizza in Grand Marais.  I was super hangry by this point and not very pleasant.  The pizza was good.  Nothing special.  I made the reservation for our stay that night.  And fucked it up epically by mixing up the dates.  Ooops!  That was a mess and the only tiff Mom and I had.  Which was ultimately, my fault.  But I did sort of fix it.   Cove Point Lodge it is!  All rooms had a lake view.  Rustic cabin feel to it.  It was nice to wake up and see and watch the water in the morning with coffee in hand.  I finally got to try pickled herring at their continental breakfast.  It was not that bad!  We drove to Tettegouche State Park (http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/state_parks/tettegouche/index.html) and hiked to Shovel Point.  Which was AMAZING!  302 steps one-way.  Yup.  You read that right.  And Mom did it!!  Which means she did 604 steps in all on that trail.  The trail is only ~1mi in each direction.  But you gain about 600’ in that mile.  Which did not feel too steep since the stairs were so nicely put into the steep sections to make it easier.  The visitor center is brand new and amazing!  So very nice.  It is also a rest stop along Hwy 61.  I highly recommend this park to anyone.  We could not hike anywhere else since it was closed for hunting.

 

We drove down to see the historic buildings at Split Rock Lighthouse SP, but they had just closed for the season the day before.  Ha, go figure!  So we wandered around and took photos.  Then we stopped at Gooseberry Falls SP.  Yeesh!  Talk about slippery!  The snow was packed down so hard and so smoothly that we could not safely take the stairs and walking the zig zag ramp route was stressful.  We walked off the path into the brush for some traction.  Mom made it!  We only made it to the first falls since the walking conditions were so horrid.  Lots of people were out as well.  We took our photos and turned around.

We then drove to Duluth.  Had lunch.  Shopped at the Duluth Trading Co retail store (so awesome!) and drove home.  We stopped at Moose Lake State Park on the way to check it off our list.  It feels more like a Lucky Peak State Park- built for recreation for swimming. 

 

 

All in all, I had a very good trip visiting Mom and exploring the North Shore.  I am glad to show her my outdoor passions and explore an area I had never explored before.  Mom is certainly going out of her comfort zone and I am so proud of her!  Go Mom!  You're a badass!

TR Op Hard Hustle Time!

I participated in my second Team Rubicon Op this past week.  Eight days that will always remain with me.  I will never forget them.  And hope to pass on what I have learned and experienced at this Op with others in the hopes to pass on compassion and help those that truly are in need and destitute out there.  Operation Hard Hustle at the Wharton, TX FOB (forward operating base) was where I was stationed.   I got the text earlier in October asking me to volunteer my time to help out those in the Houston area affected by Hurricane Harvey back in August/September.  Team Rubicon has been out there on the ground helping out since the hurricane hit and has been having a slew of volunteers out there helping do damage assessments on homes, mucking out homes and mold mitigation, as well as a variety of other things needed to help those affected in need.

I got the text saying I was going Oct 17 to Oct 24 and my flight info sent less than 12h till when my flight left.  I was scrambling to get all my gear together.  Made no easier by the fact that I am basically homeless in the non-permanent resident sense of the term and my belongings are in all sorts of locations being stored.  Thankfully, I have an amazing set of friends to help me and be there for me when I am in need.  My flights were uneventful.  I knew instantly when I met my crew at the Houston Airport that we would get along splendidly when we had to cram into the van and made jokes about dirty-minded things, bums rubbing up on each other on the hellaciously scary ride to our FOB and talking about backpacking/outdoor gear (*gasp porn topics for me gasp*).  F-bombs being dropped all over the place.  Innuendo rampant.  Yup.  I found my people.  The week ahead will be great!

I had no sense of direction of where we were going.  The town we were primarily helping was Wharton, TX.  Our FOB located at Iago Federated Church.  Sleeping in their gym on cots, mixed company.  I was thankful for the TR Sit Room Facebook page to help me decide what I did and did not need to pack.  We arrived and met the members already at the FOB going out and making a difference in the world helping others.  We got our intro briefing from the IC (Incident Commander) and met the Safety, Ops and Logistics members who would be telling us what our objectives for the day are, getting us the tools we need to accomplish the objectives, etc.  And we all got our TR red hats and greyshirts.  We put our names on them and were then official.  We were a part of Op Hard Hustle.  And we could not wait to get started in the field!

We learned that there was beer flag around a fire pit at the end of the day.  To relax.  Decompress.  Drink beer.  And enjoy the company of newfound friends around a fire.  It was here that we really got to know each other, especially since not everyone was on the same strike team and did not interact with others as much.  And it was here that I really knew I was with my tribe.  Rampant innuendo just as bad as me!  People who thought and spoke without filters!

We worked as part of a strike team, going out into the community at homes that had already been damaged assessed by prior TR volunteers.  My first two days I was on a team under someone.  We worked on a home and sweated our asses off learning about one others.  Giving verbal playful jabs, dancing to music and getting the job done.  My third day, I was assigned my own strike team, having been made a Team Lead.  Shit.  Me?  The IC made the two dirtiest minded sickest fucks the TLs?  The IC merely smiled at me and said maybe there was a reason for it.  I now know that reason and see the wisdom in his decision.  It was a wise decision and he is a good leader for it.  I only wish more people could lead in such a manner.

We'd start the day lights on at 0630h and be loading our trucks up by 0800h and gone to our assignments soon after.  We'd work all day till 1700h-ish hours and head back to the FOB.  Decontaminate our tools, PPE and trucks and then drive back to Wharton to the community recreation center to take showers and then to dinner.  My favorite drive all week was piling my team into a 6 passenger van with 7 people inside.  It was crammed.  I drove a minivan!  We sang along to the songs together.  Debated songs.  Argued.  I was called Mom and my front passenger was Dad.  We laughed up a storm and had a ball.  Or the time my TL forgot one of the members on our way to showers and had to make a sudden U-turn on the highway to go back and pick him up (a noticeably large man one cannot easily forget, hahaha).

Each day was different from the next.  We bonded more and more.  We formed a pattern.  I learned so much.  One wave of people departed us and another came in.  A constant flux of volunteers and command staff.  There were definitely frustrating times.  But there was that reminder this is a volunteer organisation and a community that was so thankful for our presence.  We would drive to the nearest store while on break to use the bathroom and people would stop and thank us and share their experience with TR with us.  Everything we needed was donated to us.  A community suffering such loss found the time to house and feed us and provide materials we used and needed.

Here is a little bit of info from 10/20/17 showing the word that TR has already accomplished addressing the Hurricane Harvey aftermath:

Team Rubicon's largest operation to date has officially hit the big 5-0! Today marks Operation Hard Hustle's 50th Operational Period! I wanted to provide an update on our impact to date:

• 936 completed work orders (ie homes serviced and families helped!)
• 1,797 work orders created
• 1,925 disaster assessments
• 1,294,135 cubic square feet of debris removed
• 1,943 greyshirts deployed
• 448 greyshirts remotely engaged 
• 107,310 volunteer hours
• $2.96 million - value of volunteer hours

The numbers say a lot; from Katy, Beaumont, Kashmere Gardens, Friendswood, Magnolia, Wharton, and Rockport, our team continues to make a lasting impact on the people of Texas. It has been a collective effort, and we could not have gotten here without your leadership, dedication, and inspiration - thank you for all that you have done! Tomorrow we hit 51, and we will continue to do what we have been doing all along, 

I cannot begin to describe to you the sense of epic loss I currently feel now that I am back home.  As if there is a void in me, and I am no longer whole.  My whole self became melded with my Team.  With my pack.  With my tribe.  Spending 8 days non-stop with the same people.  Working so hard through the blood, sweat and tears.  Holding each other up.  Supporting one another.  Forming such strong and lasting bonds with people who choose to be there.  Choose to suffer together knowing their suffering is nothing compared to the people in the community we are volunteering to help.  These are the people I am so proud to have met and bonded with.  And these are the people I feel so lost without.  

I cried when I left them on my flights home.  That feeling of loneliness.  Of going back into the real world alone.  Of interacting with other people not at the Op who did not share that bond or experience what you just did.  It is hard.  And it is real.  I still feel it, two days after being home.  And I know I shall feel it for a while.  Attempt to reach that high we felt while out on the Op.  Helping others selflessly.  Seeing the utterly depravity that humans can endure.

How do I begin to explain about the elderly woman's house we did an assessment on that we had to turn down advising it as a possible total loss and unsafe for us to help on, when she reveals her status in a domestic violence situation and goal to fix the house to help get out of it?  Going back to her car a strong woman and breaking down into tears as you stand by helplessly wishing murder upon the man that causes her so much pain and only being able to recommend DV resources we knew of to her.  Or spending day upon day in stifling muggy heat in a home you are doing a total demo on that was supposed to start out easy and kept getting more and more complicated as you discover more and more damage to it.  Damage that was there before the flood.  Damage that should have prevented this woman who speaks little English and is poverty-stricken who was afraid to return phone calls for fear of ICE-type reprisal and who bought the home a mere month before the flood.  A woman who broke down in tears when she saw all the work we did to the home and could only express her gratitude in tears.  Or the proud jovial black man whose home we demo'd who gave me the biggest bear hug and called me daughter with tears in his eyes as we were leaving and showed him his house.  How do I begin to express the feelings these experiences gave me?  Do I keep them inside?  How do I express the absolute destitution I saw people living in while I live my life, granted, mostly transient.  But with a job and a roof over my head?  I am so very thankful for what I have.

The utter sense of belonging and appreciation.  Appreciation of one other and the skills each of us brought to the table.  To be assigned to lead such a plethora of experienced people in life.  From the retired Lt Col to the current service member to the retired Coast Guard Capt, among so many others.  I felt humbled to have been a leader to these people.  To have them respect me and ask me and advise me.  For their patience as I bumbled along, learning as I went.  Fucking up.  Noting it.  And communicating it.  Of assigning tasks.  Of sitting people down, talking to them individually and learning about them.  Of standing up for them.  What an experience.  I can only shake my head in wonder at it all.

I experienced my first American flag retirement ceremony.  TR members often encounter flags in tatters at disaster sites and will replace them with new flags.  The old flags are collected and honorably retired.  Which is what we did.  Standing in a circle.  Sharing our experiences or whatever thoughts flow out.  Grown adults sharing their pain with others.  Tear-streaked cheeks.  Real pain.  And real love for what the American flag represents.  I felt in awe of those I was in the presence of.  As a person who did not serve, as I could not due to my medical status, I do feel a sense of loss for not contributing to my country.  I was at a loss for words during the ceremony.  And was so very honored to merely witness and be a part of it.  Humbling indeed.  Thank you, to those who served and those who sacrificed some or all.

For now, TWP is my salvation.  The people I formed the closest bonds to.  We continue to communicate and hope to have reunions and attend more Ops in the future.  But till then, I will cherish my experiences at Op Hard Hustle- Wharton and work and train for the next Op and the ones after that.  This is my happy place- helping people through physical labor and face to face in the field experiences.  I have goals and guidance in life.  I want to continue helping others.  And I will.  Fuck yes, I will!

TEAM WP for the win!!

Life- it is ever changing and adapting

In all honesty, I am so very tired of moving.  I have lived in Idaho since October 2009.  Eight years today.  I have moved, let's see, hmmm:

1. Desert
2. Jackson
3. Mercury
4. 29th
5. Tut
6. Arctic
7. Canterbury
9. Carson
10. Candlestick
11. Omphale
12. Irene
13. Juniper
14. Leo
15. Federal
16. Summerridge

There were actually a few times in there that I was homeless.  Mostly in 2017 (and sort of now).  You would think me, a person who has a full time job, education, retirement, pays bills on time, would be able to afford housing for herself on a more permanent basis?  Nope.  The cost of living increases.  My wages do not.  I have procured a sort of second job helping out a friend with her business.  But as winter approaches, business will slow.  And I will be in need of more income, again.

I am not depressed or stressed about the state of things.  They are what they are.  Stressing will not improve my life.  It will make it worse.  So I go with the flow.  I try to find solutions and research options.

I had so many ideas of things I wished to post on here.  But once I start typing, the blog just flows into whatever direction my mind tells my fingers to type to.

I saw the new Blade runner film last week when it came out.  I nearly started to cry while watching it.  Blade runner and Philip K Dick films were some of my father's preferred ones to watch.  I felt going to the film was a tribute to him.  And it is hard to see a film knowing Dad would want to see it, too.  And that we could talk on the phone and discuss our thoughts about the film after both of us had seen it.  This is the longest time I have ever gone without hearing his voice.  10 months.  His photo we presented at the ALS ride goes with me and is put front and center in my new room of residence.  It makes me happy to see it.  I still tear up and cry at times when I think of him.  And I most often think of him in the mornings at work when I am getting ready for work.  That is my contemplative time.  And he takes up much of that mind time.

I have been getting requests to deploy with Team Rubicon to help the disaster clean up from hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria in Texas and now Puerto Rico for the past month a half.  This week I finally gave in and said I could go.  I really wanted to go after Harvey to offer either my TR assistance or my professionally trained assistance through the national organisation I am certified through.  But fear of reprimand from work prevented me from doing so.  And now?  You only live once.  If it means I get in trouble for going to help people in need, then so be it.  Work has lost its luster for me.  I still love helping people.  But now with (my perceived) black cloud over my head when I am at work, helping others does not feel like a priority at work for so many and that bothers me.  I want to truly help people who need it.  And with TR, I can do that.  I can put my body to work.  Sleep on floors.  Occasionally shower.  And have people thank me for what I am doing to help them.  That is what I miss from work- feeling appreciated and acknowledged for the hard work, blood, sweat and tears put into it rather than be accused of things I am not.  Work hurts my mind.  Helping others makes it grow and flourish. :-)

I did get to do something at work a few weeks back that reminded me how much I love working and why I do what I do.  And people recognised my abilities to help them and used them and thanked me.  That is all it takes.  Thanking someone for their work.  Not all the time.  But every now and then.  It can go so long to help improve someone's outlook and mood.  I make a concerted effort to be positive and kinder to my coworkers.  Being angry will not accomplish much.

In an effort to try to save money and be more financially responsible, I have gone on less hikes farther away.  I am trying to go to more local athletic locations.  The Jeep loves to eat gas like it is going out of style, unfortunately.  So, this past week I hiked Stack Rock trail (8.7mi round trip) and then scrambled on the rocks almost to the top (I was about 10' shy of it, but my friends continued to the top).  I forgot how rough granite it on hands when you are rock climbing/scrambling.  Quite a bit of exposure (for me) and I definitely had to work on my increasing anxiety levels at times.  I climb because it makes me uncomfortable.  I climb to defeat my discomfort.

 

The week prior I hiked along the Middle Fork of Payette Rd with the lovely Charlie dog.  Since it was some sort of hunting season and Charlie would look wolf-ish to the untrained/uneducated eye, I decided that we would stick to the road to hike.  It was his first hike and I plan to break him in slowly so he can be my outdoor companion.  He crashed hardcore and slept the whole way home.  Love that dog.

I peruse one of my favourite websites, Expedition Portal, occasionally to pine after the adventures that other people go on.  And I add my own on there, too.  I noticed they had an article about female overland adventurers!!  And even better, the women have created a book to publish celebrating females who adventure, especially solo!  Yes!!!  This book/goal totally spoke to me.  So I donated money to them to help them publish the book.  Here is the link for the book I Can. I Will.

A few weeks back, my fellow adventure ladies and I went on a hiking adventure to Sunset Mountain.  We ran into snow along the way (the previous week the higher elevations got some snow) which had apparently persisted all week.  So we parked the trucks, let the dogs out and hiked to the trail head and fire look out.  The dogs had a ball.  So did we.  Even saw wolf track of a solo wolf.  Probably a few days old.  But still exciting to see!  We were up in the clouds.  It was so beautiful.  Cold.  But clear and sharp looking.  I love nature.  It is truly my happy place.  The week prior I hiked part of the William Pogue/Sheep Creek trail off Middle Fork of Boise Rd on the way to Atlanta.  Dreary day.  But still beautiful.