July on the north shore

[elf]

Spent most of the month of July at our cabin in Finland MN. My wife and kids played the whole time while I was lucky enough to comute the 65 miles to Duluth and back every day. And I would personally like to thank MN DOT for tearing up every road I had to drive on! But I digress, we had a great time. The kids went to Wolf Ridge ELC for a week and had a ball. We went up to Grand Marais for the 4th and watched the fireworks up there. We found a great spot on the Temperance river to go jumping from. Both my kids jumped from about 16-17' which surprised me. Spent some time working on a new rock wall and small section of lawn at the cabin. That was a good time. Also cut a bunch of firewood.
The waterfalls in the pictures are from the Cascade River while the picture of the kids is from the harbor at Grand Marais.

 

[elf]

A couple more pics.

Where my son is standing in the one picture, that's the high spot they both jumped from. Couldn't believe my daughter did it.

 

[Skylar]

Cool pics, love the shots of the kids jumping into the river, looks like fun!

 

[mrsrunningbear]

Awsome pictures! Looks like a great place to spend a month

 

[ubee]

Great pics! nice cabin! You have the patience of a saint to drive that route to and thru duluth everyday as I hit the maze on trip to canada ! boat on the big lake might have been faster for you!! lmao!! at least the road will be great this winter!

 

[elf]

Ubee, the drive sucked. Usually it's a 1 hour 15 minute drive for the 68 miles form the cabin to work. Now Hwy 61 is tore up at Split Rock Lighthouse for 3 miles (with a flagman), the Lester River Bridge in Duluth is out so that's another detour, and they have I35 tore up at the eastern end of it so you have to detour up into the city streets. A couple days it actually took me an hour to just get out of Duluth, not to mention the rest of the drive. I'd say I averaged close to 4 hrs on the road each day.
But, believe it or not, it's worth it. No place in the world I'd rather be. Campfires every night, sitting out on the deck after getting home and popping a cold one. Ahhh, the good life!

 

[The Apostate]

Somehow I’m having a hard time feeling sorry for you. During rush it takes me a half-hour to get home from work without construction and I only live 5.7 miles away!

 

[Professor PC]

Somehow I’m having a hard time feeling sorry for you. During rush it takes me a half-hour to get home from work without construction and I only live 5.7 miles away!

thats the same thing i was thinking.....it takes 20 minutes sometimes just to go one freakin exit sometimes on 294 or THE DAN RYAN...add construction and hes already sippin a cold one and you only went 5.2 miles.....you will be just able to make your porch out, through the orange haze and oil sheen, 5 blocks up ahead if u could only get there DOOM

 

[highhertel]

Elf, my wife and I are heading up to Duluth and North Shore over Labor Day weekend. Going to due our due diligence on the area (and vacation), we have greatly narrowed our search down to a couple areas to relocate and this area is one of the last to check out.

We seriously thought about AZ and NM, but we need water (and lots of it) to play in and around. AZ and NM just do not have that, and then throw in the immigration issues in that area and things could get ugly fast.

I appreciate any thoughts you mind provide on the area in general, good...bad...and ugly!

Thanks,

HH

 

[elf]

HighHertel, are you looking to relocate in retirement or just looking for a new place to live? If it's a new place to live, there are not a lot of great paying jobs up here. Any field in particular you would be looking in?
If you are looking for a retirement place, it would be awesome. As far as water, we have lots of it. If you were to live up the shore, there are a lot of inland lakes to boat on and the scenery up there is second to none. Duluth has good shopping, good medical facilities, decent employment opportunities. If you are up the shore further, those opportunities are not there. I joke about being at our cabin as we are 70 miles from a Walmart and most jobs are related to the tourism industry or service.
We will be up at our cabin over Labor Day weekend, stop on by and we can show you around the north shore.

 

[highhertel]

elf, my wife and I will be empty nesters this year and are looking for some change, you know...the change is good thing. Been in Door County WI for 15 years, started a B&B from scratch and sold it a few years ago. Currently sales manager for a metal stamping company, have electronics engineering background. We might look for some type of seasonal business to run, obviously tourist related. Need the flexibility to do some travel and snowmobiling of course.

Below is my email, you can send me contact info and directions to your cabin. We will try to stop by, thanks for the offer! We will be starting out from our camp in Iron River MI Thurs. Sept 2, spend a day around Iron River WI and then move on to Duluth. Any recommendations for lodging in Duluth? Something on the water??

Thanks in advance,

jdhertel@charter.net

 

[Canoepaddler]

Nice pics Elf. My wife and I have been working with a realtor in Lutsen to find some property up there. We haven't had much luck finding what we're interested in around the Lutsen area though. Might start looking back down your way more seriously one of these days. We found lot just outside Silver Bay with a great view a couple years ago. We kind'a wanted to be closer to the other end of the shore at that time though. Nice to see you're enjoying your place up there.

 

[ibendwire]

Awesome pics. Looks like your family was having a great time. I wish I could spend that amount of time at our place. For now it is just on the weekends. The pics of the kids jumping into the river are cool. I am not a fan of heights so I give them credit for jumping. How deep was the water there and was it easy to get back out of the river from that spot?

 

[elf]

Canoepaddler, the Lutsen area is beautiful and we enjoy going up there but Finland is really the heart of snowmobiling on the north shore so that is part of the reason we chose it. Also wanted to stay away from the higher priced more touristy areas. When I changed jobs and started working in Duluth we actually lived at our cabin for the 1st year and we made a lot of great friends up there so now we are almost locals. The people are great.

Ibendwire - I have no idea how deep the water was in that spot as I never touched bottom. But I would have to guess at least 12-13'. And you need to swim about 30' downstream, or just let the current carry you, to get to a spot you can climb out. My wife is also not crazy about heights and it took a lot of coaxing to get her to jump from the spot my kids are in the picture. When we went from the real high spot I went first and was down in the water convincing my son to come. After about 5 minutes he jumped and then to my surprise, my daughter just threw off her towel, screamed, and jumped. I never expected she'd go from there.

 

[freezinbevr]

Elf,
I'm taking my wife and daughters (6 + 8) to a buddies cabin just out of Finland in 2 weeks (27th-30th). He said if the weather is good, definately hit the Temperance for some swimming. Best little swim spot in the country. Don't tell anyone!
We'll see how this trip goes, since there is NO power or water at the cabin. Everyone is fired up for some simplicity and hiking and just some down time.
Is there a good detour around the Split Rock construction. He was saying they are just one lane during the week and all open on the weekend.
Any other suggestions for hiking trails,etc. would be great.

BTW-Picks look great and we can't wait!!
Brad

 

[elf]

Brad,
There is only 1 way and no real good ways to get around the construction by split rock. The only way to detour around it is to take Hwy 3, right past Betty's pies in Two Harbors, and follow that around to Hwy 4, just outside of beaver bay. Then you can follow 4 up to the new forest Hwy 11, follow that to Lax Lake Rd, take Lax Lake rd and come out on Hwy 1 about 1 mile south of Finland.
With kids your age some good hikes would be to follow the SHT from Hwy 1 into Tettagouchee State Park to the falls. Another good one is take the SHT from Hwy 6 into Sawmill Dome. If you get up to the Temperance river a great hike is to the top of Carlton Peak. Awesome views. Have a great time!

 

[freezinbevr]

Thanks Elf. The recommendations are appreciated greatly.