Every year in these climes, Mother Nature gives us a spectacular color show, better and longer lasting than any fireworks display. People follow the peak color places told to us by the DNR and newspapers. They ride the gondola at Lutsen Mountain, all you can ride for a reasonable price, high over river canyon and mountain trees. Red maples, green conifers, yellow birch, bright red sumac fill us with glory. Alas, it lasts no more than a month and is followed by whiteness broken by gray tree trunks and green pinafores.
By the time our editor finds a brilliant color photo to remind us of what we saw, leaf peeping will be over up here. We will have to hurry to the Mississippi River Valley in Iowa. Perhaps some of you will chase the colors all the way south.
All is not lost. Herewith a verbal leaf color tour from this fall’s spectacular display. (Get your free Visit Cook County map out now.) At the suggestion of our neighbor, good friend, and other grandmother, Joanne Bailey, we started in Tofte on County Road 1, also called Cramer Road. We went west to Two Island Road up to Six Hundred Road, back east to the Sawbill Trail (County Road 2), and then fell back to our shore northeast of Tofte. We wandered about two hours on a late Sunday afternoon.
Just a few short weeks ago fall was here in all of its splendor. This is a photo Don Davison took on his walk from his house to his dock on Devil Track Lake. Just wait, only 11 months from now we will see colors like this again. Photo courtesy of Don Davison
Cramer Road was okay, but the real splendor of the trip was Two Island and Six Hundred Roads. Narrow canopies of color surrounded us and the other intrepid leaf peepers we met. Bright reds were poking from the forest at irregular but frequent intervals. The narrow road created the illusion of driving into the colors.
Note to county and township officials: Once again we looked for road signs to Two Island and Six Hundred Roads. No luck except someone put up a Two Island sign a mile after we found the road by process of elimination. Consider: More signs equal less anxiety for tourists which equals more tourist income for our hospitality industry.
Note to readers: There is a dotted line paralleling the North Shore, just up the hills at most points. It pokes the shore at Tofte and again at the Cascade River, Croftville, and Kadunce River area. It ends near Canada and is not labelled on the map, but is likely the Superior Hiking Trail. You will know it when you meet Happy Hikers singing a compelling German song about Wandering, likely soon to be the official trail song of the Superior Hiking Trail.
Faithful readers are encouraged to submit their favorite leaf peeping routes. Our brilliant editor will save them up to give hints for next fall’s tours. If a route also takes us near moose, so much the better. Other possible suggestions you might make include the best parts of the Superior Hiking Trail to peep leaves.
P. S. As you plan for next fall’s color tours, you will find on page 42 of the North Shore Explorer magazine five driving tours and five hiking tours. The best of the bunch appears to start on County Road 60, off of the Gunflint Trail.
P. P. S If you walk up the hill on Eighth Avenue West in Grand Marais, you will see that the deer sculpture has found a new home and the bench is back! My legs are grateful.
P.P.S.S. Congratulations to Visit Cook County’s One Moose Apart campaign. The tee shirt promotion netted over $9,000 for community organizations. ——————————
Steve Aldrich is a retired Hennepin County lawyer, mediator, and Judge, serving from 1997-2010. He and his wife moved here in 2016. He likes to remember that he was a Minnesota Super Lawyer before being elected to the bench. Now he is among the most vulnerable to viruses. Steve really enjoys doing weddings, the one thing a retired judge can do without appointment by the Chief Justice. He has never officiated at a Skype, Zoom or Google Team wedding.
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