The Worst and Best of Itasca State Park

In our two-day visit to Minnesota's Itasca State Park, we feel like we experienced both the best and the worst that the park had to offer. We'll get the bad stuff out of the way, and first describe the two-mile Dr. Roberts' loop hike that the ranger recommended. He said it was one of our best opportunities to see wildlife in the park.

The ranger just didn't happen to mention that the wildlife would be vicious biting insects. Actually, it started with just a few deer flies following us on the board walk over the bog in the picture above. That brought us to the "Old Timers Cabin," built in 1934. We guess it is fitting that an old-timer like Denisa is in the picture, even though she was built years later.

In case you are counting, this cabin is only four logs high. That's because the old-growth pines that were used to build it are so big! We should add that no live pines were harmed in the building of this cabin. Since the state park was formed to preserve these old trees, only fallen trees could be used in this park building. 

It's at this point that the trail got more woodsy and the terrain more rugged. Because of her sprained ankle, Denisa turned back to the car. Even though she had a couple bugs flying around her, she stopped long enough to take this picture of a flower she didn't recognize along the trail.

Meanwhile, Mark continued around the two-mile loop by himself. So when Denisa suggested he write the description of the rest of the hike, his description was short and succinct-- Worst. Hike, Ever!

This was our introduction to one of the most obnoxious of all insects. Below is a fuzzy picture of a deer fly, and we're not sure why God created these insects. Mark reports that a swarm of them chased him for over a mile. They were trying to fly into his eyes, nose, mouth, and ears--or as he put it, "into every orifice of my head." When we researched the deer fly later, we found this description: "They inflict a painful bite as they use knife-like mouth parts to slice a wound in the skin and feed on the resulting blood." Mark ran most of the trail, trying to out-pace them. But these flies are not only vicious, they are fast. 

In the process of flailing his arms around to shoo the flies away while he ran, he accidentally knocked his glasses off. Now he's blindly hunting through the tall grass and brush along the trail, with those dang flies dive-bombing him. Oh yes, he also ran into a snake on the trail, but that was the least of his worries at the time. He had more than a dozen deer fly bites by the time he ran out of the woods and into the car. Whoo, it really was a terrible hike!

Mark's next research will be on how to ward off these terrible hiking companions! In the meantime, we should change the mood of this blog to the best part of Itasca State Park. We are glad to say that the same ranger with the bad hiking advice gave us great kayaking advice. This state park has over 100 lakes, and we wondered which would be best. He told us about Ozawindib Lake.

Down a gravel trail off the Wilderness Road, few people find this boat dock. With no wind, the surface of the water perfectly mirrored the clouds and trees around it.

We were immediately welcomed by a lone loon that popped up right in front of our kayak. This is the state bird of Minnesota, and it was magical to see him up close.

He continued to give us an escorted tour of the lake. He stayed a safe distance away, but we got to hear a good number of the looney tunes that this bird has in his repertoire.

We knew this because we had studied the loon exhibit at the visitor center. We were hearing the "wail" and the "tremolo." In loon-talk that means he was calling out to another loon on the lake, and alerting them of a disturbance on the lake. Pretty impressive that we know how to speak loon!

We were also welcomed by a flower garden of water lilies and lotus.

Mark had to do some pretty fancy kayak driving so Denisa could take a close-up of this perfect lily bloom . . .

and its cousin, the lotus bloom.

At the end of the lake, we kayaked through a narrow channel through the sea of lily pads.

After nine days of limping around with a badly sprained ankle, it's nice to know that one doesn't need a good ankle to row a kayak. It's still swollen and bruised, but this is good cool water therapy.

It was a great time on a beautiful lake, and we could see God's wonders all around us. We enjoyed the beautifully detailed trails that a bug had etched on some of the lily leaves.

We like the neat way that the straight reeds became artistically wavy reflections in the clear water.

We were observing a whole new ecosystem, as we kept finding frog eggs draped around stems in the lake.

The water was completely clear and blue . . .

surrounded by layers of green--starting at the bottom with lily pads, reeds, deciduous trees, and framed by the tall pines at the top.

While the water was reflecting the wispy white clouds overhead, it would also reflect the perfectly formed white petals of the lilies.

After the Worst. Hike, Ever, God was showing us his majesty in some of the little things around us. As we wandered more of His wonders, we have also experienced one of the Best. Kayak-Trips. Ever!