Up Around the Bend

You can ponder perpetual motion
Fix your mind on a crystal day
Always time for good conversation
There's an ear for what you say

Come on the rising wind
We're going up around the bend. . .

Yeaaaaahhhh!

- J. Fogerty


Everybody has family reunions. Ours, too. I remember when I was a kid, and we'd go to these reunions. They'd be affairs where a bunch of the "old folks" would sit around and BS, eat tons of food, and occasionally fish or play softball or whatever. Sometimes there'd be kids my age there, and we'd play (those were the fun ones). Sometimes not (lots of kissing elderly ladies while mom coached, "You remember her, don't you?"). Well, about 10 years ago, my sister, Jackie, pretty much started the "our generation" reunion. I haven't been able to attend all of them, but the ones I've been at have always been fun. Now I get to sit around and BS, eat lots of food, and fish or whatever. :) Ya ya, it's amazing how things change when you get older.

This year's "our generation" reunion took place at Fisherman's Point campground just outside of Hoyt Lakes, MN. It's a very nice place; but from Black River Falls, WI, it's a pretty healthy haul of about 6 hours. I took a little longer than that this year, because I had a few spots to stop at along the way. This is the story of one of my drive, up to just south of Superior, WI. The rest is in the next blog-entry (Get Together).

About 9 a.m. on Friday, I pulled out of the local Hardees and hit I-94 westbound. The weather was overcast but not raining - we've had enough of that for the last 10 days or so. A short hour later I pulled onto U.S. 53 and nosed the car north. The clouds broke up and it was very sunny and nice. I put on my sunglasses and started singing along with the radio.

Morning shows were being broadcast on most of the local stations. Since I think that ALL morning shows suck (play the music, dammit!) I ended up playing station check until I picked up a station that I never come off. It was about an hour north of Eau Claire, WI, when my car radio finally latched on to a good signal from KQDS out of Duluth. Harrrrr, nothing like quality tunage for the whole weekend. DS rules!!!!

After a few very pleasant hours, just north of Solon Springs, WI, I found an itty-bitty county road that turned west towards Pattison State Park, my planned stop. About 45 min. later, I was there. Pattison SP is a very nice place, and has the tallest waterfall in Wisconsin - Big Manitou falls. It also has Little Manitou falls, much shorter but very, very pretty. Both falls are on the Black River, (no, not the same one as in my previous posts - there are 2 Black Rivers in Wisconsin) Little Manitou is just upriver from Big Manitou.

When I was done at the park, I turned the car loose and sped north on Wis. 35 into Superior. The rest of the story of the trip will be in later blogs. I spent about an hour and a half at the park - scoping out both falls, hiking a trail or two, and visiting the nature center. Needless to be said, I also took a few photos for you all. And me. :)


This is a photo from one of the overlooks, and quite the view, IMO. Of course, the foreground is Wisconsin, but the promised land, er, Minnesota :) lies in the background. Duluth/Superior harbor is obscured by the trees on the right. The platform is at Big Manitou falls' pre-plunge level.


This photo is from the same platform, looking at Big Manitou falls. It could have been a better shot, but I'm not good near steep, deep ledges, (I think it's called acrophobia) so I held the camera at arm's length, closed my eyes, and took the shot. :) Big Manitou falls is 165 feet high - the fourth highest waterfall in the U.S. east of the Rocky Mountains.

This photo was taken from another platform that was a little closer to the falls. From here, it was difficult to get the whole falls in one shot, this is just the upper part.

This is the best view of Big Manitou falls that I took. This is taken from an overlook on the other side of the river, only a short hike away. At the top left of the photo is the overlook that I took the previous shot from. Directly below that, at the left of the fall's pool, is an old copper mine test hole. Prospecting for copper was done here (and elsewhere nearby) about 120 years ago.

The trail on this side of the river wends for about a mile downstream of the falls, lowering down to river-level. This is a photo of the far-side embankment there. Notice the completely different nature of the stone from the previous photos. This is sandstone, while the falls drop over basaltic traprock that emerged during the great North American rift event (circa 1 billion years ago).

This is a picture of some photogenic fungi growing on a pine stump near the top of Big Manitou falls. I'm not sure what kind it is, but it sure is pretty.

About 3 miles upstream of Big Manitou falls is Little Manitou falls, shown here. This one is 31 feet high. Just out of view to the left is another copper mine test hole.

This last photo was taken up at the park's nature center and describes the life of Mr. Pattison, the reason why the park is here in the first place. He was born in Niagara Falls, NY; came to the Duluth/Superior region; got rich; and then donated the land for Pattison State Park to the state of Wisconsin. Thank you very much, Mr. Pattison - I found your park most enjoyable.

Oh, and one more thing. Unlike most of Wisconsin, the northwest region (as well as the northeast region of Minnesota) hasn't recieved any of the last 2 weeks' worth of rain (the stuff that's been in the news kind of rain). Very dry here is an understatement. One of the things that I noticed at the nature center was that, from photos, there appears to be only about 1/5 of the normal flowage over both falls. One could be disappointed by that, but I wasn't. They still looked cool to me. I hope that all of you enjoyed the story and photos. Let me know what you think!