Last Day of North Shore Training

The director of Wolfridge gave us a talk about teaching kids about climate change.  He had a big red balloon attached to the ceiling.  I'll be the balloon was at least 4 feet in diameter.  That balloon represents the carbon left from burning one gallon of gasoline.  Wow.  I fill at least 10 of those balloons every week in my car.  He has a computer rigged up to his education building that shows the amount of energy currently being expended.  He challenges the kids to increase the energy spent.  The kids race around the building turning on all the lights and equipment.  Then he challenges them to bring the energy use down.  He said it's a great way to get the kids invested.  He showed us several other good tips for teaching kids about climate change without depressing them too much.  After that we headed out to our bus and drove to Isabella.  We went down a forestry road in the national forest and pulled over by a bog.  The bog had a moat around it so we had to step over a big span of water to step onto the floating bog.  I made it onto the bog without falling and then was fascinated by what I saw.  Carnivorous pitcher plants were everywhere!  We were all enthralled.

I give my new rain boots from Fleet Farm an A+!

This is cotton grass.

I can't remember all the names but we saw leather leaf and Labrador Tea.

The spagnum moss was squishy to walk on.  I felt like I was on a trampoline.  One lady struggled.  She grabbed me for support several times.  I tried to move away from her because I did not want to fall in the bog.  I just had my hip replaced.  I really want to avoid falling.  Eventually she did fall on her rear and she almost took me down with her.  She said it was a very soft landing. I didn't help her up.  I started to but then thought better of it.  Three other people were right there to give her a hand.

We found lots of fungi

It was so cool to be on the bog.  Walking on it damages it.  Our footprints will remain.  But education about a bog is important.  Our instructor said in the long run educated people will do more to protect bogs so walking on it today will be worth it.

Lots of white moths out today.

If you cut a pitcher plant open you can see the insect carcasses inside.

If you stand too long in one place you go deeper.  We were warned we should all wear hats in the bog.  That way they can find us easier if we fall through.

This fungi has pores on the bottom.

If you looked carefully you can see the webs of hundreds of bowl spider nests.

Then we drove further to a mature bog.  My feet are dryer here and a few trees are living on it.

Like the beautiful tamarack trees.  Their needles are arranged in beautiful star shapes.

We found lots of chantarelle mushrooms - all a little bit past their prime.  On our way driving out of Isabella we saw a logging truck had run off the road in the past 45 minutes.  It looked like the driver had to climb out of the broken windshield.  The engine was still warm.  We hoped the driver was okay and had been rescued already.

We drove to Crosby Manitou State Park for our picnic lunch.  After lunch we had a hike and found these cool fungi called Deadman's Fingers.

And this fungi growing on a dead spruce log is called witches butter. All this rain is bringing up some crazy mushrooms.  After this hike we headed back to the bus to the Cloquet Forestry Center where our cars were waiting for us.  We all bought some books from our instructor Larry Weber, made our farewells and headed home.  After 3 days of rain  and cool weather it was really a culture shock for me to come home and see people wearing tank tops, shorts and sandals.  I am glad I took this chance to take time off work and learn things about the North Shore. Even though the fall color was only at 15% I enjoyed my trip very much.