Barn Bluff

Years ago I took Offspring #2 and several nephews to hike up barn bluff in Red Wing, Minnesota. On that trip it was fall and the colors were beautiful. Today Offspring #2 and I took the trip again. After a scenic drive down the Wisconsin side of the Mississippi through Prescott, we arrived at the bluff a little after 1 p.m.  The parking area at the trail head was a thick layer of very slippery ice.  Somehow I managed to change out of my shoes and into my hiking boots without falling to the ground. As we proceeded to hike up to the bluff the path was icy. A few oak leaves and some branches lay in the ice and those helped me keep my grip but I was glad I had my hiking sticks. At first we were hiking next to Highway 61. The traffic noise was unpleasant.  We saw about ten people on the trail and they all looked happy. I liked to feel the cool air expanding my lungs as I hiked up the cement stairs. At the top of the stairs we hiked some more until we came to a cross roads.  We could go up more stairs or head north through the prairie. We chose the prairie route. After about 10 minutes of walking the prairie route got narrower and narrower. We came to realize that this was not a main path. This was a probably a high school student hang out path. At one spot the path made a fork. One fork was up the bluff. When I say up I mean literally up. The other path went under a tree and pretty much ended. So we chose to go up the path. I started up first. A red oak tree helped me about five feet up. After that it got difficult. The flat spots where I could put a shoe were far apart. My artificial hips are not used to taking such large steps.  I was on my hands and knees.  Sometimes rocks rolled out from under my feet. Once I grabbed a large triangular hunk of limestone. The big piece of limestone moved. I tried to put it back but with all my weight on one foot I did not succeed.  Sometimes I pulled at prairie grasses while thinking how deep down the roots of prairie grasses go (very deep). A couple times Offspring #2, who was behind me, put one of the hiking poles into the buff soil so my foot would not slide backwards. As we crawled up this seriously steep bluff we questioned ourselves. Was it a wise choice to take this path? Once we were past the halfway mark it made sense to keep going. Eventually we struggled to the top and could stand on two feet again. We both had muddy knees on our jeans. We found evidence of a bonfire. We meandered through the prairie until we found an official path. The weather at the top of the bluff was warmer than at the bottom. We could see the city of Red Wing far below us. Church bells were ringing. Cars were going up and down the streets. Red Wing looked very quaint from this angle. We could see the bridge from Wisconsin that we had passed over on the way here. The river was free of ice.  I saw an eagle soar above the bluff right at the tree line. We could see the water tower of Red Wing and a water tower to the north too. I tried to guess how far we could see. I thought we could see 25 miles in every direction. The hike to the south side of barn bluff was easy. The sun warmed up the soil to the point that the mud became slippery.  Mud clung to my boots.  Prairie grasses added to the mud and pretty soon my boots had mud/grass pancakes on the bottom of them.  On the south side of the bluff the steam from the power plant rose into the air.  As we headed back down the trail head we did not take the way we came. We went down the stairs instead.  We kicked out boots against the cement to knock some of the mud off. After a two hour hike we were back to the car again, pretty proud of ourselves for accomplishing such as feat as hiking barn bluff on a winter day.