Us-Kab-Wan-Ka

For ten years I volunteered for the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency by monitoring the  Rum River on the Pleasant Avenue bridge. For nine years I also monitored Coon Creek at the pedestrian overpass just south of the Coon Rapids dam. Both were on my way home from work so it was convenient to take a few extra minutes on my way home to throw my paid over the bridge, haul up some water, and do a few basic measurements. Now that I have moved to Duluth, those streams are too far away. I think I talked a friend into taking that job over. I was in the market for new streams to monitor. None will be on my way home from work anymore so I don't want to go too far. Looking at the map on the website I found a couple streams north of Duluth. Here is a photo of one of the available sites. This is the Cloquet River. When I stopped my car I disrupted a flock of twenty wood ducks who flew away complaining about me. I heard a rooster crow. The house next to the river has a sign that says "fresh eggs for sale." That is convenient! As long as I'm doing one spot it makes sense to do two sites. I tried to find the other nearby site that was marked as a high priority. I stared at the maps. I wrote down directions. The stream I was looking for is the Us-Kab-Wan-Ka river which empties into the Cloquet River. There is supposed to be a road that crosses this hard to pronounce river. I looked. I drove down muddy roads. I turned around and looked again. I finally came to the end of a muddy gravel road only to find a unplowed path leading into the woods and I thought I'm not going down that road. That could be where my monitoring spot is. I will wait until that road is dry and clear before I go down that road. In any case, it should be fun monitoring these news streams.