Geology Of The North Shore

 This morning I drove 30 minutes to the Flood Bay Way Side Rest which is just east of Two Harbors and the Superior Shores resort. I was here for another field trip with the Master Naturalist convention. I was glad I brought my raincoat because we did get some very light rain. It was so nice to see people that I only see once a year at these conventions. Right away we learned that Two Harbors actually has three harbors. Flood Bay harbor faces northeast so it gets the least protection from the strong winds. This bay does have a good sized wetland with it which is sliced down the middle by Highway 61. We learned how the wetlands help Lake Superior and a little about the history of the Ojibway and Dakotah people who lived here prior to European settlement. After walking back from the wetland we returned to the shore and learned about the Lake Superior from the perspective of a limnologist. She told us how the introduction of rainbow trout has decimated the populations of native brook trout. The sea lamphrey problem has pretty much cleared up now. Lake Superior does have a problem with zebra mussels but the lake is so cold the zebra mussels don't stand a chance of thriving here. We heard from a professor of geology and she pointed out the magma flows that form every point of land sticking out into Lake Superior. Each of us received a rock collection box with labeled rocks already in it and a copy of Sparky Stensaas' book Rock Pickers Guide to Lake Superior's North Shore.  We had time to pick rocks and ask her to identify them. Lastly we had a rock skipping contest. I did manage to skip a few rocks and win a prize (everybody won a prize of a bag of M and M's).