Celebrating Scientific Research in a Bog, Grand Rapids MN (July 28, 2014)

The Place

Deep inside the Chippewa National Forest quietly resides the Marcell Experimental Forest where scientists from government agencies and universities monitor and conduct studies about the environment, forestry, soils, hydrology and climate.  One such experiment is looking at the effect of temperature changes in a beautiful bog there.  Leslie’s fiancé, Natalie, is one of the scientists doing research there and she gave us a tour of part of the study area. 

Peat in its Natural Form

In our tour, we learned that a bog is a wetland area where the water is provided by rainfall (not a natural stream or other water source) and that the water doesn’t really run off, it just hangs around.  This bog is the home to Spruce and Tamarack trees; cranberries, blueberries, and other shrubs; and a variety of mosses. The organic matter decays and compacts and becomes peat – which has been burned to heat homes (particularly in historical novels) and can be purchased (after it has been dried) as peat moss from the garden store to supplement your garden soil.  And here I thought that bogs were only where ogres like Shrek lived.

The (Soon-to-Be) Mighty Mississippi

Grand Rapids has two claims to fame that are perhaps more well-known.  The town gets its name from rapids located in the Mississippi River that runs through town.  They have built a hydroelectric dam at the fall line.  The river is quite narrow here and very different looking from the powerful river that bisects our country further south.  Perhaps more importantly to some, Grand Rapids is the birthplace of Judy Garland.  They have her childhood home and a museum in town, and a mural of the Wizard of Oz crew painted on the side of a building.

The Adventure

The research that Natalie and other scientists are working on is in the beginning phases.  Scientists are still gathering baseline data, and building the structures where they will conduct the experiments.  When it is completed, they hope that over the next 10 years to be able to record the effect of increased temperatures and increased levels of carbon dioxide in the bog.  They are isolating sections of the bog with domes over them, and walls running many feet into the soil.  They will heat the different sections to different temperatures above the ambient temperature and document what happens.  They will measure the changes in gasses and chemicals in the air and in the water.  They will measure how quickly roots grow.  They will record changes to the plants.  And that is just a sampling of the many, many experiments that are being conducted in these carefully created sections of the bog.

 

Why are they doing this?  They want to understand what will happen to plant life with increases in temperature and carbon dioxide.  They are looking at the vulnerability to these organisms to climate change.  

What we saw was very serious science on a grand scale.  It covers a large area, and each of the sections have been meticulously designed and engineered.  While the project is managed by the US Government, universities are able to put their related experiments into each section as well.  There is a lot of collaboration and sharing of data and ideas.  This is truly science for the greater good.  If you would like to learn more about this project – here is their website http://mnspruce.ornl.gov/

A Pitcher Plant in a Nearby Fen, Which is Different from a Bog

Rugged and Glorious Copper Harbor, MI [Lake Superior] (July 25-27, 2014)

The Place

If you look at a map of Lake Superior, it is shaped sort of like a hand shadow puppet that we used to make in front of the light of a projector.  It has a long skinny nose that were our fingers, and a lower “jaw” that was our thumb.  That point of land that sticks out in between is the Keewenaw (pronounced Key-won-awe) Peninsula.  It is an 85 mile long mountain range that sticks out into Lake Superior and was the location from 1840-1965 of mining the most pure copper found in the world.  It goes as far north as you can go in Michigan, and has the two cities (one of them being Copper Harbor) where boats can take you to the legendary Isle Royale National Park 50-70 (depending on the city) miles away across Lake Superior.  The area’s big claim to fame is that it averages over 300 inches of snow a year.  At one point on the road you pass a huge sign demonstrating how much snow that actually is.

At the tip of the Keweenaw is the town of Copper Harbor.  Copper Harbor has a beautiful, huge, completely sheltered natural harbor. It was used to ship the copper to major cities along the Great Lakes.  The town fathers say that the early days of the copper rush were a time of “whiskey and whiskers” and the town of Copper Harbor prospered.   To control the lawlessness of this remote frontier, the US Army built Fort Wilkins in Copper Harbor. 

Copper Harbor is rugged and seemingly untouched.  You drive for 30 miles through hardwood and birch forests to get to the town.  Occasionally you see the ruined buildings of an abandoned mine or a pile of the tailings from the mine peeking through the trees.  Copper Harbor has Lake Superior on one side, mountains on the other, and a cute inland lake (Lake Fanny Hooe) in the middle of town just 4 blocks from Lake Superior.  There are about 10 motel/cottage complexes in town and 4 or 5 restaurants.  On Friday evenings they have an Art Crawl where the dozen or so artists and galleries in town have an open house to sell their wares.  There are mountain biking/hiking/cross country skiing/snowshoe trails originating in town and fanning out throughout the area.  On the weekend that we were there, there were a huge number of young people mountain biking and kayaking.  Copper Harbor is a happening place!

The Adventure

We were in Copper Harbor for about 36 hours, and over the course of that managed a kayak paddle, a long bike ride and a trip to the restored fort.  We set off in the morning to kayak Lake Fanny Hooe.  Our campsite was across the street from the lake, and the town map showed a stream or canal that connected it to the harbor and Lake Superior.  The morning dawned cool and drizzly, but most of it had burned off by the time we set out in our kayaks.  Then, as we were kayaking along a dense fog bank closed in on us.  Fortunately, we were close to shore and were never in danger.  We came around a bend and the fog lifted to reveal that we were next to the Fort, and there were re-enactor soldiers preparing to shoot cannons out over the lake, we had heard them shoot earlier that morning.  We decided it was time to return home rather than become cannon fodder.  Within a short time of our reaching home, the fog cleared and we had a bright, sunny day.

 

So, we set out on our bicycles to explore the town and harbor and Fort.  The beaches are made of pebbles that are a distinctive red color, and across the harbor is a beautiful lighthouse.  The highlight of our tour through town was a stop at the Berry Patch where they serve the most delicious ice cream sundaes in the world. Sadly, the photo shows only half of the wonderfulness because we had already eaten half by the time we took the picture. 

 We finished off the day with a copper colored sunset over Copper Harbor. 

Once again we have more pictures than text.  So, please continue to scroll down through the photos.

The Beautiful Cliffs of Pictured Rocks Lakeshore [Lake Superior] (July 23-25, 2014)

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The Place

The western end of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore has the 15 miles of cliffs that give the Lakeshore its name.  These sandstone cliffs reach up to 200 feet high and are vividly colored with minerals carried in water that has run down the cliffs.  They have been eroded by water, ice and wind over the millennia into interesting shapes and formations.  The Pictured Rocks are best viewed from the water.  After all, from the land you would be on top looking down…

Munising is the town on the western edge of the National Lakeshore.  It has a beautiful bay with an enormous island (appropriately named Grand Island) at the mouth of the bay.  The island blocks some of the winds and waves, so while we have been here the bay has been very calm.  The Munising Tourist Park campground, where we are staying, is right on the bay’s edge.  I am looking at a beautiful view of the water and the island right now.  The campers gather at the water’s edge to view the sunset each evening.

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The Adventure

First, we drove through the length of the National Lakeshore to get to Munising.  We stopped at the 500 long and very steep “Log Slide” that loggers used to push logs down the 300 foot sand dunes (mentioned in the previous post) to the Lake below to be towed to a sawmill in Grand Marais.  The view from the Log Slide is spectacular.  The central part of the National Lakeshore is a wilderness area, and the road curves outside of it.  We didn’t go in.    You can access the Pictured Rocks from the road at the Miners Castle and Miners Beach.  The name Miners refers to the Miners River which enters the Lake at this point as well.  Miners Castle is a beautiful turret overlooking the bay.  Miners Beach is a beautiful sand beach
.To view the pictured rocks from the water, we took a kayak tour along the cliffs.  The weather was perfect with calm winds and cloudless skies.  The water was a bright Caribbean blue!  The cliffs are beautiful!  They have red markings from iron, white from calcium, and blue and green stripes from copper.  In many places there are light sheets of water trickling down the face of the cliffs.  We went into a cave where it was “raining” water through the ceiling of the cave.  So much fun!

We passed the Bridal Veil Falls, the tallest waterfall in the Park.  It can only be viewed from the water.  We also passed through Kissing Rock, where a huge rock has fallen off close to the cliff, yet appears to be a face kissing another face on the cliff.  You can float in your kayak under the kisses.  We also passed a huge rubble pile where a part of the cliff fell off this spring.  The ice this winter had weakened that section of cliff.

Not pictured here, we also passed over a shipwreck in 25 feet of water.  The water was so clear that you could see the individual boards on the wreck.

This place is so photogenic that there are a lot of pictures in this post.  We hope you enjoy them!

Faces kissing at Kissing Rock

Kissing Rock Pass Through