Up North

While taking a quick trip to the north woods this past June, the weather was cold and unsettled. For the duration of the trip it was mainly rain with highs in the low 60’s. Spring or fall weather, but definitely not what one would expect in mid to late June. But, that seems to be how the weather goes in the northern part of the state, if the sun does not come out, the temperatures do not rise. While Camping in July a number of years ago at Pattison State Park, the trip was nothing but clouds, rain, and you guessed it cold weather. I think the temperature never pushed above the mid 50’s. While in the north woods this past June, my sister and her husband were beginning a one week vacation and she commented to our nephew, who lives in the north woods, that she was hoping that the one week of summer they experience would be present for their vacation week. Given the clouds and cold that Sunday, chances were slim.

Wren Falls, in the middle of somewhere

This comment came to mind while my wife and I were camping up north in the middle of August. For a good half of the trip the weather was cold, cloudy and rainy. Even the sunny days were so windy that a chill was present, perhaps a harbinger of the coming autumn. Thus, is the contradiction of up north. In the north woods, trees had hints of turning their leaves, down south only distressed trees were starting to turn. We visitors to the north tend to wear shorts and short sleeve shirts. Natives seem to wear long pants and long sleeved, if not flannel, shirts. Flannel is in fashion in more than Minnesota. Up north provides a different culture from that in the southern part of the state. Here we see businesses watering their lawn, up north we saw businesses, mainly milling operations, watering their log piles. Down south deer and turkeys are now rather common, up north it is deer, but also loons and bears. Down south we have pedestrian crossings, up north near Clam Lake they have elk crossings. Down south our Madison lakes are choked with weeds so that, as an acquaintance of mine commented, they have to “mow” the lakes. Urban and agricultural use have flooded our waters with phosphorus and nitrogen, just to mention two of the pollutants.  Plants that bloom in the south, such as Indian Paintbrush, in early July, are blooming near Clam Lake in mid-August.  Down south you may need air conditioning, even during the night; you generally do not need air conditioning in the north woods; even on hot days it seems to cool down in the evening. After all the sun is no longer in the sky, and as shown by the first paragraph—no sun no warmth.

Maple leaf near Wren Falls

In the north woods on a cloudy day with rain you can visit water falls. Down south on a rainy day you may be in a museum. Each area of the state has its own distinct methods and systems, some being more enjoyable than the others. Of course, if want to grow a garden most warm weather crops will do quite nicely in the southern part of the state, but in the north woods you likely will need a green house for some warm weather crops--think squash and peppers. On our recent camping trip I was surprised to see some dairy farms up near Ashland, perhaps the lake effect moderates some of the temperatures because seldom do you see field corn being grown north of Highway 8. While hay is grown, they likely do not get the number of cuttings that are prevalent in the southern half of the state.

Indian Paintbrush in our campsite

In the southern part of the state most local roads, thanks to the dairy industry, are paved. Not so up north—most are gravel, if not dirt. Roads seem to lack much truck traffic but the truck traffic they do have moves fast and splays stones on to your car breaking the windshield. Yes, that happened on our camping trip on a newly chip sealed road with its multitude of pea gravel. However, the biggest difference I noticed was in traffic management. While a state highway was being slurry sealed on a 10 mile stretch we needed to wait about one half hour to advance beyond the man with the stop sign. I had never seen a lead “patrol” car to follow before in all my years of driving in construction zones, but there it was up north just east of Mellen. Perhaps we had just missed the lead car when we arrived, but even though travelling on the non-chip sealed side, the patrol car speed never got up past 25 mph on the state highway. A new driving experience. Down south, the traffic backup for such a long wait would have been, well let us say, catastrophic--the area would have been shut down, even with more route opportunities. I will not even touch on the slang or the accents of natives to the region.

Mom Bear

The north woods is not a state of mind, it is a state of presence in a geography,both physical and cultural, that is rather distinct from its southern brother. Each part of the state has unique contributions. The north is dependent upon the agricultural and economic power of the southern part of the state, the southern part likes to vacation, hunt and fish in its northern part, not to mention the use of some of its resources. Urbanization powers wealth.  Years ago, the north felt disconnected from the south, and there was talk of that area combining with the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to form a 51st state called Superior. It would have been superior in trees and lakes, but definitely not in population, economic output, or other measures of civilization. There is nothing wrong with each being dependent upon the other as long as one side does not take the other for granted. As for me, I take a look at the weather tonight, and in McFarland at 8:30 pm it is 78, while in Clam Lake it is 66. As humid as it is, Clam Lake appears pretty good right now. The larger question is question is how many more blog posts I can get out of our camping trip to Clam Lake?