Murdock Muse
May-June 2005, Part 4

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Hidden Falls, late March Enlarged picture and mini video at Darrel's website Darrel climbs at Palisade Head Enlarged picture in photo gallery Kathy films falls in Caribou River Enlarged picture in photo gallery

ST. CROIX Darrel Murdock March 21: After last weekend we had really finished up with the winter waterfalls, and weren't sure what to do until the Spring brought them back to life. We decided that it might be a good time to take a look at the mighty St Croix River again. We had crossed it and snapped it plenty in the fall, in fact the Interstate slide show and the Fall Colors slide show both featured the large river that runs between Minnesota and Wisconsin. We loved the views from the high bluffs so much that those pictures became some of our first non-waterfall offerings, in fact. So we headed straight east to the border, then drove up along the river looking for possible views on the way to Interstate Park, where we would hope to find some hikeable paths to the bluffs and the giant potholes. It turned out a little differently than we planned, but we were anything but disappointed with what we did find. One rest stop along the way had some stairs that led down to the 'beach' at the bottom of some very interesting red layered sandstone cliffs. After walking past a large 'cave' that could host a banquet inside I thought I heard some trickling, like a small falls or something. It turned out to be one of the underground springs that were rumored to exist along the St Croix. I was fascinated, as I had never seen one before. The next interesting spot was in the little town called Marine on St Croix that didn't look like much until we went to take a picture of the town church with bell atop and noticed a little teeny bridge nearby. A closer look revealed a small creek tumbling down a hill, under that little walk-bridge then disappearing under the street and reappearing as a cascading waterfalls on the other side. Nice bonus, I thought. We arrived at our final destination with plenty of time before the sunlight turned to twilight, so we stopped by the canoe/beach area at Interstate Park and were greeted by the sound of Canadian Geese honking as they flew over the deep blue river from the still-icy edge. The paths to the bluffs didn't look too inviting, so after a few snaps we decided to head down the road to another section of the park that had the giant potholes. The road into that section had been chained off, so we decided to park in a paddleboat landing lot and take a look around. We found some great big rocks to climb around on and get some excellent views of the river. We could see the bridge that joined the two states, and a bend in the river made for some cool rapids before it squeezed through the deep gorge. The weather gave us a round of blue sky with puffy whites to go with the scenic shots, then the wind picked up just in time for the snapping of the rapids as I eagerly climbed down the bouldered ravine by the bridge to get a closer look. Once again, we had expected only a little but had gotten a lot. TEMPERANCE RIVER STATE PARK Darrel Murdock April 6: It took three visits and a whole lot of editing to produce this slide show of one of the most unique locations in Minnesota, the Temperance River State Park. The deep gorges are hard to get at and the shading makes photography quite difficult, but we finally succeeded (I think) in capturing some of the finer points of this great place. Photos: http://d21c.com/AAALynx/waterfalls.html Let me know if you agree. Does it make you wish you were there? Yes Meredith, I know you could skip the winter visit. And I can't picture my mother leaning over the ravines, either. But aren't you glad we did? SPRING ROARS Author March 30: We had taken so many pictures of freezing and frozen waterfalls that my screensaver slide show was now dominated by them. I wanted to see the roaring waterfalls and rapids of the Spring meltdown so desperately that I was dreaming about it. Kathy had captured a flash flood at Nerstrand on March 6, and when I went just two days later, eager to see the Hidden Falls kickin', they had been flash frozen, the entire ravine had turned to glass. Cool pictures indeed, but no thunder! It had warmed up into the low seventies, so I thought I would see if the Hidden Falls was running again yet. On the way there I missed a turn and ended up finding a dam falls at the quaint historic town of Northfield that was on the large Cannon River. I was thrilled to see that the high river was absolutely violently smashing into the lower waters at the dam. The river right before the falls, smooth as glass, was hosting happy mallard ducks and I observed three males chasing one female as I was taking video clips. I used the zoom for some still shots, too. After using way too much digital memory excitedly capturing all this action, I noticed the small city had several large, old magnificent buildings up the hill. We are going to have to come back here on a sunny day, I thought. But it was time to see what I could see at the original destination, Nerstrand's Hidden Falls. When I arrived there I could hear running water all around me. All the little gorges leading into the big one were filled with gurgling icy brooks and the one-mile path to the falls had very little ice on it, and a lot of water. Several times I had to hop over small streams that were racing down the steep hill over the trail. Halfway down the path I could already hear the thundering of Hidden Falls and found it very difficult to keep from running the rest of the way. When I arrived at the falls I was treated to quite possibly the best views I will ever see there. Hidden Falls was gushing copper-tinted water from one side to the other, highlighting its nuances with constant cascades and crashing into the icy pool below. HELL'S GATE Darrel Murdock We wanted to try and get some more rapids like we had seen at St Croix River (finally) the weekend before, so we chose Banning State Park further north, with the Kettle River and its turbulent Hell's Gate. We had hoped to be able to walk on the trail there, and were surprised to see not only had the snow melted but the trail was quite dry, even. Eagerly we almost ran to see what the kayakers' toughest stretch of the Kettle River looked like after the thaw. We had been to Hell's Gate in lower water before, thinking it was called that simply due to the big rocks that jutted out over the river at this narrow point, that could take your head off if you weren't watching. As this video clip illustrates, there is another reason why it is called Hell's Gate that is much more apparent in the Spring. It starts with capital R and ends in apids, can you guess what it is? AMNICON STATE PARK Darrel Murdock The same day that we were so fortunate at Banning, we also wanted to see if any of our Lake Superior waterfalls had thawed out yet. Since it was relatively close, we chose a Wisconsin State Park that we had visited only in Winter, the last time just two weeks before this. It had looked like a small river with a couple of moderate falls that had cute covered walking bridges near them. But we were so surprised by what we saw when we got there that I completely forgot where we were. That raging river looked like the Black River at Pattison State Park, that fed the mighty Manitou falls. I couldn't figure out where they had moved the parking lot to until I realized this was the Amnicon River. We had come at a perfect time! The Spring thaw had caused a major surge that moved down the river as a swell, causing the 10-inch deep ice on top to explode in its path. The river was practically on top of itself as it raced under the bridges and over the falls. Turbulence was the rule, and the water was thundering so hard that the mist was everywhere. We had hoped for some rapids and maybe even a mostly-thawed out waterfall or two when we planned this trip. We ended up with some of the most dramatic video footage ever, and some of the coolest pics, too. It actually had surpassed not only our expectations, but even our imaginations had to raise the bar after this shoot. http://d21c.com/AAALynx/amnicon/index.html GOOSEBERRY FALLS REVISITED Kathy Skow April 10: Amnicon, we are finding, wasn't as rare a find as we thought. This past weekend we went to Gooseberry Falls. You were there, Jason, last summer and most likely it was not a hot spot. Well, it is but it's not, if you get my drift. Today being Saturday and warm, that is where we found ourselves. The rivers were overflowing their banks in the evening, when just that morning all was calm. The rivers were non-stop violence. Yes, Nancy, I won't let Darrel get too daring. Enjoy your week, everyone. SPLIT ROCK ROCKS! Darrel Murdock Split Rock River was a trickler when we visited last fall, so we hoped it would be amped up enough to look like it belonged with the Arrowhead Waterfalls. We were not disappointed! I climbed up about halfway and shot a video clip. LATEST ADVENTURES Roy Murdock March 28: Sounds like you guys will be quite busy in the next few months. We drove to Minnesota. I rented a 2005 Chevrolet Trailblazer. Had a very nice time, as I mentioned. Didn't get to see Darrel this trip but we intend to connect with him around Thanksgiving this year. Khendra is in a spelling bee tomorrow evening, representing her college, Missouri Southern State University. It will be on T.V. Then, on Wednesday, I'm heading to our corporate office in Omaha, NE, for a spring purchasing conference. My latest adventure is playing online chess. I play at a site that has 156,000 members from around the world and I am currently ranked # 56!! Of course all the top players are getting assistance from their chess computers so I can't claim any special brain power. But it's still rewarding because there is a lot of strategy involved. March 29: We just got back from the spelling bee and Khendra did great! Unfortunately, we didn't know what channel it was on so we were unable to tape it. Each team had three players and they could consult on each word. Unfortunately the other two on Khendra's team couldn't spell very well so Khendra ended up having to spell each word by herself. She made it into the semi-finals and single-handedly took on a three person team from the local newspaper, including the proofreader and editor. She tied with them after four rounds and they went into "sudden death" overtime. Khendra finally lost on some word we've never heard of and can't remember what it was, and the other team went into the finals. We didn't stay for the finals so we don't know who ended up winning. It was great!! Khendra and I both enjoyed it very much!!! She intends to compete again next year. THE TRAVELERS ARRIVE Bob Murdock On their way back to New Hampshire from Arizona, Margery and Jack Aukstikalnis planned a stop near Baltimore so they could visit with us. They had found a shopping center in Catonsville (about three miles from us) that accommodated their mobile home nicely, so that's where we met them. But there was enough space in our own parking lot that day, so we came back here to visit. Of course the first order of business was to show them Nan's art gallery of quilted wall hangings and framed acrylic and watercolor paintings. "WOW! You really are talented!" said Margery, as she admired a watercolor of some CA lemons. "Thank you!" said Nan, as she took the painting from the wall. "It's yours, if you have room for it!" Margery said they did, and Jack assured us there was plenty of room in their RV and it wouldn't fall on them or interfere with the driving. For lunch Nan had made a pasta salad and a fresh fruit compote, and we offered choices of ice cream for dessert. "I'll have some of each," said Jack. Now there's a guy who's easy to please! We all enjoyed eating together and lots of good chit-chat. Before they left, they took us inside the RV. We were amazed at how much living space there was, all cleverly arranged and outfitted. "It's a lot more when we open up the expandable sides," they said. Then they departed for a nearby campground, for a good night of sleep before an early start on the last long leg of their trip. It had been a great visit. Top / Muse Home / Who's Who / What's New