I have to say that I had a pretty good weekend. I got on the road
Friday evening a little latter than planned to go camping but that was not too
big a deal given that I only had to drive about 2+ hours up
the road to Jay
Cooke State Park. This was a solo camping trip for me as the rest of the family
was off on their own adventure.

It is not uncommon for me to arrive in the campground after dark given that I
generally leave after work on Friday evenings. The road leading into Jay Cooke is
a real treat. It is twisting, turning, and in a poor state of disrepair. Generally
I don't care to much about the road conditions given that I
drive a SUV... it was designed for being bounced around. It is a completely different
matter when I
am towing a 2000 lbs trailer going down a narrow twisting road in the dark. I
ended up arriving in the park @ 9:00 which was pretty decent timing.

The check-in process at Jay Cooke was a little different that I am used to with some
of the parks that we have visited this summer. The campground is also a little awkward
to navigate in the dark. When I finally found a spot (I had a reservation... not that
they assigned me a spot )
the temperate was in the low
30's and the ground was very wet from all of the rain early in the day. (Some
nearby family friends indicated that they got 1.25 inches of rain during the day.)
The temperature got down into the 20's overnight. The furnace in the camper did a
good job of keeping the temperature something a bit more comfortable. I have a nice
mummy sleeping back that is rated for 35 degrees. I figure that I would throw a couple
of blankets on top and set the furnace for about 55 degrees. I was a bit cold overnight
and opted to buy a new sleeping bag in Duluth. I now own a 6 lbs bag rated for 0 degrees.
I can say that I was too warm in the bag until the temp dropped into the 20's
Saturday night. (I actually shut the furnace off Saturday night while sleeping.)

Over the leaves were still very challenging for photos this weekend. The
colors range from green to orange to red. A lot of leaves are simply falling
to the ground without changing colors. It was a pretty windy weekend which makes my
still of photography much more challenging. I did manage to take some decent photos
and I will try to get them posted on the website in the next day or two.

I also managed to spend a little of time riding
my bike on the Munger Trail which
is near my campsite. I would like to make a big effort to ride my bike next year.
I am hoping to be able to bring bikes for our entire family on these trips next year.
It would be fun to ride the Munger
Trail from Carlton to Duluth and
back. Jacob and Ben are getting big enough that they will tolerate short rides...
now they need to be conditioned for some longer rides.

I had a good time with the photography and bike riding. I actually took it easy and
got some rest while I was up there. I got on the road shortly after breakfast Sunday
morning. I returned home around 1pm. I took the opportunity to clean out the trailer,
do some laundry, do some dishes, clean the chimney, fix some of the concrete on top
of chimney, and do a little bit of work on the home network.