January 10th, 2009 Winter Trails Day with REI at Ft. Snelling State Park

I took the kids to “Winter Trails Day with REI” at Fort Snelling State Park.  They had a large number of demo’s, groups (Everyone from the Minnesota Rovers, to Skijoring groups with huskies).  REI brought every pair of rentals it owns, along with a couple of snowshoe vendors, and about half the visitors packed theirs for naturalist guided tours.  Most people strapped on a pair and walked around from station to station.  Some of the stations were geocaching, cold weather camping, animal tracks, building snow forts, cross country skiing, along with various vendors.  We hit about every single station, I can’t name one we did not hit.  Ali very impressively got every single animal track correct where she would match up a mold of an animal track to the animal that made it and they were not the typical squirrel/dog tracks either, Ali initially had the Eagle/Turkey tracks reversed but, recognized their the eagle’s talons.  I grilled a ranger if they had any snow owl’s in the park but, he had said about the only thing he could offer since he worked St. Paul is they picked two off of streets/highways last month (snow owl versus vehicle, never would have thunk it being an issue).  The naturalists were pretty busy giving tours and being mobbed by people but, they had the stations laid out pretty well.  Inside the shelter was a large fire, hot chocolate, and an impressive array of stacks of brochures and maps.  When we arrived home the kids threw themselves down on the ground in front of the new but temporary Christmas Tree we have planted out in our front yard.

no comments yet.

January 7th, 2009 Rice Park

After a photography get together in Edina, I hit Rice Park in St. Paul for a quick walk through the park.  I had wanted to go check out the lights for a couple of years.  It was about five degrees out with a slight breeze?  I am sure I will return for winter carnival.  The rest of St. Paul was really lit up with some of the bigger attractions hopping with the rest of the city mostly in hiding.  The State Capital and Cathedral almost caught me on my way back home in addition to another half dozen hot spots on the brief 5 block drive through town to/from I-35E.

1 comment.

January 4th, 2009 SubZero Hike at Blackdog

The temperature was pushing 1 degree out with wind chills of -10 to -15 below the kids were content with video games but, it was sunny out so we went for a hike.  The kids naturally layer with wind resistant outer gear (were working on it).  I hit Blackdog Road, checking out various spots along the way, nothing.  We stopped at the East end of Blackdog Lake got out and walked the trail.  10 or so Swans out on the lake.  The warm water from the power plant generated ground level condensation (fog, clouds) producing a pretty cool effect, a decent number of waterfowl were swimming around in the heated dense fog rising from the water.  I kept asking the kids if their fingers, faces, toes were getting cold, nope, not a once did they say yes.  We turned around at the State Park parking lot, usually we pass the swamp and turn around at the train tracks on the East end of Blackdog.  On our way back Ali spotted an Eagle across the river, I pulled over, let the kids sit in the heated car, it took about 10 minutes until it took to the air.  On the West end parking lot I spotted a pair of Eagles in the tree.  After another 10 minutes or so we were off to the wild bird store to top off our feeders.

2 comments.

December 28th, 2008 More Eagles

I was originally going to take my kids to the Wabasha area but, it was a pretty windy today so opted for some Eagles a couple blocks South of me in the Minnesota River Valley.   I chatted briefly with two other photographers, both had prime’s/Canon a 500mm(a monster, I could not afford to even rent one) and a 400mm.  The kids were getting a bit board after setting up in two spots so we packed up and took the 5 minute drive home.

no comments yet.

December 28th, 2008 Minnesota River

I took a quick drive down Blackdog road and back, I saw 4 eagles, a hawk, some pelicans, and a swan.  I ran into a Father/Daughter pair who almost slid into the River.  They were driving up to the River bank near a the West end of the dam and it was a slight grade towards the River glaze ice, they hit the brakes, things started going in slow motion thinking they would plunge off the size and into the River but, were able to stop in the snow but, were entirely stuck.  I gave them my phone to call his wife for a tow out but, he had the keys to the other vehicle, so I gave them a ride home cutting my trip short a bit early.  I was going to head to the Cedar Bridge side where the water is open and just setup a tripod.  I have the day off tommorow, I am thinking about taking the kids down to Wabasha tommorow for a few hours.

Handheld @ 400mm (644mm with crop factor, overexposed & shutter speed was way too slow for handheld shots at 400mm).

no comments yet.