August 17, 2025
August 17, 2025
47 degree low; high 66
I went outside at 4am to see the stars and took 4 iPhone pictures while lying on the picnic table. I have no idea what this is.
We were sore and tired from hiking, but it was going to be a sunny day in the 60’s – perfect for a hike. Martha made a hearty breakfast scramble with eggs, bacon, onions, peppers and left over french fries and toast.
I glanced up and saw a beautiful red fox trotting past the trailer, up a little bank and stopped to poop. I quickly grabbed my phone, but he was gone. What’s with the pooping on our site?
We set off to the Nakomis Trail at Old Woman Bay. Some of you with great memories may recall that Nakomis was Hiawatha’s grandmother, who raised him.
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokomis
Nokomis is the name of Nanabozho‘s grandmother in the Ojibwe traditional stories and was the name of Hiawatha‘s grandmother in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow‘s poem, The Song of Hiawatha, which is a re-telling of the Nanabozho stories. Nokomis is an important character in the poem, mentioned in the familiar lines:
By the shores of Gitche Gumee,
By the shining Big-Seawater
Stood the wigwam of Nokomis
Daughter of the moon Nokomis.
Dark behind it rose the forest
Rose the black and gloomy pine-trees
Rose the firs with cones upon them
Bright before it beat the water
Beat the clear and sunny water
Beat the shining Big-Sea-Water.
According to the poem, From the full moon fell Nokomis/Fell the beautiful Nokomis. She bears a daughter, Wenonah. Despite Nokomis’ warnings, Wenonah allows herself to be seduced by the West-Wind, Mudjekeewis, Till she bore a son in sorrow/Bore a son of love and sorrow/Thus was born my Hiawatha.
Abandoned by the heartless Mudjekeewis, Wenonah dies in childbirth, leaving Hiawatha to be raised by Nokomis. The wrinkled old Nokomis/Nursed the little Hiawatha and educates him.
The Nokomis Trail is a 3 mile loop rated moderate taking 1.5 – 3 hours. We figured we could walk 3 miles. The clue was the 3 hours. It is a loop trail taking you up a mountain to beautiful views of Old Woman Bay. We walked it counter-clockwise, which proved to be a good guess. Starting the hike was a round-rock trail through a pretty forest, but you had to stop to look around. There was a lot of reindeer lichen, which woodland caribou love to eat. Unfortunately, they are no longer here, as the wolves and humans have taken their toll.
The path changed to dirt for a steady climb, then to rocks until we climbed to the top for an outlook on a huge boulder. We could see Old Woman Bay, the river and the Trans-Canada highway. On the way down there were two more overlooks and places that looked like filming of “The Last of the Mohicans.” The trail turned very steep going down, so we had to turn around like climbing down a ladder. We were coming down a long, steep stretch and I took a fall. I guess it is part of getting older, but all along I thought about all those hard, sharp rocks and the damage they could do if you slipped or fell. I was coming down, almost to the bottom when Martha reversed her direction. Trying not to run into her, I took a bad step and tumbled to land on my back. Very fortunately, there was no damage. My backpack saved me as there was a sharp rock underneath it. Whew!
I must say I admire the Canadian way of “swim at your own risk.” Hike at your own risk, look over a waterfall at your own risk, or just no sign at all, but you go at your own risk. I like that.
We took 2.5 hours to do the hike, including stops at all the overlook and 10 minutes for Martha to retrieve my hat after I fell. Martha rated the hike a 3.5/5.0 because of all the rocks, but all the young people just frolicked up and down the mountain, and the views are spectacular. A couple of young guys greeted us at the first overlook and Martha said, “I’ll trade you my legs for yours,” and one replied, “I’ll trade for your wisdom.” That brought a smile to her face. We saw our first snake on the trail, but it was going too fast to identify it.
I could have fished the lake in Rabbit Blanket, but the wind was blowing pretty good and I had no legs to hike down the river. Maybe tomorrow.