![[Lake scene drawing]](http://images.midwestweekend.com/graphics/lake_scene.gif)
If you have money, now is the time to plan a holiday getaway.
Air fares are at historic lows, and hotel rooms always are cheap close to Christmas. And there's a lot going on.
Fly to Chicago to shop at the open-air Christkindlmarket, ice skate in Millennium Park and hear the Apollo Chorus sing “Messiah’’; for more, see Chicago at Christmas.
In Milwaukee, watch fireworks during Christmas in the Ward, see “Plaid Tidings’’ at the Skylight Opera Theatre, tour the decorated Pabst Mansion and see the lights in Cathedral Square (pictured); for more see Milwaukee at Christmas.
November has been unusually warm, but tundra swans and bald eagles are on the move along the Upper Mississippi River, along with the people who love to watch them.
One of the best places to see tundra swans is the observation deck three miles south of Brownsville, off Minnesota 26 in the far southeast corner of the state. Aerial surveys on Nov. 30 counted 10,200 tundra swans in the sloughs near the overlook, which is equipped with spotting scopes and an interpretive kiosk.
There's a second overlook two miles farther south, and a third on the Reno Bottoms. Farther north, around the confluence of the
Zumbro and Mississippi, Weaver Bottoms is a
good place to look.
Rieck's Lake in Alma (pictured), on the Wisconsin side across from Wabasha, is the traditional swan-watcher's hot spot. Sedimentation has reduced numbers, but it's still a good place to see tundra swans up close. Call the hot line, 608-248-3499, for the latest information. For more, see Wings over Alma.
Sometimes, when traveling, it's nice to let someone else run the show.
Someone who reserves those holiday-weekend rooms a year in advance. Someone who plans dinners, gets discounts on lift tickets and organizes transportation. Then, all you have to do is sign up and go.
And the costs can be irresistibly low.
If you'd like to do something fun this winter, now is the time to join an outdoors club. You don't have to live in the town in which the club is based.
After 34 years, the mystery of the Edmund Fitzgerald is debated as hotly as ever.
In 1975, the seemingly indestructible ore freighter foundered in a vicious storm and sunk, carrying its captain and 28 crewmen with it. But why?
Among the theories: The 729-foot boat (pictured) hit a little-known reef and damaged its hull. Its steel and welds were overstressed from its years as a workhorse. It was hit by the Three Sisters, a Lake Superior phenomenon in which two rogue waves strike, followed by a third massive wave that overwhelms the boat as it struggles to recover.
The Fitz left from Superior, Wis., and went down 17 miles from the Michigan coast. Canada has jurisdiction over the wreck, and the captain and much of the crew were from Ohio.
All across the north woods, lodge owners are heaving a sigh of relief: The fall-color rush is over.
But that doesn't mean lodges don't want guests. So they've dropped their rates by up to half until the holiday and ski seasons start.
It's just one reason the last week of October and first week of November is my favorite time to hike on Minnesota's North Shore (pictured, the Brule in late October); also, mud freezes on the trails and curtains of leaves fall back to reveal new views of Lake Superior.
Rates are the lowest until the spring slush season. Rooms start at $45 at good old Cascade Lodge near Lutsen, but this is a good time to try the pricier spots: the East Bay Suites in Grand Marais, where a two-bedroom, two-bath and two-fireplace suite that sleeps six goes for $189 on weekends, or the new Surfside on Superior near Tofte, which has a spa and two-bedroom suites for $155.
Alpine skiing and snowboarding is expensive, without doubt. So if you plan to ski this winter, buy a season pass. Better yet, buy one during the October and November sales.
Hit the hills just five times (Spirit Mountain) to 10 times (Afton Alps) and your pass is paid for.
If you don't buy a pass, you'll still save if you buy online, especially for multi-day passes. Every resort offers many kinds
of specials, so always check in advance.
At Spirit Mountain in Duluth, the "First Time'' pass, for skiers who haven't held a
season pass during the last five years, is only $139 through Oct. 31. Regular passes are $179. Buy one at Spirit
Mountain, and a Giants Ridge pass is $99.
In Itasca State Park, the rates for the Itasca Suites, the newest lodgings in the beloved northern Minnesota park, have been reduced to $99 from now until Memorial Day weekend.
They're near Douglas Lodge in two buildings that sit on either side of a large asphalt parking lot. There's no view, but the
suites are attractively furnished, and they have kitchenettes, large satellite televisions and Internet access. In summer,
they're $132; in winter, they're the only lodgings in the park besides the Mississippi Headwaters Hostel.
For more, see Lodgings in Minnesota state
parks. For more about Itasca, see The people's
park and Itasca in winter.
Hiking the Ice Age Trail: People who want to hike the Ice Age National Scenic Trail across Wisconsin now can get free downloads of descriptions from the Ice Age Trail Companion Guide and general maps. The Companion Guide and the Ice Age Trail Atlas, which contains more detailed maps, are very useful, but together they cost $55.
In Wisconsin, boys like to go fast.
That's why they invented the outboard motor (Cambridge), the Harley-Davidson motorcycle (Milwaukee), the race car (Menomonie) and the snowmobile (Sayner).
Here's where to go to pay homage to your favorite machine.
Sayner, the snowmobile. In the northeast Wisconsin town of Sayner, the Vilas County Historical Society Museum exhibits the 1924 "motor toboggan'' built by Carl Eliason and his models through 1953. In nearby St. Germain, the Snowmobile Hall of Fame shows famous models after Polaris began manufacturing them in 1955.
Are your Halloween plans up in the air? Imagine walking on a cable three stories above the forest floor, with nothing to hang
onto except a rope swaying overhead. Now imagine doing it at night, helped along by ghouls.
That's the Haunted High Ropes course at Eagle Bluff Environmental Learning Center, just west of Lanesboro, Minn., on a bluff overlooking the North Branch of the Root River. It's 6-10 p.m. Oct. 30 in 2009, and the $15 tickets are going fast; call 507-467-2437.
The handsome center, which is known for its excellent food, also is offering a Family Getaway Weekend Oct. 16-17. It's a good
deal; the rate $75 per person youths, includes lodgings in a private room, four meals, the ropes course and programs in
geocaching, rock-climbing and star-gazing. For more, see Escape to Eagle Bluff.
In September and October, hawks fill the skies, swooping down from northern forests and prairies by the thousands.
Experienced birders wait for them on the shores of the Great Lakes and the Mississippi River, counting raptors overhead and banding those they can catch. That's a great opportunity for amateur birders to see a raptor up close. And, unlike eagles and most other birds, they're best viewed in the middle of the day.
In Duluth, raptors are funneled over Hawk Ridge by the vast expanses of Lake Superior, and birders can follow the hawks for several minutes as they pass overhead. Naturalists are on hand every day through October, explaining the migration and offering free weekend programs and hiking tours. People who "adopt'' raptors get to release them after they're banded (pictured).
For more on hawk-watching in Duluth, see Hawk
heaven.
In a picturesque pocket of southeast Minnesota, four unusual venues provide an astonishing amount of music — for those who know about them.
In Red Wing, the jewel-box 1904 Sheldon Theatre is fairly well-known. But then there's also the Music Loft at Hobgoblin Music, in a renovated barn west of Red Wing; the earthy Oak Center General Store, up the bluffs from Lake City; and the Crossings at Carnegie (pictured), the smallest Carnegie library in the state, in Zumbrota.
It's easy to make a weekend of it; each spot is no more than half an hour from another. Tickets are cheaper than in the city; at Oak Center, people pay what they can afford.
Each venue has an interesting story. For details and schedules, see Music on the Mississippi.
It began with a sepulchral fugue, crashing through the frigid iron innards of the ship. Then there was a shriek. And throbbing blood-red lights.
At a fork along a curtained gantlet, a hand-lettered sign advised, "Choose wisely.'' We chose. Another sign said, "You chose
poorly.'' Then the ghouls began to crowd in, chattering like monkeys: "Where you goin'? Where you goin'?''
A skeleton slowly turned to face us. We climbed a Plexiglass ramp over an open coffin and into an electrocution chamber. A tortured face poked out of the wall. Behind us, the tunnel closed.
The terror stretches through October on the Great Lakes. In Duluth, the S.S. William A. Irvin in Duluth becomes a claustrophobe's nightmare. The 610-foot ore carrier once was the Great Lakes flagship of U.S. Steel. But in October, it's taken over by university theater students, who take full advantage of its narrow hallways and rooms full of hidden nooks and crannies, turning the Irvin into the Haunted Ship.
In September and October, artists everywhere throw open their studio doors, inviting the public to see some fall colors along
with some fine art.
It's so tempting because of the scenic landscapes in which so many artists live: the bluffs of northeast Iowa, the coulees of southwest Wisconsin, the towns around Lake Pepin, the lumpy terrain of the Ice Age Trail.
"This is such a pretty area in the fall, and we thought it would be nice to have a tour where people could travel through it,'' says potter Diana Johnston, who helped found southwest Wisconsin's Fall Art Tour, the region's oldest. "It's such an adventure — you've got your map in hand, and you're trying to get where you want to go.''
The tours are free, and many artists demonstrate their craft and provide music and treats. It's not like shopping at the mall.
In September, the stampede to Minnesota's North Shore begins.
Leaf peepers who descend on the craggy shores between Duluth and Grand Marais are out of luck if they didn't reserve far in
advance for weekends between now and Minnesota's long school break, Oct. 15-18 in 2009.
But those who drive a little farther, just an hour beyond Grand Marais, will find everything the Minnesota shore has and more.
Thunder Bay, Lake Superior's largest town, no longer is a great bargain, thanks to the weak U.S. dollar. But in fall, it does
have one thing the North Shore doesn't: plenty of hotel rooms.
Rooms still are available every weekend at the Prince Arthur Waterfront Hotel, where rooms have a killer view of the harbor and the Sleeping Giant. They're not expensive, but you also can pay just $20 per person at the International Hostel, halfway between Thunder Bay and Sleeping Giant Provincial Park.
What to do around Thunder Bay? Hike the Sleeping Giant, see
Kakabeka Falls (pictured), explore Ouimet Canyon, tour Fort William Historical
Park (on Oct. 17-19, the tours are haunted). And eat, of course.
If you're planning to hike along Minnesota's North Shore this weekend, be sure to wear blaze orange.
On Oct. 11 and 12, Minnesota's DNR is holding an early firearms deer season, in addition to the regular firearms season Nov. 8-23. The Lake County section of the Superior Hiking Trail between Two Harbors and Crosby-Manitou State Park near Little Marais is affected, as are parts of the westernmost section, between Jay Cooke State Park and Magney-Snively Park in Duluth.
The Superior Hiking Trail Association closes the Lake County section of the trail for the regular firearms season, but for the early season it is closing only the newest, six-mile section of the trail near Knife River (pictured). For details, check the Conditions section of its web site.
In fall, it's not a bad idea to wear blaze orange or other bright colors while hiking anywhere in the north woods. In September and October, gun hunters are out seeking grouse, bear and moose, and archers hunt deer.
Great River in southwest Wisconsin: Along the Mississippi between Trempealeau National Wildlife Refuge and Onalaska, over bottomlands and bogs.
Central Lakes in
western Minnesota: Between Fergus Falls and Osakis, with lots of prairie wildflowers and birds.
Red Cedar in western
Wisconsin: A serene stretch along the Red Cedar River from Menomonie to the Chippewa River.
Mesabi in northern
Minnesota: A hilly trail (pictured) that passes lots of gorgeous mine-pit lakes between Grand Rapids and Eveleth.
Have you ever wondered who keeps your favorite hiking trail open?
It's not Mother Nature. She's the one downing the trees and making the brush grow over the path.
The U.S. Forest Service and state Department of Natural Resources try to keep many trails open, but they can't do it alone. So, every spring and fall, they count on volunteers to pitch in and help.
In fall, many hiking and outdoors organizations organize trail-clearing trips that combine work with time to enjoy the changing colors in the forest.
