A Quick Trip to Southwest State Parks

First the bad news

We decided to make a quick trip to Blue Mound State Park but since it was so hot and humid we tried to get a camper cabin in the area.  There were a couple available in Lake Shetek State Park.

There is one thing to note for those of you that want to do same day reservation on line or by phone, it is not possible for camper cabins.  Being retired and attempting to spend my money wisely I waited until Tuesday morning to reserve for that night.  Logged on to the site and guess what!?!? You can't do same day reservations for camper cabins.  No where on the website does it say this.  I called the reservation line and was again told I couldn't reserve.  I filed a calm complaint with the nice person that was helping me and asked to talked to the supervisor.

My job BR (before retirement) was customer service it's always better to take a complaint up a level. Supervisors seem to note and maybe act on a complaint more than when you pass it on to them.

If you get to your destination and the park office is open you can get a camper cabin.  Since there were 3 available at Lake Shetek we were fairly sure there would be one open by the time we got there. And there was!

Now the good news and it's all good

I fell in love with another park!  What a beautiful park in the middle of the prairie. It's parks like this that make me so proud of Minnesota's park system.

This a a large park on Lake Shetek.  Shetek is the Ojibwe word for pelican.  Around the lake it is wooded and of course Oak savannas.  I could spend a day doing nothing but look at oak trees.  I love the designs and shapes of a single tree or an entire grove.  July is good month to visit the prairie since it is awash with color!

There was a severe weather watch out for the area so we decided to stay in the area and not travel down to Blue Mound SP until the next day.  We lucked out with only a 10 minute downpour and tiny hail.  When it passed we decided to do a drive through of the park.  The camping area on the lake is shaded but they do have the Sunrise campground and there you can get all the sun you would desire.

We ran across this deer which I have taken the liberty of naming this deer Long Neck.  She was very friendly and we thought she was going to come up to the car but she decided to stay away.  I wondered if Mary and Dan make regular trips down to this park.

What better photo to take on a prairie but a panorama.  I took this one because in the far distance you can see the Buffalo Ridge.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Ridge

The Prairie has such interesting weather. After the short storm it basically clear out maybe about 30 - 40 minutes after the above shot I took this one. These clouds never made it to where we were.  They disappeared as fast as they appeared.

On the way down we saw numerous dead raccoons on the highway.  Doug commented that if they weren't careful they may become an endangered species.  We saw this live family in a soy bean field near the park.  There were actually 4 young ones.  The 2 in the photo are waiting for them to catch up before they really took off.

I would say that this park is a 5 star park.  Go if you get a chance.  We will be going back when we can stay longer.

Blue Mounds State Park

In the morning we went to Blue Mound State Park.  We went to see the bison and some of the blooming cactus. We were incredibly lucky here too, the bison were at the viewing stand.  Right at the stand they put out some sort of powder that the Bison like to roll in so these are not white bison but bison all powdered up.  We were able to watch them for about 30 minutes before they all wandered off.

Admiration

Heads or Tails

The Big Guy

Unfortunately, Doug found no blooming cactus. There seemed to be fewer cacti than Doug remembers.

I had to keep telling myself that this is a rocky prairie but if it weren't for this bison it is not a park I want to go back to.  The park currently has an ecoli issue with the water so there is no water available for the campers.  The DNR recently decided not a replace a dam that formed the only lake in Rock County.

 I'll rate this one 2-1/2 stars out of five. *

Split Rock Creek State Park

This is a small park between Pipestone and Blue Mounds.  It is a quiet park and the campground is fairly shaded.   Not much to do but relax.  Who doesn't need a get away just to relax.

I'm rating this a 3.*

Camden State Park

Because of a detour we took a different way home and found Camden State Park near Marshall, MN.
We did a quick drive through and would  diffidently go back to the lower campground.  I think this would be a good place to go for fall colors.  We saw a couple more baby raccoons in a tree.  I doubt if they will be on the endangered list any time soon!

Since I haven't stayed there I can only rate this one a 4.*

* These are just my opinions and they may change if I actually camped at the park.

Geri and Doug

Meeting Notes from June 2016

The June meeting was chaired by President Geri Fenton. 

We extend a hearty FSSPCC welcome to special guest, Gordon, from the National Park Service.  The National Parks will team up with FSSP to celebrate jointly the 100^thanniversary of the national parks and the 125^th anniversary of the state parks.

Kao update – 125^th anniversary of Minnesota State Parks (based on the date Itasca State Park was established).  There will be a celebration on June 11 at the beach, which has been open and closed as needed because of bacteria in the water.  Check out the Naturalist Programs and Activities webpage for upcoming naturalist events at FSSP. 

Additional information from the Fort Snelling State Park website:

·       Highway 5 Bridge Deck Reconstruction:  Traffic on the Hwy 5 bridge remains single lane for both directions. There will continue to be occasional ramp closures that may impact your visit to the park. For current information about this project: mndot.gov/metro/projects/hwy5/

·       The Parks and Trails division of the Minnesota DNR is looking for input from both current and potential visitors to help shape the future of the state park and trail system. Share your feedback and ideas by visiting our website: mndnr.gov/patfeedback

Show-n-Tell

Kipp showed photographs of orbs, aka ghosts/spirits, which he found when photographing the upper fort clock tower.  At first glance they appear to be sun flare, but Kipp couldn’t identify anything at the time that would cause reflections or sun flare.  One of the orbs even appeared to have faces in it - eerie!

Baby owls have left the nests but can still be found in the same area, maybe also across the road toward the backwaters. (I missed who shared this tidbit, but thank you for sharing!)

Patti reported there is an accessible Great Egret rookery in Fergus Fall.  Some of the babies have hatched already with prime time possibly in the next couple of weeks.

Doug brought along a480GB SSD, a portable hard drive that connects to your laptop or computer with a standard USB port.  These are on sale at B&H for $150.  Smaller drives also available.  The drive was about the size of a square deck of playing cards and half as thin – very convenient for travelers (like maybe anyone going on a long train ride J) or even great for saving space at home.

John shared a great sale item – MicroCenter has the Canon EOS Rebel T5 on sale for $300 with a free bag and two lenses.  This normally sells for $750.

Owl update from Dan - All 4 of the owls have been on the ground at dusk looking for night crawlers.  The owls have split up, but start screeching/screaming around dusk time which is how you can find them.  Bring a flash for your camera as it gets very dark in the woods at dusk.

John C shared photos of the Lillydale eaglets – it is amazing how quickly they grow!

The Afton bison are back!  More info here.

Harlan – continuing to work on the Dakota language project.  He has also created a game, similar to concentration, where students pick cards with animal photos and say the Dakota words that describe the photos. 

Krista reported that Keller Lake in Maplewood is home to an accessible eagle’s nest.

Dan and Mary shared elk photos from their recent visit to Clam Lake. They saw bulls, cows, and yearlings – everything one could hope for!

Please use our blog!  If you weren’t aware, FSSPCC has a blog – see it here and take a look at some of the recent posts.  You are invited to post interesting photos or stories, especially flora or fauna from the park, park events, club events, travelogues, or just nature in general.  The blog is easy to use, you just need to be granted permission by emailing the club (email address below).  You can set it so you automatically get notified whenever there is a new posting.  We will start posting meeting notes on the blog, too.

The St. Croix Valley Camera Club will be hosting their own PIP (photos in the park) on Saturday, September 24^th.  Word has it they are patterning it after our PIP!  Watch for details.

John Plut was our June speaker and shared information about the off-set printing world.  John’s dad owned The Leader, the newspaper for the town of Le Center in Le Sueur County - and John’s first job was working at the paper.  Ever since he has been in the printing business – going on 30 years and he still finds it interesting and engaging.  John especially enjoys the work when he gets to print art.

John’s print process is called “off-set” because the plate cylinders spread ink to the blanket cylinders which then spread it to the paper.  John can control the color of a photo while it’s being printed.  He showed samples of how the different colors of ink look when printed by themselves, and then how they look with all the colors together.  As you can imagine, color can really affect the final look of an image so it is very important to get it right.  John brought along a line tester which magnifies the ink so you can actually see the individual ink dots – very cool.  John prints mostly in CMYK – yellow, magenta, cyan, blue and black – and the inks must be printed in that exact order.  The sheet feeders that John works on can process can run 9-10,000 sheets/hour! 

Plates are 100% aluminum with a chemical coating.  Water is spread on the aluminum plates and everywhere the water goes, ink won’t go (ink and water don’t mix, kind of like oil and vinegar).  To adjust color, John adjusts how much ink is laid down during the printing process.  All the printings are in dots and the density of dots determines the color.  Ink is always laid down in the same order – see above.  Skin tones and gray are the hardest to print because they contain just a tiny bit of all the colors.  Then there is a very fine almost invisible spray powder that goes on each printed sheet to allow the ink to dry without sticking or smearing.

John showed us photos of his work space and workbench.  Nowadays, the inks and chemicals are hazard-free and John’s shop is a non-hazardous shop, but when he first started in the industry there were quite a few nasty chemicals on his workbench.  John’s shop generates a lot of waste; paper, ink, aluminum, chemicals - all of which is recycled. 

But the biggest change has been in technology with the adoption of computers and Photoshop.  John now gets print jobs on a computer and he has to match final colors to a customer-approved proof sheet.  For single colors, sometimes John will have to mix his own colors and do what is called spot printing, or sometimes he has to purchase a ready-mixed color (mainly used for logos or copyrighted colors like John Deere green or Target red).

35 people work at John’s shop, located in Eagan.  John showed some marketing videos from his shop where we could see the presses in action – they sure are fast!  John’s presentation was an interesting peak into the complex world of off-set printing – so much detail and precision goes into every little dot to get the perfect print (who knew?!)  Many thanks to John for sharing. 

John offered to set up a tour of his workspace and will let us know more details.  A copy of his photo-packed presentation will be posted on the FSSP Camera Club Blog.

Challenge topic for June was “Building Art”.  Surprisingly (to me), many of the photos were local buildings with amazing and creative artist paintings.

UPCOMING EVENTS / DUE DATES

July meeting moved to the 9^th – Moved from the first Saturday because of the July 4th holiday weekend.  Sher Freebird will be sharing some of her favorite photos.  July Challenge is flowers/flora.  This is also our summer potluck meeting - please bring your own drink and eating utensils and of course your favorite potluck dish!  (Paper plates will be provided.)

September 7-12 Train Trip to Glacier National Park – Planning meetings continue.  Please contact John Plut at the club email if you are interested in going or have any questions.  

PICASA ALBUM HOW-TO

To ensure easy uploading to Picasa, re-size files to 500kb or smaller, and keep the long edge to 2048 or less so the photos don’t count against our storage limit.  In order to upload photos to the Picasa albums, you must be signed into your Google account otherwise it seems you may not be able to upload.  You can also email your photo to the club email and we will upload it for you.

Always include at least your name in the caption area – here’s how: 

1. After uploading your photo, view the entire album
2. Click on your photo
3. Click “add caption” shown at the bottom of your photo
4. Type in your name and location of photo
5. Click “save caption”

To delete a photo

1. View the entire album
2. Click on your photo
3. Click “Actions” which will be shown above your photo
4. Click  “Delete this photo” 

-----

-Submitted by Patti Deters, FSSP Camera Club 2016 Secretary

----- 

2016 Executive Committee

-Geri Fenton – President

-Endel Kallas – Vice President

-Judy Collopy – Treasurer

-Rose Shea – Twin Cities Area Council of Camera Clubs (TCACCC) Representative

-Patti Deters – Secretary

-John Plut – Event Planner

-Deb Johnson – Webmaster

-János McGhie – IT Guru / Help Desk

EMAIL: fsspcameralclub@gmail.com

WEB: https://sites.google.com/site/fsspcameraclub/home

BLOG: http://fsspcameraclub.blogspot.com/

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FSSPcameraclub/

Meeting Notes from April/May 2016

The April and May meetings were chaired by President Geri Fenton. 

We extend a hearty FSSPCC welcome to visitors Lev, Katie and Andrea!

Saturday April 23rd was park clean-up day.  Thank you to those that showed up – your help is much appreciated!

Sunday May 15 Upper Fort Tour was wonderful!  The weather cooperated and about 10 members from the club were allowed access behind the gate where it is not open to the general public.  Watch for the Picasa album and take a look.  If you have any other Upper Fort images, please add them to the Picasa album.

Show-n-Tell – John Plut shared a 1945 photograph of his wife, mom, and grandma at Minnehaha Falls before the bridge at the top of the falls was built.  John C shared some fun(ny) photos of animals on photographers.

Dan and Mary Dreher were the April presenters and shared great stories and photos from South Dakota Badlands, Theodore Roosevelt NP, Yellowstone NP, and Glacier NP.  Coming from Minnesota, the South Dakota grasslands start just after Chamberlain where you might start to see animals such as antelope.  Then the Badlands begin which is where you see the interesting land formations.  You can leave the Twin Cities around morning rush hour and arrive at the Badlands in time for an evening sunset.  The big draw for Dan and Mary, though, are the “critters” such as big horn sheep.  The 40 mile loop at exit 131 goes through the park and if you stay in Wall, it is only 9 miles to the park entrance.  (And the Murdo car museum is also worth a stop.)  If you go in November you can expect to see the second rut of the big horns.  (The first rut is a month earlier, but it draws more crowds.)  You can walk right up to groups of sheep and if you get close enough, you can see growth rings in their horns.  Mary captured some beautiful shots of the sheep and the sunsets.  The Badlands are home to a variety of other animals such as short-eared owls which can be seen along the road at sundown, or sometimes on a fence post.  There are porcupines along the road, prairie dogs, burrowing owl, elk, coyote, Pronghorn antelope, and even white-tailed deer!  Dan and Mary suggest talking to the local rangers for good places to see wildlife.  Mary shared a very cool image of a jumping coyote that must have been amazing to see in action.  In North Dakota there is Theodore Roosevelt NP where Dan and Mary wanted to see the herd of wild horses and planned their trip to coincide with winter snows.  Dan says that if you go, beware it is 220 miles between the north and south parks on a long lonely road!  Note:  There was much more that Dan and Mary shared but I had to leave the meeting early and missed the stories about Yellowstone and Glacier.  L  But many thanks to them both for sharing their experiences, knowledge, and photography.    

Deb Johnson was the May presenter and shared her adventures to New Zealand.  Deb’s nephew and wife moved to New Zealand in 2009 and Deb was lucky enough to visit.  She showed beautiful landscape photos of Christchurch, including a lovely scene with white and blue flowers with the hills in the background.  There was amazing diversity in the photos – sheep, botanical gardens with massive trees, unique flowers, car door art, and even a pink person hugging a tree!  We saw an old church and the snow-capped peaks of Aorai/Mount Cook (the tallest peak in NZ).  Deb visited the Tasman Glacier, by Terminal Lake which had just calved a huge chunk of ice.  Queenstown offered photos of parasailing, more flowers, gondola rides, bungee jumping, and narrow canyon tours.  Milford Sound had Kea parrots, edible ferns, mountains in the mist, and amazing waterfalls including one where the wind is so strong it blows the water back up to the top of the falls!  On Stewart Island Deb found a massive Hydrangea with pink, red, purple, pink, and burgundy blooms – all on one bush.  In Dunedin there were Molaki Penguins, sheep, beaches, seals, and the “Hoiho” or yellowed-eyed penguin which is the rarest in the world.  There were pictures of some strange round alien-looking beach boulders, called Moeraki Boulders.  Also black swans, baby fur seals, blue-eyed penguins – and so much more including Baldwin Street in Dunedin which is the steepest street in the world at a 38.5% grade.  Thank you, Deb, for sharing your trip and photographs of this incredible land.

John Plut is the June presenter.

Challenge topic for May was “Spring Babies” – many cute little ones, which led to an informative discussion on where people were finding babies this time of year.  The June challenge is “Building Art”.

UPCOMING EVENTS / DUE DATES

July meeting moved to the 9^th – Moved from the first Saturday because of the July 4th holiday weekend.

July 16-17 – History Center in Rochester is looking for photo booth volunteers to photograph people dressed up in period costumes.  Volunteers get their mileage reimbursed.  Contact John Anderson at the club email for details.

September 7-12 Train Trip to Glacier National Park – Planning meetings continue.  Please contact John Plut at the club email if you are interested in going or have any questions.  

2016 Executive Committee

-Geri Fenton – President

-Endel Kallas – Vice President

-Judy Collopy – Treasurer

-Rose Shea – Twin Cities Area Council of Camera Clubs (TCACCC) Representative

-Patti Deters – Secretary

-John Plut – Event Planner

-Deb Johnson – Webmaster

-János McGhie – IT Guru / Help Desk

EMAIL: fsspcameralclub@gmail.com

WEB: https://sites.google.com/site/fsspcameraclub/home

BLOG: http://fsspcameraclub.blogspot.com/

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FSSPcameraclub/

Big Bog State Recreation Area

 One of the places that I have wanted to go to for a while now is Big Bog State Recreation Area.  I have heard about the boardwalk through the bog and all the unique flora that grows there.  I especially wanted to see the orchids.   

  Since this area is so closed to Canada (about 30 Miles as the crow flies) I wrote and asked what is the best time to see the orchids blooming and was told late May to the middle of June.  When we arrived at Big Bog on May 30th it was 78 degrees.  I had booked a camper cabin because I have many fond memories of my families summer trips 'Up North' and having to go buy sweatshirts/jackets because it was so cold.  78 at the end of May, who would have thought.

Since rain was predicted for the rest of our stay we went right to the mile long boardwalk to see what we could find.  I must say that going looking for wildflowers can be like trying to see the bison at Minneopa State Park.  You know they are there but you can't see them.  I thought since our spring was on the warm side that we might get lucky.  We were a little.

Bog Laurel

There was a lot of Bog Laurel blooming.  As you can see the color makes it easy to see and it is a tall plant.

Arctic Raspberry

We found one Arctic Raspberry, I think.  I looked up all the flowers at Minnesota Wildflowers website.  If you haven't been to the site it is one of the best around.  It was started by a Master Naturalist a few years ago. 

Ihttps://www.minnesotawildflowers.info/

Eagle-eyed Doug saw this one.  It was the only one we saw and grows very closed to the ground.

(The bog boardwalk probably averages 2 feet off the ground.) 

Small Yellow Lady Slipper

Just as we were walking off the end of the boardwalk Doug spotted the Small Yellow Lady Slipper.  It is about half the size of a normal lady slipper.

We did see a few other flowers but I have yet to identify them.

The bog is about 9 miles from the campground. The campground area is just a narrow strip between the road and the Tamarack River.  Although it is called a 'recreation area' there is very little to do there except fish. They do have a few short trails to walk.  If you think about it you can't walk in a bog without sinking up to your knees. When we arrived on Memorial Day the place was full and I think every camp site and camper cabin had a boat trailer.  Did I mention that campground is across the road from Upper Red Lake.  The campsites on the Tamarack River have a dock.  If you want to fish Upper Red Lake this is a great place to stay.

Zippel Bay State Park

Because it was raining the next day we decided to check out Zippel Bay State Park on Lake of the Woods.  There were a few fisher-people there but basically the park was empty.  All campsites are without electricity and it would be hard to get a large RV in some of the spots.


This is a very nice park.  You can feel like you are on Lake Superior without all the people.

Our next stop was Franz Jevne State Park on Rainy River.  This is Minnesota's smallest state park.
All campsites are rustic but it was raining pretty good when we were there so I don't have much to say about the park itself.
On the way there you are traveling along the Rainy river and Doug made a comment at how well taken care of the Canadian side of the river looks.  It turns out that there is a large Canadian Monument area that has had a lot of Native history but we could only look across the river and try to sing "O Canada".

On the way back we crossed the Rapid River bridge and noticed some pelicans.  We stoped to get out and snap some photos.

Well I think that is about enough for this travelogue with just a couple more stops.  We stopped at Lake Bemidji State Park and they also have a mile long bog walk and Crow Wing State Park.  Crow Wing has a beautiful view of the Mississippi from the boat launch.

Photos by Doug Schurr and Geri Fenton

Upper Post Field Trip - Sunday 5/15/16

We had a great time behind the fence at the Upper Post this past Sunday.  About 10 people attended, and a huge thanks to Krista for being our tour guide.

Earth Day Clean Up 2016

Yesterday we had a good turn out for the Earth Day clean up at the new National Treasure, Ft. Snelling State Park. This photo is missing a few other people that turned up from the camera club,

Phil and Rebecca Graetz and Rose Shea with 3 of her family members.

One team was thinking how remarkably clean their path was until they figured out that they were a little ways behind another group of volunteers.  But it was decided that all in all, Ft. Snelling State Park must be loved by many because there is not a lot of litter.  Although alcohol is not allowed in the park, beer bottles seem to be the most popular to throw out the window.

I want to thank all that came.  As Deb Johnson said that all the park does for us, personally and the camera club, she felt this was one thing we could do for the park.  

I don't know if you have noticed but photos of Kao Thao, one of the park naturalists, are everywhere in the DNR system.  It must be because he so photogenic and has a wonderful smile.  I just thought I would add to his catalog of portraits.  Thanks for everything you do Kao!

Geri

Doug and I went down and picked up my Mom in Mankato and went over to Jackpot Junction to win some big bucks.  Doug was the only one that came out ahead.  He didn't win BIG bucks so he will not be opening an account in the Caymans.

We did have a flock of yellow-headed black birds fly across the road on our way to Morton.  I saw a hillside that I thought still had a lot of snow on it but it turned out be trillium.  We were excited to see a pheasant and blue skies with warm temperatures.  On the way back to St. Paul we saw a number of lakes with pelicans. We did not take any pictures but I just want to send another message that spring is here.

https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Yellow-headed_Blackbird/id
https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/American_White_Pelican/id
https://www.minnesotawildflowers.info/search?kw=trillium

Geri