North Shore Trip...Day One

I finally found two days that I could head up to the North Shore. The trip actually started Monday night with my going to Midwest for an Ice Climbing Clinic. Carolyn was a great teacher and I learned alot about body movement and ice climbing in general. I went home incredibly stoked up since I was headed out early the next morning. Unfortunately I couldn't sleep just thinking about the trip. Not to mention as soon as I started to fall asleep...someone who will remain nameless...called at 12:41am and gave me the rundown on all the ice and what I could find. Needless to say I didn't get to sleep after that until after 4am. I did manage to hit the road at 8am and was on my way. First stop was Stoney. Small waves but I could tell by the telltale booty print in the snow there had to have been enough for a surfer recently. A quick stop at Gooseberry and back on the road. I had a mission for the day I wanted to accomplish. I stopped at the Manitou River but everywhere I saw Keep Out signs and didn't know the exact right access so I went further on to the Caribou River. I got my boots on and took my tools and went to find some ice. I tried my first climb on a steep incline with snow, ice and rock. Safe and just a good warm up. When I got to the falls it was just beautiful. I was able to ice boulder on the base for quite a bit. I went up maybe 15 feet which was probably higher than I should of but when working "without a net" you make certain every placement is solid. I was also able to do some dry tooling bouldering in the canyon. I left there tired and definately happy. I did a quick stop at the Temperance River. I hiked into the gorge up stream...incredible! Then down to the walking bridge above Superior. My next stop was Grand Marias. I grabbed a motel room and headed out the door to accomplish my mission...I didn't have much time left. I arrived at Paradise Beach at the exact perfect time. This is the only time I used my SLR camera and I got some beautiful photos of the sunset and moonrise. I stayed as long as the cold let me then called it a night. Tomorrow I had a big day planned.


Stoney Point

Gooseberry Falls

Caribou River

Temperance River

Paradise Beach at sunset and moonrise.