SUPER fun bike ride today! Believe it or not, we still have quite a bit of snow up here (at the very northeast tip of Minnesota) and today we rode 14 miles on snow-covered trails. The conditions were superb. Sunny blue skies, temps ranging from the low 30's to the low 40's and the snow was nice and firm, great for riding!
A glorious day for a fat bike ride on Skyline Trail in Grand Portage, MN!
When our Wisconsin trip was over, we returned home to northeast Minnesota and found that there was still plenty of snow in the woods away from Lake Superior. We took advantage of that fact and headed right out for a fat bike ride in the maple forest. The trail was a bit soft which made riding difficult, but it sure was nice to be outside on such a beautiful day!
I hope everyone has had an enjoyable Easter Sunday! Here is one more photo from Crex Meadows in Wisconsin. We had spent a wonderful day watching primarily sandhill cranes and trumpeter swans and just before sunset this huge flock of red-winged blackbirds flew in. They landed in a tree just down the road from us. As we drove up to the tree we were driving into the sunlight, so I drove just a little past the tree in order to look back at it and have better light. When we looked back we saw the beautiful moon already high in the sky. I was photographing the birds in the tree top when one of them flew from one branch to another. I was lucky and happened to trip the shutter just as the bird was passing in the front of the moon. It's one of my favorite images from that day.
A beautiful afternoon at Crex Meadows Wildlife Area in Grantsburg, WI. The swans are back! Beautiful birds in a beautiful landscape. I love this place!
Little Muskrat enjoying a sunny afternoon at Crex Meadows Wildlife Area in Grantsburg, WI.
I think this was my favorite moment during our recent visit to Crex Meadows. We were driving along the edge of Phantom Lake when we saw this pair standing on the road ahead of us. We pulled over and watched them stand on the road for a few minutes and groom themselves. Eventually they walked back down into the meadow on the opposite side of the road from the lake. We slowly pulled ahead until we could see them again. For some reason this pair was content to stay close by (more often than not, the cranes walk quite a ways away from the road when a vehicle stops... usually too far away to get any really nice pictures).
We watched them for at least 10 minutes as they foraged in this area. I was looking at them through my telephoto lens when all of a sudden both of them started calling at the same time. I have no idea what it was that made them call, but it made for a great photo. I really liked the way they were standing in relation to each other when this happened too. If we're lucky, we'll return later in the season and maybe get to see their colt after it's hatched!
