november 2025

xB

My beloved xB..

I finally got the title transferred, and she's insured. I want my partner to finally get his license, so she can go around town. She got covered in my stupid stickers already. Most of them I got from the rally racing teams in October.

I got a razor scooter to put in the trunk. She's like a 90s Honda City and my scooter is like the Motocompo!

aurora

I got to see some aurora again towards the beginning of the month. It was the fourth time I had seen it! It was the most vivid by far too. We were supposed to get two storms between two days, but one had arrived early so they came at the same time.

My partner and I wandered to a nearby park to see it. The camera does pick up a lot more than human eyes, but we were seeing crazy reds, pinks, and greens with our eyes.

digital hoarding

I realized that I had so many photos on my devices that I never really go back to. I printed 360 of them onto sticker paper and made little scrapbooks with them. I deleted the photos (they're on an external hard drive). I'm only taking photos for my site now and occasional nice photos to print later. I like the idea of being very deliberate with taking photos because I don't need hundreds of photos in my library. I think I was up to 2k? I know that that isn't much compared to other people's, but it made me freak out.

I hate hoarding things at all. I used to have an annual crisis and get rid of 80% of my things. I wish it was easier to do that because I would go through all of my things and donate them. I just want my house and brain clean!

The scrapbooks were fun to make. I have one big one that is me and my partner and just my life. Another is the shenanigans we get up to with the neighbors, and one tiny one for the critters (pets) I encounter. I am not making them super pretty. The photos are the main thing. I even put silly little memes I liked in them. This one is going in the big book when a print more photos.

my trip

I spent a few days up on the North Shore which is an area of the state that I dreamed of going to. I was with my partner and his lovely parents. We stayed at a cozy cabin right on the lake, hiked, saw cool stuff, and more.

We had a few stops on the way up.

duluth

We had to stop in Duluth, of course. I've been there a few times. This was the third time.

It's a port city on Lake Superior famous for it's vertical-lift bridge and canal. They export iron (taconite), grain, limestone, etc. It's mostly exports there. Not much is imported.

Duluth is very industrial, but in the recent years, it's become a bit artsy-lookin. Artists are usually poor, so we move to cheap industrial areas, but investors love it. They see the artists and drive up the cost of living in an area. The artists leave and the area continues to get gentrified. If any "cool" place has "art," "artist," "loft," etc. in the name, there are no more artists there.

Anyways, there are ore docks, winding highways, the railroad museum, etc. I really like Duluth. I think it is so interesting.

Various vessels come into the harbor. We had arrived just in time to catch Mesabi Miner of the Interlake Steamship Company fleet. She's the sister vessel of the James R. Barker, a freighter famous for her two-toned horn.

Rumor has it that Barker's horn broke long ago, but it sounded too cool to fix it. I get it. I wouldn't fix it either. The captain blows the horn for a long time too. Longer than any other vessel because it sounds so good.

The vessels that go under the bridge always give a Captain's Salute as they pass. Some salties (saltwater vessels) give the Master Salute if they salute at all. Sometimes, they don't know to salute. It's just the etiquette there. This was the first time that I had seen a freighter arrive. I had been on the schooner When + If that went through the canal in the summer, so I had been the boat first vs. seeing one!

Mesabi Miner looks real scraped up, but it's just superficial lock rash. It's towards the end of the shipping season on the lakes, and they repaint during winter layup.

There's a really fun culture around the lake freighters especially in Duluth. They're almost worse than train foamers (railfans), but it's so charming. I'm really into it. There's so many YouTube channels about the lake freighters, and a good number of them are from Duluth.

I have been avoiding the terms "boat" and "ship" on purpose by the way. I had always thought that "ship" was exclusive to saltwater vessels, but I cannot find anything that backed that up. As far as I could tell, it's more about capacity, usage, and size. I feel like I'm crazy. I feel deceived. Was it always appropriate to call the lake freighters "ships"? I'm losing my mind.

I do love the freighters. They look so unique. They're built to fit in the Soo Locks and to use as much space as possible so they're very square with flat bottoms. As far as I can tell, they're not as flat as icebreakers, my favorite class of ships. The Great Lake tugs are really cute too. Their paint scheme is adorable.

After the vessel did her crazy port side turn towards the ore dock, we walked on over to Northern Waters Smokehaus for lunch. I had the fuzzy bunny with salmon on it. :] mm fish

More photos of Great Lakes vessels because I enjoy it.

two harbors

We stopped in the little town of Two Harbors. It has three ore docks with one that still functions. No vessel here, but they do come by. It'd be really impressive to see a 1000-footer turn to get in the harbor.

We walked out to the lighthouse and back. Nothing crazy here. Just wanted to see how cute it was.

gooseberry falls + tettegouche

I had heard of Gooseberry Falls. I actually have heard of all of the Minnesota state parks because I made an illustrated map of them.

I should be checking these off! I want to come back to that illustration and redo it some day.

Anyways, Gooseberry is really cute and cool. There's a few tiers of the rocky falls that can be walked across. I didn't risk it because it was cold as hell.

Tettegouche was a fun little stop too. It's right on the lake. We didn't do too much there. I'd like to stop there again and do a proper visit.

cabin

The cabin we stayed at was built directly on the lake shore. I'll talk about the geography of Lake Superior later on cause it's really cool, but the cabin is on metamorphic rock. They don't let people build that close to the lake anymore. It's close enough that water hits the windows in a storm. Hearing the waves at night made me sleep real good.

I spent most of my mornings at the cabin like this.

There was a cute fire place, quiet lodge with activities, and strange furniture in the cabin. Nothing was quite comfortable even the beds. The beds wiggled too much and the mattresses were weird. The only way you could sleep is if you were stupidly exhausted like I was after our hikes.

hikes

Our first hike was to Devil's Kettle. A short one.

My trekking poles weren't functioning, so I had to ditch them. My hydropack tasted like shit too. Just straight silicone. It gave me a headache. I had to take one of my partner's Nalgene's.

my gear:

-REI trailmade hiking pants

-REI base layers

-Patagonia Nanopuff

-hi-vis hat (it was hunting season!)

-Columbia Newton Ridge boots (will invest in nicer ones in the future; I wish Arcteryx didn't do that shit on the mountain..)

-Gregory Nano 22

-Mountainsmith trekking poles (don't need expensive ones)

-Timberland Socks

It was so cold at the trailhead that I misjudged my layers. They came off eventually.

This was the first time that I had done a real hike in a while. I was NOT in shape. Not that I am now either, but I got better with time.

There was a cute waterfall on the way to Devil's Kettle where you could do special trout fishing. :] This whole area looks great for trout. I keep joking with my partner about doing "fish camp" which is referencing Deer Camp from Escanaba in da Moonlight.

After descending many steps, we reached Devil's Kettle. It's a hole in the stone where water goes and no one knows where it ends up. At least, that was the case for many years. The MNDNR states that the water flows into the river past the falls, but it comes from underneath so it's hard to see.

cascade river

I got my poles working after the hike at Magney, so I got to use them at Cascade. Trekking poles makes hiking infinitely easier. I felt unstoppable! I was also layered better. I went for the thermals, hiking pants, and a flannel over top my thermal top. I was rocking the hi-vis beanie rolled up like a sailor and some aviators. My partner told me that I looked real 70s gorp. It was a fun look, but I really just planned it to be functional. It just happened to look neat. My partner and I have been wearing the sailor's beanie since. I know we're late on that trend, but we're not too concerned with trends honestly.

Cascade was a very rewarding hike. Things were cool almost immediately. Lots of various waterfalls and river to see. Even got to walk on the river a bit.

We found the most beautiful campsite ever too. It was a Superior Hiking trail campsite, so it's not one you can book. There, I had my first scenic piss. This is the ideal "fish camp" spot.

We followed the Superior Hiking trail for a ways, but stopped when it became private property. We didn't want to risk it with the hunting. It was the last day of the season and hunters that wait until the end tend to not be the brightest.

There was a lot of small foliage around. Tiny pine trees which are my fave. It was pretty moist out there so plenty of moss and fungus. There was a giant turkey tail on a ridge. It was the first real turkey tail I had seen. I had seen a lot of other polypores in my life, but never a real turkey tail. They're not rare or anything. I just have weird fungus luck.

Lots of downed trees in the area too. Full roots exposed and it smelled nice. The ground made a nice, hollow thud as you walked on it. It seemed like dirt directly over stone was the cause.

After the hike, we visited Grand Marais which is a cute town with sailboats. It costs a lot to live there, but I'd love to. It's so cute. There was this shutdown store that had a giant walleye on it, cute stores, cafes, etc. It was clearly full of yuppies because it was covered in dirty subies and toyotas.

We got coffee, food, and looked at Artist's Point.

I'd like to do more in Grand Marais in the future.

pincushion mountain overlook

Not a state park, but a part of the Sawtooth Mountains.

Before this hike, we went to Fika Coffee near Lutsen. It's a cute little spot. I became obsessed with their work shirt merch. I had to order one.

Hunting season was over, so I ditched my hi-vis for my Stormy Kromer. This hike was longer than the others by a fair amount. The previous hikes were about 2 miles in (so 4 miles roundtrip), but this one was 3.5 miles. However, it was really easy, so it didn't feel like too much. It was marshy with some marshy boardwalks. Part of the trail had a trail of deer fur from a hunter.

The marshy nature of this area made fungus-spotting great. I saw many more polypores and some witch's butter! It is a big late in the season for proper caps, but I wouldn't have been surprised if I saw amanita because they tend to grow a bit late. I kept thinking about how all of these hikes would have the best morels in morel season. I don't even eat mushrooms! I'd do some morel and chanterelle hunting here.

Nearing the peak, we were faced with a rock face that looked like it was a 60 degree angle. It was really easy to get up because hiking boot W. We reached the best part of the peak where we could see a fire watch tower, Lake Superior, and the other mountains. We ate our snacks, chilled, and rested. We zoomed through the hike, so we had to rest.

We left when some youngins showed up wearing things that they clearly saw in TikTok to look "outdoorsy." They were probably nice, but they weren't respectful of the forest and others in it. They were quite loud.

about lake superior + the geology

Hard to place this section. I figured after showing the rocky hikes and Pincushion Mountain might make sense.

This area of Minnesota is so cool. It's similar to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan which I was just in in October! There's a reason that they are so similar.

Basically, Lake Superior is a failed sea. It is part of the Midcontinent Rift System. It began to split about 1.1 billion years ago. As it split, magma emerged which created the Sawtooth Mountains which were plateaus at first. Continuous magma emerging under them caused them to tilt to their sides.

The splitting caused a depression in the landscape which filled with basalt. The weight of the basalt caused the land to sink. The magma ceased which meant that sedimentary rock formed on top of the basalt. A rift caused the metamorphic rock to emerge from the sedimentary rock which formed Isle Royal and Keweenaw Peninsula. Glaciers removed a large portion of the sedimentary rock exposing minerals, metals, and metamorphic rock. The glaciers melted and filled the basins creating the Great Lakes. The Upper Peninsula of Michigan felt similar because it was surrounded by the same rock as the North Shore.

My cabin was directly on basalt. However, this basalt isn't like any other. It contained red bands of iron oxide. This was from the first life on earth in the precambrian. I am unsure if it is the Ediacaran, one of my favorite prehistoric eras, or if it was the primordial ooze. I lean primordial ooze. My heart flutters when I think about how an anomalocaris may have swam around above these rocks. I love them so much, and I wish I could tell them!

Lake Superior itself acts as a sea because it's so large. Waves are unpredictable and come from several different directions so it can make sailing really scary. The waves are super close together too so it's hard for a vessel to recover. If water gets into the vessel at all and they encounter heavy waves, the vessel snaps in half. The Edmund Fitzgerald did.

The lake remains barely above freezing which preserves anything in it. The wreckage of the Edmund Fitzgerald has barely moved and still looks the same as it did when it sank. It's an official grave site and people are forbidden from diving around it. I don't understand how anyone would want to dive in Lake Superior anyways. There are a bunch of wooden vessels at the bottom of the lake too. It's eerie.

nighttime

Almost every night was perfectly clear to see the sky. Even if the day was cloudy, it miraculously cleared up.

I got to see the milky way. It was kind of an unofficial bucket list thing. We saw shooting stars too. It only took about ten minutes on the first night to see a few whizz by.

My partner and I obsessively went outside multiple times each night to just look at the stars. We went so far to have our headlamps set to red light so we didn't mess up our eyes.

We discovered that we could see the Orion Nebula on the first night. I really didn't know that there were nebulas to be seen with the naked eye! It's near Orion's belt, and it appears as a weird blurry thing that you can't focus your eyes on.

It was all just so cool to see all of that. We also spotted Beetleguese which glows a deep orange. Bellatrix, the hottest star we can see I think, and other things. The amount of things to see in the dark sky feels like noise on an image, but it's the sky!

back home

We left a day early to beat a major snowstorm. Duluth had gotten 10 inches of snow, and people ended up in a lot of accidents. Good call on our part to have left early. Because of the timing of the trip, I didn't go home for Thanksgiving so I spent it at my partner's extended family's. They're very nice, and I enjoyed it.

My partner and I lit our beloved gas heater, Bertha, the other day. She's fantastic. I don't believe in electric heating in a state like Minnesota. Gas/fire is so much more effective. Fuck it, steam even. I like radiators. Electric heating is expensive, ineffective, and wasteful. I hate it! It has a weird smell to me too.

Bertha is an ancient wall-mounted gas heater. It's almost ceremonial to light her every year. Once she's lit, she stays lit for the season.

She's got a guy that the landlord calls to work on her if she needs it. He also calls her Bertha. He was the apprentice to the previous guy. They both have worked on crazy boilers and heating equipment. I feel like they would really like Rollag.

I've had the last few days off, so I have been just drawing, writing this, and hanging out with my partner. He had bought a PS5 for black friday and playing the hell out of Ghosts of Yotei. I walk past and get entranced. It seems like a fun game. Took part in the Duluth Trading sales and got flannel lined jeans and a canvas vest. I love Duluth Trading. We have also been slipping on the ice on sidewalks. No full on falls yet though!

november vibes

december

I have no crazy plans for December. Just going home for Christmas. I'm hoping for more cozy snow to justify buying cocoa and more sweaters that I have no room for.

I'll probably find somewhere to move my blog to because I don't really vibe with this platform. I do have to learn how to code a blog with raw HTML for my illustration site eventually, but this personal site can be whatever.

My Pinterest addiction has been greatly curbed because they updated it, and it is doo doo ass. When I click on one of my boards, I want to see what I pinned! Not recommended pins! Sucks! But that's fine. I don't want to be on Pinterest too much anyways.

Stay warm, yall. Protect trans kids :]