We decided to do a hike today. The best hiking opportunities are at the Ash River Visitor Center. The drive over was only about 30 minutes. The Ash River Visitor Center was much different than the others. It was originally built in the 1930s as the Meadwood Lodge. The Lodge was built by two carpenters and one stonemason using hand tools. The log walls and interior woodworking was beautiful, made out of locally harvested pine. We talked with the VIPs in the visitor center and found out Chris, one of the VIPs, was ready to do a guided tour of Sullivan Bay Overlook trail, the trail we had planned to hike. Turns out we were the only ones on the tour! Chris was a wealth of knowledge on the trees and fauna and we enjoyed our trail tour. (Leslie: I loved his story about the woodpeckers. He showed us a tree trunk with hollowed out spaces the size of a 6-inch sub from Subway. The woodpecker is the cartoonish Woody Woodpecker with the red crest. He’s about 14 to 16 inches long. His tongue HOWEVER is half his body length. HALF! So his 7 or 8-inch tongue must be dealt with. Turns out…his tongue wraps around his brain as a cushion to keep him from banging his brains out! Chris had a photo and diagram for illustration purposes.) At the end of the tour there was a beautiful view of Sullivan Bay. Voyageurs NP is at the cross roads of the northern and southern trees. It is at the northern edge of the maples, oaks, and poplar trees and the southern edge of the northern pines and birch.
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