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Looking
from our cabin towards White Iron Lake. |
Our
cabin from The Narrows. That was the name of our
cabin, by some strange coincidence... |
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The
docks at our lodge |
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Looking
north on Farm Lake |
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This
wolf is named Maya.
She was sleeping on a rock and I couldn't get a
photo of her face. |
This
is Grizzer,
a brother of Maya. |
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This
and the following are dead and stuffed exhibits
inside the Center. |
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Lilly
pads on Fenske Lake on the Echo Trail, north of
Ely. |
Fenske
Lake |
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Tracy
standing 1.5 miles down the BWCA Canoe Access trail
to the Stuart River entry point. We thought it was
going to be just a few hundred feet to the river! |
Why
anyone would carry a canoe and their gear 1.5 miles
down an up-and-down trail just to START their paddling
trip mystified us. We were expecting something spectacular,
and it was just a swampy little river with lots
of flies. Still a fun hike, though. |
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One
of three resident chipmunks that we lured close
with pieces of bread. |
My
Canon 70-200mm F/2.8 lens made it seem closer than
it appears, but it had no fear of us. |
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Now
THAT's a close-up chipmunk portrait! |
Me
having a glass of wine next to Tracy's fire (she
poorly built it) at 10:00pm. Tracy was already asleep. |
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Star
trails outside our cabin. 13-minute exposure |
Star
trails over Farm Lake: 25 minute exposure |
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Half
a mile underground at the Soudan Mine, featuring
our tour Guide, Pete. |
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On
the rail train to get to the last 1962 iron extraction
room. |
I
could only bring one lens, and I didn't want to
use a flash, so I cranked my camera's ISO to 1600
and shot at 1/20th of a second. Very little light! |
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Mannequins
showing what the drilling and blasting operations
looked like. |
The
timbers protect us tourists from falling down the
chute hole that workers dumped their iron ore. The
miners had to remember where these severely deep
holes were, and there were about 10 in this one
cavernous room. |
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A
1900-era drilling rig, looking suspiciously like
a WWII German MG-42 machine gun. Our tour guide,
Pete, said the noise of the drills was the biggest
occupational hazard for the miners. They all lost
their hearing in about 6 months. |
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We
missed the MINOS
laboratory tour, but this is one of the entrances
to it. They are doing high-level particle physics
experiments down here, monitoring muons and quarks
fired underground from Fermi Labs in Illinois. |
Mineview
in the Sky in Virginia, Minnesota. The water is
200 feet from here, and the bottom under the water
is 450 feet down.
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That
is one big dumptruck! Even with a flat tire!
It hauls 240 tons of ore. |
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By the way, on the way out
of the tour at Soudan Mine coming out of the mining
chamber, I hollered to our Tour Guide, Pete, and
asked him why the surface we were walking on was
rippled and divoted so peculiarly.
He explained that because
so many people leave the mine and take a piece of
iron ore rock with them, the surface I was asking
about was pure compacted fine clay.
I had already pocketed the
iron rock (left) and would have felt silly dropping
it there, so I didn't. |
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