September 1, 2023

September: The light shifts, and so do we

Frontenac State Park Association newsletter

Vol. 1, No. 6, September 2023

September: The light shifts, and so do we

How swiftly it happens, this late summer turning of the year. The State Fair ends, our squirrely kids go back to school (ah … the peace, the quiet!), our garden zucchini and tomatoes wind down, our cornfields turn from green to golden, the heat and humidity ease, and gradually, mornings and evenings take on a crisp, cool edge, as sunrises arrive later and sunsets earlier.

Whether you feel refreshed or melancholy about these changes, we suspect that you’re likely to agree that September is a golden time at Frontenac State Park. Hiking is easier in the cooler air. Towering fall grasses and flowers cast cooling shadows in which you can’t easily spot the park’s fat deer – those bucks in velvet and the does with their robust, blissfully winter-unaware teenage fawns. Welcome to September, park lovers!

Coming in September…

Your Frontenac State Park Association pals have been as busy as prairie bees this summer, throwing all manner of fun, educational events after which some of our retired older members, possibly even including your newsletter editor, have to trot home for naps. Don’t be fooled – naps or no, we’re full of excitement, ideas, plans! Here’s what we’re doing in September:

• Every Saturday in September (except for Sept. 16): interpretive naturalist Bruce Ause will lead his 10 a.m. nature walks from the new shower building at the campground. By all accounts, Bruce’s walks are wonderful, fueled by his gentle wisdom and wit, and full of insights and nature notes that catch even seasoned outdoors lovers by surprise. Highly recommended!

• Falcons Live! program, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 3: The peregrine falcon has long fascinated people for its lengthy migration and amazing flight acrobatics. Sixty years ago, there were none in the Upper Midwest. Today, about 350 nesting pairs make their home in the region. Jackie Fallon of the Midwest Peregrine Society will present this program, which will feature several live birds. Gather right next to the ranger station for this program.

• Prairie seed collection: 10 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 16: FSPA members and volunteers (please join us!) will learn how to collect native prairie plant seeds, and then do so for spring planting purposes. Meet just before 10 a.m. at park headquarters near the park entrance. Seed collections will be conducted in the prairie area across County Road 2 from the park office. Long pants, long sleeves and close-toed shoes are recommended. We’ll provide all materials needed for collecting seeds.

• Sand Point Trail guided bird walk, 8 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 23: Meet at the Sand Point parking lot/rest area. We’ll walk through the riparian forest and along the beach at Sand Point and hope to see fall migrating warblers as well as resident birds, including waterfowl, terns, gulls and shorebirds. Bring your binoculars. The 2-mile loop is flat and well-maintained. This walk can take two to four hours depending on how many birds we see, but you can leave at any time. No need to register, but if you have questions, email janetmalotky@gmail.com.

• Dark skies event viewing, Saturday Sept. 23, 8-10 p.m.: Public sky observing of the young moon 8.7 days after the new moon. You’ll also see the planets Saturn, Neptune, Jupiter and Uranus, bright stars, double stars and more by telescope with guidance from members of the Rochester Astronomy Club.

Thank you, everyone, for your help this summer!

Your FSPA pals can’t thank you all enough for your help and participation in our summer activities. Especially delightful was the park’s late July dark-skies event, in which our Rochester Astronomy Club friends joined us for a presentation about the night skies at hand. Scores of visitors, including many children, gaped through the club’s impressively large telescopes for views of the moon and the stunning galaxy we call home. The next event is Saturday, September 23.

And then there was our Aug. 19 bioblitz…

At our Aug. 19 bioblitz, FSPA members and a few others walked park trails to chronicle the presence of various species of birds, butterflies, fungi, prairie plants and trees. It was fascinating, and what’s even better, it was fun! We identified over 120 species of birds, fungi, butterflies, plants and trees - more than 10% of the total number of species reported on iNaturalist for the park! The complete list is here. (iNaturalist also has thousands of other sightings from the park made by visitors over the past several years. You can peruse them, and add to them, anytime.)

We’d like to do more bioblitzes, and to have you join us for one down the line. Stay tuned!

Making our beautiful trails accessible to all

We’re proud to report that Frontenac State Park is now among a few Minnesota state parks that provide all-terrain electric-powered chairs to ferry visitors with disabilities around our up-and-down trails.

A few quick facts about the track chairs: To reserve one, please call 651-299-3000 AHEAD of your visit to ensure that one will be available. You will be asked to sign a waiver when you check it out; no other documentation is required. There is no charge, but a state park vehicle permit is required for all vehicles entering the park. (There are discounted vehicle permits if you have a vehicle hang tag for a disability.)

What’s it like using a chair? To find out, we talked to Ethan Hartle, 22, of Grimes, Iowa. Ethan was generous, sharing his story and impressions with us via a Q&A:

Tell us a little about yourself: I have a disability called Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, an autoimmune-like condition that causes extreme fatigue. I have to spend most of my time in bed, and then use the energy I've conserved very deliberately. For example, I physically have the ability to stand and can take a few steps, but doing so is so exhausting it drains my energy reserves. It's a tough condition, with no cure or major treatments as of yet, but the community is making huge strides both scientifically and on the awareness side. (If you’d like to learn more, check out the Minnesota ME/CFS Alliance.) I was diagnosed in late 2018 and was nearly completely bedridden for several years. With the help of aids like my wheelchair, and by learning more about my condition, I have recently been able to get out a little more.

What’s your relationship with nature? I have always loved being outside and have missed the ability to go on hikes through deep nature and to explore with autonomy. So when my mom refinished a camper trailer, it was an exciting opportunity to travel while keeping an area close by for me to rest in frequently. And we were very excited when we saw that Minnesota offered the use of tread track wheelchairs for public use in several state parks.

When did you visit Frontenac State Park? We arrived on Aug. 21, 2023, and spent two nights in our camper.

Tell us about your experience with the track chair: I absolutely loved using it. I called it the tank chair, since it had big treads like a tank and was built very sturdily. I've used many types of wheelchairs and scooters outdoors, both electric and unpowered, and was very surprised at how smooth the ride in this chair was. The treads evened out the bumps in the ground and I never had a problem getting bogged down or slipping in the grass, dirt or gravel, and I never felt like I was in danger of getting stuck or damaging the heavily built chair.

It doesn't go very fast, but was quick enough for my mom to hike comfortably beside me as we explored. And although I wished it was a bit speedier, in hindsight, it was perfect for appreciating the beauty of the park.

How does the chair work? It operates on a simple joystick system that seems to be widely used for mobility devices. It has the same forward/backward and turning configuration as other chairs I've used, which will be familiar to others who have used devices like this. There is a second joystick that can be removed or repositioned to accommodate those who have additional impairments or need someone else to guide them. I also really appreciated the tilt function in the chairs, which allowed me to stay level when tackling the larger hills, and also to recline comfortably when sitting still. The chair is also equipped with a powerful LED headlight that allowed us to continue our hike even after the sun went down.

What were your favorite experiences in the park? I explored several trails, including one from the ranger station to the campground that led me through prairie and woods. On that first trip, I saw a nest with three quails and was fascinated to see how much sumac was growing on the hills. It was really beautiful. I went on another hike from the campground to the main lookout park over the Mississippi. That path is paved, so it was an incredibly smooth ride while offering some amazing views of the river and the forest. For my final hike, we wound our way through the prairie until we came to the stunning Eagle Point lookout. That was our longest hike at around an hour and a half, but the chair had no problems and the battery had power to spare.

Final thoughts on your time in the park? I feel like I'm coming across as a cheesy advertisement for these chairs, but they really are that impressive. They let me go where I wanted and let me see all of the wonderful things that the park had to offer, and they did it in a way that made me feel safe and comfortable. An all-around great experience for disabled people looking for a way to explore nature freely. It's a great program and I can't wait until more parks follow along.

Bird notes: The beautiful, ruthless Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

By Janet Malotky, Minnesota Master Naturalist and FSPA member

Think of how gnats buzz around your face, darting this way and that, annoying and hard to swat.

Now think of how a bird that evolved to catch such maddening bugs would act. This is the way of the Blue-gray Gnatcatcher.

Blue-gray Gnatcatchers are tiny birds, bigger than hummingbirds but much smaller than chickadees. They spend a lot of time flitting about in tree canopies, eating bugs that crawl and bugs in flight. They forage on the wing and from their perches, sallying back and forth between the two as they scare up bugs with their constant motion.

Despite their name, Blue-gray Gnatcatchers don’t eat many gnats. Beetles, tree and leaf hoppers, spiders, caterpillars, small wasps, weevils, grasshoppers, and moths make up the bulk of their diet.

When they capture something small, they eat it alive. Larger insects suffer the fate of having their wings torn off and their bodies slammed against the tree until they die, after which they are eaten. Isn’t nature grand?

In his breeding plumage, the male Blue-gray Gnatcatcher wears a fierce expression resulting from angled black lines above his eyes that meet in the middle, like a furrowed unibrow. Both sexes are a lovely shade of blue-gray on top, with white undersides and white rings around their eyes.

These tiny birds are tough to photograph or even to see sometimes, because they tend to be high in the canopy and they don’t stop moving, ever.

OK, that’s not quite true. They do stop moving to incubate their eggs.

Frontenac State Park is at the northern edge of their breeding grounds, and Blue-gray Gnatcatchers have been observed on nests in the park. Once they arrive in April, the parents work together to make a tiny nest that they glue together with spider webs. They camouflage it with bits of lichen, so out on the branch of a deciduous tree, the nest looks like a barky little lump. Although they usually raise only one or two broods each summer, they sometimes have to start over several times due to nest predation.

Once the young fledge and there are more of them around, it can be easier to spot them flitting about the tree tops.

But some time in September, the Blue-gray Gnatcatchers will fly south again, overwintering in Mexico or Central America. And that, park friends, is happening now.

The trials of building trails

Now that it’s cooler, we expect more hikers to take to the park’s bluffside trails, which present excellent opportunities for advanced aerobic exercise as well as gorgeous views of the Mississippi River/Lake Pepin.

Ever wonder how those tricky trails were built? We turned to legendary park grounds supervisor Wally Siewert, now retired but still doing priceless work for the park as an FSPA member, for this tale of those trails.

How the bluffside trails were built

By Wally Siewert, longtime park building and groundskeeping supervisor (now retired) and FSPA member

Wally’s report:

When I started working at Frontenac State Park in the early 1970s, all of the trails on the bluff side were there already. They had been built by Jim Thornton, then the park’s head maintenance man.

Jim told me he used existing deer trails to create the trails. He would cut down 12-foot trees and use them for retaining walls along the trails. They would last for four to five years, then rot out and have to be replaced.

In the early 1980s, the state funded a major construction project on the trails, telling us to go and change the trails as their blueprints directed. This project lasted about three years. Thousands of 6-inch-by 6-inch-by 12-foot green treated timbers were brought in, and six to eight laborers were hired, with myself being the foreman. They also had crews from the Red Wing Correctional Facility come out to help. Later in the project, Sentence to Serve and Minnesota Conservation Corps crew also helped.

We rebuilt all the trails using 6 inch-by-6 inch-by 12-foot timbers as retaining walls. We also constructed steps from those timbers on site, cutting them to 2 feet wide and 14 inches long and stacking them as needed for staircases.

In later years, we noticed that those steps soon fell apart or were washed out, so we started to install tongue-and groove 2 inch-by-6 inch timbers on top of those U-shaped stairs.

One day, Kathy Bolin, the area resource manager for the Minnesota Department of Resources (DNR), came out to the site. She said our work, which included sliding timbers down the hillside, was disturbing the habitat, especially rare wildflowers, including squirrel corn.

So then we had to carry the timbers down the steep hillside, although Kathy said we could slide them down any ravine and then carry them to the job site. This was a very tough job. We made carriers to slip over each end of the timbers, each with two handles, so two men could walk down the trail with each timber.

We built three vertical trails – one in the picnic area, one in the campground and one in between. We also constructed three horizontal trails, one on top, one on the bottom, and one halfway down. And we built one more in the picnic area to get to the rock quarry, an important historical site in the park’s pre-park history. All of these trails we tied together to make a trail system of about 5 miles.

When the trails were all done, we built six decks on the upper trail so park visitors could stand on level ground to view the beautiful Mississippi River/Lake Pepin below.

In the years that followed, we rebuilt the three stairways that went to the shore of the Mississippi. All of those materials were hauled in by boat. Each stairway was about 40 feet in length.

In 1996, a bad windstorm did a lot of damage to the trail system. The state said we had too many trails on the hillside and that it did not have the money and time to repair them all.

So we decided to eliminate the middle vertical and the middle horizontal trail. Most of those timbers were then used on other parts of the trail system or carried up to the picnic area. We did leave a long stairway on the middle vertical trail alone; it would have been too dangerous to remove. (It has been used a few times to help rescue visitors who have fallen down the bluffside.)

Building these trails was extremely labor-intensive, as is maintaining them now. But they allow visitors to see and appreciate our area, especially toward the river, from an extraordinarily unique perspective. Hope you find that rewarding on your hikes!

Postscript: Next time you walk the bluffside trails, take a look at the craftsmanship behind their construction, and send a salute to our Wally!

Another trail tale: Our Sand Point Trail whiteboard

iNaturalist Note: The American lotus

By Steve Dietz, Minnesota Master Naturalist and FSPA president

One of my favorite summer sights is the colony of American lotus plants growing in the bay at Sand Point. One day there is just water, and then, seemingly overnight, dinner-plate-size leaves are suspended above it on long stalks that also support a creamy yellow flower, followed not long after by a seed head as big as a shower head.

The colony must be at least an acre, and while in an enclosed pond it can aggressively take over, it seems to know its extent in the Mississippi of Lake Pepin.

For birds -- sandpipers, woodpeckers, sparrow, wrens, orioles and many others -- it is a smorgasbord of energy before fall migration. For the human eye, it is just joy.

Although it is also much more. What I didn’t know about Nelumbo lutea is that many of its common names -- Alligator Corn, Duck Acorns, Water Chinquapin and Pond Nuts -- reflect that it is a rich food source, not only for wildlife.

According to several sources, its large, tuberous root is edible and may have been transported to the Upper Midwest as a kind of plant jerky by Native Americans paddling up the Mississippi watershed from Missouri and other points south. Its young leaves and stalks can be eaten like spinach or added to soups as a starchy potato-like thickener, and its seeds can be roasted like nuts or dried and ground into flour to make bread. 

Individual lotus flowers bloom for only about three days and close at night. Check them out before they submerge again to overwinter in the muddy lake bottom. I recommend sunrise, when they are just peeking open to the dawn. Glorious!

Visitor impressions: Earl Bye and Cara Clark

We’ve been asking newsletter readers to write to us if they would like to share personal impressions of our beloved park. And so we were delighted to hear from Earl Bye and Cara Clark of Red Wing, who visit the park often and snap beautiful photos therein. (You can find some of their work at their website or on Facebook.

We’ll let Earl speak for himself, through words and photos:

My partner, Cara Clark, and I lived in White Bear Lake for a few years and would often visit our second home in Red Wing. I enjoyed getting up at dawn to visit Frontenac State Park to see all the birds and the other wildlife.

In 2020, we moved to Red Wing. We spend a lot of time in parks, and I take pictures of wildlife, especially eagles, and record many photos on the app iNaturalist. (Also, we recently published a hardcover book, “Eagles of Red Wing.” You can find it at Red Wing Arts, Fair Trade Books in Red Wing, South Shore Gallery and Gifts in Lake City, and the National Eagle Center in Wabasha.)

We enjoy Frontenac State Park’s hiking trails, which traverse widely varied terrain, and its many opportunities to see interesting wildlife. It is so nice to be immersed in nature there. I like to stop on the trail, listen, and wait for wildlife to appear.

Here are some of Earl’s photos from our park:

On a beach walk along the Sand Point Trail, Earl and Cara spotted this Bald Eagle flying out of the trees. Earl quickly snapped a picture. As they walked back along the water’s edge, the pair noticed a feather in the sand and wondered if it was from an eagle. Later, when looking through his photos, Earl found that he had captured the moment the feather fell to earth.

Thanks, Earl, for your appreciation and stewardship of our beloved park!

What are YOUR favorite park sites and sights?

🌿We love telling you about our favorite things in Frontenac State Park. What are yours? We’d love to hear from you about your most treasured park sites, sights and experiences. Send your stories and photos to us at pamelamarianmiller@gmail.com and we’ll include some in future newsletters!

Mushroom of the month: Ye gads! Avoid this one!

A controversy mushrooms over, er, mushrooms

A recent proposal by the Minnesota DNR to place some limits on the amount of wild mushrooms (and berries) foragers can haul out of state parks has sparked lots of publicity – the Wall Street Journal even wrote about it – and some fierce debate among mushroom hunters, especially online, where every debate gets red-hot, sigh.

Some mushroom hunters are indignant, saying that there’s no harm in hauling a lot of edible fungi out of the woods and that the DNR is overstepping. Others see wisdom in having some limits, especially since mushroom hunting became wildly popular during the COVID-19 era and lots more people have been combing the woods for them. Here’s a story by Minneapolis Star Tribune outdoors reporter Tony Kennedy about the controversy.

An autumn tea from the wild

As the days grow shorter and crisper, you may find yourself dreaming of … uh … pumpkin spice!? Hey! Forget that pricey stuff, at least for the moment. How about some lovely free tea from the wild? Those beautiful fuzzy berries that are now red and ripe on sumac in our park make a tasty, healthy tea, rich in Vitamin C. Here’s how to brew some up:

Wild sumac berry tea

1. Pick several clusters of ripe red sumac berries.

2. Smash them up a little to help release the flavor.

3. Soak the smashed clusters in a pitcher of cold water overnight, or longer for a stronger flavor. (Don’t use hot water – it destroys the Vitamin C.)

4. Strain the tea mix through cheesecloth or a coffee filter to remove the solids.

5. Drink it! To sweeten it, add honey or sugar.

Speaking of sweets from the wild… here’s our…

Poem of the month

“Blackberry Eating Poem”

By Galway Kinnell (1927-2014; American)

I love to go out in late September
among the fat, overripe, icy, black blackberries
to eat blackberries for breakfast,
the stalks very prickly, a penalty
they earn for knowing the black art
of blackberry-making; and as I stand among them
lifting the stalks to my mouth, the ripest berries
fall almost unbidden to my tongue,
as words sometimes do, certain peculiar words
like strengths or squinched,
many-lettered, one-syllabled lumps,
which I squeeze, squinch open, and splurge well
in the silent, startled, icy, black language
of blackberry-eating in late September.

Interested in joining the FSPA?

We’d love to have your support (dues are $25 per year for an individual, $30 for a couple). Here is a link. And coming occasionally to help out with volunteer efforts is awesome too, even if you’re not a member. The FSPA’s goal is simply to share our love of Frontenac State Park with as many people as possible.

To sign up to regularly receive this monthly newsletter, click on “Subscribe” below, and if you have questions or comments about it, email your newsletter editor at pamelamarianmiller@gmail.com. Questions about the FSPA? You can reach FSPA chair Steve Dietz at stevedietz@duck.com.

This newsletter is edited and largely written by FSPA member Pamela Miller. This month, we were honored with contributions from Bruce Ause, Earl Bye, Steve Dietz, Ethan Hartle, Janet Malotky, Michael Tortorello and Wally Siewert.

Handy links for more information and education

Frontenac State Park website
Frontenac State Park Association website
If you take pictures in the Park, tag us on Instagram
Frontenac State Park bird checklist
Frontenac State Park on iNaturalist
Parks & Trails Council
Website for our township, Florence Township
Minnesota Master Naturalist program
Red Wing Environmental Learning Center
Lake City Environmental Learning Program on FB

Frontenac State Park staff

Jake Gaster, park manager; Amy Jay, assistant park manager; Amy Poss, lead field worker

Parting shots

Thank you, readers and park visitors!