Outdoors Posts

PDD Quiz: Get to the Point

Test your knowledge of various Twin Ports points with this week’s quiz!

The next PDD quiz will review July 2025 headlines; it will be published on July 27. Please submit question suggestions to Alison Moffat at [email protected] by July 24.

Helical Hymn

This animated music video was inspired by the Minnesota Million: Reforestation for Carbon Sequestration Project, which is focused on the reforestation of one million acres in northern Minnesota. It will be screened at Dovetail Cafe & Marketplace on July 3 at 6 p.m. as part of the Cafe Scientifique event. Dr. Julie Etterson will speak about the Minnesota Million Project and free seedlings will be given away. Please come hear about this exciting project and help us reforest the northland.

Ten Months of Critters in Voyageurs National Park

The latest montage video from the Voyageurs Wolf Project features highlights from a trail camera set up in a remote section of Voyageurs National Park for more than 10 months. The camera captured the typical cast of elusive forest characters, including wolves, moose and lynx. A bear helps direct the video by adjusting the camera.

Here’s the latest lynx footage from Voyageurs National Park

[This post originally contained an embedded video that is no longer available at its source.]

The Voyageurs Wolf Project has more than 350 trail cameras set up within in Voyageurs National Park, about 100 miles north of Duluth. Though the project is focused on understanding the summer ecology of wolves in the park, the cameras record all kinds of wildlife throughout the year. Lynx sightings are somewhat rare, and footage this good is truly rare.

To support the Voyageurs Wolf Project’s spring fundraising project, visit crowdfund.umn.edu.

PDD Quiz: For the Birds

Take flight with this ornithology-adjacent quiz that tests your knowledge of bird-related trivia.

The next PDD quiz, slated for May 25, will recap the month’s headlines. Please submit question suggestions to Alison Moffat at [email protected] by May 22.

Childhood memories lead to future inspirations

Etta Glinsek is a junior at the University of Minnesota Duluth majoring in environment sustainability and geography and minoring in environment and outdoor education. She is working toward graduating in spring 2026 and a career in the environmental field.

This semester, Glinsek is taking the class Nature Interpretation. Part of the coursework is to create a plot study, finding an area where the student can study and observe nature. Glinsek has chosen an area in Bagley Nature Area near a stream in hopes that it will create a more diverse environment. Her goal is to help preserve the environment and find a job that will allow her to do it.

Duluth in space

Wolf pack howling into the wintry darkness

The Peatland Pack, the largest pack of wolves in the Voyageurs National Park area, was caught on a trail camera this winter howling in chorus. The main wolf that is standing up howling in the clip is the breeding female of the pack, and three others show up on camera, but the pack is composed of at least nine wolves.

The video is from the Voyageurs Wolf Project, which is focused on understanding the ecology of wolves in the park.

Arctic Bound: Sailboat Nord Hus arrives in Grand Marais

The 36-foot sailboat Nord Hus cast off from the Knife River Marina near Two Harbors on March 31 with a crew of four and temperatures hovering around 11 degrees. The first stop on the journey was Grand Marais. Explorers Lonnie Dupre and Pascale Marceau and crew plan to sail the Nord Hus from Grand Marais through the Great Lakes to the St. Lawrence Seaway and follow the Canadian North Shore to Newfoundland, eventually reaching the arctic channel between Elsemere Island and Greenland. The crew will be conducting a variety of scientific observations in collaboration with global partners.

Loons Singing to the Northern Lights

Seth Trobec captured these sounds and scenes looking over Moose Lake, north of Deer River, on May 19, 2023. The video was released on YouTube last week.

Ice Skating Trail on Gunflint Lake

Gunflint Lodge owner John Fredrikson plowed what is possibly the largest ice-skating trail in the United States on Gunflint Lake. This video was produced by Matthew Baxley for WTIP North Shore Community Radio.

Please note the video was shot more than a month ago and ice conditions can always change rapidly.

The Slice: Duluth Explorers Club

The Duluth Explorers Club is a monthly gathering that highlights experiences and perspectives of local adventurers.

In its series The Slice, PBS North presents short “slices of life” that capture the events and experiences that bring people together and speak to what it means to live up north.

Duluth Deep Dive #1: Sandbars

From top to bottom, freshwater sandbars in Lake Eerie, Lake Baikal and our own on Lake Superior. In each image, the red line represents 15 miles. (Images from Google Earth)

The 10-mile combined length of Minnesota and Wisconsin Point is often described as one of the world’s longest natural freshwater sandbars. But which sandbars is it being compared against? This post takes a closer look at the world’s longest sandbars (and includes a Geoguessr challenge of remarkable sandbars around the world).

Rob on Bikes: Dreamland at Spirit Mountain

Dreamland mountain bike trail opened at Spirit Mountain last fall. Two minutes into his October ride, Rob of Rob on Bikes crashed and scratched his GoPro lens, but persevered to pull together a segment with only slightly obscured footage.

Video of bull moose sparring in northern Minnesota

From a snowy forest in Voyageurs National Park, about 100 miles north of Duluth, trail camera footage from two weeks ago of two bull moose locking antlers, with a third bull eventually joining in. The video is from the Voyageurs Wolf Project, which is focused on understanding the ecology of wolves in the park.