Day 4, September 12; Aurora to Tower

 9/12/26; 28 miles

Cool and breezy. Outstanding (new) trail surface today and beautiful landscapes with hints of fall coloring. Scattered piles of hail (looking like snow) from yesterday evening's storm. Several fallen trees. Remember yesterday's bridge picture, we crossed another of yesterday's design today; It floats on a wetland for 3/4 mile--noisy but a great way to experience and protect wetland. We had a stimulating conversation as well as coffee and sweet breads at a Finnish-immigrant historic house in Embarrass. We arrived in Tower to the small celebration of trail completion--more in 3 days when we come back through--having shared the trail with local trail enthusiasts who did a 30-mile round trip to Embarrass. 

In the picture below, at the historic Finish house in Embarrass Bob sits with three locals: Ron Sutton (on Bob's right) is a former  teacher who lived fifteen years in Hungary; so some Hungarian was spoken. Lisa Gibson a volunteer who was in charge while baking delicious bread to share and to sell is on Bob's left. Glen Salo, closest to the camera worked 44 years in the mines. (Salo, the name, comes from the Finnish word salo, meaning “forest,” “wilderness,” or “backwoods.”)  Interesting conversationalists all!












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