(TWM) Two Harbors, MN - North-Up & Marriage

Sinistar

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Brad
In Minnesota if you want to see something other than fields, trees and lakes you either need to fly northeast to Lake Superior or southeast along the Mississippi River.

With the daughter up at Grandmas, a free morning and a perfect wx day we decided to fly up to Two Harbors and overfly Duluth along the way. We don't get many chances to fly together due to busy schedules so this was a treat. We usually take turns flying legs but I really wanted to take pictures so Kari flew the whole trip and I took radios.

On a normally busy summer Saturday the drive from our house to Two Harbors will easily push 4hrs. Today the flight would be about 1hr20min each way :) Right after departure I picked up FF and a Bravo Clearance so we could fly direct and climb higher. It was already hot and humid at 730am but a quick climb to 5500msl found air cool enough to actually start closing vents.

Aviation-wise it was pretty low key. The only interesting event was ATC calling out a very close contact heading directly towards us but altitude unknown. We never saw it and afterwards the gal on Duluth Approach said sometimes the radar picks up semi's that give false returns...interesting.

We had some good laughs along the way but trying Track-Up was the funniest. On the flight back I said lets try Track-Up. So I tap the 'N' to switch it. She looks at me and says "You realize one pillar of our marriage is North Up." We both laughed! Neither of us can stand Track-Up.

The Two Harbors airport is very nice. There is a nice long paved runway with full length taxiway. Crossing that is a nice grass strip. They have great fuel prices with self serve 100LL at $3.53/gal. A nice small heated building. Plus they have (2) courtesy cars that you can reserve several days in advance!

The first nice change of scenery is the St.Louis River Estuary. The curved bridge is the US-HWY-2 crossing over into Wisconsin.
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Looking directly down over the lift bridge (it's lowered) and Canal Park. Two big boats are at anchor. Lake Superior is smooth as glass.
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Looking towards Wisconsin. You can see KDYT - Sky Harbor. This Sky Harbor a bit smaller than the one in Phoenix LOL! Looks like a little aircraft carrier with the water on the side. People often land here and uber/walk to Canal Park.
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A big guy heading back out. It looks so small. Its not!
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Heading back home. Down below is the Grand Casino at Hinkley and a very small airport nearby called Field Of Dreams (04W).
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It was calm even up at altitude so the rare day where ground speed matches TAS = 153mph (134kts).
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Every TAF called for skies clear for the entire day. Eventually it built up to few for a bit which was no surprise given the heat, humidity and lack of any winds. So we climbed up and went over.
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Yours truly starting Covid beard # 2.
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Happy wife! Great Day. Life is good.
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You two certainly are lucky to enjoy your lives together and fly together. I am envious...
I'm a "North Up" guy too...I tried Track Up on FF for sectionals...not good. Also on the Aeronautical map but that lacks detail IMHO. Certainly not on the Low altitude Enroute charts. The only place I use Track Up is on the GNS 530 where it seems to be logical.
 
North up / track up is a major point of conflict in my marriage.

We have only survived because I've *finally* trained him... to learn where the buttons are to switch it back.
:)
 
Thanks for sharing! As a kid, we used to make summer trips up the north shore to Grand Marais and then up the Gunflint to spend a week at my grandparent's cabin. Loved the north shore!
 
Beaaaaaautiful. Have not been to Duluth since 2015 or so. Maybe one of these days I'll be not so busy with life and make it back there.

Also.. am partial to track up...

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Very nice photos.
I was just wishing I could spend more time on the North Shore. I look at the FB page of 'North Shore Tribe' just to look at the beautiful photos of one of the best areas of Minnesota.
If you have more time on another trip up there, stop in at the old train depot in town. They have one of the three remaining "Yellowstones" it's a massive steam locomotive similar to the "Big Boy". It was used to haul the empty ore cars back up the hill near Duluth and into Proctor. Two more of the Yellowstones remain are in Proctor and in the train/depot museum in Duluth.
Lots to do and see up on the North Shore, you two kids look like you had a great flight.
 
North up / track up is a major point of conflict in my marriage.
:rofl:

I don't think the spouse would even notice the difference. Driving about 200 miles west of Detroit on I-94 she asks "Are we near Frankenmuth?" (100 miles north of Detroit off I-75...)
 
I grew up in Stillwater MN and have many pleasant memories as a child of trips to the North Shore. Flew down along it from Cook County in 2018. Lot’s to see. Had to land at the Duluth Sky Harbor, having moved to the Phoenix area. Nice pics. Thanks for the report.
 
Nice trip report - will add some spots to my to do list. I’ve found MSP approach to be pretty VFR friendly.
 
Thanks for posting this @Sinistar. Couple years ago we made a circumnavigation around Lake Michigan and stayed a couple days in Copper Harbor. Saw my first bear and the Milky Way there. The UP might as well be Alaska for all I know, absolutely gorgeous. What's Two Harbors like that I should put it on my places to visit list?
 
Thanks for posting this @Sinistar. Couple years ago we made a circumnavigation around Lake Michigan and stayed a couple days in Copper Harbor. Saw my first bear and the Milky Way there. The UP might as well be Alaska for all I know, absolutely gorgeous. What's Two Harbors like that I should put it on my places to visit list?
You're timing is great. Just flew all the way to Houghton and back today!

I think the UP, especially from Ironwood and then east is more remote feeling than the area by Duluth, Two Harbors, etc. However Two Harbors puts you very close to Gooseberry Falls, Split Rock Light House and even back to Duluth and the popular Canal Park. Plus a lot of people like to land at Sky Harbor and quick 4 mile Uber to the lift bridge and Canal Park. I'm from Minnesota, but I think you need to get a bit farther north to the BWCA to match the UP remoteness.

How long did the Lake Michigan circumnavigation take?
 
You're timing is great. Just flew all the way to Houghton and back today!

I think the UP, especially from Ironwood and then east is more remote feeling than the area by Duluth, Two Harbors, etc. However Two Harbors puts you very close to Gooseberry Falls, Split Rock Light House and even back to Duluth and the popular Canal Park. Plus a lot of people like to land at Sky Harbor and quick 4 mile Uber to the lift bridge and Canal Park. I'm from Minnesota, but I think you need to get a bit farther north to the BWCA to match the UP remoteness.

How long did the Lake Michigan circumnavigation take?
shoulda stopped by 6Y9, will be here rest of the weekend
 
shoulda stopped by 6Y9, will be here rest of the weekend
Wow you are up there! Cool. Absolutely beautiful country!!! I used to snowmobile out that way years ago.

On our flight back we were watching the build ups in your direction. The ADSB radar had 3 little groups of yellow, red and maybe even black pixels. Only like 16 pixels in each location. But they just went higher and higher. Somewhere around 9500msl we had to bail and rough it out below. It was like this perfect day and no believes that we flew thru rain.

The other weird one was leaving Houghton around 130pm or so (central time). As we climbed out we saw one on the smaller bays on Lake Superior totally LIFR! The only other time Ive seen summer mid afternoon LIFR on a warm clear day up here was the Mississippi river valley by La Crosse.

Now I know where your fly in is at!
 
North up on a moving map gps is equally senseless as track up on a paper chart. Neither makes sense.
 
This whole thread makes me

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