Sunrise Prairie Trail near Wyoming
Dae-Min Kim
"THE SUNRISE PRAIRIE TRAIL follows the original Lake Superior and Mississippi Rail Line constructed from 1867 to 1870. It was abandoned by Burlington Northern Railroad in 1989 and converted into a multi-use recreational trail in the spring of 1998. It extends from the City of North Branch south 14.75 miles to the southern border of Chisago County. From there it continues South approximately 7 miles through Washington County to the town of Hugo. "
by Chisago County Trails (http://www.ccbiketrail.org/spt.html)
I first found what this trail looks like when I went seine (net) - fishing with Vinnie and his girlfriend Jacky to Wyoming, Chisago county of Minnesota early this year. We parked at a small public lot directly connected to the trail and walk just hundreds steps to the South Branch of Sunrise River. The trail looked excellent for walking and biking, since it goes through calm rural landscape and mostly flattened areas. First of all, the trail is good for parking. I already wrote how seriously I concern in Minnesota about parking issue through an early posting, since I have towed twice (which is a not very common event to many of the international students - they usually do not drive far from the campus and tend to look for a large lot). In the Sunrise Prairie Trail which is only 24 miles long, there are 5 parking lots nearby the cities - North Branch, Stacy, Wyoming, Forest Lake and Hugo. In case of the Cannon Valley Trail that I like as well, there are only 3 lots - Cannon Falls, Welch and Red Wing - although the trail extends about for 40 miles. Also, it takes about 40 minutes to get to the Sunrise Prairie Trail from my place in Roseville.
The Sunrise Prairie Trail is a trail that I have visited the most frequently. About 18 times in the last summer break for each of 4 - 8 miles walking. It is regretful that I did not take any picture of the landscape, wildflowers and insects. The trail near Wyoming is located between two big roads, the 35N and the highway 30, so actually the land has been altered and disturbed by human activities. The land disturbed does not always mean that the land is unable to support wildflowers and animals. As far as I know, natural prairies widely spread before the European settlement in Minnesota also were frequently "naturally" disturbed by wild-fire. Wild-fire did not let large trees grow so that tall-grass vegetation could be healthfully supported. Of course, disturbance by human activities that often causes introduction of invasive germs, plants and animals is different from that by natural disturbance such as wild-fire in many terms. On the Sunrise Prairie Trail, we can easily see many native prairie wildflowers and some invasive species. While many of wildflowers in this trail are those found commonly in the Cannon Valley Trail, some of them are still unique.
This is about 0.5 miles north of a parking lot near Wyoming. Fall color is good and much better than the Cannon Valley Trail I went a week ago. One of more beautiful fall color pictures is shown as the following:
Good!
I tried to sort trees with such colorful leaves based on fallen leaves on the trail. Those were oaks and maples. Oaks have a narrower leaf than does oaks in the Cannon Valley Trail. Also, it was mostly yellowish in the Cannon Valley Trail while mostly redish in the Sunrise Prairie Trail. I am sure this difference is caused by different vegetations in those two trails. It is sad that I have very little knowledge about Minnesota's trees.
In South Korea, fall color is various everywhere from dark brown to bright yellow. I do not know if mountains tend to have more tree species than flattened areas when they are the same in terms of size and climate zone. If mountains do, South Korea's various fall color is due to tree diversity. I think diversity of plant including tree might be higher in South Korea although it is a little smaller than half of the Minnesota. This is because South Korea supports more various climate zones from semi-tropical to cold while Minnesota has only two, cold-temperate and cold. In addition, topography and seasonal wind are much more complicated in South Korea.
* South Korea's fall color in Daegwanryeong (http://cafe.naver.com/ArticleRead.nhn?clubid=17704860&articleid=627)
This picture of South Korea's fall color perfectly shows how beautiful fall color of the highland areas is. Clear blue sky makes the color more decorative. According to the article, this picture was taken on October from the city of Daegwanryeong, Pyeongchang county in Kangwon Province. I think, however, fall color of Daegwanryeong is not as wonderful as that of Naejang Mountain and Jiri Mountain that are famous fall color tourism attractions in South Korea. Those mountains in southern region have probably the most beautiful color in the world and the peak is usually on November. I heard that it was snowy in Daegwanryeong, one of the coldest cities in South Korea, a week ago.
Let's return to the Minnesota. This is a farm near Wyoming that I have thought cool since the summer. The grass is now much less greener than the last summer break. I do not know what species that grass is. It is interesting that the grass in the farm is still green alone while corns, wheats and soybeans are all gone.
The landscape around the highway 30 is much better in autumn than is summer. It was a good choice that people planted maples and oaks along with the road if those trees are not natural vegetation there. I was there in the Halloween Day so the traffic on the highway 30 was so low.
The road in the middle of this picture is the 35N, which is my winter favorite. It is always exciting for me to imagine driving to colder coniferous forest up north in winter. Although I cannot enjoy kayaking and fishing there due to coldness and frozen water, the landscape decorated with snow, coniferous forests and hills around the Lake Superior is awesome. The 35N was relatively busy even in the Halloween. People on the road must be happy. If they are all like me, they love to be in weird costume and to drink heavy strong bear in north country in the Halloween.
I walked simply 7 miles this day. It is time to choose what to do for the evening - going to the Halloween party or doing too many homeworks...