A couple of weeks ago, my wife and I were able to get away by ourselves for a weekend away. It was a chance for us to spend some time as Steve & Becky, and not Mom and Dad. It was a great weekend but also a bit weird. Prior to this, it had been a few years since we did this and this time we were able to leave our children home by themselves, which was totally weird. It was hard for us to fathom that our kids were now old enough.
Our plan, initially, was to camp for the weekend so that we could see Monson Lake State Park, which isn’t very big at all, and then take in nearby Glacial Lakes State Park. The camping part fell by the wayside once we got a chance to look at the forecast. We’d never camped in a tent before this late in the season. We were really concerned about being cold overnight. Our two previous attempts at camping at Sibley State Park by ourselves in October involved us staying in the camper cabins. Unfortunately, they were full this time around. So, in a moment of weakness, we opted for a hotel in Willmar, and I’m glad that we did. It rained pretty hard Friday night when we got in. We still took in the two parks.
Monson Lake State Park really is a very small park. There are only a handful of campsites and the hiking club trail is only about a mile long. It’s still very beautiful. But the park, itself, isn’t big. Afterwards, we drove the 40 minutes to Glacial Lakes State Park and had a chance to look around at the campsite and then walk the hiking club trail. Overall, the park reminds me of Sibley State Park. The trail is much longer. I had forgotten to get my Apple Watch going at the start of the trail so my watch only recorded 3 miles of walking.
The next day, on our way home, we stopped by Sibley State Park again, so that we could walk the Mt. Tom trail, which is partially closed. We still ended up with almost 3.5 miles before we headed home.
I used the trip as on opportunity to test out two new pieces of photo gear. The first one was my new backpack, the Lowepro Flipside Trek 450. I have always loved Lowepro and this bag didn’t disappoint. It’s very comfortable and has a very roomy camera compartment. There was even room to store some other crap in the top part of the bag and stuff my raincoat. Most of the photos were taken with my Sigma 17-50mm f2.8 lens. I brought my Sigma macro lens, but only used it once or twice, I think. I also brought my Nikon 70-200mm f2.8, the other new piece of gear, that I bought used from National Camera Exchange earlier this year, which I did not end up using but I brought it nonetheless. And I’m going to share an observation: it’s fracking heavy. It’s heavy to hold. It’s heavy to use on my D7500 (I am SO glad I wasn’t carrying a full-frame camera for the course of an 8-mile hike). It’s even heavier to carry on your back for a 1 mile hike, then a 4 mile hike, then a 3.5 mile hike.
The picture, below, was taken at Monson Lake State Park, during the morning after a night of rain. I didn’t know if I’d find much to photograph while we were there. It was pretty wet and muddy in a few areas. We found this area by the lake, off the trail, and I was able to get real low to the ground, courtesy of the flippy-screen!
Wow, that turned out great.