Beautiful spring day, so I loaded up my pack and went for a dayhike along the North Branch River in southern Minnesota's Blufflands near the burg of Elba.

There is no man-made trail there, so I followed a deer path for a few miles, combing the hillsides for the beautiful spring ephemerals that color the river bottoms and bluffland forests for a day or two each year. Every once in a while I came down off the game trail and explored a gravel bar looking for interesting mineral specimens.

My pack was a little heavy, as it contained all of the 'necessities' and a few extras, including a nice meal of wild rice and salmon just waiting to be cooked on my Trangia stove at one of the sand bars. There would be Constant Comment tea with Kit Organic berry nut bars for dessert.

I'm posting a few pictures that I took with my cell phone. The pictures are not very good, but I keep using the phone as a camera anyway. I figure it is my excuse for being a crappy photographer.

Take a look at the picture of my boots. These are older but high-end Clark Treks. The uppers and insoles were in perfect condition, and the soles have minimal wear.

As I was heading back in and walking along through the forest, I thought I stepped on something. I looked down, and the sole of my right boot had stripped off. I was still a mile out! I had some duct tape in my pack, but elected to just keep walking with one bad boot. A quarter mile later, the other sole stripped off. What are the odds of that happening?

I finished my dayhike with two sole-less boots. Fortunately, I had a spare set of boots in my car.