People who bird the Upland Forest Trail normally access the road from Lake County #2 at the junction with Whyte Road (avoid this section of Whyte Road like the plague … it descends into horrible bog and should NOT be driven even with four wheel drive.) However, I figured out that there is another section of Upland Forest Trail on the other side of a marsh / bog. If one drives to the area known at Toimi, Minnesota and IF you have a car with four wheel drive / all wheel drive, there is a one mile section of the road that may be safely driven. Right at the one mile point there is a parking area, BUT DO NOT drive past this point. I tried hiking and the road descended into marsh. Later this fall I will try the hike once more.
The drive will take you across an active set of railroad tracks, and from that point on the birding is fantastic. When the flies and mosquitoes die down some towards the end of July there are some great birding hikes off to one’s right as a person drives onto this wilderness area. The birdsong listening stations I have deployed have ID’d a remarkable number of warblers species, including lots of Connecticut Warblers. The area off to the right has amazing raptor perching trees.
The images included below are actually from just past the turn onto Upland Forest Trail. In a few hundred yards a person gets to two cool large ponds (next to the railroad tracks). The Trumpeter Swan Family lived in and raised their family here this summer.
