Whitewater State Park Camping

A short camping trip (2 nights) with friends to Whitewater State Park, Minnesota. I have driven through the park previously but not stopped nor camped. [video montage clip]

Like other Minnesota State Parks, the facilities are excellent. We had a really nice campsite (#45) a bit away from other sites. It was mid-week so not very many other campers.

Started off a bit cloudy but the sky cleared for us to have fantastic star viewing. You know you are in dark skies when you can see the Milky Way.

As usual with these folks, eating lots of good food is not an issue. Our one full day was hiking the Dakota Bluff Trail. We were very glad we hiked it in the direction we did. We started from our campsite and had a fairly gradual hike up to the top of the bluffs. There are incredible views of the river gorge and rock out-croppings.

The hike "down" is through a series of staircases. Super thanks and congrats to the hiking club for installing and maintaining.

Very surprisingly it poured rain during the second night. The rain had not been forecast. We woke up to water in our tent but thanks to our pads, we didn't get wet. We did have to pack up with wet gear but not in the rain.

Video montage clip.

North Shore Camping - Temperance River State Park

Lake Superior at Temperance River State Park

Made a short camping trip (Monday-Wednesday) with friends up the North Shore of Lake Superior to Temperance River State Park. With fire and drought conditions, we weren't sure what to expect but we ended up with beautiful weather and a much cooler time than the heat and humidity of the Twin Cities.

Click here for short video montage.

There were some milky skies from wildfire smoke but not so bad that we felt it. Not good star observing but a near full moon made up for the lack of starry nights.

Temperance River State Park camping facilities are nice with showers, bathrooms, vault toilets, and a dish washing station. The upper campsite is very close to Highway 61 with truck noise which rules out a return stay for me. I don't need that kind of man-made noise while I am camping.

Temperance River

On the other hand, the hike along the Temperance River gorge is amazing. There are waterfalls that rush through narrow passages. The well-maintained hiking path is fantastic with viewing spots along this dramatic stretch of northern Minnesota.

We went to Coho Cafe in Tofte three times! (secret treat - they have ice cream!)

The highlight of the trip for me was the near full moon reflecting off an incredibly still Lake Superior. The smoky sky made for an orangy-yellow moon creating a stunning effect in the sky and on the water.

Biking-Camping West Central Minnesota

Pearson's Century Farm, Litchfield, MN

This year's annual summer biking-camping adventure with Bud was to west-central Minnesota. Short cut to video montage.

We were kinda in the middle of a triangle drawn from Wilmar to Litchfield to Hutchinson. This was another HipCamp site on a farm with goats, a cow, a burrow, chickens, and lots of cats.

The drive out on Monday was less than 2 hours. To be honest, the farm is in the middle of nowhere. Acres and acres of farmland were everywhere around. There are basically two crops: soybeans and versions of corn. That's it! The acreage of these two crops goes on and on and on. There are patches of trees (mostly oak) and lakes or ponds generously sprinkled in.

The "camp" is on Pearson's Century Farm. I forgot to let the owner, Travis, know when we were arriving, but he quickly responded to my text to let us know where the campsite was located. If we had been paying closer attention, we would have seen the "Campsite" signs.

We've gotten pretty efficient on setting up our campsite, so we were done in a few minutes. I should mention that most of Minnesota, including where we were, was under an excessive heat warning. We discussed not going at all but were glad we did. At least we were out of the urban heat island and fortunately had a very shady campsite.

Bike transport

I searched AllTrails to find a paved biking trail that would be mostly shaded. We knew driving to bike trails was in our future. We drove to Wilmar, MN to ride the Glacial Lakes Trail to Spicer, MN - 14 miles ride trip.

Back at campsite Monday evening for dinner of hamburgers, corn on the cob and baked beans. After dinner was a short walk to the sunset meadow.

Tuesday morning, we had a big breakfast in camp before driving to Hutchinson (Hutch to the locals) for a trek on the Luce Line Trail. We got about halfway to Winsted before we ran into trail re-construction and turned around. 

Back in Hutchinson (they go big on their parks), we cooled off at the Dairy Queen before heading west bound for a few more miles. The heat was intense this year, so our rides were shorter than on previous adventures.

The need to cool off was high so we found a local public beach in order to get into some water. Lake Manuella has a nice sandy bottom with warm water, but it felt so good to get wet (that wasn't sweat).

Dinner Tuesday evening was in Litchfield next to Lake Ripley but too hot to sit outside. It might sound counter-intuitive, but a campfire Tuesday night kept the mosquitoes away for a while.

Back to Minneapolis Wednesday just in time for the worst wildfire smoke ever! Looking at the maps, the wildfire smoke was even worse just where we left so the timing was perfect.

Memorable sights: sandhill cranes; lots of pelicans; beautiful lakes and ponds; huge acres of soybeans and corn; majestic oak trees; amazing bird songs in the early mornings; Hutchinson park system.

Video montage.

Another Trip Up the North Shore with Maggie

Maggie and I made another trip to the Minnesota North Shore for a day of camping and a couple of days with Jenny B at the Gunflint Lake Resort. Click here for the video recap.

The drive up on Friday, June 30, was nicely uneventful with the usual stop at Duluth Grill for a delicious lunch. We arrived at Cascade River State Park in, what seemed like, record time.

Got the camp site set up and Maggie ensconced in the tent. It still stays light out well into 9pm hour. Got Maggie in her backpack and took a short hike along the Cascade River. We've been here a few times so rather than heading towards Lookout Mountain, we hiked along the north side of the river. To my surprise there was a fading Pink Lady Slipper right along the trail. This was my first encounter with the Minnesota state flower in the wild!

Lots of wildflowers including creeping dogwood, columbine, northern bluebells, wild roses, false lily-of-the-valley, and Clinton's Lily.

I had dinner at the Cascade River Lodge restaurant Friday night. Saturday, I made coffee while packing up to head into Grand Marais to meet my ex-boss from Nash Finch, Holly and her husband Bob. We met at Java Moose Cafe, of course (I follow the owner, Sarah, on Instagram).

Stopped at the Grand Marais IGA to pick up a few supplies before heading up the Gunflint Trail to Gunflint Lodge. We arrived to beautiful sunny weather. Jenny was ready for us in a lovely cabin. Maggie settled in and was glad to have room to roam, I'm sure.

Friday night, I grilled up all the meat (hamburger, brats, and turkey burgers) that I brought. Additionally, we made a salad with some very tasty homemade salad dressing.

The bed in the cabin has seen better days which resulted in a crazy-dreams night. Saturday, I made a big breakfast of scrambled eggs with a little bit of everything that was in the refrigerator.

Maggie stayed in the cabin while Jenny and I headed a few miles further up the Gunflint Trail to Magnetic Rock Trail. This is a relatively easy 3-mile roundtrip hike to a crazy monolith...and yes, magnets stick to it, but we didn't notice a strong effect to our compass. More incredible wildflowers including daisy and wood lily. Ask Jenny about the fellow hiker we met and the odd connection they have.

Saturday night we went to Poplar Haus down the Gunflint Trail. Our waiter did not seem so happy to see us, but he eventually warmed up. The bus boy was wearing a 99er volunteer shirt do I asked him how that adventure race went this year. My friend, Brett, was doing it again this year. Jenny ordered the BLT and claimed it to be the best BLT she has ever had!

Sunday, Jenny and I went to Loon Lake for a hike and hopes of seeing moose. We hiked the Crab Lake spur to the Border State Trail. We made it to Crab Lake and a bit beyond which turns out is in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness - we didn't know. FYI - there is more than one Crab Lake in the BWCA.

The path was well maintained up to the BWCA entry point but after was very, very overgrown. We were hoping to gain some elevation for a nice overview but gave up on bushwhacking through.

No moose but lots of birds singing and a good trail except we did end up with ticks on our socks (me more than Jenny) but thankfully did a tick check before getting in the truck.

We stopped at the Loon Lake Lodge to treat ourselves to handmade ice-cream sandwiches. This resort is worth another check.

Sunday night I cooked up one of the grain meals I brought, added a bunch of the meat, and we ate heartily. I figured out the mattress by sleeping on the very edge.

Jenny got up super early Monday morning to meet students coming out of the BWCA (Project Success). Maggie and I packed up the truck and headed to Grand Marais for breakfast. It was very cold and foggy down by Lake Superior - a stark contrast to where we had just come from.

The drive down to Duluth was in intermittent downpours of rain. South of Duluth it started to get warm...very warm....and humid. By the time we stopped for a break in Pine City it was in the 80's with the same amount of humidity. It was crazy.

Biking-Camping - Detroit Lakes and the Trolls

Another biking and camping trip with my friend, Bud. The video is here.

We drove up to Detroit Lakes on Sunday. It was grey and rainy.

The camping portion of the trip was at a HipCamp site called Tumbleweed Base Camp just outside of Detroit Lakes and adjacent to Detroit Mountain Recreation Area.

To get our bearings, we drove into Detroit Lakes to check out the first of Danish recycling artist Thomas Dambo's trolls, Alexa's Elixir, in downtown next to the lake.

Full disclosure, I cheated by looking up the location of all the trolls. If you want to follow the clues to discover each troll, don't worry, I won't divulge where each one is.

Tumblweed Base Camp has a nice setup (we really appreciated having a heater in the tent) but wasn't conducive to making our own meals, so we ate dinner in town. We did fix breakfast Monday morning before heading out on our biking adventure.

Monday was a beautiful day for biking. After purchasing a pair of gloves (Bud) and bike shorts (Jeff), we got started around 10:00am.

We started back at Alexa and used GPS to get around. It was fun to cycle then walk around each park where each troll was located. A kind of surprising find was that this part of Minnesota had rolling hills and even a ski hill (mountain??).

I had mapped out riding to each troll. The farthest we had to go was about 10 miles to Frazee. We were on dedicated bike paths most of the time (big shout out to "rails to trails"). 

Thank goodness for The Monarch Coffee House in Frazee. They were open on Monday and serving a hearty lunch.

We saw lots of swans...an unexpected and delightful surprise. The fall colors were nice but not dramatic. The art park, Ortenstone Gardens and Sculpture Park, is a fantastic addition. Be sure to go behind Barefoot Frida to be amazed.

We made it to all the trolls by bike except the last one. It was getting late and it turned out the last troll was near our campsite. The timing was perfect as we got to see the setting sun from the highest point in the area. We ended up biking over 26 miles.

Tumblewood Base Camp teepee

Trying to find breakfast Tuesday before we started the drive home was a challenge. Most places were closed though the internet told us they were open. We ended up at Northside Bar - a cash only local spot serving a very good breakfast.

We took a scenic route back to Minneapolis. Click here to watch the trip video.

Bike - Camp Jay Cooke State Park

The swinging bridge.

Another biking-camping trip with Bud from June 29 - July 1. We went to Jay Cooke State Park south of Duluth along the St. Louis River. Here is link to the video.

Jay Cooke State Park is a really nice park with excellent facilities. It is known for the swinging bridge that crosses the St. Louis River. There is also a feeder trail to the Willard Munger Trail, a well maintained, very long rails-to-trails.

After arriving early on the 29th, we setup our campsite and headed out onto the bike trail heading toward Duluth. These rails-to-trails paths are fantastic with very little elevation change. There are tons of trees and little streams beside the trail. There are some major drop-offs on either side.

We stopped at Buffalo House at Buffalo Valley Campground for lunch. They do a great job of "advertising" on the Munger Trail to let you know how to get there. Our server suggested we keep going up the trail to see and ride through a tunnel.

We had planned on heading back to camp but couldn't resist such a unique thing, so we kept riding toward Duluth. It was a beautiful section of the trail carved through rock; however, we never found the tunnel but did get caught in a very severe thunderstorm. 

It as a bigger obstruction than 
this photo implies.

After trying to wait it out for quite a while, we decided to head back to camp. The storm eventually passed on, but the trail had become blocked by a large fallen tree. We helped two bikers who were coming in the opposite direction get over the tree and they helped us.

Once back at camp, we were happy to see that our gear was not too wet though we were soaked.

Day 2 we took the Willard Munger Trail in the other direction, south. There is not much to see or places to stop going in this direction. A good deal of it was fairly close to Highway 61. We made it as far as Mahtowa where we did find a place for lunch, Mahtowa Tavern.

Back at Jay Cooke, my friend Trish and her daughter Lyla visited for a while. Later Bud and I did a short hike into the park before another rainstorm looked like it was coming. This time, the storm went around us!

The State Park Rangers do check that you have a permit. The first night, the ranger gave us the "all good." As we were packing up to leave on July 1, another ranger said my state permit was not "valid" because I didn't have it stuck to my windshield. She revoked the permit and sent us to the ranger office to get a new one. The office was not open, but a ranger did issue me a new permit and seemed kind of ticked off that the other ranger had sited me. There was no charge for the new permit.

If you made it this far, here is the link to the video again.

Biking - Camping Lake Louise State Park

 

This year's first biking-camping trip. Bud and I went further south (almost to Iowa) this spring to camp at Lake Louise State Park and cycle the Shooting Star State Trail.

Lake Louise is about 1 1/2 hours south past Rochester. We were the only tent campers in the park! The tent camping is split into two sections that are right next to each other. One is closer to the Upper Iowa River. Both are open but surrounded by large trees. There is a pit toilet near the tent area. There are nice showers and bathroom facilities just down the gravel road at the RV site.

We arrived in bright sunshine and warm weather. After quickly getting set up, we jumped on our bikes to explore the closest town, LeRoy. The bike bridge to LeRoy is being repaired and the detour is not marked but an easy ride over the road bridge. Not much to see in LeRoy. There is a hotel with a restaurant. There is a bowling alley down the street.

Back at camp we thought we would eat out on our first night. Having seen what LeRoy offered we drove in the other direction toward Austin, Minnesota. There are 3 towns - Taoli, Adams, and Rose Creek. There were no places to eat at any of these towns! Taoli has no restaurants. Adams has one that is only open for breakfast and lunch. The one restaurant in Rose Creek is not open on Mondays. 

So back at camp, Bud fixed us a dinner of chicken and rice. It was very good.

Tuesday, we biked the Shooting Star Trail on an out and back to Adams - 24 miles total round trip. We had lunch at Bubbles Cafe in Adams. It got busy with a good lunch crowd (makes sense since it was the only place to eat for miles!)

The trail follows the Upper Iowa River for the most part. It isn't a big river and more like a creek. We passed near newly planted fields of corn and soybean and a couple of pig farms. We also passed through a huge solar farm under construction. There are lots of wind turbines down here, too.

The Shooting Star Trail is very, very flat. Yay!

Back at camp we showered and put away most of the gear as storms were forecast. We headed to LeRoy and the Sweets Hotel for dinner. The hotel has a large restaurant, and the food was very good. It is an historic looking hotel with lots of wood and an old-world feel.

We got back to camp just before the rain started. And rain it did indeed. There was a long enough break in the weather for me to go to the restrooms to brush my teeth. On the way back I got to experience an incredible firefly show.

The rain turned into a big-time storm with lots of lightening, thunder, and rain. The field we were camped on turned into a pool of water but luckily or due to our preparations, we only got a little water in the tent. Wednesday when we checked the weather app, we saw that over 1 inch of rain had fallen!

Wednesday morning, we dried everything out, packed up, and headed home with a stop in Rochester to ride the Douglas State Trail. Either I was a bit worn out from Tuesday's ride or the trail was steeper, but I pooped out about 7.5 miles, so we turned around and rode back to our start. It was also very windy.

This was another really good trip and many thanks to Bud for all the food and preparations. We highly recommend the Shooting Star State Trail as it is very flat. We saw a variety of animals and flowering plants.

When you watch the video, the first audio you hear is of the songbirds that were all around. I recorded that from inside our tent on Tuesday morning.

Video link here.

Biking-Camping Forestville State Park

Second biking-camping trip for this year. This time there were 4 biker-campers. Bud and I were joined by Pam and Susan. (video link - best viewed landscape)

We headed out on Monday to southern Minnesota using two cars because Pam and Susan have pretty heavy electric bikes and theirs' take a different bike rack than Bud and my bikes.

Destination, Forestville State Park - less than 3 hours from the Twin Cities. We were the only people tent camping in a part of the park that allowed RVs. The tent only part of the park only had one set of campers! The tent-only sites were very woody so being in the RV area was better in my opinion.

We got our camp site setup pretty quickly (including the picnic tablecloth and a very special center piece made by Pam) so decided to take a walk/hike along the South Root River to find the historic town Forestville. The South Root River is full of trout...so full you can see them hanging out in the deeper pools. But "deeper pools" isn't really valid this year as the drought made the entire river fairly shallow. We made it to Forestville which during normal summer hours has costumed docents. There was no one around when we visited. It felt very ghost-towny.

We had beautiful weather and got to enjoy Susan's very tasty Chile, some s'mores, and a magnificent starry night. I don't remember if it was the first night or the second, but we had a visitor during the night that for some reason I was the dumb one that got out of the tent to investigate. Turned out a racoon was having its way with our belongings. I did my best to "scare" it away though it didn't really seem to care.

Bud fried up bacon and some delicious scrambled eggs to get Day #2 started which was a good thing because we were riding round-trip (a little over 20 miles) from Preston to Lanesboro. Bud and I had a Lanesboro trip in 2021 (click here for that blog post) but from the east side then. 

The Root River Trail is fairly flat and easy. In Lanesboro, we ate and wandered around some. The weather was starting to look stormy so we headed back to Preston. It was threatening the entire way so we did not dawdle. We made it to the cars and started to load the bikes right when the clouds opened up. We jumped in the cars and waited for the deluge to end before finishing the bike load and getting back to camp.

I am writing this almost a month after the adventure, so my memory is not great. I think the second night we ate in camp. Sweet potatoes baked on the fire coals with two different Indian curries. There was another beautifully clear night. While I was looking at the stars, a trout fisherman came by (he was night fishing) and told me he saw a 30" trout eating a mouse!

Day #3's event was a tour of Mystery Cave. Reservations are required. The South Root River runs underground through parts of the cave system. Having the river run underground is how trout can survive here. The water is always in the high 40's year round! 

The cave tour is an easy walk/stroll and the State Park tour guide was informed and even turned off all the lights so we could experience the total darkness.

The road to the campsite was being repaved and was limited to a single lane. While we were hanging out with the road guard, we were able to get her recommendation for eating in Preston. She suggested the bowling alley and while not a high culinary experience, it was decent but surprisingly the drinks were very mediocre.

We were definitely some tired campers by the time we made it back to the campsite. Thursday, we packed up the campsite and headed home to Minneapolis. 

The trip video is here (best viewed landscape).

Boundary Waters - Cross Bay Lake

This year's Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, BWCAW, trip had special meanings. Last year we were not able to make our annual trek into the Wilderness and this year is the 20th anniversary of our foursome.

Click here for the video recap (the video is best viewed in landscape).

Recapping the trip...on Tuesday, August 22 Brian, Jenny, Julie and I drove up to Jenny and Andrew's cabin at Gust Lake to spend the night and prep for our trip into the BWCAW. The temperature in the Twin Cities was headed into the 90's but before we even hit Duluth it was 30 degrees cooler. Good timing for our trip.

Wednesday, we got up early to drive up the Gunflint trail to Tuscarora Lodge and Canoe Outfitters. Our two canoes were dropped off at Cross River which is where are journey started. You don't actually enter the BWCA until reaching Cross Bay Lake.

I believe we had 7 portages (land between bodies of water) to get through. The weather was overcast and cool, perfect for paddling.

Things went fairly smoothly though we did have trouble finding the portage into Cross Bay Lake and ended up on an old, non-maintained portage (oops). Our destination was Long Island Lake.

We had stayed on Long Island Lake before (2005) but had entered via a different route and with 5 campers instead of the usual 4.

It took us 7 hours to get to Long Island Lake. Whether it was lack of paddle practice or age or directions, that was a LONG paddle. Add that I had a big arthritis flare up as we got to Long Island Lake. We had been given heads up to some available campsites. The first site on the lake was already occupied and didn't really meet our requirements (western facing with a swimmable area). The next one was available, and I had to confess that I could not continue paddling as my arthritis made it nearly impossible to continue.

Turned out the campsite was great, and we proceeded to setup our gear. I wasn't much help due to the previously mentioned arthritis. My flare up also meant that we were destined to have stormy weather...and it proved to be true.

The camp site got set up in no time as usual. To our amazement, there were nearly no bugs! So, we were able to have a campfire and stay up after sundown. This is usually not the case. From this point, the video really shows how the camping went.

We did have rain that first night (Wednesday) but it was not bad and sounded soothing on the tent. Thursday night was another story. We had a severe thunder and lightning storm and very, very heavy rain. So much rain that the base of the tent got soaked and so did pretty much everything on our camp site.

Friday had been forecast to be rainy but another piece of luck, it was sunny and warm. We were able to dry out pretty much everything and most importantly the tent and tarps. We re-assembled the site in time for another rain shower. We retreated to the tent to play cards and let the rest of our gear get all wet again.

We paddled out on Saturday expecting another 7-hour trip. Somehow the paddle out only took 4 hours...we shaved 3 hours off! We really don't know how. The weather conditions were the same and we were never really off course going in or out. We certainly didn't complain that we were more efficient.

Once back at the cabin, we put out everything to dry and ate a very filling meal. We drove back the Twin Cities on Sunday with a stop in Duluth for Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory caramel-dipped apples.

And now for the 20th anniversary. I found photos of that trip! Boy were we young!

2003 - Brian, Jeff, Jenny

2003 - Brian, Julie, Jenny

May Biking and Camping Trip - North Central Minnesota

Quick link to trip video

It has been a busy couple of weeks since I returned from a 4-day biking and camping trip with my friend Bud. I've been trying to get a video edited and this blog post completed.

A quick summary of the trip. We drove up to Akeley, MN on Wednesday, May 24 (the Wednesday before Memorial Weekend) where we spent 2 nights at a private campground, Akeley City Campground on the 11th Crow Wing Lake. It is a really nice site with RV and tent camping. We were the only tent for the first night.

The campground is next to the Heartland Trail, one of the first in the country rails-to-trails. It is a really well maintained trail and like our previous experience on rails-to-trails, it was relatively flat and straight.

We jumped on our bikes as soon as we got our campsite set up. It was a cold first ride.

Wednesday night we ate in Nevis, the town just west of Akeley. Had some good barbecue. Back at camp, Bud tried some fishing off the public fishing pier next to our campground.

The second day was warm and sunny. We had breakfast in camp and then biked to Walker, MN. We stopped at a coffee shop in Walker and headed back via the "scenic" route...which meant lots of hills and turns. This took us onto the Paul Bunyan Trail.

Bud has an electric bike...I do not! I did a pretty good job of keeping up. I think I gained an inch on my quads. We finally encountered some other bikers.

We drove back to Walker for dinner as there were more options.

Friday, we drove to Cass Lake to get a tent site at the Chippewa National Forest park outside of Cass Lake. We found a beautiful site but there were LOTS of mosquitoes. Lots of mosquitoes brought out LOTS of dragonflies. It was fascinating and we really appreciated the work dragonflies do. There were also LOTS of ticks...horror movie LOTS!!

We were expecting the campsites to be busy (Memorial Weekend) but there was only one other person there when we arrived. By the time we left on Saturday, there were 3 other families camping.

We took the Mizigi Trail around the lower portion of Cass Lake. It passes through a section of the Chippewa National Forest that has mostly been harvested and re-planted with pine trees. The bike path is completely covered with pine needles and cones. And there were millions of dragonflies!!!

We ate dinner at Stoney Point Resort, the only place close by.

We returned to the Twin Cities on Saturday. We drove back through Federal Dam, Emily, Crosby, and Mille Lacs. It was a great adventure.

Click here for a video (best viewed landscape). The "music" you will hear is a recording of the many songbirds that serenaded us in Cass Lake.

Fall Biking - Camping Trip

 I forgot to write my usual story to accompany photos and the video. So here is a hopefully a short story of last week's biking-camping trip.

First a clarification...we did not bike with our camping gear. We drove to the bike trails and drove to the camp sites. Two guys in their sixties do not need to be overdoing anything :-)

We (my friend Bud and I) first went to Albany, Minnesota. It is just off I-94 between St. Cloud and Sauk Centre. Albany is along the Lake Wobegon Trail which has a side route that connects to the Soo Line Trail. The Soo Line Trail goes through Holdingford and Bowlus to the Blanchard Dam on the Mississippi River.

These are rails-to-trails -- old railroad rights of way converted to cycling, walking, and snowmobile use. Because they are old railways, they are super flat and nearly completely straight. While the countryside might go up and down a bit, the trails just glide right through. Perfect for biking. We also learned what State Rail Bank Property is (there are signs all along the trails)

We saw lots of different farms and fields but the rail rights of way also provide for trees to grow along the trails. I was surprised there weren't more flowers (asters, black-eyed susans, etc.) along the way but they mow along the trails and the farm fields don't have much of a buffer.

We stopped in Bowlus at Jordie's Trailside Cafe and ate the biggest sandwiches I've ever had. Our destination and turn around spot was the Blanchard Dam on the Mississippi River. It is much bigger than I thought. It produces hydroelectric power.

On the return trip, we stopped at BoHo Cafe in Holdingford for a beer and pretzel bites . It is only a year old and has a winery feel to it. Holdingford has a charming covered bridge over the trail. It is not as old as one thinks.

The first day ride was 40 miles! -- 20 out and 20 back. We were very sore but made it to our camping destination - Sauk Centre. We set up our tent at a campsite right in town next to a small lake. We were the only tent and were surrounded by giant RV campers. It was kind of comical.

We ate at the local Mexican place in Sauk Centre. The food was very good. Back at camp, we were the only ones with a campfire which felt good on a cool night. We could see stars but there were street lights and lots of car noise. Even so, I slept really well after a day of cycling.

Thursday morning we had coffee and breakfast at camp. I made scrambled eggs with my new camp stove. We drove to Brandon which was further north on I-94. Our destination was Chippewa Park in Douglas County. There was only one other camper set up when we arrived. This time we had a spot where only tents were allowed. It was very spacious. We went ahead and setup the tent before going on our bike ride.

Thursday's bike ride was on the Central Lakes Trail - another rails-to-trails path. We started in Brandon and headed north 15 miles to Ashby. Again it was very level and very straight.

Lots of lakes and ponds along this trail. In Ashby we found City Restaurant. We got there just 20 minutes before the end of lunch. Grilled cheese and chili were perfect. And best of all, homemade blueberry pie!

We got back to the campsite and were the only ones there. It was a bit creepy to be honest...out in the middle with no one around. There was no place to eat in Brandon. We had passed through Evansville on our bikes which was a bigger town. We ate at the Backroad's Bar and Steak House. I had a steak salad with a really nice balsamic vinaigrette. We were entertained by the stories being told a the table across from us.

Lantern holder?

By the time we got back the campsite, an RV camper had setup with a large family and a huge tent was setup 2 sites down from us. There was plenty of room and honestly it felt good having other people around.

I was hoping for clear sky for star viewing but clouds kept coming and going. The clouds ended up coming for good because it rained over night early in the morning. It stopped raining by the time we got up. We made coffee in camp and decided to close up camp, have breakfast somewhere, and head back to the Twin Cities. I had planned on making eggs goldenrod but it seemed a bit complicated and making toast was going to be a problem.

We had breakfast at the State Street Cafe in Garfield. We highly recommend the fritter French toast.

We took a scenic route back to Minneapolis and successfully avoided the interstate. It was nice driving through the towns and seeing more of the country side.

The video of the trip can be viewed by clicking here.

BWCA 2021 Edition

 Well we did it again. The foursome of Brian, Jenny, Julie and Jeff ventured into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, BWCA, Wilderness.

This was the 20th anniversary edition. I think Jenny is the only one that has made them all.

I created a video for this year's trip. The link will be below. But a short recap...

The plan was to paddle Hog Creek from Entry #36 to Perent Lake and find an island campsite on the lake. That would be no portages. Side note - portages are where the team carries the gear and canoes from one body of water to another.

We had been warned that because of the drought our planned all paddle / no portage trip would be twice as long with several places where you had to get out of canoes and transport gear. Well, fortunately it did not turn out that way.

There were a few places we had to do just that but mostly the slow downs were caused by three large beaver dams that we would have had to negotiate anyway. Beavers are amazing architects and construction workers.

We did make it to Perent Lake and landed a very primo campsite. Nice layout on a private island.

We had an unbelievable encounter with a bald eagle. Saw a darling trumpeter swan family. Also, more loon action than we had seen in a long time. And a pesky red squirrel who we are pretty sure is now the proud owner of an orange spork.

Click here for the video. I suggest watching in landscape mode. It is 6 minutes long.

Annual BWCA Trip - part 1

This past week was what has become a near annual camping trip into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area (BWCA) Wilderness.

The usual foursome of Jenny, Julie, Brian and me drove up north on Tuesday. We spent the night in Jenny and Andrew's cabin on Gust Lake off the Grade (road). We paddled in on Sawbill Lake from Sawbill Outfitters.

There is a very long and, looking back, funny story on how we ended up where we did but I'll make the text of this post short and post the photos that I took. There will hopefully be more photos when the others get theirs off their cameras and phones.

Paddling in on Sawbll

Around the campfire grate

Fire grate and some of our cooking gear

A Jack Pine pinecone. The Nut Hatches really like these.

Dramatic sky while paddling. We did have storms during this trip.

A double water lily. We saw lots of these on our river paddle.

We love to swim in the lakes. We always where our life jackets.

A dramatic sunset. The reflection off the lake is always a winner.

One of our campsite sitting rocks.

We all happened to wear our Gust Lake t-shirts!

BWCA Annual Trip

Starting with this photo because I think it is very nice but also it is quintessential BWCA. We did a lot of river paddling and portaging this year.

This happens to be the Phoebe River which we did on a day trip. The haze is smoke down from the Canadian fires.

Here we are all set to leave Jenny and Andrew' cabin. This is Thursday morning. We drove to Kiwishiwi Lake to put it...about an hour's drive.

Our map. We would be so screwed without the maps. The lakes with islands are the most confusing. The campsite markings make all the difference.

Here we are at our campsite on Lake Polly. This is a very staged photo. We had a very nice campsite thanks to Jenny's chiropractor's recommendation.

We had a nice rock front that jutted out into the lake. The tent pad was fantastic. We all agreed that we had our best sleeps on this trip ever.

This is portaging for those not familiar. We rent Kevlar canoes which are pretty light. This is Julie on canoe duty. We usually take turns on who takes the canoes. You cannot see much other than what is directly in front of you when you are carrying a canoe.

Jenny and Brian paddling. Since we did a lot of lake navigating, there were lots of lily pads. The blossoms were so beautiful.

There were also numerous beaver dams and lodges. What we refer to as "beaver action." The last photo is one of the dams. Beautifully arced and with fresh branches with leaves making the dam particularly lovely.