Minnesota is known as the land of 10,000 lakes and I’m willing to bet they missed a few when counting. With highways bending around the lakes and through the land, I wonder if this is where little red riding hood’s grandma may live? It was also a great change of pace to be submerged in trees again, after a long while in the mid-west plains, having shade that wasn’t a result of huddling behind my car was welcomed. I was also fortunate enough to have a partner in crime for a portion of this state who not only gave me some photography pointers, but some much needed motivation, company, and help paddling. Overall the week moved slowly on a daily basis, but it was one of the more natural progressions to see a whole state that I hadn’t quite felt yet.
The Fargo Tour
If you haven’t seen the cult classic Fargo, go do it, laugh at the funny accents, then come back. The show takes place in Bemidji and Duluth, and is named after Fargo, SD. It was pretty surreal to be able to go through these towns and see how they were now, decades later. Though they were far from the small little towns with only a dozen people, it was great to know there was still life and history hadn’t forgotten them.
Duluth
Spending a whole day just wandering around, biking, climbing and explore was just awesome. I find myself sitting a lot as of late, between driving and working, it’s a bit rough. So to spend a whole day just wandering around, being active and always moving felt great. The rock gym, though nested in a kid’s adventure zone, was actually really good and had a good array of bouldering and rope routes. Plus finding a quick belay buddy was awesome! A very cold city in the middle of the summer, I can’t imagine what the winters would be like, but if anything it was a warning of what is sure to come, and I need to be prepared for. Duluth reminded me a lot of a micro-Pittsburgh in a way. With crazy roads winding around a hill and cliff laden landscape with the waterway on one edge, it still had a handful of bridges to navigate around.
Voyageurs National Park
Another national park, and another new beautiful landscape. Though it presented its own challenges, like only being accessible by water craft. It was great to have an adventure buddy, Hoobs, to hang out with for the trip, and who knew a bit more about working/navigation on water than I did. He mentioned something while at our camp that really hit me, where we are, only a few people know of, and currently, none of them could contact us, and vice versa. We were truly alone, amidst the quite of the waves, and only had what we thought to put in the boat. Maybe its because he’s just starting his trip, but this is something I’ve come to accept as normal, but didn’t realize that it is far from normal in our hyper connected world. The escape from all the lights and noise that our phones and computers radiate is amazing, and leaves so much room for the mind to think instead of being inundated with countless updates.
Twin Cities
A huge shift over just a few days from Voyageurs to the middle of a massive city with a highway system that I’m convinced was explicitly designed to cause as much confusion and traffic as possible. But thanks to my gps, some questionable turns, and going a bit too slow (aka, the speed limit) I managed to have a blast. Again having a hyper active day of riding my bike and seeing a small portion of the city. It was a good reminder that so far I’ve been lucky with internet and not to assume anything or take it for granted. But also being able to create my own escape in the middle of a hustle and bustle with just some webbing and a jetboil is a magic that can’t hardly be described.
The fluidity of being able to transition from city to nature and everywhere in between is a great gift that I’m just starting to learn to properly manage. It is mentally taxing to make the multi-hour drives and then get out and keep going with the same desire as when starting. But I’m starting to find my energy in places I never would have expected. But I also need to remember to take rest days, not just physical but mental as well, as this is marathon, not a sprint, and I’m in this for the long haul.
