Time to Explore Minnesota

Once we left Grand Forks, North Dakota, we were in Minnesota! Again, we followed US 2 until we got to the small town of Bena. We turned south and made our way eight miles to Federal Dam, Minnesota. Leech Lake Dam Recreation area is there and that is where we would camp for the next five nights. The campground was far away from any major town, so it was nice and quiet. After getting settled in, we started looking at brochures of things to see and do in the area.

 It looked like the weather wasn't going to cooperate in this area, either. The forecast called for cloudy, cool days with light rains for most of our stay. We planned our days around the forecast. Our first day, we tried to geocache our way to Bemidji. In the t.v. show How I Met Your Mother, the character Marshall is from Bemidji. It is a nice small town. We were going to the visitor center, but it was closed while the parking lot was being paved. We moved on to Lake Bemidji State Park. We found a few caches, but then we didn't look for many.

There was a nice hiking trail near the day use area. After eating our lunch, we decided the rain was going to hold off long enough for us to get a short hike around the edge of the lake.

 

The paved trail was dry, but the paths through the woods were still wet from previous rains.

We enjoyed being able to get out and explore even with the bad weather.

You can see the clouds building across the lake from the park. We headed back toward the campground, hoping to get there before the rain caught up with us.

Another day we headed east from the campground to do some geocaching.We found the cache hidden under this caboose in  Hill City.

 Our last stop for the day was in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. This used to be the courthouse, but now it houses 'unique' shops. One thing we noticed in Minnesota is that everyone has nice green grass in the yards and around town. It must not be as hard to keep it green and weed free as it is in Florida

We watched the weather and found a good day to go to Lake Itasca State Park. It was about 45 miles from our campground, but Bob and I both wanted to see the headwaters of the Mississippi River. We wished we had been camped closer to the park as it had a lot for us to do. After registering at the visitor center we off to find to the headwaters. We parked at the picnic area and hiked to the headwaters after we ate our lunch.

 The Mississippi River flows north for a ways before heading south toward the Gulf of Mexico.

 I was going to walk across the rocks at the headwaters, but they were loose and slippery. Without my hiking sticks, I wasn't going to attempt to go any further! The grass you see growing in the lake is Minnesota wild rice. People in the area still harvest and use wild rice from local lakes.

 I did walk the log a bit further along the river.

 Bob and I followed the wooden boardwalk to find Schoolcraft trail. Mr. Schoolcraft is credited with finding the headwaters with the help of some natives from the  Ojibwa tribe.

 On our way back to the car we passed a replica of one of the first stores on the lake. To the right of the store, in the fenced area, is what is left of the original store.

 Logging was a big part of the development of this part of Minnesota. The is one of the sleds that was used to get the timber to the river to float it to the mill. The wood is not original, but the metal parts are!

 The park has a 21 mile drive around the lake. At one stop is the oldest white pine in the park. It was so tall neither of us could get the whole tree in one picture.

 From the white pine, it on to Aitlon Fire Tower. It is one of many surviving fire towers in this portion of Minnesota, and the only one open at this time of year for people to climb. Yes, we climbed the tower!

 The views from the top were awesome!

 We could look in every direction and see the tops of the trees and lakes. We could see more of a color change from above the trees.

 After touring the park we stopped in the lodge to have a beer. To our surprise, the local draft craft beer was only $3! In some of the other lodges where we have stopped this trip, beer has been as much as $11! It was a nice lodge, and we arrived at the right time---it closed for the season the next week!

The following day we found one of the trailheads for the Heartland/Paul Bunyan bicycle trail. We still don't have bicycles, but it is easier to hike and find geocaches than ride bikes to find them (too much stopping and starting when caches are 1/10 of a mile apart. One of the interesting things we've seen at local bike trails is the bicycle tune-up center. It has everything you might need to repair a bicycle.

 The Heartland/Paul Bunyan trail was long and level! Minnesota is definitely the land of 10,000 lakes. The trail had lakes along both sides.  In total, the trail is over 200 miles long! We found most of the geocaches along the section of trail we walked.

 In some areas, the trees were changing colors. In other places, the leaves had fallen, making finding caches a little harder. It also made snakes a little harder to see. Yes, we are back in the land of snakes. Since arriving in the lower 48, I have spotted 6 snakes---one was a small rattler, the others were pine snakes.

We enjoyed our stay at Leech Lake, but it was time to move on. Our next stop---a new state for me---Wisconsin!