Minnesota – Land o Lakes

August 5th, 2015

The border from North to Dakota to Minnesota is in the middle of two cities, simply a river.  So there is no sign at the crossing to stop and take copious amounts of photos.  I’ll have to remember to do that at the end of the state.

With a quick stop at the visitor’s center, I was again greeted by another overly happy attendee giving me a miniature library of books and maps for which to guide me this week.  The first stop, with homage to the cult classic again, Duluth.  An easy 4 hour drive across the state with many pit stops to fill the day.





Unfortunately, most of this part of Minnesota is akin to its sibling state to the west, not a whole lot going on.  But the drive slowly got more and more beautiful, with lakes and ponds and various other sized water features scattered along the highway.  With many pit stops for photo opts, it was a nice peaceful drive.  I arrived to Duluth in the early afternoon, and found the local again to see of any local events and things to do.

A free concert was happening in a park not too far from here, perfect!  I arrived early to do some work in the park as people gathered, and wow, did a crowd gather!  At 6, it felt dead, but by 7, I could barely walk around.  Finishing work, grabbed my camera, and began running around getting photos form all non-intrusive angles.  It was a blast.  The music not my flavor, but with just a guitar and a washboard, they did pretty good.

A quick search, and my usual home could be found for the night.



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Duluth is situated right on the edge of Lake Superior, one of the five great lakes.  Lakes are like natures natural heat sinks, meaning that the temperatures around them are generally a lot colder than somewhere in the same region, not near a lake.  Lakes also stabilize temperatures so there’s less of a swing between hot and cold.  As a land lubber, I forgot most of this, and was wondering why I needed a hoodie in the middle of the day in August.  It was chilly.

Even with the cold, it was a reminder of what I’ll have to deal with in coming months, as I’ll still be very far north into the beginning of winter.  Things to think about.



Besides the cold, today was going to be a great day!  Duluth looked like a great city to scope out, there was a rock climbing wall, tons to see on my bike, and some amazing parks on the coast to see.  A parking spot found that was secure, close and free; bag loaded up, and helmet dawned, I was off.  Duluth is kind of like a very small San Francisco, with steep hills, some crazy roads, and at the end of the steep hills, a giant body of water.  Going down the roads on my bike was a blast, going up, not as much.  With some wandering around, in and out of some shops and not getting hit on Main Street, the shore was calling me.

After some wandering, I ran into the rock climbing gym and it felt like a good chance to climb, especially with the day not half done.  Though the climbing area was in a kid’s adventure zone, it was actually half descent.  The bouldering wall had few climbs over V2, but that was about my on sight limit now.  Though a few V4’s kept my interest and were sent as well.  Exhausted, I headed back out to bike around, and see the sights.  With a stop to get some delicious fish, caught from the lake this morning, I relaxed on the bay.



The cool lake breeze blowing by, seagulls yelling in the distance, contrasting blues from the sky and lake meeting to make a horizon disturbed only by the handful of boats floating off at infinity.  Thousand foot vessels in the distance were no longer than my pinky finger nail at arm’s length.  Sail boats passed closed to the shore, one even going into dock, forcing the bridge to be raised.  An engineering marvel to watch.

Back on my bike, the lake view trail, going as far north as I could pedal was the next objective.  The trail was beautiful.  People were out enjoying the cool summer day as well, and it made for a great summer scene.  Wandering north, I found Leif Erikson Park, more Scandinavian heritage.  Stopping for photos and to take in the scenery.  I found the path does have an end, for bikes at least.  I turned around and took the main street back to town.  The library called, to work, relax, and plan.



The library closed at 6 pm, ushering in time for more climbing!  Returning to the gym to boulder some more, I found another lady there, Mikayla, also bouldering.  Asking if she wanted to climb on the ropes instead, she gladly obliged. SCORE!  This gym had natural features along with the normal bolt on holds, which meant they had some cracks to climb as well, a rarity in gyms.  As we climbed and got to know each other, I remembered I hadn’t climbed in a while and my skills were extremely rusty.  But I fared well and didn’t manage to make too much of an ass of myself.

It was then that he showed up.  Standing tall in his signature plaid shirt, beige pants, and sporting a fancy “new’ backpack.  His grin infectious, I ran over and embraced him in a bear hug, it was Andrew!  Or “Hoobs” as most people probably know him. (You might recall him from our Presidential Traverse weekend).  He was on an adventure of his own, and we found this was a great chance to link up!



Finishing up at the gym, we headed off to grab my car.  Stopping to give tours to one another of our swagger wagons, as he too was living in his car.  Our set ups, though differed greatly, both worked for what we needed and our goals.  We returned to Wally World to cook a feast for dinner and make a plan, because we always keep to the plan.  Dinner was beans and tomatoes mixed with gnocchi, and topped with Sirach.  YUM!

Hoobs played around with reorganizing his car and setting up a portable hammock stand while I relaxed and did some reading as I watched the fiasco of the hammock stand.  We crashed late, under the many suns of the parking lot lights, amid a blacked sky behind them.