Back to the big gravel road with about 6 miles before turning off of it. We saw a couple of directional signs that prove that this is the land of 10,000 lakes.
We weren’t even going to any of those!
About time for a riding selfie.
We made a turn onto a section that the route guide said could be muddy. Fortunately, it wasn’t.
This would not have been fun if it was muddy. It had moments of roughness, but nothing Billy couldn’t handle.
We stopped for lunch at the turn to Lake Clara (this was where we originally planned to stay). The horseflies had been pretty bad on the ATV trail, but now we were back to a good gravel road, so it was a good spot for lunch. I even got out my chair.
Not long after lunch, we made the turn onto Mistletoe Creek Road. We were only about 10 miles from where we would camp. We both needed to get water before the campsite as there wouldn’t be water there. We crossed Mistletoe Creek. It was flowing, but would be tricky to get to. The next possibility was Murmur Creek. We had a look at the route. Lani noticed there was a State Park off the route along Superior. There was a ”road” that went pretty much straight down to the lake, then we could ride the Hwy to the park. Tomorrow, we could just cruise into Grand Marais. I noticed the Gitchi Gami Trail picked up again after the park. Excellent! We wouldn’t have to ride the Hwy!
We rode to Harmon Sever Rd. Well, it started out as a double track. After a short bit, it became more overgrown, but we were still riding. Then there was a downed tree.
Lani making her way around the tree.
Pretty soon the grass was too high, and we couldn’t see the ground. There were ruts and rocks and branches hidden under the grass. We started pushing the bikes. At least it was mostly going slightly down or flat.
Not pushing quite yet.
We bushwhacked for what seemed like a very long time. I think it was really about an hour and a half. We went from the “road”, to a snowmobile trail. Finally we got to a point where we could ride again. That was about a half mile before we got to the Hwy. Hallelujah!
We rode the Hwy to the Cascade River Restaurant. It was kind of pricey, so I just had carrot cake and lemonade.
And I drank a bunch of water. Ahhhh…refreshed! We also spent a bit of time picking the seeds out of our socks.
We had decided we would just go to Grand Marais afterall. It was just 9 miles, and we could take the Gitchi Gami Trail. But, we saw the sign for the State Park, and it looked like there was camping. We went to check it out. The campground was full, and reservations have to be made online (even though Minnesota has the no turn away policy for cyclists, there’s no one to talk to). We noticed there was a backpacker site on the lake.
See the icon to the far right? So, we really wanted to take showers, and they had them in the main campground. We rode over, took showers, then headed to the backpacker site. If you zoom in on the photo, you can see the trail to the campsite where it is close to the road. That’s what we did.
When we arrived at the campsite, there was already a couple on the site, but Paula and Ray (from Iowa) had no problem with us staying there too. Rosie wasn’t to happy about it, but soon became my friend.
Rosie…such a sweetie!
My spot.
Paula and Ray. Notice there is even a picnic table. But wait…there’s more…there is even a privy.
And there is even toilet paper!
So what started out with one plan, switched to quite the bushwhacking adventure, and ended up making new friends! As I always say…it always works out!
1 comment:
Such an adventure!
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