NW/WWF-Day 6-Burning Off The World’s Best Donuts

We said goodbye to our new friends, Paula and Ray, and headed back up to the road at about 8:15. We had about 9 miles into Grand Marais. The first three were on Hwy 61. At the Wayside, we were able to get on the Gitchi Gami Trail again. We rode it all the way into Grand Marais. 

We had several “town chores” to accomplish. First was laundry. In GM, the laundromat is operated by the Napa Auto Parts Store. 

If there was a need for a refund (machine eating quarters or something), you were instructed to go to the Napa store. 

Next chore was a resupply. The IGA was conveniently located directly across from the laundromat. I resupplied for four days. 

Lani needed more fuel, so our next stop was the outfitters. 

Notice the Strider bike. Yep, all the cool kids park their bikes at the outfitters. 

The final stop was at The World’s Best Donut shop. 

The irony of Lani being in this photo is that she hates donuts!

The donut ladies. 

I got this maple bacon Longjohn and a Banana Cream Bismarck. They were delicious, and quite the sugar dump. No worries though, because the rest of the day we seemed to be mostly climbing. First we had to climb out of town. It was more than a three mile climb (first we had to climb back to the route, then there was the 3+ mile climb). There was another shorter climb to Pine Mtn General Store. This had been our planned camping, but we are still ahead of schedule. We did stop for some cold drinks, and Lani ate lunch while I did a retape of my kickstand (Billy fell over at the donut shop and completely snapped the zip ties, and tore the tape). I was still working on burning off my donuts. 

It was about 1:45, and we still had about 30 miles to go. From the store we were on gravel. This next section was labeled as rough. Sure, it was definitely more rocky, but the hardest part was the climbing. We had another 2 mile climb, and then several 1/2 to 3/4 mile climbs. 

Lani reaching the top of one climb. 

Time was ticking away. We still had over 10 miles to Otter Lake CG. Lani didn’t think she had it in her legs. We started looking for water. We crossed a creek. We looked for a campsite and found a reasonable flatish space just a bit up the beginning of another climb. We decided to call it a day. 

I went down to get water. It was kind of tricky, but I managed to get it without getting my feet wet. The water was flowing out of a culvert pipe next to where there must have been a flooding of the road, because they had moved a bunch of dirt. I didn’t take any photos. 

It was a pretty long day. We did spend over two hours in Grand Marais, so that didn’t help. However, we only have about 24 miles to Grand Portage tomorrow, so it’s fine. And, I’m pretty sure I burned off those donuts I ate!