Month: August 2026

At 6:30 am I’m awake and starting the breakdown. My sleeping gear and tent are packed. Next is breakfast, gobbled quickly. I want to be on the road by 9:00. The next campground is sixty miles away. I hope to be there around 3 p.m. Looking on the map, the town of Isabella is thirty miles away, perfect for grabbing drinks and food. The day now has a plan.

In the saddle and pedaling out the five-mile gravel road to MN 1. This road will take me to five miles of the campsite. Easy peasy, one road. This low-traffic road goes through the Superior National Forest. There is nothing other than swampy areas, many small lakes, and dense forest.

I am six miles from Isabella, hungry. Nancy goes by, slows down, and stops on the side of the road. Her window goes down, and she hands me the rest of her cold Dr. Pepper. I tell her my plan, and now she will meet me when I get to Isabella. She drives away. A few minutes later, I get a text. There is nothing in that town, and she will wait and make sandwiches. I ride another few miles and see the camper. Which, by the way, is the only thing in the town besides one house.

I get a few minutes’ rest sitting in a chair and a full belly. I leave, Nancy and Moe drive ahead to the campground.

Finland is the next town that might have food, just a farm market, a closed gas station, and a post office.

I am three miles from the campground.

I make my way to Park Road, climb the hill, and enter Baptism River Campground.

Camp is set up, and it’s time to relax. Oh, there are plenty of mosquitoes here also. 

The mosquitoes are here, not as bad as the place we left behind. Still enough that I don’t want to deal with them. I set up the tent sans rain fly. We are deep into a forest next to a lake, one of many in northeast Minnesota. I slept well in the cool air. Sometime in the darkness, I covered myself with a sleeping bag.

It is light. I stare into the white sky framed with green branches. The white slowly turns blue. The noise of the occupied sites signals people are up. I lay a bit longer. The camper door opens. Tiny foot steps are now on the ground coming my way. It is Moe pulling Nancy in my direction. He tries pushing his way inside, but this tent resists unlike the screen tent. I unzip and join the two in the soon-to-be hot air.

Afternoon slipped in. We take Moe for a walk to the lake.

I don’t have the desire to ride my bike on the park roads; there are no showers to clean off the sweat and grime. Going to bed icky and sticky would not be pleasant.

I am bored from not riding, which is mostly due to the distance I would need to cover to get to the campgrounds in time to be in sync with Nancy’s schedule. And, the roads have mostly been highways, some with shoulders, that have rumble strips where I would need to ride. Others, no shoulders.

What would be more appropriate than tasting a great beer from HammerHeart Brewing Company, located a few miles away in Ely?

Today is slipping into tomorrow.