Wilderness Wandering

May 28

We drove from Lake Mills, WI to the Minneapolis area and  attended my grand niece Margaret’s pre school graduation. We slept in the van in the driveway and left the next morning for a short anniversary vacation.  

May 29

We headed NW from Minneapolis about 3-1/2 hours to Detroit Lakes to see the five Dambo Trolls situated around the community. 

What are Dambo Trolls? Thomas Dambo is a Danish artist known around the world for his giant trolls made entirely of recycled materials. 

We ran into a detour so it took most of the morning to reach the first troll in Frazee, MN. The drive was pretty.  We had a delicious lunch in the parking lot before we headed out. We found the first troll and continued on to find the next troll and a golden hare at Detroit Mountain. The troll is clearly marked but the hare is “hidden”. We did find them both. We continued to the third troll in a sculpture park. We enjoyed the entire park. The 4th troll was at a country park and the 5th troll was in the city of Detroit Lakes. Most of the trolls were about 1/3 to 1/2 mile hikes into a woodsy area. It was a very fun time. 

We rewarded ourselves with ice cream. Then we headed 45 minutes east to Park Rapids and found a state forest campground with 38 camp spots. It is called Man Trap Lake due to its convoluted coastline and ease in getting lost on the lake.  Only about 5 sites were occupied. We pulled in and made supper, took a short bike ride and enjoyed a campfire while we listened to loons on the lake and ruffed grouse drumming in the woods. Paradise!

May 30

We woke up early. We ate breakfast and headed to Park Rapids to the Heartland Trail Trailhead. The Heartland Trail is a 49 mile paved trail from Park Rapids, MN to Cass Lake. The trailhead was in a gorgeous park. We got on our bikes and started riding. The pavement was so smooth and a perfect shady canopy covered the trail. We were riding into a slight breeze. The temp was perfect! About 7 miles in we came to the tiny town of Dorset. The downtown was very charming. One sign said it was “The restaurant capital of the world”! Why? Because of its ratio of restaurants to people. There are 22 permanent residents and 1 restaurant for every 5 residents! 😂

Another five miles down the trail we came to Nevis. It was also small. Their claim to fame is the world’s largest musky statue. 

We kept riding. We came to Akeley at mile 19. They have a gigantic Paul Bunyan statue. We stopped and talked with a few people and took some photos of other people and they returned the favor for us. 

When we left the campground, we intended to ride to Akeley and back – 38 miles. I said I wanted to ride 64 miles this summer since I turn 64 this year. Tim suggested since the trail was so smooth and flat that maybe we should do the 64 miles today. I agreed! 

We rode on to Walker and about 4 miles past it to 32 miles. Our turn around was along Leech Lake, which is known for large muskeys. There were some gorgeous lake homes along the trail. 

We stopped in Akeley for a quick bathroom break and snack and returned to the van quite famished. We ate lunch and then located an RV park in Akeley for the night. We showered and relaxed at our campsite with a water view. We decided to go into Walker for dinner tonight. We loved our meal at Green Scene. We had a Mezcal Mule and a Wild Rice and Mushroom Pizza. Both were fabulous. 

Tim had a dilly bar at DQ and we checked out the Walker Lighthouse. Then we headed back to our campsite to watch the sunset. 

May 31

Another perfect day for cycling – partly sunny 70 degrees with a light breeze.  Today we rode the The Paul Bunyan Trail from Walker to Hackensack and a little beyond. The Paul Bunyan Trail is the longest continuously paved rail trail in the US. It was another simply gorgeous trail! There was a muskey fishing tournament beginning at Leech Lake as we rode by. It looked like a big deal. 

In Hackensack, we found Paul Bunyan’s girlfriend, Lucette. Hackensack was an adorable town. 

We did 34 miles round trip for an even 100 miles over the weekend. We saw beaver dens, a big opossum, and many different types of birds. A man we met had seen a bear!

We met John and Dagney along the trail.  They are bike packing from Vancouver to Sault St. Marie.

After finishing our ride, we drove through some rain showers heading back to WI. We stopped near Hudson, WI and visited  Willow River State Park. I don’t remember ever hearing about it, but the park has a beautiful large cascade of waterfalls. We’re decided to spend the night there.  We hiked a short very steep trail down to the base. The were many people swimming in the pools at the bottom. Mother Nature could not decide whether to rain again or not. We had a brief camp fire and called it a day. We fell asleep listening to the pitter patter of a rain shower. 

June 1

We slept great. We had breakfast and checked out Little Falls Lake and the dam. The lake was gorgeous. We wished we had our kayaks along. We headed back to Lake Mills via River Falls, WI where we checked out the UW River Falls campus. River Falls, the town and the campus were very charming. It looks like a great place to live. 

We thoroughly enjoyed our little adventure into Minnesota! I have a hunch we will be back.