More Minnesota

August 4 – We left Fargo and headed north on Interstate 29, a fast, flat expanse of highway with little scenery.  This is in the Red River Valley, the border between North Dakota and Minnesota not to be confused with the Red River Valley where that Red River is the border between Texas and Oklahoma.  Soon we arrived in Grand Forks, a livable community that made the national headlines in 1997 when after the worst blizzards in recent history the town flooded in the spring with over 75% of the homes and buildings being inundated.  Today it looks like a new city although quite a way away from the river.

Here we headed east on US highway 2 through Crookston to Bagley where we turned south.  Again the scenery was unimpressive until we turned south to the Itasca State Park, the oldest state park in Minnesota.  Here we encountered lush forests with tall trees.  We entered the park and made our way to the historic Douglas Lodge built in 1907, a large log cabin building with a huge stone fireplace.  We had lunch here, Rita ordering a local dish called wild rice hot lunch, a combination of wild rice, ground beef, water chestnuts and celery.  I had an elk burger along with a tankard of local Summit pale ale.  It was a very nice lunch.

Next Rita and I visited the attractive visitor’s center then headed north along Lake Itasca with occasional stops to view the lake.  We made it to our main goal of the headwaters of the Mississippi River where a crowd of families with children were in the water wading across the short expanse of the river.  Actually it isn’t a river here but a narrow creek.  After that accomplishment we returned to the highways and drove into the pretty town of Bemidji.  We checked into our hotel and set out to see the sights. 

Bemidji bills itself as the “first city on the Mississippi”.  Beautiful houses are perched on the banks of Lake Bemidji, a large lake of over 6,400 acres.  The original inhabitants of this area were the Ojibwe Indians and many of them still live in the area.  This is also the heart of the timber industry and a small park houses large statues of Paul Bunyan and his pet, Babe the blue ox.  We explored the downtown area and drove completely around the lake before having good salads in the restaurant next to our hotel.  It was another satisfying day in northern Minnesota.

August 5 – We woke to overcast skies and water puddles, evidence that it rained in the night.  It was a gloomy day in many ways.  We headed east on US highway 2 through the Chippewa National Forest.  We stopped in Grand Rapids, home of Judy Garland, for Rita to browse a quilt shop.  From here we headed north on the scenic “Edge of the Wilderness” highway 38.  Dozens of scenic, wooded lakes popped up on both sides of the highway but the road was curvy and rough.  We worked our way to International Falls, northern most town in Minnesota and often the coldest in the lower 48 states.

We parked the car and walked across into Canada and the opposite town called Fort Frances.  There was a recommended restaurant there where we wanted to eat lunch but we discovered that today was a “civic holiday” in Canada and everything was closed.  Bummer!  We walked back into International Falls and ate at a fairly nice coffee shop in town.  Up to now most Minnesota towns surprised us with their tidiness and cleanliness, but not International Falls.  The surrounding country is mostly logging companies and International Falls is dominated by the Boise paper mill spewing out ugly smoke into the sky.  Fort Frances was not much nicer looking either. 

We checked into our motel and later took a drive to Voyageurs National Park but because of government budget cuts the visitors center is closed on Sundays and Mondays.  While there we did walk down to Rainy Lake and while enjoying the scenery we heard our first wild loon calls and saw a couple of loons flying over us.  We drove a short distance to Thunderbird Lodge on Rainy Lake and had a nice meal of our first walleye fillets and with a window overlooking the lake. 

August 6 – It was raining when we woke and it rained most of the morning.  We drove to the visitor center at Kabetogama Lake in plenty of time for our 11:00 am departure on the boat, Borealis.  It was raining fairly hard at times and the temperature was cool.  For about two hours we cruised east and eventually ended up at Kettle Falls for lunch at a very remote hotel there.  After lunch we walked to the falls where Kabetogama Lake flows into Rainy Lake.  The rain stopped and we returned to our departure place about 4:30 pm.  We witnessed several bald eagles.  Some were juveniles in their nests and some were adults with white head and tail feathers.  All looked majestic.  In all we saw about two dozen bald eagles, several loons, Canadian geese, cormorants, seagulls and other birds.  We also saw deer along the coast but none of the black bear, moose, or wolves that are in this remote park. 

Upon returning to our car we drove (fast) to our lodge for the night.  We arrived at the Burntside Lodge near Ely, Minnesota, about 6:00 pm and checked into our remote little cabin in the woods.  Burntside is on the register of national historical sites and is listed as one of the places in “1000 Places to See Before You Die”.  This is mainly for their great restaurant.  Rita had buffalo hanger steak while I had fresh Lake Superior herring which is more like the local white fish and not at all like the herring people are used to.  Our meal was delicious as were our starters and desserts.  We can’t continue to eat like this.