Earlier this year my wife suggested a trip up to the Superior National Forest to explore some of the gravel roads and campgrounds via bike. It sounded like a great idea and so we floated it to various friends who might want to join. However, as the year progressed our friends ended up not being available, and a key bridge on the route we had chosen ended up being closed for replacement. So, as we’ve often done in our adventures, we decided to pivot a little bit.

Our plan was to start and end near Grand Marais, MN. We have family that have land up there and they graciously offered to let us leave our van, and even sleep on their land in a little vintage trailer they had set up. We plotted a route from their property that would take us up to Two Island Lake for our first night. Our original plan was to head down The Grade to Crescent Lake campground but because of the bridge outage on The Grade over the Cascade river we had to look for some different options.

The one that we thought we had settled on was to buckle down and do a long 40 mile detour that took us two-thirds of the way back down to the shore, and then back up to The Grade to get us to Crescent Lake. We’re both experienced bikers and bikepackers so this seemed fine, but as the day got closer we started to realize… we wanted something more relaxing.

After the last of our friends let us know that they couldn’t make it, and it was back down to just Lisa and I, we opt’d to throw out the plan and just do what felt fun. After having a long adventure in the BWCA, a couple long gravel races, and an upcoming trail marathon for me, we felt like perhaps this trip needed to be more ‘vacation’ oriented… but still on bike. We gathered up all our regular supplies, loaded the forest service maps into our phones and headed out on a Thursday morning, excited for the possibility to do whatever we wanted.

We arrived at our family’s property mid-day, just as a small storm cloud rolled in. The forecast had been clear all day, and so we knew this wouldn’t last very long. We huddled under the lift gate of the van for about 20 minutes, while we waited for the rain to pass, chatting with family who were across the driveway also huddled under their lift gate. Soon though the clearing skies meant it was time to hit the road. We finished loading up our two wheeled rigs and started our journey, which would begin on Bally Creek Road, and take us up to Eagle Mountain Trailhead where it intersects The Grade.

The weather cleared nicely but that meant that the bugs were free to pester us again. We discovered very quickly that the air speed velocity of a fly or mosquito who is chasing you is just under 11mph. That would be easy to maintain on pavement, but climbing on a recently wetted gravel road, with fully loaded bikes, we occasionally struggled to keep up that pace. Sure enough I had flys who were attracted to my brightly colored cycling gloves, chomping right through the fabric as I peddled up the rolling hills. We paused briefly to quickly re-apply bug spray and then kept pushing on as best we could.

At the Eagle Mountain Trailhead I used the outhouse, and then we went to take a look at the progress on the new bridge over the Cascade river. We were pleased to see all the materials seeming to be on sight and big machines parked for the upcoming weekend in the middle of their work. Hopefully the next time we’re up here doing this, the new bridge will be all ready for our adventure.

We turned around and headed down The Grade in the opposite direction to our first destination, Two Island Campground. We decided to still make this our first stop as it was a place we wanted to check out, and it was close enough to other options if it was already full. When we arrived we found that all of the lake-side spots were taken, but there were still quite a few spots on the interior of the loops that were available, so we selected one and got camp set up.

The evening passed uneventfully with casual walks to the boat landing and dock, and making our dinner. We brought along a couple new dehydrated meals for this trip that we had never tried before, but I’ll review them more another time. Soon enough it was time to tuck in as the bugs were starting to get really bad. We had unfortunately forgot our tent footprint, so the ground was a little bit rougher than we prefer, but the tiredness from the long day soon meant we were cozy and reading quietly.

The next morning, as we enjoyed breakfast, we discussed options for the day ahead. Because we had an open agenda, and most of the campgrounds were first-come-first-serve, we couldn’t really make a wrong choice. I brought up how lovely Devil’s Track Lake is and that intrigued Lisa enough to agree to go for it and try and see if we could get a lake-side spot there. We loaded up our bags and headed out for a relatively short ride down Ball Club Road to the lake.

After a beautiful descent, and some casual pavement to the campground entrance we found our home for the night. As we were arriving to the lake around 11:30 there were multiple campers heading out, which gave us our pick of campsites. We found a beautiful, and secluded, spot right next to the lake with a gorgeous view and a few steps down to the lake shore to dip in our toes. We excitedly set up camp and then plotted our lunch.

I knew of a bar and grill on the east end of the lake and assumed they’d be open for lunch on a Friday in summertime, so we rode our unloaded bikes back down the road to the Skyport Lodge, only to discover that it was still only dinner on Friday. Hungry, we headed to the general store nearby and used their wi-fi to plot our next move and have a snack. The first thing I did was pull up a weather report to see what we were looking at, and discovered that Saturday was looking like a wash-out all morning.

As we sat there eating our ice cream snack, trying to decide what to do about a proper meal, the idea struck us that we should just keep riding back down to town and get food there. It was only another ten miles to where we had parked the van, and then we could drive back to our campsite after lunch and skip riding in the rain on Saturday morning getting all of our gear wet. The plan would then be to head out for a ride on Saturday afternoon, perhaps up the Gitchi-Gami to Cut Face Creek and back for fun.

With a new plan in mind we started back towards town, first on the side of some highways (not my favorite), and then on a beautiful gravel road (County Road 6) that undulated up and down before reaching a high point overlooking the great lake. At the high point where we stopped to take in the view we were greeted by an alpaca farm right next to us. It was a delightful treat before the long downhill back to County 7.

Once we retrieved the van we headed in to Voyageur Brewing in town for some food and a beverage. Soon though we escaped the hustle of Grand Marais and were back in the woods at our peaceful campsite on the lake shore. The evening was blissful, despite ending early due to bugs, but it was above all else… relaxing. Bedtime came early after we played some cribbage (I had just taught Lisa how to play) and we were lulled to sleep by the gentle breeze on the lake.

I awoke early the next day and rain had still not arrived. Given the darkness on the far western sky it wouldn’t be long. We put a bunch of our belongings into the van for safe keeping and then went back to nap in the tent for the rest of the morning. Sure enough within an hour or so the rain started to fall. The patter of water on the rain fly was soothing and we enjoyed being “stuck” in our tent for a little while longer.

Remember how I had mentioned that our campsite was secluded? Well, as the rain increased in intensity I declared that it was “shower rain” and promptly striped naked and headed outside to clean off. My wife laughed at the hilarity of me, a 51 year old with a dad-bod, dancing in the rain with some camp soap. Soon enough she decided to join me and we shared a moment that will forever be etched in our memories as we cavorted around a rainy campground in the middle of the north shore in our birthday suits. Age is just a number.

After a bit we grabbed our towels and huddled in the van drying off. As we sat there listening to the light rain continuing, we thought to ourselves… “We’re already wet, and we only have one more pair of clean clothes… let’s just pack up camp naked in the rain and then get dressed!” So that’s what we did.

Because we had already put most of our stuff in the van it only took a few moments to get the last of our items put away, and soon we were dried and dressed again and ready to explore. Turns out we had actually enjoyed quite a bit of the morning already and it was getting on lunch time. Next stop, Hungry Hippie Tacos!

Pulling in to town the rain began to subside and we briefly discussed going for a ride after lunch. But as we got into cell phone range we started getting messages from friends asking if we were doing OK with the sudden bad air quality that had descended on the north shore. We opened up our phones and saw news of a trail race in Duluth that cancelled, as well as other events getting postponed or scrapped entirely because of how bad the smoke was.

Because the rain had just stopped we were still in a pocket of good air in downtown Grand Marais. As we left the restaurant and looked west and north over the hills we saw clouds of smoke starting to descend on the town. That ended any ideas of riding up and down hills around town, as my asthma wouldn’t enjoy the level of gross smoke we were about to endure. Instead we opt’d to walk around town, making the best of the situation, and enjoy the art fair that was going on. Thankfully, we had thrown the plan out two days ago, so this was just another pivot in a series of random adventures for the weekend.

We had already planning on spending the night in the camper on our family’s property and so after spending the day in town we headed back to get unpacked. We had one more adventure for the day though, a traditional Cambodian dinner at a friend’s family cabin down the shore a bit.

We navigated the dense smoke with our headlights on at 4pm and arrived at a beautiful lakehome that apparently was a historic property in the lineage of our friend. We enjoyed some wonderful food and camaraderie before heading back for one final night on the shore.

Our family had arrived back on the land around the same time as us so we chatted for a while and then headed to the camper to play some more cribbage and get some rest. Unfortunately I didn’t have my best night of sleep, but it was still wonderful to be up on the shore.

The next morning was the traditional stop at Java Moose for coffee and then World’s Best Donuts for… well, the world’s best donuts… IYKYK. Then it was time to start the journey home. We took our time coming back, stopping at Caribou Falls, and again in Duluth for a mid-day meal. Arriving home mid-afternoon, we were not mentally quite ready to face the pile of laundry and preparations for heading back to work.

Coming home gets harder every time, despite the fact that we love our home. Getting to experience the natural world, using our bodies to propel us along, brings such joy and satisfaction to our adventures. For now, this one will start to fade into memory, as they all do, as we plan for the next one. Life is short, soak it all in while you can.