We started our day with a quick continental breakfast before shuffling out the door. We made it to the headwaters before 9AM. Since we've been here a number of times, we took in the sights pretty quickly while collecting the requisite photographs (I am practicing the art of the remote group selfie).
We did notice that the river is higher than when we have been here in the past. We had planned to cross at the rocks that symbolize where Lake Itasca ends and the Mississippi River begins but they were under water. So, we crossed at a nearby "log bridge" and hit the road.
We started our journey along the Great River Road towards Bemidji, stopping at a couple of the crossings of the Mississippi to photograph how small and marshy it is up here. The northern forests of Minnesota are my favorite and there was lots of it look at along this stretch of the road.
In Bemidji, we stopped to see Paul Bunyan (again), the Bemidji visitors center and the Bemidji Farmer's Market. The market didn't have much for produce yet this year (some green onions and potatoes [must have been last year's potatoes]). However, they did have doughnuts and jerky, so it was pretty much a road trip supply shop. The jerky was a bison jerky and was a little different than the jerky I am used to, not because of the flavor but because it was moist (and had to be kept refrigerated, had we failed to eat it all, which we did not). It was good but I prefer dry jerky, if for no other reason than that it is van stable.
From Bemidji we followed the Great River Road to Grand Rapids where we visited the Forest History Center. We arrived shortly after two and the camp with the historical reenactment closed at 2:30 (!), so we hustled down and took a quick look around before they closed. Of particular interest was the dining hall (always), the blacksmith shop where they had a demonstration and the floating kitchen. Unfortunately the floating kitchen was closed and there wasn't anyone around to explain more about its function (other than the obvious, that you could then cook on water, and what's not cool about that?). Presumably the floating kitchen could be setup when the loggers were working at a location too remote to the camp to haul the cooked food all the way there. One interesting tidbit from the tour was that they would bring lunch to the workers out in the forest (or, cold breakfast, I think they called it); it makes sense in retrospect, but I like my mental image of lumberjacks picnicking in the forest ("I'm a lumberjack and I'm ok").
Following the camp tour we walked the river trail and viewed Blandin lake (I thought that was what they called it, on Google it is labeled Paper Mill Reservoir). This is the lake formed by the damming of the Mississippi to power what the Blandin mill. We've seen this dam many times on our way through Grand Rapids but have never really seen the lake behind it. Unfortunately, due to the route that we took when we departed the Forest History Center we didn't get to see the dam today. I would have been curious to see how strong the water was flowing.
After Blandin Lake, the kids and I climbed the fire tower. It's a good walk up and a long view out. It was beginning to sprinkle a bit again as we descended the tower but never really got going.
Once we got down we collected Beth and left the Forest History Center. It was 4:30 by this time and we were concerned that we wouldn't make it in time for our dinner reservation at the Ramsey MRT (Mississippi River Trail) B&B (actually my parents' house). Between our distractable nature when we roadtrip and the general meander-ieness of the Great River Road in this part of the Mississippi we were concerned it would be well into the evening before we could get to Ramsey. So, we discussed, and decided to skip the bulk of the Great River Road between Grand Rapids and Elk River. This also informed our general approach to the the Great River Road; the GRR is a scenic suggestion, not a mandate.
So, we took a shortcut. Followed 169 straight South (made a brief [well, not as brief as it was supposed to be] stop at home to pick up an item that was left behind and one that was poorly chosen and continued on to dinner.
We finally made it to the Ramsey MRT B&B around 7. My parents made ribs and potato salad for dinner. Both were fantastic; I'm thinking all of the Southern BBQ I've heard so much about is going to get a run for its money.
After dinner we crashed (without journaling). We slept in the porch and listened to the thunderstorms all night. More rain for the river. . .
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