Minnesota-Day 5-Itasca State Park

Today is our last day in this location before heading south to ride another Minnesota trail. We have loved the Paul Bunyan trail, it is just beautiful and a great surface for biking. We completed the Paul Bunyan yesterday, but while we are here, we really wanted to see the headwaters of the Mississippi River. Soulshine Cyclery, our shuttle service, has been very accommodating of all we want to see and do while here, and part of our itinerary with them is a shuttle south to Itasca State Park. We discussed timing with them yesterday, and decided we should get an early start before rain moved in this afternoon. Rhonda, our shuttle driver, overall local guide and answerer of all questions this week, arrived at our hotel promptly at 8:00 am.

We loaded the bikes and set off. When we arrived at the park, we took a quick peak at the visitor center then rode the bike trail to the headwaters of the Mississippi. The bike trail was beautiful, with huge old growth pine trees soaring overhead.

There were several interesting sights along the bike path, and we pulled over to check out each one. The log cabin in the photo below is a replica of the original Wegmann store built in the area in the late 1800’s. The original store can be seen behind the fenced in overgrown area to the right of my bike. It has been left to decay naturally but you can still make out the corner sections of the old log structure. The log structure replica was built in 1977 as part of a summer program to demonstrate log cabin construction. While the original store was still standing, the craftsman measured it, then using only hand tools, cut and shaped each log for the replica.

I was approaching the door of the replica store to take a peak, when I noticed this guy sticking out from underneath. I decided to skip the door and take a look in the window instead! Though I did thoroughly check the window sill and all around the window before getting too close!

These snakes are plentiful in the area. I stopped on a bridge to look at a creek (actually it may have been the Mississippi River, that looks like a creek up here) and they were sunning on the ledge of the bridge. I also spotted 4 or 5 sunning together on a rock later in the day. I did a little Google research and learned they are plains garter snakes, and are the most common snake species in Minnesota. Google says they are harmless, but I still kept my distance.

We made it to the end of the bikepath and easily found our way to the headwaters of the Mississippi. The mighty river begins as it flows out of Lake Itasca, and doesn’t look very mighty, it’s just a small creek, easily wadeable and there were lots of families and children playing in the water. Stepping stones have been placed across the mouth of the river, and though slick, I was able to walk across it a couple of times.

It was many years before the source of the Mississippi was discovered. By the late 1700’s the competition was fierce among explorers to be the person forever associated with the discovery of the source of the river and receive worldwide acclaim. There were many theories about where the source began, and those locations covered a fairly large area of the map. Finally, Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, an Indian agent learned from the Anishinabe people of a source flowing north before it turned east, then south. (This northerward flow is the reason Bemidji can claim to be the first town on the Mississippi River, even though it is north of its source)

In 1812, Schoolcraft asked the Anishinabe leader if he would take him to this source that first flowed north. The leader’s reply to Schoolcraft’s request was this, “My brother, the country you are going to see is my hunting ground. I will myself furnish the maps you have requested and will guide you onward. I shall consult with my band about the canoes, and see who will step forward to furnish them. My own canoe shall be one of the number.” Schoolcraft was the first European to document the true source and he renamed the lake Itasca from the Latin words verITAS CAput, “true head”. He also made sure that the Anishinabe leader was awarded the presidential medal of honor for his assistance in documenting the source of the mighty Mississippi.

Once we finished exploring the headwaters, we took the Wilderness Drive loop around the park. It is a shared road with cars but the traffic was very light and it was a work out! Lots of hills but lots of fast and fun downhill coasting too. The loop was about 10 miles. The downhill coasting was so fast, I lost my long bike pants off the back of my bike, and I didn’t know it. As the day warmed up, I took the long pants off and stuck them on top of my bike bag, just leaving me with shorts. I was pedaling right along when a car pulled up beside me, a man leaned out the window with something black in his hand and said, Ma’am, is this your clothing? I said, yes! those are my warm pants! Thank you! He said I picked them up a ways back. I don’t know if he thought they actually blew off my legs or knew I had them on my bike bag. Those down hill coasts were fast! Lol!

We met back at the van to load our bikes, where Rhonda was waiting for us. Once we were loaded, the rain began. We were very happy we’d gotten an early start! We ate lunch again at Table for 7 with Rhonda our guide so Jimmy could experience the Red Lake Walleye, a special they offer only on Fridays. It did not disappoint! It is sourced from tribal waters at Red Lake and is so fresh and flavorful.

Rhonda dropped us and our bikes off at our hotel and we said our goodbyes, thanking her for her valuable assistance this week. I highly recommend Soulshine Cyclery’s shuttle service if you want to bike the Paul Bunyan trail or any of the trails in this area. Since we finished with our ride early, we decided to take the car and visit the Lost 40. The Lost 40 is a 40 acre stand of old growth pines that, because of a mapping error, escaped the notice of the loggers that took down all the big trees in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s. It was an hour drive north, but it was really cool to see. There is a walking path through the pine grove. We were the only ones there, as it was raining again, but not bad. We followed the path through the big stand of pines, marveling at their size. The mosquitoes and flies were really pesky. I don’t think they’d had fresh meat in a while and were all over us, lol. We had Off wipes with us thankfully, and Jimmy resorted to rubbing them on his hair they were bothering him so much.

We returned back to Bemidji just in time to pack our bags for the next leg of the journey on the Central Lakes Trail. We sure will miss the luggage transfers each day. On the Central Lakes trail, we have arranged for a shuttle service to drop us off at the end of the trail with our bikes, and we will pedal back to our car over the course of 4 days, staying at Airbnb and B&B’s as we travel from town to town along the trail. We will have to carry everything we need on our bikes.

For our last meal in Bemidji, it turned out we saved the best for last by eating at Tutto Bene. Jimmy ordered the pork tenderloin and I had a watermelon salad and house made sausage pasta.

We’ve thoroughly enjoyed our time on the Paul Bunyan trail. As we returned to our hotel for one last time, I snapped this photo of the sunset over beautiful Lake Bemidji.