Eveleth to Chisholm, Minnesota. Tuesday, June 8, 2021
It was actually 3:30 before I left the campground, I decided to do my therapist call sitting down for once. The campground manager kept swinging by in his golf cart, looking at me questioningly. He thought it was too late to leave, that everything would be closed by the time I got to my destination.
I left anyway, adopting that cavalier attitude that served me so well on Eagle Mountain last week. The Mesabi Trail immediately announced that it was going to be very hilly, even though the road right next to it seemed quite flat. I was tempted to just go to the road, but no, I had paid my trail fee, I was going to give the Mesabi Trail a chance.
Bike trails are rarely as well graded as streets, and have far less “infrastructure” beneath them, so they are very prone to being cut up by frost heaves and tree roots. If the path is more than a few years old, it can really get quite bumpy. This particular trail was halfway between smooth and a little bumpy. Its main problem was that when going through towns, the route got quite circuitous, and was poorly marked, I got lost more than once.
But in between towns, wow, it was glorious. It followed an old rail line used in the iron mines. I loved how it cut through rust-stained iron embankments. Abruptly it gave out onto the tallest bridge in Minnesota.
It’s funny, when I think of Minnesota I think of Norwegian bachelor farmers, hilarious accents, the Mayo Clinic, and the Land of 10,000 Lakes. I don’t really think of mining, but then 3M stands for Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing.
I hadn’t had much to eat all day, so I stopped in the town of Virginia, Minnesota, for a bite and wound up having a full Mexican meal including a margarita. I asked for the “small” but they gave me a “large”; in my defense I only drank 3/4 of it. Any of you could tell me this was a dumb idea, I still had 25 miles to go and I was not a happy cowboy.
The trail paralleled the highway again, and again I was tempted to cross the ditch and avoid these crazy ups and downs, but I could see those infernal seams I didn’t want to go kerCHUNK again. The first available campground turned out to have no facilities other than a couple of outhouses, and was swarming with bugs, the sun was just going down at 9 PM. I went another 7 miles to an RV park, but arrived in the pitch black. Just as I arrived, my drive belt came off again, thank heavens that didn’t happen while I was on the road, it’s an hour repair.
Like the Mesabi trail, you registered for this campsite online. I picked the cheapest spot that had electricity, and when I got there I found the abutting RV had stashed his spare vehicle in my site. Too late to change my registration. They were asleep, I didn’t want to wake them up, so I wedged my tent in and slept like a baby. I imagine they were surprised in the morning; when I woke up the vehicle was gone. I never met them. RV parks can be weird.
Chisholm was the hometown of Moonlight Graham, for you Field of Dreams fans. Wonder if I can find any trace of him here. A fellow PCP. Go the distance.
I could have used a little moonlight when I arrived last night, but it didn’t rise until 5AM.
Distance 35 miles, 2,367 total. Time 6 hours with stops. Elevation gain 1,320 feet.
©️ 2021 Scott Luria
The Ends of the Earth 