Last summer was my wife’s first time in Duluth, Mn. She fell in love with this region of Minnesota so we decided to come back for another week this year. Last year we packed too much into a week. The trip was rushed and we didn’t get to do everything g we wanted. I left the schedule more open. I’ll try to update this as much as possible. Stay tuned. Day one, 30 June 2018 Yeah yeah I know it’s not camping if you stay in a cabin. But it’s far less expensive then a hotel and easier then rent cmaping for a week with a 5 year old. Same cabin as last year. My little person was really excited. Gratuitous Toyota pic The yota was overstuffed last year. Made some changes that greatly helped this time. Added a waterproof bag for the roof rack. The suitcase, bedding and pillows were now on the roof which opened up space for a bigger kitchen tub and bigger Yeti. The Hopper 30 stayed home and we brought the Tundra 50. The tundra 50 fits perfect turned parallel to the trucks side. A lot of stuff was shoved into spaces at the last minute. The trip home will be more organized. More later.
Had supper at grandmas saloon. That’s a monster walleye sandwich. American Integrity leaving Duluth Harbor. She’s one of thirteen 1,000 ships in the Great Lakes. 1,000 long by 125’ wide. Seeing these monsters passing under the lift bridge never gets old. Also stopped by the Duluth Pack store. Didn’t get many pics because it was packed. It was hard not buying a new ax. Both small forest axes had perfect handles. $170 plus the governor’s cut was hard to stomach. Broke the cherry on my titanlight. The campground store gives you plenty of birchbark and the lighter made fast work of it. That’s about it for tonight. Tomorrow we’re going underground...
Your in my neck of the woods, well not really but you should check out Frost River store in Duluth and castle danger brewery. Good times.
Day 2. 1 July 2018 The rain that was supposed to hit before we arrived showed up in the wee hours of the morning. We already had make plans for today that the rain wouldn’t stop. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soudan_Underground_Mine_State_Park. Soudan, Mn is about 100 Miles north of Duluth. My wife made reservations about a month ago and there wasn’t anything stopping us. I’ve wanted to go here for at least ten years. The hoist in the engine house outside. You check in, watch a short film describing the history of the mine, town, iron industry and the miners. Grab a hard hat and head to the mine shaft. There are two pairs of cars running in parallal shafts. The cars run at 1,000’ a minute. Talk about an exciting ride. At the bottom you exit onto the platform where there is now an electric train that hauls visitors 3/4 mile to the last place mining occurred in 1962. After the 3/4 mile train ride, you go up a 20’ spiral staircase to the actual mine. A little loader that was used to load ore into ore cars. The ore cars were pulled by mules. The mules received a one way trip into the mines. They were Well taken care of and fed. The iron ore that came from this mine was a major contributor to the war efforts in world war 1 and 2. The ore is 30% oxygen by volume so it was able to boost smelting temps by itself prior to bottled oxygen after ww2. Awesome history lesson today. We were standing at a point underground that is deeper then Lake Superior. Roughly a half mile. And before anybody asks, I did bring an Esee down there. My dark earth Izula in its Armatus sheath and my Benchmade Proper made the trip.
Day 3, 2 July 2018 Didn’t do as many cool things today in my opinion anyway. My wife wanted to tour Glensheen Mansion, so we did that. The aftermath. Zonked out little person. Drove up to Two Harbors to let our daughter nap. Got back and hit the pool for a couple hours. Supper was simple. Grilled brats, baked beans and chips. We could have saved a lot of vehicle space if we left the little Weber at home but it’s convenient. We aren’t roughing it so why leave the nice stuff at home. Raced back to Duluth to watch a couple more ships come in. This never gets old for me. Centerline Systems Scout Bottle carrier on the sea wall.
Day 4, 3 July 2018. Didn’t really do much today. I have some gnarly sleep apnea and was have some serious CPAP problems. I got a total of 2 hours of sleep while trouble shooting a misbehaving cpap by lantern light. My parents arrived today and they got the cabin next door. Dad loaned me some replacement parts to get me by until we got home. Dad’s insulin managed to go missing during the process of unloading their micro jeep. Turns out it was in the bag of parts he brought for me. I was loading the FJ to make and emergency run back to Fargo to pick up replacement meds for him when my wife found them in our cabin. Supper was grilled pork l chops with Everglades seasoning for a rub, baked beans and cupcakes, for the little princess of course. I really love our little Weber Q grill. After supper and tracking down dad’s meds, I stoked up the fire. Birch bark is absolutely magical. It burns wet, dry, no matter what. No pics today. It was kind of a bust honestly. Thank god we didn’t make too many firm plans for this trip. Flexibility has made it much more enjoyable.
I missed a few days. Here’s some more pics. Most of these are from the harbor tour. Lots of industrial stuff; piers, grain terminals, cement terminal, coal loading peir, and the CN iron ore loading dock Dredging barges
Coal peir CN iron ore loading dock. North side. This freighter was sent after the Edmund Fitzgerald before it sunk. It’s in long term layout awaiting overhaul. South side. That is a 1,000’ freighter. US Coast Guard Station Duluth. The Juniper class bouy tender Alder was in port this week. They didn’t get too close for obvious reasons.
