Really Fat Tires

There was a lot of water !

 A few weeks ago while messing around in my shed I noticed that the four-wheeler was lonely, it hadn't been ridden in a while, except for the hot-laps around the yard to tear up the grass. I came up with a scheme to get out and ride it. At the time I was planning the Isle Royale Trip with "G"man so it was only fair that I plan a trip with his brothers, each one getting a father/son trip of their own. I chose to take Big "D" on this trip since he really likes riding the wheeler. Super "Y" will be going on a trip of his own later in the summer, I'm not sure where just yet, but I'm thinking something with a canoe.  

 We left for Moose Lake on Sunday morning. We would have left on Saturday afternoon, but I rode the Dirty Benjamin that day and was too tired to drive north for a couple hours. It turned out to be good decision since it rained the whole night anyway. Sunday was perfect, with great weather, lots of sun and not too hot. The area has had a lot of rain lately, as you can see from the pics there was a lot of mud and standing water. I'm not the type of ATV rider that seeks out mud, mostly because of the cost of repairing seals and bearings, but it was unavoidable this time.

This is the Soo Line Trail , from here you could go to Lake Mille Lacs to the south west, Leech Lake  to the northwest, or Superior, Wisconsin to the northeast.

Bridge over Kettle River

 Moose Lake also is the Lake Superior Agate capital of the world.. The main area that we were riding was a prime location for agate picking, called the Soo Pits. We took a nice break there for snacks and some "picking".  We didn't find much of anything substantial, only small peanut to almond sized fragments. I've been collecting agates for years and have fantasized about finding big ones the size of a softball, today would not be that day. We did a little better when we went for a longer ride down the Soo Line Trail and took a spur to the Kettle River. Right on the trail were several of the walnut sized "gems". The mosquitoes were so bad we were forced to retreat back to the wheeler and ride out of the swampy, muddy, insect haven. This is where I almost got the wheeler stuck, I thought I could make it all the way down to the river when I ended up in a bottomless mud hole. With the front differential lock engaged, and the throttle pinned, I manged to rock it back and forth, making my escape as the mud was flying. We were not doing anymore of that!   

Break time at Soo Pits

We live in Minnesota, we have to fish!

 Later in the evening we tried our hand at fishing with no luck. Back at camp (Moose Lake State Park) we had just enough time to grill our dinner and get a fire going before it started raining. We thought about going home but decided to sit in the van and watch a movie on the worlds smallest DVD player. We also slept in the van. The next morning it was still raining, so we headed home, taking the back roads and checking out points of interest  and other areas for future outings.   Disclaimer; At no time was Big "D" riding the four-wheeler by himself.

"Movie night"

Museum in Moose Lake. This was in a train station that survived the fires of 1918.