The annual Man Trip took place this past weekend March 4-7. The trip is takes place in the wilds of Minnesota's north shore of Lake Superior. This year the tip included Troy, Mark, Lonny,and yours truly. Mark and I started the trip a day sooner than the other guys so we would have more time for adventure. We arrived at our camp around 11:00pm Thursday night and set up my heated wall tent. After getting the tent to around 90 it was time for bed.
The next morning we rode the Cascade River from Hwy 45 down to the larger unrideable waterfalls. This was about 3.5 miles of sweet downhill fat bike heaven. It took a while to ride back up but gave us time to really see the scenery we had just past through.
On to adventure # 2 we headed up to Kadunce Creek. Again we used our fat bikes to ride the narrow passages of this little gem. About 1 mile upstream a small waterfall makes the crampons and ice axes come out. We decide to leave the bikes and continue on foot. The river is awesome, as it gets deeper and more narrow, forming a slot canyon. At one point we can touch both walls while looking up 60' to the top. We finish the hike and head back down the Superior Hiking Trail and retrive our bikes.
For adventure #3 we ride our bikes to the first high falls on the Devil Track River. It is now after noon and the condition of the river is soft, making the first sunny sections tough to ride. We pause for a moment to admire Nightfall (Minnesota's longest ice climb) and ride on. Reaching the falls, I am happy to see the plunge pool is frozen enough for tomorrow's adventure, skiing down the river and rapelling these falls. We are both getting tired now and head back to the truck.
We stoped in Grand Marias for a short tour of the town (via bike) to check out some gift shops and Artist's Point. After that we head for camp to pig out and relax by a big fire.
Riding across the bridge over nine mile creek