I carried an Olympus VN-5200PC Voice Recorder on my Backpacking Trip and almost every night I would record a description of the events that happened that day. So now I am writing a Trip Report based on those recordings. Here it is.
I took the Megabus from Madison at 2pm, and we traveled up the interstate to Minneapolis. We only stopped once in Maustion for a break so the Bus Driver could have his supper. The Bus arrived in Minneapolis at 7:15 and I started walking towards the Minneapolis International hostel. I was walking in the general direction, but the streets start angling off to the southwest, instead of south, so I ended up walking about 5 blocks out of my way. But I got back on track and made it to the Hostel after about an hour walk.
The Minneapolis International Hostel is kind of an old rickety mansion. You go up to the third floor in this narrow back stairway to get to the men’s dormitory room with about 15 beds. There are other private rooms in the Hostel, but I stayed in the Men’s Dormitory. We had only about six guys staying there that night, and 3 of them were Asians. One of them actually was an exchange student from South Korea. I also met Jordan who is from the state of Virginia, who was in Minneapolis for an interview for a marketing job. He had just graduated from Old Dominion University. I told him about my website and he said that he would be following my progress. At around 10 pm Wednesday night I went out to a park across the street and tried to see if the Spot Beacon would work. I didn’t seem to work, because I checked the internet at the Hostel.
On Thursday Morning I got my stuff together and started backpacking. Overall, the experience at the Hostel was good. But sharing a room with several people I don’t know, always makes me leery that some of my gear might become missing. I kept double-checking that I had everything.
So I started backpacking to my pick up destination. The area around the Hostel is a very diverse neighborhood. I saw blacks, Mexicans, whites, middle easterners, and Asians. And when I was walking down Franklin Ave I went by a big Native American Center. It must have been 2 or 3 blocks long.
There was one particular incident that I remember from this hike. I was walking down Franklin Ave when two black men got off a bus across the street from me. One of the men looked at me with a comical expression on his face. And then he got his friend’s attention and pointed me out. They both had a chuckle together. I must have looked pretty funny backpacking down an urban street. I just smiled and walked on.
I made it over to Midwest Mountaineering early. Mark Stange of the Kekekabic Trail Club was to pick me up at noon. I bought a couple things I needed from the store and asked them where is the nearest place to make copies. They directed me to a Library on the University of Minnesota Campus just two blocks away. So I went over there and make some “I saw Tman” cards to hand out to people that I meet. The card has my email address and website address on it.
After that I went back to Midwest Mountaineering and set out the Spot Messenger by the freeway across the street. I tried for twenty minutes, but it didn’t seem to work. I called Mark Stange and he said he would be late because of some complications at work. Since I was hungry, I made arrangements for him to pick me up at the Quiznos just a few blocks from Midwest Mountaineering. We made the connection and we drove up to Mark Stange’s house, just north of the Twin Cities. I set out the Spot Messenger at Mark’s house while we were packing up, and it worked. This is good news.
Mark likes to get out and take a walk every two hours when he’s driving, so we stopped at Cloquet at the Frank Llloyd Wright designed gas station. He knew I would be interested in Frank Llyod Wright because the architect is from southern Wisconsin. I took a few photos of the gas station, then we walked in the Veteran’s Park across the street.
We made it up to Ely and went to the Forest Ranger Station. This was a real eye opener for me. The Kekekabic Trail Club was having two trail crews that weekend. One led by Mark Stange and the other led by Jerry Swanson. All the facilities at the Ranger Station are fairly new. They had just moved to that location within the last few years. They have a dormitory building where Volunteers can stay. Trail Crews stay in the Dormitory the night before they head out. For the Trail Crews, the Forest service provides much of the equipment. They provide the saws, tools and canoes needed for the trip. Often the crews will canoe into the part of the trail they are clearing. The Trail Crew must provide their own food, tents and personal equipment.
Cory Mensen was the Forest Ranger getting the equipment lined up. He told me where I could camp near the Ranger Station. And he also called the Voyaguers North Outfitters to see if they were still open so I could get a Boundary Waters permit. Mark and another volunteer on his Trail Crew named Liisa needed to go eat, so they agreed to take me to get my permit. It took a long time to get the permit because you have to watch a video. But Mark and Liisa stayed and watched it with me, which was nice, then we went for supper at the Grand Ely Lodge.
Afterwards we went back to the dormitory and I went off and set up my tent. I came back and talked with some of the Trail Crew Members. I gave my card to Jerry Swanson and Joe Johnston. Joe checked out my website with his blackberry. He also took two photos of me and sent them to my email address which my sister was monitoring. My sister posted the two photos to the website.