Lum City Park, Brainerd, MN
We've been so lucky on this trip with great weather. If it has rained it's been only at night and we've woken up to blue skies. Well, not so much today! Torrential rains pelted us for most of the night, but it was quite dry and cozy in the winniemobile listening to the thunder and hearing the storm surge around us. Yep, we still slept on top with a panoramic view of the happenings in the campground. This morning the rain kept up which resulted in us changing our plans throughout the day. We were only about an hour outside of the Twin Cities. I had originally planned a bike ride around a park and near the river in Minneapolis, but we could barely see while driving so that plan was definitely scratched. Rather than explore the Twin Cities we decided to put them on a list for another trip and do our best to navigate the water drenched highways. We (the royal we here, Ned was driving and thank goodness!) hydroplaned our way around the cities and caught up with the GRR on the Northwest side. The weather finally broke and the skies cleared up by mid day.
We drove alongside the Upper Mississippi and it sure looks completely different in this part of the woods! The river is dotted with homes on both sides of her banks and roadsigns indicate canoe put-ins every few miles. We stopped at a couple of parks to get an up close view and the river basically looks like a small lake. It would be pretty easy to swim across at this point. In fact, Lake Valley Reservoir, where we often picnic and swim back home, seems more of a challenge to swim across than the Mighty Mississippi now. I'll attach some photos so you can see just how serene and peaceful she looks. I imagine with the cold winters in this part of Minnesota that the river freezes over in some parts too.
One of our destinations today was Charles Lindbergh State Park. We were looking forward to taking a tour of his boyhood home and eponymous museum as well as camping at this campground. Turns out it's not open on Wednesdays. We toured the campground and decided while nice, it was still too early in the day (early afternoon) to pitch camp. So, we toured the local Charles Weyerhauser Museum instead. It's a sweet little museum and research center that tells all about this area. It also has lots of funny contraptions from days gone by. I got a chuckle out of the electric gizmo that permed ladies' hair. This museum is situated on the Mississippi so it was fun to walk out to the grounds and get another perspective on the Mighty Miss looking rather halcyon. We drove through Little Falls, MN and had a great time watching the falls now turned into a dam roaring at full blast. A couple of guys were fishing in the backwaters next to where the water roars through the gates of the dam and they were literally pulling in fish after fish, as fast as they could hook their rods. Amazing and so fun to watch!
Fortunately, another state park, Crow Wing, wasn't too far down the road. I checked a couple of my maps and books and it appeared perfect - situated on the confluence of the Crow and Mississippi Rivers. I also checked it out on the internet. It did have a warning that wood and deer ticks were prominent in this park. Hesitantly, we drove into the campground. I went in to talk with the Park Ranger and ask her about it. Yep, the place is rampant with ticks and have warnings posted all about tick borne diseases. She said that several people have gotten ticks not just on the trails but sitting in their campsite too. Okay, well this was a no brainer to keep on driving!!
We finally pulled into Brainerd, MN late afternoon and upon the ranger's recommendation are settled in at a Lum City Park campground. It's actually a sweet little campground situated right on Rice Lake. There are only about 15 sites and 2 of us camped here. We are camped in a wide open grassy field, but have flush toilets and showers, and a great view of the lake. What more could a girl ask for?? Ned and I did our usual bike ride to check things out and stretch our legs. Beautiful spot.
Tomorrow we should reach the headwaters of the Mississippi and thus end our journey on the GRR. Pretty excited about that!
