TRACE THE MITTEN

From Dalbo to Walker, MN

11/10/2021

As I am packing up I will breakfast on steel cut oats that had been soaking in water all night in a sealed jar. After the first hour of biking I was happy to hit Milaca. This town has around 3000 people and I had no problem finding a breakfast spot.

The Rum River runs through and Mille Lacs Lake is just up stream and its name serves as a basis for the town.

Doing the stair step move to work through the backroads.

The Adirondack chairs invited me to sit and enjoy the Sun.

The Paul Bunyan State Trail is multi-use path totaling 120 miles. I will be going 63 miles north to Walker. I am sure in the winter this is popular for snowmobiling. We have many trails in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan that gets a lot of winter trail traffic. The Burlington Northern Railroad opened this area.

The next stretch would follow this railtrail.

A nice paved trail.

Lake Hubert is near by and other lakes draw a summer crowd.

Towns are every few miles and look what I found.

Minnesota the land of 10,000 lakes and you can sure see that is a fair estimate.

I continue to find little towns to explore.

We continue to be reminded about Paul Bunyan. That looks like a chair that he may have used. He traveled with the blue ox, Babe.

I remember climbing some fire towers before to get a view and I was excited to do that again.

This tower was built in 1935 and is on the National Register of Historical Sites.

I love finding train stations and like at other places, this one has turned into a museum.

It is common for hikers and cycle touring riders to send items to general delivery for re-stocking. You can also lighten your load sending things home that you are not using. The next town was Hackensack and I see in the history it is named after the New Jersey town. It is common to see names of eastern towns in the midwest when people migrated west and settled again using the same name for their new home.