So not such a good night of rest… One neighboring group of campers was up chatting awfully late. I thought it would quiet down once the screaming kid went to bed. But no, they stayed up chatting until at least 1am. Didn’t help that I couldn’t get comfortable in the tent. Guess I’m getting too old for this kind of camping…

In any case, I rolled out of the tent around 7am. Had a quick breakfast then broke camp and packed up the car. Was on the way to the headwaters about 8:30. Unfortunately was cool and a bit drizzly so the top unfortunately stayed up.

I can’t really recall the last time I visited the headwaters but it’s been decades. I think the visitor center is new since my last visit. It is a truly peaceful and special place to visit. Amazing to think that the reasonably large river that flows not too far from my house starts here deep in the woods as a small quiet stream.

And so it begins!

The Great River Road starts (or ends) by heading north out of the park. It follows a variety of county, state, and national roads (US Highways and some Interstates). As the river meanders it’s way along the route twists and turns as well. These road signs do a good job of leading the way. Unfortunately at my first intersection with US Highway 2 there was no indicator of which way to go. So I headed east towards Bemidji. I think I probably missed a fair bit of backroads but didn’t really miss it if you know what I mean. In any case, I finally spotted a sign that pointed me south onto the backroads again towards Grand Rapids. Again, my lack of planning meant I didn’t know exactly what roads I should be following…

In any case the road continued with one surprising stretch of dirt road somewhere between Grand Rapids and Brainerd. Driving south out of Brainerd I realized I somehow lost the route again. After pulling over and checking the map I was able to get back over to the correct road. From there it was on to St. Cloud and along the way the route crossed the river a couple of times. Heading south out of St. Cloud I again managed to lose the route. This time even after backtracking a few times I could not locate the route and again have to blame it on lack of planning.

At this point, since I wanted to get home to watch the Vikings play (bad choice, I know) I decided to just hop onto 94 and make a beeline for home. Made it home just after 7, in time to unload gear, get a load of laundry in and then sit down to watch the “game”. That was quite the disappointment. But, being home also meant a good night sleep in my bed instead of the uncomfortable tent.

Tomorrow the journey south begins!