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!

So it begins, the least planned road trip I’ve ever undertaken. I’ve been considering taking this trip for a few years, ever since first seeing the signs along the roadsides around the Twin Cities. As I’ve got PTO to burn, I finally decided this was the year. However, once I started looking at the route I realized there was a lot of not so much specific things along the way. Additionally, plotting the route was a bit tedious since it is somewhat off the beaten path. Therefore I decided to more or less wing it. What’s the worst that could happen – don’t worry, that’s not foreshadowing. Or is it…?

The only reservation I’ve made for the trip is tonight in Itasca State Park as I wanted to make sure I was close to the headwaters tomorrow. That’s why I’m counting today as day 0, I’m just pre-positioning myself to start Day 1 officially at the headwaters. One could argue by driving up and down both banks of the river I technically need to count this. But on the other hand Minnesota has a long stretch of the river contained within it’s own borders and the route doesn’t actually have separate routes along each side – especially up north in the very meandering stretches. So don’t bother arguing with me – it’s day 0!

As check-in at the campground was not available until 4pm, I had a somewhat chill morning getting the last of my gear loaded into the car. I decided to drive the Solstice for the trip up to Itasca and back to Cottage Grove so being just an overnight camping trip I kept things to a minimum. Got on the road about 11am. Things were going smoothly until I approached Maple Grove on the NW corner of the Twin Cities. Some sort of construction had all but the right-hand lane closed. It took well over an hour to go perhaps five miles. Fortunately it was a beautiful day to sit on the interstate with the top down. Once I made it through that fiasco it was clear sailing all the way up to Alexandria, MN where I paused for a late lunch.

I then headed north out of Alexandria for a finally more relaxing drive up the two lane roads to Itasca. This is what top down driving is supposed to be like!

The combination of my somewhat late departure and the unexpected traffic delays got me into the park a bit later than expected – around 6:30. Was a bit nervous as I pulled in as a few raindrops started landing on the car, but it turned into nothing so no real worries. Got checked in and setup camp which wasn’t much more than my tent and sleeping bag, etc. Again the lack of planning for this trip included not bringing any food aside from some snacks. I had seen a place a few miles back from the park entrance and headed there for dinner. Had a nice walleye dinner! Then it was back to the campground in the dark by now and crawled into the tent for a nice night of rest.

The real adventure begins tomorrow!