Rediscovering North Country

My assignment last weekend took me up to Nashwauk, Minnesota to visit with the Range Riders ATV Club. I'll be honest, I wasn't that excited to be spending the start of my long weekend with strangers. To me, that weekend is a time to see friends, old or new, and relax.

But a deadline beckoned, so off I went on the four-hour drive to Nashwauk, Minnesota with the weatherman telling me bad weather was rolling in (great). I rolled in late in the day, and immediately got on the trail to get some shots before the clouds opened up for a late May drenching.

When we returned to the cabin, I grabbed some shots of the place while the rest of the crew prepped for supper. I was struck by the smell of pine and lake that reminds me of time spent canoeing the BWCA, and the way that life's frenetic pace slows when in Northern Minnesota.

I was called in for supper, and found the largest pan of pork ribs I've ever seen (enough to feed 20 hungry men) made by by Mari Kaminen and served on a 100-year-old table rescued from a logging camp. The cabin was home-built by Gary Kaminen's Dad in the 1940s, and is one of those classic up-north hunting shacks where a guy like me can truly relax because a spilled beer or dropped rib is more likely to improve the place than cause any harm. Gary and Mike had a great story tell after dinner, one that will make this club feature fun to read (and to write). The night was finished off out by the lake next to a Buick-sized bonfire and a seemingly endless supply of beers and stories (I'm a sucker for both).

The next day dawned relatively clear, and we rode through about 10 miles of backcountry to a hospital-sized rock the locals dubbed "The Whale." Standing on the spine of this ancient chunk of granite, swatting mosquitoes and surrounded by the virginal green of north country in the spring, I remembered that I happen to love Minnesota as much as more exotic locales.

I'm a sucker for travel, even in my own backyard.