Minnesota – Blood, Sweat, & Tears

Mississippi Headwaters

Minnesota truly is the land of lakes. It seems we see one every few miles. We heard about MN closing their state parks; so, we called the bike shop we were going to rent bikes from to see if we could still rent bikes and ride around the park. The lady we spoke to said she couldn’t rent bikes, but we could still walk into the park to the Mississippi Headwaters if we went to the north entrance. So, we found a place in the forest to camp. This was probably our worst campsite yet! Brian got out of the car to see where to set up tents and came back to say we needed to stay in the car until he got them up. There were so many mosquitoes!!! So, we got the kids into the tents and zipped them up quickly. Brian made dinner after dosing himself in bug repellent, and we ate in the big tent. Then we went straight to bed, getting a good night sleep before doing the same thing the next morning. We went to the north entrance to eat breakfast before hiking to the headwaters. It was a very short hike, and we soon decided it would be a great place to kayak. I took Kendall in her kayak, Elijah in Chloe’s kayak, and Sydney on my sit-on-top. Chloe opted out as she was fighting the itchies. (She and Kendall both have mosquito bites all over their backs and legs, but Chloe’s seem to bother her more. We tried to tell her being in the water might help.) It was a beautiful little winding path down the Mississippi, with lily pads and tall grasses, dragonflies and little fish. We enjoyed the wet trek, and Brian even got a dip at the end of it, using the opportunity to wash his hair. But now since we cannot camp in the parks, we are heading toward Wisconsin.

Kayaking

Tirzah Time

Headwaters Hike

Bath Time