When Hope Becomes the Plan

Eight Friends, Four Days, Zero Reservations

By Josh Rizzo

We had a plan. Not a good one, but we did officially have a plan. Eight of us were to go on a four-day bikepacking adventure on Minnesota’s North Shore gravel roads and hope that every single person we talked to on the phone was wrong. That was the plan.

“Packing”, like backpacking or canoe packing means carrying your gear with you as you travel under your own power. In the case of bikepacking your bare bones essentials are strapped to your frame, handlebar and seatpost to keep the ride light and nimble for backcountry exploring, like a more rugged form of bike touring. I love having the ability to enjoy outdoor adventures at a faster pace than canoeing and hiking and in a more remote way than traditional bike touring on paved roads.

I heard about a bikepacking route in Northern Minnesota called “Straddle and Paddle” on bikepacking.com. It promised everything I could want: endless gravel roads, thick forests with tons of lakes, and the world’s best donuts.

My seven buddies John, Joel, Fabien, Phil, Matt, Kevin, Jeff and I spent a year researching, buying gear and generally overanalyzing the entire trip.

There was only one problem. We found campsites, but the vast majority of them were booked, and the few remaining were non-reservable. It was the weekend of several very large tourist events in the Grand Marais area. They were eventually cancelled because of COVID, but the crowds still came en masse.

I refreshed the reservation websites every day for months and made lots of phone calls. The US Forest Service, campgrounds, bike shops, and even churches all had the same answer: “We’ve been booked for months and haven’t had one single cancellation.”

With eight hearts full of unfounded hope, we embarked on our trip despite having not just one, but three nights with nowhere to stay. DAY ONE: After navigating the winding gravel roads to Finland, MN it was time to find our first place to sleep.

There was one single non-reservable campsite in the vicinity of our first destination. The odds weren’t good, but we had no choice but to check it out. We came to the end of the trail and the forest broke open to a stunning spot on gorgeous Windy Lake - and no one else was there. We had our first campsite. We swam, fished, ate freeze-dried meals and couldn’t believe that the prettiest campsite we’d ever seen was just waiting for our group of hopeful bikepackers. DAY TWO: Our bike ride for the day included a lunch swim on Mistletoe Lake as well as a friendly bear sighting. For the night, we were aiming for a tiny campground of four sites at the Cascade River Rustic Campground. It had more sites than the previous spot, but we’d be arriving on a Friday, which is the hardest night of the week to get a campsite. We rolled in after a tiring day on Minnesota’s loveliest and crunchiest gravel, hoping that just one site would be open. Sites one, two and three were taken. Around the next bend we spied site four. It was open! We got lucky again and just barely scored a second campsite in two days. DAY THREE: If we didn’t find an open site at the municipal campground in Grand Marais we’d have to bike four miles back up the Gunflint Trail and look for dispersed camping in the Superior National Forest. It was technically an option, but nobody wanted to do it.

We rolled up to the campground in the pouring rain and found out they were almost completely full for the night - except for two campsites! Luck was on our side again as we managed to find extremely unlikely campsites three nights in a row. DAY FOUR: On the last morning we stopped at The World’s Best Donuts on our way out of Grand Marais. We enjoyed those sugary rings of dough as Lake Superior’s waves lapped onto the rocky shoreline. Our final day of biking treated us to lakeviews, river gorges, and many wonderful miles on the Gitchi-Gami State Trail before we made it back to our vehicles.

My suggestion? You guessed it. Plan ahead and be sure to make campsite reservations.

All photos John Miller

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Josh Rizzo is a bikepacker from Wisconsin who thinks that short adventures are often more fun than long ones. He loves making his own gear, bringing the family along for adventures, and exploring the Northwoods with a bike bag full of gummy bears and beef jerky. When he’s not biking he makes handmade bike bags for his side project called The NXRTH.