Chuck and I made our annual caching trip to Northern Minnesota yesterday with a caching expedition around Hibbing and Bovey, MN. The Iron Range is one of our favorite places to cache as the cache quality is wonderful, the hikes are long, and the views are fantastic.
We started the day out caching in the middle of nowhere between Cromwell and Cloquet on some *nasty* minimum maintenance roads. After spending about 45 minutes getting to the first cache I picked no less than 30 ticks off of my untreated pants. The reward of seeing a bald eagle swoop past us on the way out made it more than worth it. Immediately after getting back to the car I changed out of my untreated pants and into my permethrin treated jeans for the rest of the day. I’m sure that the two wood ticks on my upper thighs at the end of the day came from this part of the day.
After the first three caches we made a beeline for Hibbing where Team Hooligan and Minnesota Gadget Girl live. They were kayaking that morning near Grand Rapids and we had plans to meet up with them after lunch so we cleared most of Hibbing out of caches including Joboo’s “Room with a View” which offered stunning views!
We had lunch and headed towards Grand Rapids and met up with Hooligan and MGG in Bovey right off of 169. We did a bunch of great caches with them and eventually met up with their kayaking buddy “Kayak Sailor” for a few more. Team Hooligan and Minnesota Gadget Girl suggested that we make the 2.5+ mile round trip hike to “Garfield” which offered excellent vista and close up views of one of the most gorgeous pit mine lakes around! Certainly well worth the sunburn and dehydration for this one!
Kayak Sailor is also an expert at “rock surfing” which saved us a lot of time between caches!
I came home with two ticks, eight different foot blisters, and sunburn on my neck, checks, arms, and nose. We hiked no less than 15 miles yesterday and enjoyed every single bit of it.
If you’re looking for some great hikes with amazing views on the Range, let me know, I can tell you where to go :)
See all the pictures from today here (mobile) and here (camera)
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