Bemidji to Little Falls

John next to Paul Bunyan

We started our day in Bemidji, Minnesota viewing the town landmark, Paul Bunyan and his Blue Ox. Built in 1937, it looks pretty corny today. We started following the Mississippi as it drains from one lake and enters another: Lake Bemidji to Cass Lake to Lake Winnibigoshish. We passed by the Winnibigoshish dam originally built in 1884 as a wooden dam. One of six dams built to control the flow of the Mississippi for loggers and to maintain a shipping channel on the river downriver from Minneapolis. We kept getting peeks of the Mississippi as we took the Great River road. The day started cold and dark, but by noon hour, the sun came out. 

Mississippi 30 miles from the headwaters

Near the headwaters, the land is largely hilly moraines with a large variety of trees, giving us a lot of color. As we headed south from Grand Rapids, we entered a sandy plain, which meant primarily birch and aspen for trees, and a lot of hay fields. The land changed again as we approached Brainerd, back to glacial moraine. From Brainerd we headed to Little Falls for the night. We had hoped to stop at the MinnesotaMilitary Museum, but it was already 4 PM by this time and the museum was closing for the summer season at 5 PM. The Great River Road definitely snakes around with the river, it took us seven hours to cover the same distance as we did in two hours yesterday. 

Minnesota Hay