G.A.S.P.

(Great Adventures to Scenic Places)

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June 5, 1999

The ride from Finland to Ely was fantastic. I had been forewarned multiple times about how bad that road would be for a bicyclist, but it turned out to be no problem at all. One long stretch of the road had no shoulder at all, but it didn’t bother me because traffic was really light – like almost non-existent. It was a scenic highway, with rolling hills, beautiful forest areas, and lots of swampy lakes. I saw several signs saying "Moose next 4 miles," but didn’t see any. I did see a billion caterpillars, however, and tried my best to dodge them. This does bring up one of the most important questions of the trip so far – why do some caterpillars cross the road left to right while others are crossing right to left only a few feet away. Curious minds (mine in particular) want to know.

Click on thumbnail to see full photograph

I thought Ely was a terrific town – the place I like best since leaving home. (Photo 49) It has about three thousand residents, and winter must be brutal, but it has a very lively looking downtown, its own hospital, Dairy Queen, Pizza Hut, Hardee’s and numerous interesting looking bars (somewhere to pass the winter, I guess). In the summer it is a mecca for canoeists headed for the Boundary Waters Canoe Wilderness. It is also home to the Wolf Center. I arrived just at closing time, but I guess they have several wolves in a large enclosed area, and do much wolf research. They have a web-site (http://www.wolf.org).

I changed my campsite to a State Park (Bear Head Lake) because I thought my other campground in Soudan was a State Forest and wouldn’t have showers. Big mistake. The campground at Bear Lake was nice enough, but it was seven miles off the main road. Then I discovered that the "other" campground was actually a city campground and not only had showers, but also a laundry. Lesson learned to check out my previous research.