Minnesota is a great state to explore! Northeastern Minnesota is full of dense forest, lakes, fish, wildlife, and rocks. There are vast areas up there where cell phones don’t work and it is glorious! I know of places where a compass just spins in circles due to the iron ore content in the ground. Everyone should experience the solitude and remoteness of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area and Superior National Forest at least once in their life. It’s like stepping back in time when life was simpler but much harder at the same time. When satisfying your daily human needs requires focused thought and hard work. It is a great way to reflect on what’s important in your life; a dry and warm place to sleep, fresh drinking water, nourishing food, and being surrounded by close friends or family. Imagine sitting around an evening campfire and gazing into the vast array of stars surrounding us on our little floating rock. Hearing the Loons singing across the lake, while feeling the cool breeze on your face, and listening to it flutter the leaves on the trees all around you. It’s really is a special place to exist that is vastly different from the noise of the cities and towns all around us.
Hearing that intro, you might think that this story is about an epic journey into the heart of the BWCA, where we paddled and portaged for several days deep into the wilderness. Fishing and foraging for our food. Nurturing our minds on the tapestry of the forest while engaging in a quest for self-development. Nope, this is not that kind of story. This story is about a bunch of mentally questionable adult like people and their less-than-optimal transportation devices traveling through the forest to see who breaks down first. Officially dubbed, “The Royal S...t Show” or as I like to call it, “The Fun Show”.
The “The Fun Show” is a mini overlanding weekend adventure with like-minded fellow crazy people. The vehicles of choice must be something that are off-road capable, but not overly reliable. Something that you would not normally think of for mini overlanding. For example, minibikes, go carts, three wheelers, or mini-Jeeps. Each year the founding three pick a different location in Minnesota to explore during The Fun Show. This year we were near Orr, MN at the end of the Echo Trail. The goal is self-sustaining survival. Load up your mini adventure machine with everything a person needs to survive a night in the woods. Travel through the rough terrain of Northern Minnesota deep into the heart of the wilderness, miles from the sane people. Set up camp for the night, while avoiding becoming a bear biscuit. Then, load up and return to the relative safety of our full-size vehicles. It’s a battle of man/woman and their mighty mini machines against the sheer power of the Northern woods, rivers, and rocks. Our band of misfits are just crazy and stubborn enough to actually pull this little stunt off each year and keep coming back for more.
This year we strayed slightly from the standard format. Several of our regular tribe members were unavailable to attend so we opted for a single day outing instead. In true Fun Show fashion, we found out the location and general plan of festivities just a couple of days ahead of time. Our regular wilderness guide was one of the missing tribesmen. The founding three elected a very temporary and most questionable trail guide that was unfamiliar with the area, to lead our ragged band of adventurers. Our biggest challenge was finding a looping route through the woods. The trails interconnect in the winter, but during the summer they are broken up by several rivers and swamps. Adding a gasoline stop to the travels was impossible without several miles of blacktop travel. Generally, the focus of the weekend is more dirt and less people. We started with an ambitious plan. A 100-mile wandering path through the north woods. With special attractions along the path including scenic overlooks, a 200-foot accent up a Minnesota mountain, a waterfall, rivers, lakes, and rocks, oh my! We started out from the Trail’s End Resort & Campground Saturday morning and had our first trail repair before leaving the parking lot. Breezy, the captain of The Fun Show trail support vehicle, a.k.a. a mini jeep with extra gas, wouldn’t start. The battery decided to quit doing its job just that morning. Well, our tribe scoffs a mere weak battery. We quicky located a booster pack and had the little jeep up and running in no time. No man or woman left behind! Off we went into the great unknown of the north woods. We traveled along making good time. As you can imagine, questionably reliable mini vehicles require tinkering along the way to keep them up and running. I was having a dispute with the governor on my minibike. I was seeking a boost of power to climb hills, while the governor was snickering at me while taking more power away. It was an ongoing dispute throughout the day. I had to be happy with, “at least I’m not walking.” Geoff was having his own hill climbing power issues on his fat, three-wheeler, two tired motorcycle. The 1970s era Briggs & Stratton engine was having some carburetor issues, prompting him to do a trailside carburetor modification and rebuild.
His carb is built into the top of the fuel tank on this engine. Geoff put his engineering mind to work and within a few hours had it reinstalled and running better than before. With some creative use of zip ties, he told the governor to “zip it and watch this.” Setting a new land speed record of 33 MPH on the straight aways for his ride. As lunchtime approached, we needed to make choice. Ride ten miles on blacktop to reach the gas station or just send it and continue our meandering loop and hope that we have enough fuel to make it. We chose to head back into the woods to look for a lunch spot. My first choice, yes, I was the very questionable and most questionable trail guide, was the Elephant Lake scenic overlook. Unfortunately, the closed gate had us searching for an alternate lunch spot. To my amazement, we found a nice clearing just around the corner with a view of Elephant Lake. As I nibbled on my granola bar lunch, I pondered why it was called Elephant Lake. It’s not shaped like an elephant and there certainly aren’t any wild elephants wandering the wilds of Minnesota that I know of. It’s not a big lake so I wondered if its shape resembles a splotch of elephant poo? Another one of life’s great mysteries.
We completed our trailside lunch, vehicle inspections, repairs, and continued our travels. At each turn we would take a break and wait for everyone to catch up. I could only see one or two rigs behind me without running the risk of crashing myself. One of those breaks stretched into the 20-minute range so we figured there might be a problem back there. We turned around and back tracked about three miles before finding our missing peeps. The fat tire bike’s governor tried to regain control again, and the carburetor tried to fall off the bike. Geoff reattached the carburetor and zipped the governor back into compliance and we were off again… No wait, once we jump started the little jeep, then we were off again! Tooling along enjoying the scenery around me, I almost rode right past the turn to the waterfall. I hit the brakes, sliding into the turn. As I maneuvered around to complete the turn, I heard the unmistakable sound of tires sliding on gravel. I looked over my right shoulder to see side-car-Dave barreling towards me with his side car equipped minibike; big eyed and wishing for more than just a rear brake. I goosed my minibike in an attempt to launch it out of the way, only to be greeted with a pathetic dribble of speed resulting in a two-inch lurch of forward momentum. Thankfully for Dave and I, the two inches was all we needed to avoid a minibike catastrophe. Seriously, we may have collided and tipped over! There’s nothing more tragic than two old guys laughing in the dirt trying to figure out how to get back up again. Eventually, we made it to the waterfall and enjoyed a pleasant break while listening to the water swooshing through the rocky narrows of Vermillion Falls. The falls is a popular spot that attracts travelers throughout the area. We endured several looks from people that were questioning our life choices. A few more thought it was great and wished us safe travels. We were on the home stretch now, with only eleven more miles to make it back to our starting line. We began traveling along forest road 491 having a grand ol’ time. Zipping right past my intended turn yet again. Ok, so once we got everyone turned around and back on the “correct” path, we enjoyed a fun ride down an ATV trail full of twists, turns, rocks, and trees. The last bit of trail was down the shoulder of a black top road returning us to Echo Lake. We traveled a total of about 50 miles during our nine hours of adventure that Saturday. All who started had returned. We conquered the mighty power of the north woods yet again! With a triumphant double honk of my minibike horn, I saluted the woods and thanked The Lord for another wild “Fun Show” adventure!
If you would like to catch up on the antics from last year’s adventure, see my blog “What Life Adventures Inspire You?” Should you go back and read last year’s article, you may notice that I was building a special rig for this event. I worked on it many evenings over the last several months to find out that the engine needs to be rebuilt to run correctly. The trusty old Coleman 200 minibike came in clutch again this year. A quick look over, fresh oil change, and a throttle cable replacement and it was ready for action in all its underpowered glory. It’s like using an adjustable wrench for a hammer. Sure, it will do it and survive, but there are so many better choices for the job; like an actual hammer. That’s what the Fun Show is all about, using the wrong tool for the job and getting it done anyway. Time to get back to building a slightly better, but just as dumb, rig for next year’s adventure! Have fun out there and keep doing what makes you smile.
Aaron Bjorklund
