Fishing, 4 Wheeling, Biking with 7.5 FX, and a weekend of Relaxation

I am back!

This past weekend I drove up to my roommate’s cabin near Grand Rapids, MN for a weekend of relaxation. I can honestly say that it was great to mostly disconnect from the web, posting, and being in front a computer all the time. During the weekend, I fished, played a ton of cribbage, rode on a four-wheeler, saw the stars, built two 1-match fires, rode my trek 7.5 fx, drank a lot of beer, and got some of the best sleep in a long time! Needless to say it was very relaxing.

First Day Success Story!

My first day at the cabin was pretty eventful. My roommate and one of his friends were getting back from the golf when I arrived at the cabin. After getting settled, it was decided that we should go fishing. When I say go fishing, I mean drink beer as well. Now, fishing is not really my thing. The last time I went fishing was at least 10 years ago. I don’t even own a fishing pole. So I did have to learn all the tricks about casting a stuff again. Fortunately, my roommate and his friend are expert fishermen so they knew all the tricks about keeping the bobber and weights set correctly.

After the 7th or 8th throw of the line into the water, I stopped paying attention to where the bobber was in the water. I really just wanted to “pretend” I was fishing and sit back to drink my beer. All of my sudden, my roommate asks “Hey, Tim, where’s your bobber?!” Of course, since I wasn’t paying attention, I replied “I’m not sure.” I then started to reel the line back in towards the dock and line became tight. I began to pull back on the pole to hook the fish and continued reeling the line in towards the shore. The pole was bending and the fish was fighting my efforts to bring it to shore.  At this time, I still had no idea that I had a 28″ wall-eye! My roommate’s friend got the net and I continued guiding the fish towards the net. Once it was in the net and they pointed out how big the fish looked, I knew I had to get my camera. I raced up the stairs from the dock towards the cabin. I grabbed my camera and sprinted back to the dock. They told the news – a 28″ Walleye!! I couldn’t believe it.

28" Walleye Fish from Trout Lake

I think I had another big walleye on the line later during the weekend, but it got away. I tried to get it back the rest of the weekend and was unsuccessful. For the weekend, between my roommate and his friend, they caught an additional 18 walleye, but I had the biggest one of the weekend and tied the cabin record. (Woohoo, my name is in the record book somewhere.) This non-fishing fisherman’s experience was quite successful. At the end of the first night I built my first 1-match fire in over 8 years – my old Scoutmasters would have been pleased. It was cloudy that night so it was hard to see the stars.

The Second Day…

The second day was filled with biking, four wheeling, a casino run, and more fishing! Everyone was pretty tired from the night before and slept in till about 10:30am. It must be the air up there or something because I had the best sleep in a long time. Since I had brought my trek 7.5 fx, I decided that it would be a good time to take it out for a ride on the county roads of northern Minnesota. In order to reach the hard surface road, I had to bike about 2 miles on a dirt road that was slightly wet from the early morning rains. I admit wet dirt roads aren’t very ideal for the 7.5 FX, but the bike held up amazing well. What I should have done was drive to the surface road and start from there, but I am somewhat stubborn when it comes to things like this.  It was good to get the 7.5 on roads where cars could potentially come whizzing by me. I wanted to get used to that experience because I do mostly trail riding in the twin cities and don’t have to worry about cars that much. The riding conditions weren’t ideal as it was quite windy, but this gave me an additional challenge and experience to build on. Because of the wind and my lack of “knowing exactly where I was”, I decided to keep my route fairly simple and did about 16 miles in total.  I could have done more but was also fairly tired from the wind and dealing with some of the hills. I also should have brought my Apex Bionic Wind Wall as it would have been a great time to test it out!

Later in the day, my roommate decided it would be a good idea to get the 4-wheelers out. He took his friend and me on the 4 wheeler trail near his cabin. It was a fun and intense 20 minute ride. This was my first time on a 4-wheeler.

After some more fishing, dinner, and getting my butt kicked at cribbage, it was time for me to build a fire….a 1-match fire of course.  I wasn’t intending on the fire to get so hot or big, but it did! I admit being in the outdoors again, being able to see the stars, dealing with the misquitos, and building the 1-match fires all brought me back to my days in the boy scouts. I had so many fun and cool memories of bsing around the fire, hanging out with friends, and meeting people through scouts. It is somewhat unfortunate that I haven’t had much time to camp in the last few years. Hopefully that will change.

Hmmm 4 Wheeler or Trek 7.5 FX - Which is more fun?!

Hmmm 4 Wheeler or Trek 7.5 FX - Which is more fun?!

Overall, I was glad to make the 3.5 hour drive up to myroommate’s cabin and thankful for the invite. It was truly a much needed relaxing weekend.

I am posting a few more pictures of from this weekend’s trip. I’ve re-sized the images

Sun setting at Trout Lake

Dinner!

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Tags: biking, perspective, Travel, trek, trek 7.5 fx, trek fx, twin cities

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