June 22, 2016
Grunting And Shrieking--The Full Story
Walker, Minnesota
I swear, sometimes they sounded like grunting hogs and other times they sounded like shrieking wildcats. The cacophony awoke me somewhere around 10:00 last night and kept me awake for about an hour.
This morning I found out from the next-door campers what they were and why they were going so crazy. Before I tell you the rest of the story, however, I have to back up a couple of hours and introduce you to the next-door campers.
They were a trio of young people (Annie, David and Maddie) who had also ridden their bikes into the "hike-in" section of the campground. They had somehow snuck past me while I was lying on the picnic table with my eyes closed, eating Cheetos and listening to the baseball game. When they saw me come back to life, they invited me over to their site for dinner. They were grilling up some fresh wild rice bratwursts purchased from a butcher in Laporte. I accepted their offer, not wanting to make the same mistake I did a couple of weeks ago when I missed out on that incredible potato, onion and Spam skillet meal.
Is it even possible for two separate parties of bike tourists to get together and completely avoid the subject of their respective bike tours? I don't think so.
"Where did you guys bike in from?" I asked, breaking the ice.
"We started in New Orleans and rode up along the Mississippi River . . . and here we are!" said Annie, summing it up in one sentence.
"That's awesome," I said in reply, "I did a similar trip last year except at the Twin Cities I veered away from the river and worked my way to Ashland, Wisconsin--a city on Lake Superior."
"We know were that is. We all went to college there."
"Really? Did you go to that environmentally based college--I can't remember the na . . ."
"Northland College! Yes, that's where we went."
"UNBELIEVABLE!" I shouted, "My niece goes to that college."
"Wow, what's her name?"
I said her name but they didn't know her because they graduated a couple years before my niece enrolled there. I'm not going to go on and on about our conversation because I have to get back to the grunting and shrieking story. Suffice to say that we excitedly shared our experiences and had a fun visit. And here's the most important thing--they were in their early twenties and I am in my late fifties and, to me anyway, it quickly seemed like we were talking as old friends.
Anyway, back to the strange animal noises: They came from raccoons. Annie and David and Maddie explained how they had stowed their food in the bear box (provided at each campsite by the state park,) but after dark a raccoon crawled underneath the box and somehow reached his little paws up into a crevice and grabbed a plastic bag containing their trail mix. The three of them frequently tried shooing the raccoons away, but once the bag was broken open all hope was lost. Soon there were at least seven raccoons grunting and shrieking over the bounty. There was nothing the trio could have done short of the risk of getting bitten by a hoard of rabid raccoons.
"Sorry if it kept you awake," apologized David.
"No, don't apologize," I said, "you did nothing wrong. I just never heard those sounds coming from raccoons before. I was fascinated. But you should probably report that little opening in the bear box to a ranger so they can do something about it."
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I don't have much to say about today's ride. It was only 36 miles, the last 10 of which were on the Paul Bunyon Trail. Nice ride. Billions of view blockers.
Today's ride: 36 miles (58 km)
Total: 1,025 miles (1,650 km)
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