Podcast: Biking for the Boundary Waters

Dave Meier: Welcome to Big Red Canoe, the podcast from Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness, where we introduce you to captivating people and intriguing stories from America’s Treasured Wilderness. I’m Dave Meier. Grab a paddle and hop on in. ​

Earlier this summer, Colorado’s Mike Quirk set off on a bike trip to raise funds for the boundary waters. He and his fellow peddler, Nico Peter’s set off from Saint Paul, Minnesota with the intention to bike along lake superior in the boundary waters. Up through Canada, all the way to New York city. He contacted us to let us know he’d be raising funds for us.

Yay. And we love it when people have new ideas to support our mission. So on the day they were ready to set out. I tagged along with our development director, Mike Linnemann, to meet them in St. Paul and give them a sendoff. After lunch, they hopped on their bikes and headed off towards the state Capitol, then turned north towards the boundary waters in Canada. The trip was to take 30 days and cover almost 2000 miles. But like any true adventure things didn’t quite go as planned.

And before the trip was over, Mike found himself swapping out his bike for a canoe to cover some of the middle Canada miles on the Ottawa river. Having more unexpected adventures before getting behind the handlebars again, to finish the ride to New York. They’ll join us here on the podcast to tell the story in a moment. But first, if you want to ride a bike and support the boundary waters, you should totally join us for the Gran Portage. a, twin cities, bike tour, benefiting friends of the Boundary Waters. The tour’s named after the Italian Gran Fondo or “Big ride” and the French “portage”.

So it’s basically a canoeist and cyclist tribute to the waterways along the ride routes, including the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers and the famous lakes of Minneapolis and St. Paul. Not only will it be a fantastic time, but your participation will also make a meaningful difference. A hundred percent of the net proceeds from this event will be donated directly to friends of the boundary waters to safeguard our cherished wilderness.

The ride is October 5th and starts off at our friend’s Minneapolis Cider’s, taproom.

And we’ll gather there for some fun after the ride, including live music. Food, a free signer for writers and a gear expo. I had to miss it last year and I can’t wait to write it this year and I hope you’ll join me. For more information, visit Friends-BWCA.Org slash events. And now I’m happy to welcome our featured bike adventurer and BWCA fundraiser. Mike Quirk. So Mike, I was there when you hopped on your bike, headed into traffic and shoved off onto your adventure, and now you’ve made it to New York. I loved following along online and seeing a few glimpses of where you were along the way. Can you tell me more about your personal connection to the boundary waters and why you undertook this trip?

Mike Quirk: Yeah, well I was moving to New York City. And didn’t want to fly and decided biking would be a better, more sustainable option. So I’ve done bike trips like this before as a fundraiser. In 2020, I did a trip from Seattle to Boulder, Colorado. That was really successful. So I wanted to repeat that. And I thought, since I would be biking, basically, right next to the boundary waters, it would be best to keep it in a local organization. Biking through Minnesota and I can help raise awareness on the trip.

That way it’s a little closer to home. My connection to the boundary waters started when I was in high school. I went to high school and I took a outdoor adventure gym class my senior year. And in that class, I had an amazing teacher named Nancy, who really, ignited my love for nature and outdoor recreation. Upon high school graduation, I did a 10 day Boundary Waters canoe trip with someone from that outdoor gym class and my brother and my brother’s friend , we had a great time. We had our trials and tribulations as well. It is pretty wild up there and there’s a lot of bugs.

And you get really gross and stinky and tired, but at the end of the day you fall asleep in your tent under the stars and it’s really something special.

So,

Dave Meier: Those are two really different places where you started and where you finished , the boundary waters and then ending in New York city.

Mike Quirk: Certainly.

Dave Meier: Quite, quite a contrast from the beginning to the end. And what, what did what did it look like in between?

Mike Quirk: Canada is very rural and more wild and spread out than I thought it would be, especially in Ontario. There were multiple days where I would bike all day just to get from one town to the next town. Where I could get groceries and supplies with nothing in between except for forests and beautiful lakes and scenery.

So that was pretty incredible. Exploring the, the North shore of Lake Superior, the Canadian North shore of Lake Superior was also pretty stunning and definitely had a different geography and topography than the Minnesota side. It’s a lot more rugged and more cliffs and hills.

Dave Meier: Can you kind of take me through what some of your first couple days in through Minnesota and kind of what what it was like, you were on bikes and you had Pax and what other kind of gear did you have

Mike Quirk: yeah. Well, getting out of the city, we left midday. So we did kind of have to put down some miles to get far enough away that we could find a decent place to camp. And our goal was to get to the trailhead for the Munger State Trail. Which goes all the way north to Duluth, we didn’t get there, but we did find a place to camp in a nature preserve that was that was just off the side of the road. And that was a, that was a tough first night, honestly, for me and Niko, cause it was extremely hot and we were tired. We were really sweaty. This nature preserve was like pretty overgrown and full of ticks and mosquitoes.

And our tent kind of broke and we were missing a pretty key piece. So we were trying to MacGyver that situation while being attacked by Minnesota’s finest mosquitoes. So we weren’t exactly super excited in the first day and a couple days.

Dave Meier: That sounds like a rough start.

Mike Quirk: Yeah, it was a pretty rough start.

Dave Meier: you’re out there in the bugs. You’re trying to figure out this tent and they’re relentless. And you’re you’re, you’re trying to figure out what you’re going to do.

Mike Quirk: Yeah, but I mean, the tent, we figured it out. We used like a stick to replace that part and ended up lasting the entire trip and I still have it. So we got field repairs. Yeah, then, once we got on the, the munger trail, it was a little more smooth sailing. Hardwood forests and pretty flat.

And then as we got further north, we got into Cook County, I think. And started to see kind of the landscape change a little bit. Switching over to more birch and pine forests. We left on June 1st and got to Duluth on June 5th, which was my birthday.

So that was pretty exciting. We stayed with family friends in Duluth who cooked us a steak dinner. And we went out to a dive bar and had a, had a great night for birthday celebration. So that definitely raised the spirits a little bit. And then we set off North from Duluth the next day on the beautiful North shore, so on the scenic route and

Dave Meier: Had you ever been up there before? On a bike?

Mike Quirk: Yeah, I did do a trip from two harbors up to Grand Marais with my dad. It’s a great area for bike trips, honestly. And there’s also plenty of awesome gravel trails, more inland if you’re going towards the boundary waters. So if anybody wants to do a smaller version of something like I did, there’s a great route on, I think, bikepacking.

com called saddle and paddle where you bike out from two harbors and you end up at Sawbill Outfitters and you can rent a canoe there and do a little canoe and then get back on the bike and go up to Grand Marais

Dave Meier: So did you head off when you were going that way? Did you mostly stick by Lake Superior? Or did you venture off a Sawbill Trail at all? Or a Gunflint Trail? To kind of go nearer the boundary waters?

Mike Quirk: I definitely, we definitely talked about it and discussed it, but we were kind of trying to optimize our route. So we, we stuck to the, the shoreline. We were just having a great time eating smoked fish, drinking Castle Dangers all the way up. And yeah, it was fun. You know, Grand Marais is amazing in the summer. And then we kind of concluded our Minnesota segment. And got into Canada, which is a pretty underwhelming border crossing experience. They’re just like, go ahead. After showing them our passports and we were, you know, hoping for

Dave Meier: A little more drama.

Mike Quirk: a little more drama, but that’s okay.

We’ll take what we can get. And made it to Thunder Bay. And that is also where Nico ended up turning around and heading back to Minneapolis and I continued on. Alone,

and part of Nico’s rationale for turning around is that the highway 17, the trans Canada which basically goes all the way. Across the entire province and country is doesn’t have a great shoulder at times.

There’s no shoulder at all. So he was a little nervous about taking that road and rightfully. So he was definitely had the. He definitely had the right idea because the highway 17 was definitely dangerous and. I did have a few close calls with. With trucks passing me.

I do have some harrowing stories. I don’t know if you’d want me to tell them,

Dave Meier: yeah, now, now seems like a good time. I mean, you you’ve you’re here in Canada. You’ve just lost your traveling companion. Who’s who’s turning around, you’re going forward and you’re on roads where trucks are whizzing by you. And there’s no little, very little shoulder. What happened?

Mike Quirk: yeah. So, well, the other thing is when Nico turned around, I also lost my phone the same day. So I had really no navigation or communication, which is not necessarily a great thing when you’re out by yourself in the middle of nowhere. So I was able to, I was able to get a new phone in Thunder Bay. And a Canadian phone number.

So that I was able to solve that, but wasn’t able to get into any of my accounts but it, it did work for maps and that’s, that was key. Although it is just mostly one road and you just go east.

So yeah, the highway 17 is, is not a good highway for biking. I’m not going to lie. It was a very inconsistent shoulder. Sometimes it was four feet wide and sometimes it was only six inches wide. About halfway between Thunder Bay and Ottawa, I was biking on the shoulder, which was maybe about a foot wide. So my handlebars and all of my bags were definitely off the road and the shoulder. And there was a, a box truck coming up behind me that was apparently, like, swerving off the road into the shoulder and was going to hit me.

But luckily the box truck was part of kind of a convoy of contractors. And so the, the truck behind the pickup truck behind the big box truck got on the radio and alerted the driver of the box truck that they were heading towards me and were going to hit me. So I think the, the driver of this big truck had, was falling asleep at the wheel and that kind of jarred them awake and they swerved to avoid me narrowly missing me and then overcorrected and this box truck flipped over in the middle of the road and rolled like two times.

Dave Meier: Oh my goodness. That must have been loud.

Mike Quirk: this was like right in front of me. And so I, I narrowly escaped with my life and the driver of the truck was fine. But yeah, the truck landed, you know, upside down and everything that was in it, which was all construction materials and like generator had just, you know, Yard sailed across the entire highway shutting down the traffic in both, both directions.

Dave Meier: Oh man.

Mike Quirk: So I’m, I’m definitely lucky to be alive after that.

Dave Meier: Yeah.

Mike Quirk: I’m very grateful that you know, at least someone was paying attention and was able to call on the radio and get the truck driver to avoid me.

That was really tough. And I struggled with that for, multiple weeks. Of the trip after that, just thinking about it.

And I also had some like, kind of. Survivor’s guilt, you could say, of being like, oh, it was my fault that the, the truck crashed, but everyone was okay. But it definitely, I don’t know. It was, it was not good. And especially just being alone all day on my bike with nothing to think about.

That was pretty tough.

Dave Meier: Yeah. And, and the way you, you were just telling the story it sounded like you must’ve known kind of what happened after the fact. But as you were telling the story, I mean, it drew out, but it must’ve happened really fast.

Like you’re sitting there on the side of the road and all of a sudden you’re looking up and you’re seeing this truck barreling down on you.

Mike Quirk: Well, the truck was coming up behind me, so I couldn’t see it. And I was pretty desensitized to the noise of getting passed by pickup trucks and semis at that point. So I heard it coming up behind me. I definitely should have had a mirror so that I could see behind me. That is a lesson learned.

Dave Meier: I’m a fan of the mirror. Yes.

Mike Quirk: yeah, I would definitely get the mirror.

So it was coming up behind me. I didn’t see it. And it was swerving into the shoulder. It was actually off the road in the kind of dirt. So luckily everyone was okay. But

Dave Meier: Yeah. I’m so glad that you you, you avoided that. Oh my gosh. And then what you described being alone after that, that would be so tough. And so that’s sitting there in your thoughts as you’re going forward, did you, did that change anything, any way that you kind of approached the next day or two?

Or did you kinda just fight through it?

Mike Quirk: yeah, I didn’t really have any options

Other than to just continue forward. But that is the main reason why I ended up buying the canoe in Mattawa, because I wanted to get off the highway. Couple days after the incident I reached the town of Mattawa, which is on the Ottawa River, and just had the thought like, oh, this river goes all the way to Montreal. What if I could find a way to get like a rowboat or a canoe and just take the river down as opposed to biking on highway 17? And it was actually pretty incredible because I had this thought and the next morning I was looking for canoes, didn’t really find anything.

It’s a really small town. So I thought, okay, the odds of me actually getting a river craft are very low. But I met this, this woman Lisa at Tim Hortons and she was she was definitely a character. She’s like a chatty Kathy. And she was like, all right, we’re getting, we’re getting you a canoe today.

Like we’re going to make this happen. And she was pretty incredible. She has, she has everyone’s phone numbers memorized and. Was like, all right, I’m going to call this guy. I know he’s got a canoe. I knew he was trying to sell it. So she calls him up and he’s like, great. Like, yeah, I can, I can bring it over this morning.

So that was just a stroke of luck and definitely lifted my, my spirits greatly.

Dave Meier: That’s inspired. I love it.

Mike Quirk: It was like meant to

Microphone (Yeti Stereo Microphone): be

Dave Meier: yeah, get off the highway, get off the, the danger zone and get into a canoe and then in a way you’re connecting with the paddling side you’re not in the boundary waters, but you’re, you’re doing some paddling and bringing that into the trip,

But then do you have to sell the canoe at the end or what?

Mike Quirk: Well, I’ll get there. Because the, the river was not exactly a cakewalk for me. I loaded my bike and everything into this canoe and set off on the river. And I was assuming, you know, Oh, it’s a river flows towards the sea. I’ll be able to pretty much just hang out and float down the river.

But because of all the dams in the Ottawa river, it’s basically like a lake. So I was hit with. strong headwinds that were creating like big white cap waves. And at that point, even paddling at my hardest, I was going backwards. So that was really frustrating. And I had to wait for the winds to change.

And basically for a couple of days, just kind of had to sit around and read, read my book. And that’s part the canoe trip took 11 days to do what I could have done in two days on the bike, which – that extended the trip longer. Yeah.

Dave Meier: I mean, you, if the weather changes in the boundary waters and you get stuck, sometimes, you know, the safest thing to do is to just be like, I’m not going anywhere for a while. And that’s kind of what you have to hunker down.

Mike Quirk: Yeah, exactly. The canoeing was really fun though. I did also not realize that the Ottawa River happens to be, like, one of the biggest waterfalls Destinations for whitewater kayaking and rafting in the world because of their insane class five rapids for like one small one day segment of the trip.

It was basically flat water and portaging around dams until one section, some of the gnarliest whitewater I’ve ever seen in my life. So that was an insane experience. It was basically a full on all day just adrenaline pumping like a day through the white water, and I was able to portage around most of these big class five rapids, but there were quite a few that I, there’s no route around them, so I just had to run them.

So that was that was really intense. Me and my bike. I was on my knees in the middle of the canoe just holding on for dear life trying to paddle. And I, I did flip one time in the rapids, kind of above a bigger rapid, so that was pretty scary, but I was able to get to a, an eddy and collect all of my stuff, which was all completely soaked, and I was also soaked,

Dave Meier: Oh my Gosh.

Mike Quirk: so that

Dave Meier: so did your stuff just catch on a rock or something or it didn’t, but it didn’t go floating on down the river.

Mike Quirk: Well, I had everything was rigged to the canoe so that if I did flip, I wouldn’t lose anything. I did, yeah, a lot of my stuff was destroyed by being submerged in water. I didn’t have any dry bags I was also completely soaked through. And when I flipped in the rapid, I hit, like, multiple rocks and, like cracked this fiberglass canoe in, like, four places.

So that was, I thought maybe it wouldn’t even float after that and I would just be kind of stranded. But luckily it was still holding water, just leaking slowly. So I made it through the rapids around like 6 or 7 p. m. And out in, back into the kind of more flat water river. But I wasn’t able to find a town or any civilization of any kind after that.

So I spent like one of the worst nights of my life just kind of like shivering, like soaked through on an island, soaking wet sleeping bag and that was honestly, yeah, really rough. But I survived and then the next day made it to the town of Portage du Fort, And actually met a really nice guy, a Canadian guy who who let me stay at his, his house and like, you know, bought me dinner and that was, that was a great connection to make with Shane.

So I was, I was blown away by the hospitality and like kindness of the Canadian people because multiple times people let me stay with them or, you know, donated to the campaign or. You know, gave me food and drink. So

Dave Meier: Oh

Mike Quirk: that was kind of the climax of this journey. Yeah.

Dave Meier: That must have been about one of the lowest times of your life, and then you’re kind of stripped bare and then you’re rebounding and then now, you know Somebody reaches out and takes you in were you just so relieved I can just picture, being like at a point of of your life where all of a sudden, every step after that is just a new fresh moment here.

There’s like no predetermination. The trip plans are out the window. You’re in a canoe, you’re soaked. And then now you’re like, okay. just one moment at a time. What was that like?

Mike Quirk: I mean, that’s an amazing feeling. And I didn’t, I kind of went into the trip without a trip plan on purpose. Because that feeling of not knowing what’s ahead of you and just going into the unknown is like, it’s definitely a powerful thing. It definitely, you learn a lot from that about how to adapt to different situations.

And I think that’s a really useful thing to take into everyday life too. It’s scary, but if you can overcome that fear of the unknown it makes you a more resilient and adaptable person. So that’s why I think more people should go do things without Going online and finding out exactly what it’s going to be like, because then you have an expectation for what things will be like.

So going out with no expectations and no plans, although it’s scary, is, I think, the best way to explore new places.

Dave Meier: Well said. I think that’s a true adventure that you did. And it sounds like there were a lot of twists and turns along the way. And this, this was a big twist and a big turn. So how did you get from an unexpected, canoe portion of your, route that you weren’t even anticipating doing, or was it part of the plan?

Were you able to pivot back into the trip to, to New York? Did you out of the canoe and get back on the road and then how far was that?

Mike Quirk: Once I, I reached Ottawa, which was my final destination on the canoe, I was able to sell the canoe on Facebook marketplace got back on the bike and I stayed in Ottawa that night which was great because I arrived. On Canada Day, which is the equivalent of the 4th of July, so that was really fun.

Like triumphant arrival on like the biggest celebration day of the year. And yeah, then I just started crushing miles towards New York.

Dave Meier: How did that feel getting back on the bike and getting back on the road and just.

Mike Quirk: It felt so good to move fast, compared to the canoe. So yeah, I was flying and I was well rested. So I made it to Montreal in two days and then I made it from Montreal to New York city in four days. So at that point I was doing over a hundred miles a day and My sleeping pad was popped, so I was just sleeping on the ground in town parks, and I was really a gremlin at that point, like, I was soaked in sweat, I hadn’t showered in, yeah, four, four days at that point, and was just grinding out miles from 5am till 8:30pm

Dave Meier: That’s a century a day and on a loaded bike in the heat

Mike Quirk: Yeah, my bike is not light and it was not fast. So to make up for that, I just had to go from dawn till dark, basically for like six days in a row. So I was definitely exhausted when I arrived, New York City with like all the lights.

So it was pretty amazing moment. I had some champagne

Dave Meier: So, yeah, what was that like

Mike Quirk: yeah, I mean, it was, it was a. Exhilarating. Like that energy, just getting into New York city was just electric. I came from the empire state trail, which is basically going through the forest and golf courses and stuff, and then popped out. trailhead, just to like music blasting and tons of people, the subway is going overhead.

Compared to the tranquility of the upstate New York landscape. It was a shock to the system, but 1 that I was definitely excited about. It was it was a great, great moment.

Dave Meier: That’s a lot of adventure for, for one person and, and, and probably much more than you bargained for.

Mike Quirk: Yeah, definitely more than I bargained for. I did spend a lot of alone time, but also I felt very supported by consistently posting on social media and getting people’s reactions and support online.

So that definitely kept me going, but it was, it was pretty rough.

Dave Meier: , I’m just glad you, you made it and you were able to, to get through it. You sounded like you had to dig a lot deeper than you thought you would have to, and probably deeper than you thought possible.

Mike Quirk: I definitely was pushing, pushing my limits, but that’s a good thing to do. And yeah, the canoe, I was just so, so stoked to get the canoe. I mean, it’s dark green, like Friends of the Boundary Water sticker on there. So it just, it just seemed meant to be.

Dave Meier: Well, thank you so much for repping Friends of the Boundary Waters on your trip and, and doing the fundraiser how did that go fundraising for Friends of the Boundary Waters and what message do you have for people who might be inspired to take on their own challenge to support an organization like the Friends?

Mike Quirk: The fundraiser went great. We met our fundraising goal. And I think, you know, if you’re going to do a big trip like this, it’s not that much more effort to link up with a charity and do it for a good cause because, you know, when you do extraordinary things and people are going to be tuning in anyway, it’s a great platform for raising awareness or raising money for important causes like the Friends of the Boundary Waters, protecting our, water and environment in northern Minnesota or really any cause local to you that you feel like connected to in any way. And also donate to other people’s fundraisers too,

Dave Meier: I think that that’s really important, you know, that when, when I’m doing some, some giving, I’ll hit the organizations that I really care the most about, and then I’ll, I’ll send some along to, some that other people that I love care about because that’s how we connect.

That’s Part of our fabric of connections between one another. And especially when we’re trying to do some good things and, and trying to push ourselves and have some of these new adventures that support is really important. So thank you for supporting the friends.

I had no idea. You know, when you set out, how much you would be really doing for us. You did a lot, Michael. So thank you for that. And and thanks for joining us on the podcast today. It was it was great to hear your story.

Mike Quirk: The friends is such a great organization and I was really blown away by your support and the effort that you put into broadcast what we were doing and buying us fried pickles.

Dave Meier: Anytime, Mike, anytime,

 

Dave Meier: And thank you everyone for listening. If you enjoyed the show, please share it with a friend and leave us a rating wherever you get your podcasts. We’ll be covering a wide range of recreational topics this season, and we’ll meet some great personalities from the B W C A along the way.

So be sure to subscribe so you don’t miss a thing.

And to become a member and support the Friends, visit friends-bwca.org.

Big Red Canoe is a presentation of Friends of the Boundary Waters Wilderness Original Music by Surge and the swell. I’m Dave Meier and we’ll see you next time on Big Red Canoe.

Narrator:Thanks to the dedication of people from across the nation, we’ve made incredible victories in the fight against copper sulfide mining. For now, we’ve stopped this polluting industry from putting a shovel in the ground, but the threat is still there. That’s why we’ve been working to pass a prove it First bill.

In Minnesota, the law is simple. Before a copper sulfide mine in Minnesota can be permitted, the prove it first law would require independent scientific proof. That just one copper sulfide mine has operated in the United States for at least 10 years without causing pollution, and that one mine has been closed for at least 10 years without polluting.

It is common sense. Let’s protect our clean water. Let’s pass the Prove It First Bill.