By Carrie Tiggas
At six thirty on January 20th, 8 Mini-School students gathered to go to Ely, Minnesota as a reward trip for selling the most calendars. The lucky trippers were La’Kyasa Bollig, Matt Evans, Trevor Scott, Drew Emmings, Elissa Johnson, Trisha Laumann, Clare Meyer, and myself (Carrie Tiggas).
Doug and Joe were our trip leaders. We went to Joe’s cabin for three days and four nights of relaxation……. kind-of. All the students had arrived and we were almost done packing the van when Joe finally showed up. Fifteen minutes later we were all piled in the van ready to hit the road.
We stopped just a little over an hour to eat in Rush City at the Grant House. That is where I got my nickname Carrie “The Carnivore” Tiggas because I ordered bacon, ham and sausage for breakfast and that’s it. We all filled our bellies and headed back to the van.
Our next stop was at Granite Gear manufacturing in Two Harbors. Granite Gear is a company founded and owned by Dan Cruikshank, MHS alumnus and uncle of Tony Cruikshank Mini-School alumnus. Granite Gear makes some of the best backpacking, canoeing, and winter camping gear in the U.S. Dan gave us a tour of the company, showed us all the stuff they make, and told us the story of how he started Granite Gear. He gave us an opportunity to purchase gear at cut-rate prices. Doug and Joe bought some gloves and a pack.
When I found out how long of a drive it was all I could do was groan, curl up and go to sleep. Finally after what seemed like hours, because it was, we arrived in Ely. We decided to stop in town to look around. There is a bunch of little shops everywhere. We found a music store where Trish found a bunch of Grateful Dead cd’s she hadn’t seen before. She was kicking herself for not bringing any money.
After exploring for an hour we went back to Joe’s cabin. We unloaded the van into a big pile on the floor. His heat wasn’t working so we all stayed bundled up. While Joe was calling about the heat we all just sat around taking in our surroundings. Drew and Joe finally got the heat working and his cabin warmed up quick.
After that everybody decided to go for a snowshoe. Since I couldn’t figure out how to get the stupid things on, Trish and I went for a walk instead.
For dinner Joe made chicken on the grill and pasta. It surprised me but Joe can really cook. After dinner we talked for awhile and had school. Later us kids watched a movie we had rented earlier. But the Truman Show was really boring and stupid so most of us fell asleep.
In the morning Joe made us French toast and sausages. He was kind enough to burn them just right for me. After we ate we packed up our day packs and headed to the International Wolf Center. One of the naturalists gave us a 25 minute presentation on wolves. The three they had there weren’t very active that day. We got to look around the museum for awhile.
When we got back we had free time. Matt and Drew went on a snowshoe hike. Joe, Trevor, Elissa, and La’Kaysa went ice fishing. Trish and I hung around the cabin for awhile. Clare offered to clean the refrigerator in Joe’s dad’s cabin for 20 bucks. After a little bit Trish and I got bored so we walked down to the lake where they were ice fishing. We came across Clare on the way back. We asked her about the fridge, which had been unplugged in the fall. She told us she refused to clean it because it was so disgusting. Trish and I decided we’d try it. I mean, I decided we’d try it. I mean it couldn’t be that bad. Well…we got to his Dad’s cabin and told him we’d do it. At first when he opened the fridge it wasn’t that bad, but after ten seconds the stench got to us. It was unbelievably disgusting. I swear the meat was rotten because it was blue and moving. We refused to do it. Joe ended up throwing the fridge out totally. After that little experience we had to get out of the cabin. We went to the lake and Drew was building a fire on the lake. He couldn’t get started so he went to the cabin and grabbed the gas can. I thought he was crazy. I’ve seen bad things happen w/fire and gas cans. No problems though, and he got a good fire going. I didn’t want to be around when Joe got back in case he was mad about the fire in the middle of the lake. We ran into him though and he was happy about the fire. We went to the cabin and they fished until probably 5:30. They didn’t catch anything, so we went out for pizza.
We got back and us trippers went out and had a snow war. The boys disappeared into the woods, and us girls stayed right around the cabin. The girls weren’t doing so well until La’Kaysa fearlessly took off, and got the boys. We played outside for awhile, then decided to settle down and go inside. Inside Doug and Joe were chillin’ like villains. We ended up watching another movie, A Time to Kill.
After awhile I turned it off cause everyone was trying to sleep. La’Kaysa and I couldn’t stop laughing and everyone got mad at us and told us to shut up or they were going to beat us. I fell asleep with Joe’s deafening snoring again that night.
The next morning after breakfast we packed and loaded up the van. Joe went to town with the van and ended up driving in the ditch and had to get towed. He finally got back and we packed up the van and cleaned up the cabin. After it looked like it did when we arrived we hopped back in the van and headed to Ely to go to Joe’s dad’s shop, Razors Edge. He took us on a tour and we met the office ladies who had made us delicious cookies. Joe’s dad wasn’t in town so we couldn’t meet him which was too bad. After the tour we headed home.
I am really glad I got the chance to go on this trip. I had fun and got to relax for a couple days. Thanks Doug and Joe for the trip. I’ll never forget it and I hope you bring this experience to future Mini kids.