What kind of guy takes his group on the Grand Portage?


Maybe the same kind of guy that drops out of college to join the circus? That would be our friend John Lorenzen. (After the circus part came the law school part—but I like the circus story infinitely better).

Here are three Lorenzen men paddling the path of the Voyageurs….sort of. John did throw in a few detours … the kind of guy who decides he’s going to start in Loon Lake and portage to Mayhew…and then Partridge— it was a conglomeration of permits and unique portaging opportunities.


John’s guys came to conquer the Grand Portage last year, but they were not successful. It’s not that the Grand Portage that skunked them, it was actually the anticipation of this 8.5 mile trek. Isn’t that the way life works sometimes? At any rate, I believe it was more important for John to have consensus in the group than to conquer their original goal.

But– THIS year, everyone on the trip had a unified mission.

And last Thursday they did it—all 8.5 miles from Fort Charlotte to Lake Superior!

They had many tales–of moose in the Pigeon River, of beautiful bluffs, of weather, of challenges.

What is a life without stories to tell?