Cuyuna
Lakes Yeti
Video:
CROSBY,
Minn. (WCCO) — For all they’ve tried, searchers haven’t found sasquatch in the
Pacific northwest or the abominable snowman in the Himalayas. But if you believe
the stories being told in central Minnesota, another mysterious creature is on
the prowl in the Crosby-Ironton area.
Bruce
Swanson, a local musician known as Father Klunker, wrote a song about it, to the
tune of Gordon Lightfoot’s The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. “There’s a
tale on the Range, just a little bit strange, ’bout a big cat they call the
Lakes yeti,” the song begins. It’s about
a beast spotted roaming in the snowy hills of the Cuyuna Lakes region, a
creature that keeps watch on the bikers in the woods.
“I think
he’s about 6-foot, 6-foot-2, somewhere in there,” said Swanson. “He can run as
fast as I can pedal my bike.” As the
locals tell it, the Cuyuna Lakes Yeti has mostly kept his distance, not causing
too much alarm. Shaun
Anderson rides his fat tire bike through the local trails and claims he’s had a
few brief sightings.
“I’m OK
with him as long as he can’t catch me,” he said. In fact,
all the sightings have brought some welcome publicity. The Cuyuna
Lakes Mountain Bike Crew is getting ready for a fat tyre bike event known as The
Whiteout. “We have a
winter fat bike race right at Sagamore, the home of the Yeti,” said Aaron
Hautala, president of the Mountain Bike Crew. “We don’t know exactly where he is
out here, but we know he’s out here.”
The “out
here” he referred to is the Cuyuna Country State Recreation Area, which used to
be an iron-mining site. It now has
hilly, groomed trails through the woods, which is perfect for the fat tyre
bikes. “Fat
biking has been around for eight years,” said Hautala, “but in the last two to
three years it’s just kind of exploded. You’re seeing them in the winter, you’re
seeing them in the summer and I think you’re going to see a lot more of
them.”
The yeti,
it turns out, has actually become a local celebrity. He’ll show
up at the Ya Betcha Bar and Grill in Crosby, and post photos on his Facebook
page. “We find a
way to make winter awesome,” said Hautala. “That’s what makes Minnesota
awesome.” They hope
the yeti will draw people in, rather than scare them away. They say he’s a
symbol of the “wild side” hidden in all of us.
The
Whiteout starts Friday, March 1, and continues on Saturday. It helps raise money
for the Cuyuna Lakes mountain bike trails.
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