Every time I allow myself to start thinking about 218, I’m filled with calm and joy
218 is the Northern Minnesota area code. 218 is home to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, the Iron Range, small towns with no traffic lights, boundless Nature with a capital N, and thousands of crisp, cool lakes, including the one they call Gitchi Gumi (Superior).
Along these shorelines, dotting these lakes, are many authentic wood burning saunas. Inside these saunas sit many cabin owners who, after tossing water on their sauna rocks, closing their eyes, and taking it all in, step out onto their docks and immerse themselves into their crisp cool lakes with an ahhhhhh.
After their clean rinse in Nature, these same folks hang out on their dock or shoreline and are filled with calm and joy.
This is the experience that compels one to 218. A cabin in Nature is one thing. A cabin in Nature with a sauna dotting the shoreline is another. The residual benefit of our sauna experiences is that when we allow ourselves to start thinking about 218, we are filled with calm and joy.
Sauna health & wellness extends beyond the doing. Sometimes just the remembering can be a sauna benefit.
April 15, 2014. Ice floating on Lake Superior, North East Minnesota.
Anticipating a cold Lake Vermilion plunge after sauna round
Brian Peterson photo from his sauna at almost the same moment 100 miles away