I was living up by the Canadian border developing my first business in the outdoor industry and working for a local BWCAW outfitter.

That sauna was hot. I had to sit on the cement slab floor because even the heat at the first bench was too much for my uninitiated, non-Nordic roots self. Rudi, the Danish man who owned the sauna, would dump on the water and immediately stand up with his arms in the air, deeply breathing in the löyly. I remained, firmly, on the floor. We would cycle out and jump into the lake, and then back in the hot room. I have never felt so clean in my life. Never so invigorated yet relaxed. Never so clear in my mind. I swore I would have a wood-fired sauna in my home in the future. I swore I would make it to the top bench.

Fast forward twenty-some years and my employer would rent The Hiki Hut (Duluth’s first and original mobile sauna) for a staff party. I was in love. Not only was the sauna amazing but so were the inviting and genuine ways of their owners. Then covid. The Hiki Hut would retire and I knew the moment they told me as such, I needed to find a way to bring a mobile sauna back to Duluth.

I have had a lifetime of working with people in unique experiences in the outdoors and on the water facilitating connections. The opportunities to create connections and wellness for people via the sauna just made sense. I believe in the many documented health and wellness benefits of the sauna but I am most inspired by the potential of community and connection that comes from cedar benches, wood stoves, and löyly (steam) in the beautiful backdrop of the North, or, du Nord. I hope you’ll join me on the bench. Or the floor, if that’s where you need to start.