Have not bike toured in the area but I did a lot of camping in Minnesota.

During some times of the year, the mosquitos can be vicious. Bring good repellant. I have switched to picaridin for my general use repellant, it is less damaging to equipment. But I have a decades old bottle that is100 percent deet that I carry for the days when the bugs are exceptionally bad. If you would be using conventional bike clothing, like knit jerseys, consider a month or two in advance applying permethrin to your bike clothes and if camping, your camping clothing.

The area has a long history of iron ore mining going back over a century, not very controversial. But there have been a few attempts to permit mining for sulfide based mineral deposits that has been quite controversial from an environmental perspective. That would be a good topic to avoid discussing with anyone, that topic is getting controversial again.