MINNEAPOLIS – Ask Rod Johnson, he’s been there.

“That ended up being a motto for us,” said Randy “Rudi” Hargesheimer, the longtime general manager for Midwest Mountaineering, the store Johnson founded in the 1970s. The store, which closed in 2023, was ground zero for many adventures across the Upper Midwest and beyond.

Johnson died at his home Sunday, Oct. 26. He was 76.

Johnson was widely recognized for his passion for getting people outdoors. Hargesheimer told Paddle and Portage in a video podcast recorded Oct. 31 that Johnson was interested in getting people of all ages and backgrounds into the outdoors.

“He would get immigrant children from Somalia into kayaks on the Mississippi River,” Hargesheimer said.

Rod Johnson, left, on a climbing trip to Yosemite in 1980. Photo submitted by Rudi Hargesheimer

The stories were plentiful from Hargesheimer and others this week as they reflected on Johnson’s legacy and impact on the world of outdoor recreation in Minnesota. Much of it centered on the store, Midwest Mountaineering. Renowned adventurer Ann Bancroft was a former employee of the store, as was Ted Bell, the founder of Northstar Canoes. Similarly, Bear Paulsen, the GM at Northstar (and co-owner of Paddle & Portage) worked at the store for about seven years, while also embarking on various paddle trips out West with Johnson over the years.

“He was a unique individual,” Paulsen said this week of Johnson.

Rod Johnson on a paddle trip in Utah. Photo by Bear Paulsen

Randall Mikkelsen, a New Hampshire resident who worked for Johnson at Midwest for about five years in the late 1970s and early 80s, said the founder of the store had a distinct view for the role outdoor recreation could play in someone’s life.

“Rod had a vivid imagination for what could be done in the outdoors,” Mikkelsen shared this week in a post about his friend, “and helped open new ways of exploring it. The outdoors was as much a canvas for that imagination as it was a recreational area.”

After 53 years in business, Midwest Mountaineering closed in October 2023. Johnson had been largely out of the spotlight since that time, though he continued to travel the globe pursuing adventures on land and water. Hargesheimer said Johnson paddled whitewater on the Nile River (dodging crocodiles, no less), climbed some of the highest peaks in North America, and continued to paddle on Lake Superior and in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

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