Day 8 7/13

Paddled back across Annie Battle for the standard run/hike to start the day. Glendelough doesn't have a ton of trails, but they are nice. There's a bike path around the lakes for maybe 5-6 miles and a number of spur trails that branch of from it. I maybe it 10 miles without a repeat, which is always a plus.

It seems like a really family friendly state park. Cart in sites are a little work, but honestly not much, and then you're treated with a little more space. The same was true for the paddle. Annie Battle is gorgeous. Super clear and sandy. I messed around fishing for a little and caught a decent panfish on the second cast. And then not another one. All the same though, another kid-friend activity.

It seemed well used too. After a string of days in lesser-used parks, it seemed a lot more like William O Brien than anything we'd been to in the NW.

Headed home thereafter, with only a pit-stop in St. Cloud at Val's drive up to highlight the afternoon.

All in all, it was a pretty dang fantastic trip. It's kind of cool to create a trip entirely within your state to places you mainly haven't been. One week of travel and we only totaled 1,185 miles; something like Bozeman or Missoula one way if you were headed west.

I also ironically smashed my road trip bird record. 84 species, which I think might to some extent be because it's my home turf and I know the highest percent of birds here, so it's a heck of a lot easier to limit down what it's "not" when you come upon something you don't know.

We talked a lot about how it'll be nice to be able to picture "Warroad" when they talk about the weather, or "Hallock" when Collin Peterson has a quip in the paper, etc. I think we both left with a better perspective of that part of the state and (hopefully) a better understanding of the people that reside up there, even if just a little.

Day 7 7/12

Woke up with the ritual of granola and yogurt, and headed out for a run of the park while Mike hiked the hiking club trail. Lake Bronson is a really cool park. Very different ecosystem than anything else in the aspen parkland. It's mixed with Oak Savanna, so it kind of looks like Wild River here and there, but then there's a huge grove of Aspens making it seem like the arrowhead. Lots of trails here too. I bet I only hit half or less in my 10 mile run around the park. The river/reservoir is the center of the park and captures a lot of great views. I only incidentally bird as a general rule, usually while running or hiking, but this would be an awesome spot to hit up and spend a bunch of time with binocs. It's far enough away from the cities that you're really starting to hit a different set of birds, and a lot of mixed types with the combination of prairie, but also far north and some pines. I think if you went at a time when the mosquitoes had calmed, this might inch it's way towards a top 10 park for me.

We got on the road around 11 and headed to Old Mill State park next; the last in the northwest corner that we had to get to. I didn't have high hopes and while it wasn't awful, it wasn't one to gush about. I did the hiking club with mike, which was nice enough, but there were only maybe 4 miles of trails total. Kinda cool to see the old mill (we did our lunch there), but that's about it.

Far NW MN is like a weird mix of landscapes from other parts of the state. (Or - maybe from their point of view, our landscapes are missing key features?). It looks like Montevideo for a while, then there's an alder swamp, followed by a grove of Aspen, and then some Pines and Spruce before more farm fields pop up again. The trees look to be more than wind breaks between fields as well. It's not the never ending expanse of highway 90 or 7 heading west in central or southern MN.

Towns were more frequent than the Warroad to Hallock stretch (or little fork region, for that matter), but they were still really small and pretty rough looking. Thief River was a pretty good exception. The downtown was absolutely outstanding. Way bigger than I imagined. It's smaller than St. Peter, but the downtown might have been as big as Mankato's. South of Thief River, it's solidly transitioned into farm country that looks pretty much like the rest of 59 does...which stretches all the way down through Montevideo, and then the Iowa border.

Somewhere north or Detroit Lakes, hills start coming into the picture, and then more rolling deciduous trees again. And then all of a sudden, it's cabin country and it feels like you're back in civilization. Mike referenced that we were back into the sphere of the cities, but then after looking at the map, realized we were way the heck up there still.

Wove down 10 to Perham (also an outstanding main street) and sipped a beer at Disgruntled brewing. I had had their crowlers before and loved their beer. There brewery is a little out of town, but it was right up against a pine grove and was a nice stop.

It was only 30ish minutes to Glendelough from there; our 7th state park (8 if you count Big Bog rec area)

We snaked the last canoe-in site, which was only a 10-min paddle across the lake from the landing. It was definitely the closest company we'd had all trip. We had a couple other canoe in sites within ear shot, but it certainly was still pretty spread out. Kind of ironic that it was closer packed than the International Falls municipal campground with only one other camper at we didn't hear from at all.

Had on last awesome camp dinner of pasta and savored the sunset over another day of camping (our 6th) and swimming (at least 6).

The "old" mill itself

Day 6 7/11

Saturday

Woke up in warroad and banged out a longish run around town. I haven’t exactly slacked on running this week, but I also haven’t been hitting it hard, which I think is okay for the second week back starting another session that will likely also end in a series of time trials. They have a 4ish mile bike path in town, so that was the lions share of the run and I checked out a couple neighborhoods before heading back. Again though, very small: less than 2,000 people. Headed west thereafter for Hayes lake state park. Expectations were quite low, so I was actually pleasantly surprised but a conifer laden park and a nice reseviour on a river with a swimming beach. I did part of the hike club loop with mike (he’s aiming for all of them) then split off for the alleged bog in hopes of redeeming the Connecticut warbler I missed at big bog. Not luck at the cedar bog and the mosquitoes were brutal, so I ditched quickly to keep moving and figured I’d move down the path at least a little as it still seemed a little boggy. The. Mosquitoes quickly won out though, and I turned around to head back to the car. On the way past the bog again, sure enough, heard the Connecticut’s song. I whipped my phone out to compare and it even answered back 3-4 times. I walked into the board walk a second time hoping to get and audio recording, but it shut down again, I’m assuming I was too close.

All the same, happily headed back to lunch with unexpected success.

We’d continued in to lake Bronson and had plenty of room on the non electric loop. Checked in, set up camp, then headed over to Hallock for our 5 pm cocktail reservation at far north spirits. We got into town and found that all of Main Street was blocked off with picnic tables out front. I assumed the distillery had a hand in it, but it turns out, just the brewery did. The distillery was actually south of town 5 miles, largely on gravel roads. 

Far north was amazing. It’s very unassuming on a farm, but the inside could be in Duluth or north East MPLS. Chic, Nordic design with a beautiful bar and bountiful cocktails to choose from. We chose different cocktails, then split a second one. All were outstanding.

Next up was revelation brewing back in town. It was hopping. They had a food truck outside and picnic tables lining main street. A good portion of the town seemed to be out for it. They made good beer too. Much more adventurous than warroad.

Back at Bronson, we cooked up some brats and beans; a quintessential camping stalwart. The mosquitoes here were absolutely vicious though. The worst of the trip by far, dictating and earlier bedtime.

All in all though, this was a fantastic day.

Day 5 7/10

Friday

Leisurely start to the day with pancakes at the campsite. I went for a run on the park roads, which aren’t great for hiking,  it are honestly pretty good for running. Down to the boat landing in Zippel bay and back. On the way back, I cut up a trail that wasn’t on the map just to add on a little time. It was large and clearly used by atvs and such. On the trail, I came upon an older couple pulled over on the atv actively picking something. I asked if it was strawberries, but they said blueberries. 

I kept running, mulling that over a little, and wondered if another spot I saw that was rocky with jack pines near the road back might have them. Sure enough, I saw them thick and heavy and excitedly ran back to propose a berry picking session after lunch.

We lounged the beach for a while with a picnic lunch. It was amazing, save for the black flies, which were pretty rough. The water was refreshing and the terrain sandy though. And pretty cool to ponder at the expanse and Canada somewhere unseen in the distance.

After lunch, we headed to my berry find, but where immediately pointed to an even better berry patch on a different road. They were spot on, blueberries galore, with service(?) or at least another species or two that I wasn’t confident enough to pick, but would have gladly eaten in emergency situations. Berry picking is not fast, but we got just over a quart in 30 min.

Left Zippel bay behind warroad bound that actually wasn’t too far from Zippel either. Maybe 45 min.

Got into town and checked into the hotel, one level up from the super 8 but still safely under 100$. Headed down for the brewery which we had discovered post liquor store yesterday. It’s right on the river with a great view. Their beer was good, but man, not adventurous. They had 4 beers on tap and the craziest was a pale ale. All beers were 5% or less and blonde in coloration.

Warroad is pretty dang small, but you can tell they have some money coming in from Marvin windows, which is right in town and dominates the landscape. The schools are in good shape, and their small downtown is still pretty nice.

Ate dinner out at the restaurant connected to the hotel as we were told they were the only place with walleye. Ended up with a lot of brown food, which is fine by me. Plenty of beers too. Maybe even too many? Nothing crazy, but at some point, you don’t need to order the tall pour.

Day 4 7/9

Weather a pretty large thunderstorm last night at the international falls campground. It swept up pretty quick and raged for a couple hours. Something in the tent leaked too, so the base of the tent ended up getting wet. After a little debate, we slightly rearranged the driving plan to include Fran Jevne state park, which I didn’t even know existed on the rainy river. It’s the smallest park in the state  at only 200- Some acres. There’s a nice two mile loop there so I ran that, then ran out to 11 and down a gravel road for a little bit before coming back and looping it again. Not a park worth going out of your way for, but worth a stop if you’re headed that way. There’s non-reservable campsites up there that looked really nice too, albeit with no facilities.

Headed to Big Bog rec area next near red lake. It was pretty sweet. Actually a lot bigger than I thought. There’s even camping in the southern unit. We hiked the mile boardwalk and back after a picnic lunch. Drove back up to baudette and are now catching up on internet before heading to Zippel Bay for the night.

Checked into zippel bay late this afternoon and had no problem finding a site. I’d estimate 25% capacity or less. Got a site in the loop closest to the lake, so it was only a quarter mile from the lake, although in hindsight, I’m not sure how much of a difference that would have made. It was a nice enough site, woods, fairly separated from neighbors. Again though, only 3 other sites on the 18 site loop were taken. Ate another dinner of Alfredo and tuna with some s’mores to boot. Topped it off with some lake of the woods beer we found at a liquor store a few miles from the park.

This part of the state started to have significant agriculture, but also still lots of mixed conifers/aspen woods. It looked a lot like near our cabin. 

Zippel leaves something to be desired for a park. There are basically no trails and nothing really to do but hang at the beach. With that said, the beach is phenomenal. It also reminded me a lot of Lake Superior south shore, with warmer water.

Day 3 7/8

Wednesday 

Up this morning around 7 with the standard coffee, granola, yogurt, black raspberries breakfast. We packed up our island camp to overcast skies and a little worry of rain, but a calm front. Got into the bay, and the wind started picking up pretty good. Most of the canoe back is fairly sheltered, but the first stretches are the most exposed. We had put a ground cloth over the gear as a precaution for rain but it was coming undone in the increasing wind, so we decided to pull off in a bay to resituate it. When we tried pulling out across the point again, we quickly found that we basically weren’t making any progress. Each paddle yielded maybe 1 ft or less. At this point, we realized that we needed to turn around and head back to the cove to assess options. Turning the canoe around was a bear in itself and I fully realized at that point how bad it really was. I won’t say we lost control of the canoe, but there were moments when we were broadside against the wind trying to turn around where I started getting nervous. 

We got back to the small cove and beached the canoe, then flipped it over as winds increased. Rain was actually minimal, but winds were as strong as I’ve experienced outdoors, at least when noticeably inhibiting progress. We happened to be at a houseboat slip, so mike went over and talked to them about the forecast if they had a radio. They said an approaching thunder storm in the next ~30 min and then sunny by afternoon. We waited for maybe and hour until it had been calmer for a while (no storm though) and decided to load up again.

The rest of the trip back was smooth sailing. Calmer breezes and increasingly sunny skies. Got into international falls around mid afternoon, took a spin though town and walked to the border bridge. It seems a little touristy, but surprisingly sparse for a town seemingly in the thick of cabin country.

Headed over to the municipal campground which is right at the city beach and got a spot (there is only one other party here tonight). The beach is pristine, sandy, rainy lake bliss. Very nice. Went for a dip, then walked down to “downtown” Rainer to a distillery for a drink, then a brewery across the street. They didn’t have a full menu there, so we ordered a takeout burger from the grill down the block, which I think is the equivalent to a “cycle” of Rainer commercial establishments. All hit the exact niche we were searching for. I’d be over the moon for a brewery on a patio overlooking a gorgeous lake on any road trip. We found a gem 4 hours from our backyard.

Hard to believe that we woke up looking at pines in “wilderness” this morning. It was another great day.

Day 2 7/7

Tuesday

Woke up at scenic to an awesome view of the lake from out campsite. Mike called scenic the “training wheels” for the boundary waters. It’s was pretty sweet canoe-in site. Maybe 20 min trip and then secluded sites right on the water.

We canoed out, then went for a hike/run in the park, respectively. They have nice trails here. I put in a number of miles on the trails before dipping out to the park road for the last few.

Brunch/lunch was at the Effie diner per a friend of mike’s suggestion. The caramel roll was outstanding, the biscuits and gravy was meh. Mike reported that the hash browns were solid, also admitting that hash browns are hard to screw up.

We then drove to voyaguers through a series of crazy little traveled state highways. Big falls and little fork were the only towns in 1 hr+ of driving.

Put in around 1:30 at ash river visitor center bound for mica island campsite. It actually went pretty quick. Maybe a 3.5 hour canoe. I kind of went full circle again with the park. Mad the first hour about all the boats in the narrows, then appreciating the landscape and relative solitude/lack of portaging as it opened up into namekon. Got into camp around 5 and after a short debate and setting up camp, headed to kettle falls even without knowing the bar would for sure be open. It would be at least cook for mike to check out.

It looked dead when we pulled up, but the bar was open so we had a beer out on the porch and chatted with the bar tender. I guess they were slammed earlier in the day, but it was just the two of us at the time.

Canoed back, had a good camp dinner of tuna Mac and cheese and hit the hay at dusk as the mosquitoes got horrible.

A good second day on the road.