8/5/2020 – Chapter 2
I’ve been feeling the need to get back on the after being stuck at home all summer. I decided to take a trip up to Voyageurs National Park on the Canada border in Minnesota. It was an easy trip, about 4 hours from Fargo. I stayed the first night in International Falls since it was late when I got up there.
The next day I drove over to the park. There were a couple of bays with hiking trails and a campsite that I wanted to check out. First, I went to the headquarters and found it closed. I unfortunately couldn’t get a park sticker. Next I went to the Ash River area. There was a short trail from the visitors center to the lake and I spent a little time there on the rocks.
After hanging on the lake for a bit I found the first trail of the day, the Beaver Pond trail. This was a super short trail that ends at an overlook of the pond. It was an easy warm up for the rest of the day.
The next trail that I was going to do was the part of the Kab-Ash Trail. This is the trail that covers most of the area on the South shore of the lake. I was planning on doing an eight mile section of it, but I got about a half mile in and I had to turn back. There was too many bugs. Hiking in the desert is way nicer for that reason alone. It was a forest trail and pretty samey anyway. After I got back to the van I went over to Echo Bay area.
Echo Bay was a really nice area with a 2.5 mile loop hiking trail, a boat landing, swimming area, and state campground. Like a dummy I didn’t put on any bug spray and left my hat in the van. These were poor choices. I had bugs swarming around my head the entire hike and it was pretty miserable. After the hike I was a sweaty mess and went looking for a place to hop in the lake.
I went over to the campground to check it out. I didn’t have enough cash on me to camp there, but there was overnight parking areas where I was planning on staying for the night. I found the swimming area and of course there was a bunch of people there. I jumped on the trail by the swimming area to see if I could find a more secluded area to get in the water. I found a fairly easy area to get down to the lake. Just difficult enough that people wouldn’t come down there. I went back to the van to grab soap, a towel, and headed back to my spot. The shore was giant slabs of rock. I found one that was a gentle slope down into the water. I did some skinny dipping, took a bath, and relaxed in the lake. It was a great experience.
As it started to get dark I went back to the van and remembered there was a small bar past the fish statue that was recommended by some other tourists. I cruised out to The Blind Pig Tap House for a couple beers. I was the only one in the place. It was fun BS’ing with the bar staff and owner. I hung out there until they closed at 9. I was originally going to stay near the Wooden Frog campground, but got a text from a friend inviting me to go tubing. I decided to drive to Bemidji and stay the night there so I didn’t have so far to drive in the morning.
Overall Voyageurs National Park is really nice if you have a boat in the summer or snowmobile in the winter. If you are lacking those, it’s pretty much a day trip to see everything. Most of the park is a lake with a big island in the middle. It’s a great place to fish and do lake things, but just so-so for hiking. Another upside is that it is a very pretty area. Lots of forest roads and lakes.