Schlepping Around Watery and Wonderous Minne-soh-ta!
Heading from Madison, we were aiming to spend our 4th of July on what’s called the North Shore of Minnesota. The north shore is the northeastern part of the state that rests upon Lake Superior. Our goal was to see Isle Royale National Park, which is in Michigan, but only an hour’s boat ride from Minnesota.
En route, my mom’s good friend Beth had graciously invited us to her summer home in Two Harbors, about halfway up the coast. All of the driving takes place on scenic Highway 63, where you find yourself bisecting acres of pine trees and Lake Superior’s deep blue expanse. Only a few towns provide landmarks between industrial Duluth and Canada — Grand Marais, Two Harbors, Grand Portage. Other than that it’s just a road sign, driveway, or mileage marker in the thick of Minnesota’s thick forests.
Beth’s house was one of these, and it was such a treat to have such a homey experience provided by her and her daughter Elspeth while far away on the road. They were even so kind as to invite us to not one, but two(!) family picnics with the Two Harbors community. It was lovely getting a glimpse into this generations-old get-together, and getting to sing songs, chat, and play games with people young and old. One game of note was tug of war, where there were participants from 5 to 80 joining for the festivities. Elspeth also introduced us to Agates, which are reddish-translucent rocks that are billions of years old. We went along the rocky beach and found even able to find some fragments of some ourselves. The second picnic was enjoyable too. It was a smaller get-together and a potluck, though several families brought dishes and dishware that they did not share, which felt a bit strange. Lena ended up playing make-believe zombies with a few of the children, which was extremely cute to witness. That evening, we got to watch fireworks from the back deck, which was a sublime sight to enjoy.
After saying goodbye to Beth and Elspeth the next day, we found ourselves in a dilemma. To get to Isle Royale NP, we would have to take an hourlong boat ride from Grand Portage, a few hours north of where we were and right on the border with Canada. However, as it is peak season and post-COVID (travelling wise), tickets had sold out a month ago. Plus, the boat only departs 3 times a week. We decided to take a chance and show up in person to see about standby availability. With the next boat departing in three days, we decided to spend three nights at the Hungry Hippie Hostel’s campground near Grand Marais, MN.
What a strange hostel to end up in. It was a great hostel, don’t get me wrong, but a group of unfrendly people had rented out every dorm and bedroom in the hostel! In my opinion, that defeats about 80% of the point of the hostel. I was excited to meet new people and chat about each of our travels, but that group was standoffish and unwelcoming. Thankfully, on the 3rd day, we met a mother and daughter travelling from Minneapolis also camping, and we commiserated over our strange neighbors. On a positive note, we had a secluded and wooded campsite that overlooked Lake Superior a few miles away. Plus, the weather was absolutely delectable in these summers heated from climate change: 60s and 70s each day.
We spent a good amount of our time in Grand Marais, which was a cute and trendy lake town nestled on the lakeshore. Java Moose Cafe, the cozy and packed Trading Post, and lakefront walk were all highlights in the town. But we were there mostly as a base for Isle Royale, so we headed up to Grand Portage our second day to see about getting on the boat the following day.
Grand Portage is a lonely town, but one steeped in history and geographical importance. The one grand establishment is an unnerving casino and lodge, plus there is a gas station/trading post combination, along with sparse houses. We first headed to Grand Portage National Monument, which was our first lesson in the massive fur trade that dominated this part of the country in the 1800s.
Voyageurs as they are called, would embark on a 3,000 mile journey from Montreal, QC each and every spring to collect beaver fur, which was hugely lucrative and popular in European fashion. The entire journey was conducted by water, except for a 10 mile stretch. This stretch, known as the Grand Portage, was where the voyageurs would hoist 90lbs of gear and furs between the northwest river and Lake Superior, where the National Monument is located today. The voyageurs would then continue onwards to Montreal en route to its trans-atlantic destination. This is greatly simplified and probably just half correct, so I invite you to read more about voyageurs and the fur trade online.
From there, we headed to the boat office to see about the ride the next day. The woman told us to get there 90 minutes before, as several families had already inquired about it. Plus, there was no guarantee for extra spots. But there was a chance, so we got up early the next morning, got there 2 hours before, only for the winds to be high. The captain declared that no standbys will be boarding the boat that day. And so we had struck out of our first National Park. Our only solace was seeing it in the distance 20 or so miles away.
We chose our consolation prize to be Magney State Park, on the way back from Grand Portage, we did a 2–3 mile hike along the Superior Hiking Trail to Devil’s Kettle, which was pretty cool in its own right. A huge waterfall splashes into a kettle-shaped black abyss, and no angle or perspective would reveal the eventual exit (if any) of the water. It was very supernatural phenomenon to behold. We then headed back to Java Moose Cafe, and after a squinting war to see if we recognized each other, we ran into Stephanie and Nina, our fellow campers from the hostel! We had a blast chatting both about our National Park trip and learning about Minnesotan culture and Stephanie’s fascination with agates. She even would go to the lots of fast-food restaurants in Minneapolis and find immaculate agates just waiting to be picked up and collected. They gave us a recommendation for a hostel near glacier national park, one off the grid and in remote Montanan town called Polebridge, which you just might hear more about in a later post :).
With our 5-day romp in the North Shore over, we headed to what is often the coldest town in the Lower 48 states: International Falls, MN. En route, we had two stops, the towns of Ely, and Virginia, MN. Ely is the base for the “Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness”, but simply referred to the Boundary Waters. It is a massive area made up of lakes and rivers in Northern Minnesota, and it is very popular to canoe to backcountry campgrounds. It appears that one could spend months and months exploring these waters and never come across the same body of water twice. Plus, environmental regulations are very strict (no motored boats, for example), to add to the preservation and beauty. Sadly, the Boundary Waters will have to be enjoyed on another trip, but the town of Ely was hip, outdoorsy, and worth a quick stop.
Our second stop was at the request at Lena, who received a gift from the owner of Chop Suey Books in Carytown. The 3-decade-old book covers kitchy, odd, and “world’s largest” oddities across America, and Lena was itching to take advantage. It was imperative that we stop at the World’s Largest Floating Loon in Virginia,Minnesota. Have I heard Lena mention the word “Loon” once in our 4+ years together? Nope. Do we even know what exactly a loon is? Not really. Pretty sure a bird? Why is the world “floating” in the name? Probably because there’s an even larger loon that’s not floating in someplace like Arkansas, Missouri.
But we headed out of our way, into the center of town, and there it was on the lake — a 10' high midnight black structure of a loon. It truly was a great loon, and has been the highlight of our trip to date. Loons are now not only my favorite bird, but animal as well.
Embellishment aside, it was pretty fun and funny to witness, and the venture took us to a local farmer’s market, which was lovely to partake in. There even was a one man band that played a cover of John Denver’s “Country Roads” to these lyrics: “Northern roads/take me home/to the place/where I belong/Minnesota/ Frozen Tundra/take me home/northern roads”. As with many one man bands, it was an oddity, but an enjoyable one.
And we headed to the recently reopened Hilltop Lodge in International Falls, run solely by a lovely husband and wife. The husband spends his free time looking at listing for rundown hotels across the country to refurbish and run. His wife is a bit less enthralled his ideas. The Falls were our base for Voyageurs National Park. The park is majority water by area, and also named after the aforementioned Voyageurs. We took a guided boat tour to Little American Island, which hosted the only profitable gold mine in the area. However, we learned it was one of the most mismanaged operations I have ever heard of. One telling example is they had a year’s worth of ore collapse the dock it was sitting on and plunge into the water. Oops. I think it shutdown within the decade.
But on our way back on the boat, we talked with a park ranger who’s life passion was the historic fur trade, and he fleshed out and elaborated on a lot of what we had started to learn at Grand Portage. He was a wealth of enthusiasm and knowledge, and I always relish learning from people like that. He even brought out a beaver pelt to show us how soft and warm they were, and why they were so desirable overseas.
Can you believe we did all of this in a week’s time? I can’t either. We took full advantage of the state and i really hope to come back someday. From Minnesota, we head onwards to the Great Plains, which will be covered in the next post!
