Best North Shore at the Outdoor Adventure Expo

What do you get when you cross a canoe and a snowshoe? The "X" in Expo, that's what. As in the twice-a-year Outdoor Adventure Expo.It's this weekend, November 16-18, on the West Bank near downtown Minneapolis. This is the winter version (hence the snowshoe). There's a summer version every spring (hence the canoe).

Every spring and every fall Midwest Mountaineering in Minneapolis puts on the biggest outdoor show of the season. It's coming up this weekend, and if you're at all interested in exploring the outdoors this winter, you should get there.

It's shoulder-to-shoulder fun. Midwest turns all their parking lots into tents and all their spare rooms into classrooms. 80 free programs, a whole circus tent full of exhibitors, and merchandise galore. 

Great programs
For you fans of the North Shore, there are some great, unique programs you should plan your visit around. If you go on Saturday, which is the biggest, busiest day, you can :
Get an Introduction to Snowkiting
Learn about Great Places to Snowshoe in Minnesota, Wisconsin and the U.P.
Check out The North Shore: Winter Photo Essay
Brush up on Winter Camping: The Basics

If you can only get there on Sunday, you can make the coolest program of the weekend, The North Shore: Skiing the River Canyons. If you go, say hi to Rudi for me.

Great exhibits
While the programs are fun and informative, my favorite thing to do is to go through the exhibitor area and talk with folks. I learn something new every time, whether it's a cool new piece of gear or an important new environmental concern. 

Great food all around
If the grilling and brewing inside the tent isn't enough for you, just step outside the Expo and you're on the West Bank, with restaurants of every nationality from Ethiopian to Mongolian. 

I do hope you can make the trek to the Expo. It's the best North Shore day you can have if you can't actually be on the North Shore.

Make your North Shore campsite reservations now

After six months of repair and frustration, the Minnesota DNR's state park reservation system seems to be up and running. As of today, you can reserve your choice of North Shore campsites as far as 12 months in advance. 

Act quickly: most of the popular weekends are already filling up.For Memorial Day weekend, as of today there were a few sites at Cascade River State Park and a few more at Judge CR Magney State Park, but the rest of the North Shore state parks are already full. For Fourth of July, things are a little more open, but that might just be because the Fourth falls on a Wednesday.

If a Memorial Day weekend trip into the Boundary Waters is more your style, get to the federal recreation reservation site ASAP. Popular entries near the North Shore are already filling up. Sawbill Lake entry is completely taken for the Friday of Memorial Day, and there was one permit available for the Saturday.

Of course, the wise camper can almost always find a campsite near the North Shore. For all sorts of great North Shore camping tips, pick up a copy of Camping the North Shore: A guide to the 23 best campgrounds in Minnesota's spectacular Lake Superior region, using the icon on the upper right side of this blog.

See you on the shore this summer...somewhere!

The State Fair is on; special secret season for the North Shore

The Great Minnesota Get-Together is starting up this week. If you want S'Mores without the hassle of 1) camping, 2) campfires and 3) stick whittling, you could go to the Fair and patronize the "Real S'Mores" shack. They might even put it on a stick for you. 

But if you want another authentic Minnesota experience, head for the North Shore instead. As soon as the Fair starts, the summer crowds on the North Shore drop right off. Shhhhh...it's the special secret season!

As of today, there are open campsites you can still reserve at every North Shore state park from Gooseberry to Judge Magney. Come mid-week you can have your choice of any park. Things will pick up over Labor Day weekend; get up here and enjoy the special secret late summer season.

If you come to the North Shore in the next week or so and you still need a taste of the Big Fair, you can check out the Midway, livestock judging and even greasy food at the Lake County Fair, August 25-28.  

If you really want the Giant Slide, head for Spirit Mountain's Timber Twister or Lutsen's Alpine Slide.

Come up for some gorgeous late summer weather and to experience the trails and towns of the North Shore without the summer crowds. It's special!

Minnesota state parks are closed: alternate North Shore campgrounds

Yes, the terrific North Shore state parks are closed due to the Minnesota government shutdown. Even if you made reservations for that prime campsite a year ago for this holiday weekend, you can't use it. Plan A has gone down the drain.

Where else do you camp? You need a Plan B. For campsites right on Lake Superior, the only options left are private campgrounds and municipal campgrounds. They have already absorbed the overflow from the state parks and are full.

I recommend hitching up your sense of adventure and heading inland for a campsite in the Superior National Forest. To camp the North Shore this is the weekend you need a copy of my book, Camping the North Shore: A Guide to the 23 best campgrounds in Minnesota's spectacular Lake Superior region. You'll find detailed directions and descriptions for lovely campgrounds such as Crescent Lake, Two Island Lake, and Temperance River. If you're willing to go off the beaten path, you'll find free rustic campgrounds along trout streams, on the edge of the BWCA.

As you head through Duluth to the North Shore, pick up a copy of this book at Duluth Pack Store, the Bookstore at Fitgers, or any Holiday Store. 

Plan B: Head up the Cramer Road
The lucky folks already camped at lovely Ninemile Lake won't like me for telling you this, but I'd recommend heading to that campground first. From Finland, head east and north on the Cramer Road (County Road 7). The Ninemile Lake campground is about ten miles out of Finland. If all 24 sites are full there, keep heading inland on County Road 7 to check out the rustic campgrounds at Harriet Lake and Hogback Lake. You might end up all the way inland at Kawishiwi Lake, but it will be lovely, quiet, and free.

A super solstice weekend in Grand Marais

Grand Marais is the place to be this weekend. Northern evenings are long and the nights are short. Duluth and Two Harbors will be packed with marathon runners, so head farther up the shore for a classic North Shore experience with elbow room 

This weekend is the 14th Annual Wooden Boat Show at North House Folk School. The show celebrates the romance and history of wooden boats. From noon on Friday to 3:00 pm on Sunday, a fleet of wooden kayaks, canoes, scows, and more will be on display at the Folk School campus. There's a Community of Crafters, a contra dance, and a Lake Superior Chowder Experience. Some of the coolest courses have already started, like "Handcrafting a Northwoods Paddle," but you can still learn the games of kubb, lacrosse, and deadfish polo. For more information, visit the North House website.

Fire Dragon, from http://www.oldwadenasociety.blogspot.com/

Also at North House this weekend is the Summer Solstice Pageant, with the Good Harbor Hill Players. Every solstice, both summer and winter, creative Grand Marais folks put on a great show mixing North Shore culture with current events and local inside jokes.

For the full weekend experience, grab a campsite at the Grand Marais municipal campground right next door to the North House campus. This campground is featured in my book Camping the North Shore as one of the area's best. As of this morning, they still have tent and RV sites open for the weekend. Call them at (800) 998-0959 or (218) 387-1712 to reserve your spot.

Camping: Stuff White People Like

This is a great entry from the hilarious, tongue-in-cheek "Stuff White People Like" blog. Enjoy, and join the conversation in the comments!

For example, "In theory camping should be a very inexpensive activity since you are literally sleeping on the ground. But as with everything in white culture, the more simple it appears the more expensive it actually is."

Big news for biffies

When you gotta go, you gotta go, right? So I was thrown off by this sign at the Crescent Lake Campground, off the North Shore up the Sawbill Trail, a few weeks back.

How exactly do you close an outhouse? The door was literally screwed shut. Someone meant business; I wasn't doing my business there.

A few days later, a friend told me he saw a huge outhouse doing 60 mph on Highway 61, headed up the shore. Smelling a story, I wrote to the Superior National Forest and received a courteous, detailed response.

It turns out that the RFA had identified the needs, and the LWCF funded the forest through the REA.

In regular language, they had to go. Bad.

The good folks at the Superior National Forest realized that their old outhouses were both falling apart and not ADA accessible. 25 new outhouses (excuse me, "toilets") are being installed in the western part of the Forest, including Crescent Lake and Sawbill Lake campgrounds.

We're getting the single-seater Gunnison...



And the two-holer Tioga...



Plus, you'll be pleased to know that these models have "Sweet Smelling Technology."

According to the manufacturer, CXT Concete Buildings,

The building is designed with sweet smelling technology in mind. A black plastic vent pipe, located on the back side of the building, always faces south. When heated by the sun, the pipe creates a continual air flow through louvered vents located in the building near the floor. The air flows down the riser, through the vault, and finally, up and out of the vent pipe. The positive continual air flow carries the vault air out through the vent pipe, not through the building.

These puppies can survive a category E earthquake, a 150-mph wind or a 350-pound per square foot snow load.

Check out the inside:



25 new outhouses (oops, "toilets"), installed and inspected, total cost about $750,000. That's 30K per pooper. It's money well spent. The toilets were manufactured in Texas, I think, but local contractors did the dirty work (imagine all the crap they had to deal with). The old outhouses were dark, full of flies, and you couldn't turn around without brushing elbows with some questionable mold-like substance on the walls. And I'm sure they had no sweet smelling technology.

So the deed is done. Wash your hands of the old, in with the new.

Trail's End Camping: Dine and Dash

One of the hardest parts of the day when you're camping on the North Shore can be dinner time. I love company at meals, but I don't relish being the meal. Whether it's mosquitoes or blackflies, the bloodsuckers come out right about the time you want to be calmly preparing your campfire delicacies.

So I've come to really appreciate a nice campground restaurant. You can dine at your leisure, even into the evening hours when just the hum of mosquitoes gets unbearable. Then you can dash back to your tent. Dine and dash, except in this case you pay the bill before you go.

"What?," I hear you ask. "Campground restaurant? What is this, a KOA?" No, it's some mighty fine and wild North Shore-area campgrounds.

The lovely and wild Trail's End Campground sits at the very end of the Gunflint Trail, almost 60 miles from Grand Marais. It's in the middle of the big Ham Lake Fire:



It's right on the river connecting Seagull Lake and Saganaga Lake. There's even a portage running right through the campground:



But wonder of wonders, there is a cafe right next to the campground. The Trail's End Cafe is run by Way of the Wilderness Outfitters and has a funky groove. The food is very basic and tasty. Mark Darling's burgers are just fine. According to their website, they serve "what some people say 'The best burgers in Minnesota.'" That has to do as much with the setting and the work it took to get there as with the quality of the food. Perfect food, perfect location...what else do you really need?



Oh, and the beer is cold. Best Coors I ever had. Really.

If the far end of the Gunflint Trail is too far for you, you can "dine and dash" at Cascade River State Park (eat at Cascade Lodge), Lambs Resort (eat at Schroeder Baking Company), and of course Grand Marais Municipal Campground (eat anywhere in town).

Eat, and do not be eaten.

Bears and bozos: On the noisy side at Tettegouche

As an author, I really enjoy hearing from readers and getting their feedback about North Shore experiences. Thanks to Linda Borrell, who wrote to me to share some concerns about her campsite at Tettegouche State Park. She stayed in the cart-in campsites in the Lake Superior Campground, which I highly recommend in my presentations. However, she had two problems: noise and bears.



She wrote:

"We just stayed at Cart-in B at Tettegouche, cleaning up after some campers who thought the site was for partying with their alcohol beverages in a secluded area...spent a couple of hours cleaning up after them.....disgusting how some people treat their state parks....Anyway, we found the site to be nice, except for the traffic. It never stopped and the noise was loud usually from 9am-10pm. Don't know if you are going to write an edited or expanded version to your book, but that would be great."

Tettegouche State Park is a wilderness giant, full of remote and beautiful places. The cart-in campground has some lovely campsites right on the Lake Superior shore, with secluded cobblestone beaches and no sound but the crash of waves or the cry of herring gulls. It's more wild and more "North Shore" than the traditional drive-in campground a mile or so inland on the park road. Here's Cart-in E, perched above the mouth of the Baptism River:



However, as Ms. Borrell experienced, some of those cart-in sites can be noisy. Sites A-D are quite near Highway 61. To make matters worse they are tucked into a hill that will reflect the sound of highway traffic back to you, like a natural amphitheater. The very pleasant campsites E-K are on the other side of the hill. I especially recommend site F, J, and K, as they have their own little beaches.

Ms. Borrell elaborated on her story in a second e-mail:

"One thing I forgot to mention....I camped in Cart-in B on Friday by myself, waiting for my two companions to arrive Sat am.... I woke up on Sat at 7am and got out of my tent. Since I was by myself, I stretched and gave a big, loud yawn- only to meet the eyes of a bear, not 15 yards from me.

"I froze, the bear froze and then I ran back to my tent, put my jeans on and headed into Silver Bay for breakfast. (I wasn't about to make bacon and pancakes at the campsite!). At the cafe in Silver Bay, I talked with the police chief, who was also having his breakfast...he told me never to stare at a bear and to make as much noise as possible. He told me to go next door to the hardware store and buy a whistle or bell.

"So I did. It makes for a fun story, but I am dismayed at my reaction when I saw the bear; I did all the wrong things. My clue should have been to pay attention to the bear droppings at the beginning of the cart-in trail!"

Thanks for the feedback, Ms. Borrell. And special extra thanks for cleaning up after the boozy bozos. The grungy campsite actually attracts bears, so you helped to solve a bunch of problems all at once.

"You've got to have a table"

When camping on the North Shore of Lake Superior, a table keeps your fresh spinach separate from your poison ivy, your root beer separate from the foamy rivers, and your toddler away from the snakes that are EVERYWHERE!

I do sort of like the "cocktail" table though...

North Shore campsites already full

This great sign was up for about a week last May just east of Tettegouche on Highway 61. It has a lesson well worth learning.

If you have a favorite Lake Superior North Shore campsite, in a favorite North Shore campground, you should be making plans NOW to ensure you get that campsite again this summer. With the state parks replacing a 90-day advance reservation with 365-day advance registration, people are already reserving well into the fall.

A quick browse of www.stayatmnparks.com for weekend openings at North Shore state park campgrounds reveals that about 90% of the campsites that can be reserved are already reserved for weekends, all through August. Ouch.

Even the Superior National Forest campgrounds take reservations. Since our book Camping the North Shore came out a year ago, at least three of the campgrounds featured there are now taking reservations. Plan ahead if you're headed to Sawbill Lake, Crescent Lake, or Temperance River campgrounds.

If at all possible, make a reservation for your North Shore camping experience. It will let you slow down, as the sign suggest, but you are the one who "already took your campsite."

If you just can't shed that need to be spontaneous, try to be spontaneous on a Tuesday or Wednesday morning, when there are the most vacancies in the campgrounds.

If you show up on the Shore on a Friday evening and still don't have a reservation, there are a few places you could try. No promises, but Ninemile Lake campground up the Cramer Road from Finland and Two Island Lake campground north and west from Grand Marais almost always have some sites open. Also, it seems like Lambs Resort in Schroeder nearly always has someplace they can fit another camper, especially if you're in a tent.



Plan your day and your vacation just enough, and you can fully enjoy your North Shore vacation.

Thinking North Shore summer

The mighty Lake Superior weather clouds just dropped 6-10 inches of snow around Grand Marais. Above is today's webcam from Golden Eagle Lodge, up the Gunflint Trail. Perfect time to think about summer camping, right?

You won't be the first to be thinking ahead. Now that you can reserve state park campsites a year in advance, a lot of the prime campsites are already reserved for the summer.

I'll be on WTIP, Grand Marais' fine public radio station, Friday evening around 5-6, talking about North Shore camping with host Ann Possis. Then Saturday I'll be down in the Twin Cities at the Midwest Mountaineering Outdoor Expo. My program on "5 best North Shore camping weekends" will be at 1:00 at the Expedition Stage (downstairs from the camping department). Listen in to WTIP (they're streaming via their website) or drop by the Expo!

Jay Cooke thanks you

Just spent a fun few hours at the studio of KUMD, helping with their fall membership drive and pitching Skiing the North Shore. Northland Morning host-with-the-most Lisa Johnson said she has never been to Jay Cooke State Park.

To all four of my regular readers, MOST of whom have been to this fabulous, nearby state park, full of hiking trails and ski trails and an incredible river, THANK YOU for being a good citizen and visiting Jay Cooke. Lisa...haul your trailer (sorry, must be logged into Google-world to see these photos) there for a fall weekend and enjoy this gem.

The End of the World, the beginning of the World Wide Web

Just a quick news note here: Minnesota's own Itasca State Park is adding Wi-Fi service.

After our bug-ridden debacle at Sawbill Lake campground, I actually piqued Noah's interest in more camping by mentioning that the Grand Marais RV Park and Campground has Wi-Fi (plus a swimming pool) so we could camp there for some of our last Hiking Club trails...

ARGH! Camping in the bugs

I always forget, and then I always remember, how bad it can be to camp in June or July in northern Minnesota. The bugs can be truly devastating, especially if there are kids along for the trip.

In a fit of camping frenzy, I packed up my two boys, Hans and Noah, along with my nephew Cormac, for what was to be a two-night camping trip on the edge of, and into, the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. But this is last week. July 1. Being a total camping smarty pants, I planned to arrive early/mid-week, to ensure getting a good campsite.

We headed up the Sawbill Trail to Sawbill Lake and the very nice campground there. The Sawbill campground is a Superior National Forest campground with 50-plus sites. It was an easy pick to list as a top 23 North Shore campground in our book Camping the North Shore. It's beautiful and piney, with ten really primo sites on a bluff about Sawbill Lake itself and most of the rest in beautiful white and red pines. Sawbill Outfitters is right next door, with camping equipment, a small store, even canoes to rent.

Much to my surprise, Sawbill now takes reservations on about half the sites, through www.recreation.gov. So all of the lakeshore sites, with their potential bug-blowing breezes, were either occupied (no surprise) or reserved (big surprise). We drove the loop and picked the nicest remaining available campsite, number 45, with tall pines and the coolest climbing rock in the campground.

It only took a few minutes after arrival for the insects to find us. And to focus on us.

The boys were troopers, standing for the bug repellent spray, helping get the tent up, but as soon as the tent was up they were in it. Wondering what that sound of rain on the tent roof is? Black flies inside the tent or between the tent body and rain fly.

The day was saved briefly by a trip to the lakeshore to get into the westerly breeze and swim. But eventually it was back to the campsite for a buggy dinner, a first try of a mosquito rigging for 2-3 kids, then a second retreat to the tent.

Black flies during the heat and humidity of the day, mosquitoes by the dusk of evening. Oh, and a great rumbling thunderstorm in the night.

After a visit the next day from Cormac's parents (my sister Helen and her husband Joe), I staged a strategic retreat. Instead of Night #2 in the awful bug-ness, we headed down to the North Shore itself, where we would find fewer bugs.

THDUNK! That's my palm hitting my forehead. Geez, why didn't I think of how bad the bugs can be in July?

Be afraid...be very very afraid

...that you will lose your favorite North Shore campsite. As of this week, Minnesota state parks are taking reservations for campsites a full calendar year in advance. It used to be 90 days. Now, if you really have to have that terrific site by the beach at Temperance River State Park for Memorial Day 2009, reserve it now.

The reservation website is here. 

Do it. Do it now!

Exploring the Gunflint Trail

I spent the last two days up the Gunflint Trail, that slice of civilization reaching deep into the Bounday Waters. Accustomed to the North Shore, I get excited about the wildness and ruggedness of the Gunflint. Just off Highway 61 on the North Shore you find wide pleasant trails and lots of housing developments; just off the Gunflint Trail, you find wolf scat and a few campgrounds.

The Gunflint does not have a huge reputation for hiking; it's more of a canoeing and resort destination in the summer. The hiking trails off the Gunflint are either super long (the Kekekabic Trail or the Border Route Trail) or super short (Northern Lights Lake, Honeymoon Bluff). Where are the sweet 5-8 mile day hikes?

On the way up, I checked out a couple of the well-known shorter walks. Honeymoon Bluff is gorgeous but so short (0.4 miles) it's not a hike at all. I camped at site #18 at Trails End campground, one that's featured and pictured in our book Camping the North Shore.

Following hunches, I did two day hikes in one day. First I hiked the Kekekabic Trail from its eastern trailhead 3.5 miles into Bingschick Lake. This was fascinating, especially with the combination of the 1999 blowdown and last spring's Ham Lake fire. The trail was rough, just a wilderness trail with far less maintenance than a state park trail. Over half the route was in open areas of burned down trees.

Bingshick Lake, apparently known for its brook trout, had been burned all the way around and seemed pretty desolate. But the campsite had a few standing trees and made for a nice break.

I finished the first hike early in the day and headed for a delicious lunch of a walleye quesadilla at Gunflint Lodge in their new Red Paddle Bistro. After lunch I was totally stuffed but was able to roll over to the Loon Lake boat landing. Some maps had shown a trail running along Loon Lake and up to the Gunflint ski trail system. This was the Bryce-Breon trail.

As devastated as the forest along the Kek was, this forest was old, vibrant and luxurious. Ancient cedar trees along the shore of the lake, scampering over roots, an osprey swooping in to its nest high in a standing dead tree made it feel like the Land of the Lost, the land that time forgot.


So, two nice mid-length day hikes on the Gunflint Trail. Plus an ungodly number of ticks and black flies.

Tough questions in Maple Grove

Camping equipment cash magnet REI has a terrific new store in the "Fountains" shopping center in Maple Grove, MN. Before yesterday, I didn't really even know that Maple Grove existed. What once was cornfields is now a shopping complex. One big difference though from the classic cookie-cutter Mall Land was the wind turbine spinning lazily away in the background. Plus, instead of more mall-lets just beyond the Fountains, there is a massive gravel operation, with tall piles of multi-hued rock that looked for all the world like a North Dakota badlands scene.

I did a program at the REI store last night, on camping and exploring the North Shore. What fun to get a group of North Shore fans in a room and talk about cool things to do on the shore! But there were some tough questions, mostly about how to get a campsite when you don't have a reservation. Two of the parties were headed to the shore for Memorial Day weekend and did not have a campsite reserved. One party could leave late Thursday, one was stuck in the Cities until Friday evening. What to do?

There are almost always open campsites to find, I opined. Maybe not at your first choice campground. And maybe not on the shore proper. Go inland, I suggested. Try Ninemile Lake, or Two Island Lake, or maybe Indian Lake outside of Brimson. They have a bunch of site that are only seldom taken.

But also, I preached a bit, don't worry. You're on vacation. You'll find a campsite. After the tent is up and you've got a fire going, it will feel a lot like home. If your campsite isn't right on a lake, or The Lake (Superior), walk around and explore.

Say no more, say no more

This sign caught my attention today on the way up the shore to plant some trees at Sugarloaf Cove. It says it all. I was in a hurry to get to the tree-planting program, so I made a mental note to take the picture on the way back down. Much to my surprise, that mental note stuck to my forehead like glue and I actually remembered to stop.

The sign is right on Highway 61 (Minnesota's North Shore Drive). just east of Tettegouche State Park. It must have just gone up this week. I totally understand the schema here, because I've done the same myself...people speeding by because they are anxious about a campsite. I hate that anxiety...will there be a site? Will there be a nice site? I remember a long anxious drive into the Squaw Flat campground in the Needles area of Canyonlands; that's a two-hour drive into a dead-end part of the national park, and if there was no site we were out of luck.

Campground reservations have taken a lot of the stress of camping away. Or shall I say the adventure of it? No, it was never a good stress. This sign captures that stress from a sardonic local perspective. Very funny.