My Blue Heaven

 

Not only was that a silly Steve Martin movie, but it has been my world for the past four days. Blue lakes, blue rivers, and, finally, blue sky!

I left Wild River State Park on Saturday and headed 65 miles north to St. Croix State Park for three nights.

I have been told that if you don’t like the weather in Minnesota just wait 10 minutes. True. Here are two pictures of my campsite 10 minutes apart.

That would be a shadow in the foreground of the second photo. But the sun only lasted 10 more minutes. And then it rained again. All night.

St. Croix is the largest State Park in Minnesota in terms of area at over 33,000 acres and it’s 217 campsites trail only Itasca State Park by a handful for the most in that category.

It also had a lot of mosquitos.

Sunday morning was rather dreary. I didn’t bother setting up my tent on Saturday so once again I was in the “cute” trailer. And I had friends waiting for me to emerge.

At least 100 mosquitos were just hanging out on the trailer’s window screens. I stared at them but they didn’t flinch. I popped open the trailer door, clicked the car door remote, and jumped in. Several went in the trailer and most of the rest into my car.

I learned that you can never find all the mosquitos that enter your tent, trailer, or RV. They will find you at night. And feast. Monday morning I had several bites on my bald dome. Oh, and don’t smash them the next morning. They are filled with your own blood and leave a nasty stain.

Anyway, back to Sunday. I decided to do a hundred mile loop and visit two more State Parks. I lowered the windows to suck the skeeters out.

First stop was Moose Lake.

There was some kind of mutant dog on the wet road leading into the park drinking from the puddles.

Could have been a deer.

Both Moose Lake and Banning, my next stop, are small parks. 35 sites at Moose, 34 at Banning.

There is no Moose Lake, however. There is a Moosehead Lake a few miles away and the campground is on Echo Lake. Go figure.

Nice sites but wet.

Banning, as well as Moose Lake are just off interstate 35. Banning being about 20 miles south of Moose.. I drove to the furthest one first in hopes that the rain would stop. Nope. But soon.

The park is situated along the Kettle River which has some rapids and attracts kayakers. Made me think of potato chips.

Looking left from the launch area gives you this view.

To the right you see this.

Not so good for canoes but there are portages around the five rapids.

The sites are a mix of open and treed.

Yes, the sun finally came out and brought shadows with it. Yippee!

I headed back to St. Croix. And made tacos to celebrate.

Monday morning after asking the fat blood filled mosquitos to leave the trailer I walked the campground.

In 2011 St. Croix State Park was hit by a huge gust of wind that knocked down hundreds of trees. There was no loss of life and the politicians take ironic credit for that. Why? Because two days earlier they closed the park down due to budget constraints. Yep, even a blind squirrel will find the occasional acorn. The host told me that his RV was flattened while he was in town.

So sites that used to look like this,

Now look like this.

But they made improvements in the process of rebuilding. They added more electrical sites and now have free wifi in the lodge.

Cool. In fact, I even got a good signal at my campsite and watched the last 8 episodes of Weeds in the trailer. Life is good. And sunny.

I left Tuesday morning for a three night stay at Father Hennepin State Park on Mille Lacs Lake, the walleye capital of the world.

It was named after Father Louis Hennepin, a Franciscan priest who was the first recorded European explorer to visit the territory that would become Minnesota.

But I digress. It’s all about the walleye here. In the winter they build cities on the lake with plowed roads to the ice house villages. I like the concept. You have a trailer with a hole cut in the floor. You cut a matching hole in the ice and place your trailer on top of it. You turn on the heater, crack a beer, sit on your couch and fish. With tiny two foot rods. They even have strike indicators on them to let you know you have a bite so you can pause the TV show you are watching on satellite tv.

In addition to your rods, reels, and tackle, you need to bring along a tape measure. There is a tiny two inch slot size to be able to keep the fish that interrupts your show. They have to be longer than 17.99 inches and shorter than 20.01 inches. Except you can keep one over 28 inches. And no using scissors or trying to stretch them. If you think that is confusing try reading the tax code.

My neighbor caught an anorexic walleye that taped out just over 28 inches.

Looks, umm, yummy.

I found a much larger one in the town of Isle, about 2 miles away.

Now that’s a fish. Probably put up one heck of a battle.

Wednesday I went right back to work, like I ever stop. I drove 15 miles west to Mille Lacs Kathio State Park for a quick visit.

Mille Lacs and Father Hennepin are the only two State Parks on the lake. But there are at least 20 resorts and countless cabin rentals here in the most popular summer destination within 100 miles of the Twin Cities. The “best named resort” prize I give to Walleye Dundee’s on the lake between the two parks. The sign was a takeoff of the poster for the “Crocodile Dundee” movies with the guy holding a fish instead of a croc.

Woops, I digressed again.

Mille Lacs means 1000 lakes so Mille Lacs Lake means 1000 Lakes Lake.

Ugh.

Kathio is even more confusing. French explorer Daniel Greysolon (also known by the name Duluth) referred to the settlements here as “Izatys” in 1679. Some rocket scientist, when transcribing his journal for publication, thought the “Iz” was a “K” and “ys” was “hio”. Hence Kathio.

Anyway, it is the oldest village name preserved in the history of the state of Minnesota. So there you go. Remember that for Jeopardy.

The park has 70 campsites and also contains the headwaters of the Rum River, a popular rafting and tubing destination. I tasted it and was disappointed. It’s just water.

The sites are good.

And next to the Rum River is an good old fashioned swimming hole.

Back  to Father Hennepin. I have the best site here as long as you don’t need electricity. Site number one. Right next to the lake.

Let me put it in perspective.

The boat ramp and docks are right there next to me. Here are some photos from this morning.

After taking those images I hopped on my bike after breakfast to see the sights. Don’t worry. No more pictures of the bike.

I rode a lakeside trail down to the fishing pier.

Came across the picnic shelter, picnic area, and a volleyball court.

And the swimming beach.

How did that bike get in the photo…

My next door neighbors on Tuesday night were a couple named Steve and Sherrie. They showed up on bicycles. They are in their 70’s.

We talked quite a bit and I ended up making them a taco for breakfast on Wednesday morning. Only one because they still had a long way to go and my tacos are slightly hot.

By long way I mean they started in Seattle and will end up in Bar Harbor, Maine. Yeah.

I wish you a safe journey my friends. Hope the taco didn’t slow you down.

Regards,

Greg

Croix Me A River

 

Before I left Nerstrand-Big Woods State Park last Sunday I went and found a spot to do laundry. I wanted to wash my sleeping bags so I needed some big equipment. I found them.

A giant washer.

And a giant dryer.

Good deal. My next stop was about 80 miles northeast at William O’Brien State Park.

The maps on my GPS are from 2006 and sometimes it takes me on strange roads.

But I eventually arrived.

The weather was decent so I set up my tent for the first time since I left Arizona.

I was really lucky to get this spot, site 47. I arrived at 2:00pm on Sunday, Father’s Day, and the folks camping here were just leaving. The host came by and told me this is the most popular spot in the campground. It’s also not reservable and has no electricity.

The most popular site that can be reserved is number 50 just across the road from me. And it has power. And more. For details on that I will send you to the campsitephotos news desk.

*Breaking News from William O’Brien State Park*

“I’m Fred Michaels from the CSP Network. We have heard reports that site 48 will not, repeat, NOT be restored to a camping site. That means site 50 will gain additional space. He is how it looks now.”

“You can see the fencing around site 48.”

“We have a reporter live on the scene, Tracy Nunn.”

“Tracy, this is Fred in the studio. Can you sum up this newest development at the park. What do you see?”

“Well, I see trees Fred. Tall ones.”

“No, I am asking about site 50 and the proposed annexation of site 48.”

“Ooo, a squirrel. So pretty.”

“Um, well, thanks Tracy. You heard it here first on CSP Network.”

I cooked up some big worms and settled around the fire to read for a while.

Early next morning I hopped on the bike to explore.

I wasn’t always a early riser. When I was wee lad my parents and grandparents frequently tossed that famous quote at me,

“The early bird gets the worm.”

I had two responses to that.

1.   “Yeah, but the early worm gets eaten.”

2.   “Yeah, but it’s the second mouse that gets the cheese.”

Anyway, this park gets a lot of use. It’s less than an hour from the Twin Cites area and is on the St. Croix River, one of the best canoeing rivers in the nation. The three parks I visit after this are on the river as well, which was one of the first 8 rivers in the country to be designated a Wild and Scenic River.

The camping area is broken up into two sections. Riverway Campground, sites 1-60, is located between the river and Lake Alice while Savanna Campground, sites 61-125 is about a mile away.

The sun was just coming up as I stopped by the boat launch.

There was mist on the river.

Neat. I rode to Lake Alice and out to the fishing pier.

I was startled by a splash and then several more. The sun had not hit the water yet and the smallmouth bass were chasing minnows on the surface.

It was fun to watch. But I was getting hungry so I headed back along the river trail.

The reason site 47 is so popular is because it is the only one with direct river access. If I turned to my left from the spot in the photo above, this is what I would see.

That’s my site. And my breakfast.

Love them pancakes! The forecast was for thunderstorms so I put the fly on my tent and set up the screen house.

I was spread out all over the campsite. Even my bike had a garage.

The storm missed me on Monday night and I went down to the lake the next morning to see the fish again.

They were there along with some other stuff.

A beautiful sunrise.

A Blue Heron looking for minnows. Hadn’t seen one of the those since camping in Florida.

A deer having breakfast.

And a beaver.

Yep. I like beavers. They are the architects of nature and the ponds they create sustain quite a few other critters.

I left Wednesday morning, destination Wild River State Park, with a stop first at Interstate State Park.

Interstate is 12 road miles and 17 river miles north of William O’Brien. There are several riverfront sites here like #21.

Pretty sweet. The name of the game here is canoeing.

A group was getting ready to launch when I arrived.

It costs about $50 to float the 17 river miles to O’Brien. That includes a ride back. But Interstate only has 37 sites so on weekends they offer a shuttle that will pick you up at O’Brien and let you paddle back. Sounds like fun.

I continued on another 12 miles to Wild River State Park, following the St. Croix Scenic Byway.

Like at O’Brien I did not have a reservation, but there was no problem on a Wednesday finding a spot. There are 94 of them here in 5 loops, A-E, with C and D having electricity.

Most of the sites are in the trees like #50.

But some are in the transition zone to the prairie grass and are more open, meaning less mosquitos and more sun. I chose #38.

It also meant flies. Big flies. Pesky flies.

They would land on my e-reader causing pages to be turned. They lapped up the bug spray on my legs and asked for more. This meant war.

I had found a plastic army guy in the grass so I enlisted his service. Between my towel and his weapon, we removed about 35 from existence.

But they were relentless so I surrendered and put on long pants and a long sleeve shirt.

Thursday was nice and sunny so I walked the campground in the morning and then went for a ride in the afternoon.

OK, OK, no more bike in the photos.

Happy?

Back at camp it was time to make some tacos. I picked up some fresh meat to cook. It was called “ground chuck”. I am not quite sure what that is. I’m thinking wood chuck. Probably one that didn’t chuck as much wood as he or she should.

Don’t forget to add cumin when making taco meat. About one heaping tablespoon per pound.

Very tasty!

In the photo above, my chair is just to the left of the clear container.

I was sitting in it after dinner when I heard and then saw the strangest thing.

The grass is about 2-3 feet tall. Something was moving through it. Slowly. The stalks would bend and then spring back up. I was intrigued. I grabbed my camera and went to investigate.

It was a turtle. About 18 inches from head to tail.

I used my turtle herding skills to aim him towards shorter grass.

I learned that it was a Blandings Turtle. The ranger was excited when I showed her the picture. She said she will let the state biologists know of the sighting.

Cool.

A massive thunderstorm hit early Friday morning around 3:00am.

That’s all I have to say about it. Check it out online.

During brief respite from the rain I went down to the river for a couple of photos Friday afternoon.

Oh, I also learned my first bike tip. If you are the first one to hit the bike paths in the morning let a friend ride ahead of you. If you have kids along, let them lead the way. Tell them that they are leading an expedition.

The reason for this is simple. Spider webs. Let others clear the trail for you. If you are by yourself make sure to wear eyeglasses. And do not sing. Trust me on that one.

Regards,

Greg