Mille Lacs Kathio State Park

Late July in Minnesota is usually pretty nasty if you want to be outdoors, but we survived. Saturday, we made it to Mille Lacs around 2pm and visited the Mille Lacs Indian Museum. It's on the Ojibwe reservation and staffed by tribal (band?) members. Lots of cool stuff there - I'd say the coolest part is the Four Seasons room. It's an almost circular room which has life-sized dioramas of the way the Ojibwe used to live. The humans in the dioramas are modeled on real Ojibwe and the entire thing was built by tribal members.

Afterwards we went to the adjacent trading post and bought a book and some candy. Woot!

While getting my camping tag, I learned we had one of the most popular sites in the state park, I guess because it's reasonably private and secluded. By and large most of the sites we saw were separated from each other by a little bit of forest. Terp was tired and took a nap while I went for a brief hike. I set out to hike all the way to some historic sites a couple miles away, but the deer flies and mosquitoes had other plans for me. Once on the trail I was swarmed and had to abort the mission.

We (meaning I) made a little campfire and roasted cheese hot dogs for supper. Shortly after this photo was taken, the little guy on the far left committed suicide by rolling into the fire.

Afterwards we attended a reptile talk by Jim Gerholdt at the Interpretive Center. Lots of turtles, lizards and snakes (including a timber rattlesnake) and children. We passed on the chance to pet one of the snakes because of the mob of kids in line.

More campfire watching followed - we were also stalked (in Terp's mind anyway) by a crazed beast intent on eating us while we sat at the fire. I'm pretty sure it was a deer grazing in the woods.

In the morning we went to the Rum River overlook near the campground. A little family of squirrels was chasing each other around the woods along the path. It was very quiet and still out there - would've been a perfect morning for canoeing on the river but we had other plans.

We were off to a petting zoo, which turned out to be a farm tour at Rolling Hills Arabians. We were supposed to have made an appointment but they graciously allowed us in without one. The animals (especially the dogs) were happy to see us and we were happy to see them. The highlight was petting Raymond the Racoon.

The only thing left was the drive home, with a slight detour to check out Father Hennepin State Park on the other side of Mille Lacs. Camping there will not be an option as the sites are jammed on top of each other with little to no screening in between. The rest of the drive was uneventful. More photos from the weekend in my photobucket album here.

In the beginning...

Lame title for the first post, I know, but it works for me.

I moved to Minneapolis almost exactly 6 years ago. In those 6 years, I've mostly avoided hiking/backpacking in this area, instead choosing to fly somewhere else for my outdoor excursions. There have been occasional visits to state parks and more regular visits to the local wildlife refuge but for the most part I've been more interested in other places.

Well, Terp and I decided awhile ago that we're moving to Denver in '09, probably in late summer or early fall. And that has me thinking that I should really get out there and see the city and state I live in - like now, while I'm still here and it's easy to take off for a quick weekend trip somewhere or a visit to somewhere I've never been in the city.

And that brings me to the beginning of this blog. I've decided to write about those trips and visits, share some photos and see what I've been missing for the past 6 years. I haven't been a total slacker as I/we have done a few trips, but I intend to make an effort to go somewhere or do something new every chance I get until we move. I may or may not write about places already seen - probably a little bit, but I don't want to get in the habit of filling space by going back in time and rehashing old stuff when the point is to see new stuff.

To start, we're headed up to Mille Lacs Kathio State Park this weekend for an overnight camping thing. We've never been there and have no definite plans for what to do. Terp would dearly love to spend all weekend eating s'mores and petting critters, but that's not gonna happen.