Voyageurs - mainland dayhikes

After Cruiser Lake, I got a bite to eat and grabbed a campsite at Woodenfrog Campground on the shores of Lake Kabetogama. The campground is part of Kabetogama State Forest and not part of the national park - the park boundary is the shoreline. I think there were maybe 5 occupied sites out of over 60. Since it's right next to the park, it has great views and easy access to the lake. The beach is gorgeous but the water was freezing.

And speaking of freezing water: I had the bright idea to use my sun shower and clean up in the campground. I thought it took an hour to heat up, but later realized it was actually 3 hours and decided to give it a try anyway. It was not a pleasant experience.

With a sketchy forecast in the morning calling for a good chance of rain for the next 2 days, I decided to postpone kayaking until the weather cleared up and do some dayhikes on the mainland instead.

My first hike was the Echo Bay trail, which is probably more popular as a cross-country skiing trail than as a hiking trail. No great views, just an interpretative trail through the woods with an overlook of Echo Bay (really more of a marsh than a bay). I was hoping this time of year would be perfect for fall color, but I was at least a week too early for peak color.

From there I headed to the Ash River section of the park and hiked the Blind Ash Bay trail. I had snowshoed most of this trail in March and wanted to see it in a different season. It has a couple nice overlooks of Lake Kabetogama but is mostly in the forest. Again, fall colors were OK but not spectacular yet.

The main overlook at the mouth of Blind Ash Bay is awesome. For comparison's sake, I put in a similar shot from March.

In March I lost the trail beyond this point, so it was nice to be able to complete the full loop this time around.

Later I relaxed at the beach for awhile, then headed off to bed. Except for the car that drove through the campground twice at about 10:30 and an early morning thunderstorm, it was an uneventful night. The car did freak me out - it drove around my loop twice as if they were looking for someone but never did stop. Which is a good thing, because I was about ready to bolt for the Jeep if they slowed down or stopped near me. There was no one else on my loop and the closest campers were completely out of sight and earshot, so I was more than a little uneasy about a late night drive-thru.

Morning brought more rain, which meant it should've been a good day for a waterfall hike. I went down to Crane Lake and hit the Vermillion Gorge and Vermillion Falls trails. The skies opened up just as I hit the Gorge trail and it rained most of the time I was on the trail making photography difficult and changing lenses next to impossible. The gorge itself was cool, the rest of the hike was a wet slog through the woods. At least there was some decent color.

There are also some interpretative signs along the Gorge trail, relating the history of the area (and there's a lot of history to be told). The falls trail is several miles away and quite a waste of time. There's an overlook directly above the falls, from which you can see almost nothing of the water. Below that about 50 feet is a better view, but nowhere can you see the entire 10 foot waterfall unless you jump out into the river. This picture shows maybe half of it:

After driving back to Woodenfrog and watching a great sunset, I got creeped out thinking about the car driving through the night before. People scare me more than animals. Since everyone else had checked out of the campground and I was alone, I decided to get out of there and get a hotel room in International Falls for the night. That also gave me the chance to dry out some of my gear and repack for the kayaking part of my trip.

My dayhike photos are here.