I spent a weekend skiing on the frozen tundra of north central Minnesota. More specifically, I made my long-awaited trip to Itasca State Park and also went to Lake Bemidji State Park to check it out in the wintertime. I had hoped to get to Itasca last summer on my way home from the great Old Mill trip but ran out of energy and 'settled' for Lake Bemidji. This time around Itasca was my primary goal and it was well worth it.
I started out a bit late on Friday night due to an unexpected cat problem - Weasel developed a severe limp on Friday morning and I went back home to check on him before heading out, rather than leave straight from work. That set me back over an hour so I wound up getting into Park Rapids after 11pm. (Weasel is fine, by the way, I think he was faking to try to get me to stay home.)
With temps below zero on Saturday morning, I took my time getting to Lake Bemidji. Once there, I skied a loop which took me to the bog trail. In summer this is a boardwalk leading to Big Bog Lake, in winter it's a pain to ski as there are numerous right angle turns to negotiate. Nevertheless, I made it so I could compare winter and summer views.
With that nonsense out of the way, I finished off the loop and headed to Itasca. (Lake Bemidji is really nice and not at all nonsensical). On the way I saw a shrew - or maybe a vole - on the road just north of Itasca. It's navigational system was pretty whacked out as it seemed to just run and bounce about aimlessly, jumping on my shoes a couple times before staggering back to the ditch and running away.
Itasca is an interesting park - it's the oldest state park (and one of the largest) in Minnesota, with about half a million people visiting each year. Lake Itasca is famous for being the Headwaters of the Mississippi River - undoubtedly many of the visitors come just for that fact as you can easily walk across the river where it exits Lake Itasca, but many people visit for the scenery, historical buildings and chance to see a wide variety of wildlife (including wolves).
As one might expect, visitation is relatively low in winter. I saw half a dozen skiers on the trail Saturday afternoon, and just two on Sunday morning. The Headwaters were all mine on Sunday morning - very cool with the steam coming off the water. And I only fell in the water once!
But let me back up as I'm a little ahead of myself. Saturday afternoon, I skied part of the Ozawindib trail and made a loop by taking the south entrance road back to the parking lot, about 6K total. I fell a couple times early on and was fine after that, despite the Ozawindib being rated a difficult trail. Not sure about that because it didn't seem that bad and if I can make it relatively unscathed, it shouldn't be rated difficult. The trail was a bit cold and windy near the end but still beautiful. I saw some tracks - I pegged them as wolf tracks but perhaps just wishful thinking? Here's a shot of the south entrance road, closed to vehicle traffic but groomed nicely for skiing.
I had searched for a place to take some sunset and moon photos while driving through the park, finally settling on Peacepipe Vista. Unfortunately, sunset was less than amazing and the moon shots are not anything to write home about so a bit of a waste of my time. I should've set up at the boat rental docks as I would've been right on the lake instead of on the hill overlooking Itasca. Next time. I did manage to lose feeling in several fingers. Due to the cold, I skipped the wolf program at the visitor center.
On to the lodgin - I had reserved a bed at the hostel inside the park, rated one of the top 10 hostels in the U.S. I was assigned a room with one other occupant who wound up leaving an hour later (nothing I said or did, he just wanted to get on the road and make some mileage) so I wound up with a room to myself. Nice place with a couple quiet sitting rooms for reading but I would not want to stay there in summer and share a small room with 3 other people. Having a bedroom near the kitchen and dining room was a bit louder than I hoped for, but at least the group staying in the hostel respected the quiet hours.
The next morning I visited the Headwaters (see above) and hiked a portion of the Schoolcraft trail before checking out of the hostel. I drove back down to the visitor center and put on my skis for a trip around the Nicollet/DeSoto/Deer Park loop, about 8K altogether. This time I did see wolf tracks (easily identified by the yellow snow marking their territory), a couple of feather piles, assorted other animal tracks and lots of frozen lakes. The cloudy skies didn't lend themselves to great photos but I tried...
Off the trail at last, I warmed up in the visitor center by watching the birds congregate at the feeders.
The lobby was very comfy with 2 fireplaces and I could've stayed there for a couple hours. But alas, it was time to head home so I pointed my Jeep in the right direction and put it on autopilot. About 4 hours later, the cats greeted me at the front door - too bad they didn't help carry my stuff up the stairs. Neither did they help edit the rest of my photos, which you can see here.
In short, Itasca is really cool and I'm hoping to drag Terp up there this summer or fall before we move. I may also go back for more skiing or hiking later this spring.
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