So as a Minnesotan, knowing that lakes are our thing, I’m embarrassed to admit that we didn’t plan very well for our trip to Voyageurs National Park. As a kid I recall RVing up to Lake Kabetogama with my aunt and uncle and camping for a day but, even though I’m from Minnesota, I haven’t made the trip up here since.
On our trip from Michigan to Minnesota we spent one night boon-docking at our favorite summer camp, Storybook, located in Gilbert and enjoyed breakfast and meeting with the local Christians there in Virginia.
After a potluck, we made our way up to stay at an RV park in International Falls, a struggling little town that boarders Canada. When we googled “things to do in International Falls” this Smokey Bear statue and park came up. So we scootered up there and took Rocky for a walk. Besides staring at a 26-ft-tall bear statue made in the 50s there wasn’t much more to do. Fire danger was high and there must have been a fire somewhere because the whole horizon was hazy.
I called up several boat rental places on our way up to Voyageurs as I realized that this park is pretty unnavigable without a boat. I inquired at about 5 places, and was met with “no availability” at all of them so we resigned to rent a canoe. There were also several houseboat rentals too which I think would be pretty neat to reserve the next time I find myself up here.
There isn’t much for hiking trails at this park. We first went to the Rainy Lake visitor center on the west side of the park and were greeted by a taxidermied moose. All boat tours from their dock were booked too (they only have them a couple times a week so it’s important to book way in advance). We hiked the Olberholtzer trail that started at the visitor center to see the overlook at Black Bay. A pretty enough trail tainted by swarms of mosquitos.
At one of the ranger’s suggestion, we headed a little north to Sha Sha resort and rented a canoe from them for the day. We had high hopes of being able to paddle Rainy Lake to Cranberry Bay. It was a windy day and after an hour of paddling we didn’t get very far and decided to dock on a nearby shore for lunch and then jumped in the lake for a quick swim. Rocky seemed to enjoy himself.
We finished up, got back in the canoe and quickly realized that paddling against the waves was no fun as we almost tipped a couple times. Rocky seemed oblivious of the imminent danger of capsizing. We gave back our canoe after only about 2 hours on the lake.
We made it back to Arnold’s RV park in International Falls and since there was nothing really to do there and restaurants didn’t look too good, we scooted across the boarder to Fort Frances, Canada to eat at Flint House. Cool atmosphere and I had some very tasty walleye.
After being questioned by the boarder guards about where we’re from and our whereabouts, we retired to bed early to catch up on some Z’s and vowed to prepare a little better before the next time we find ourselves up here.
Class C M.D. 