Dwyer Column: North Shore camping trip a success
Aug 08, 2020 12:04PM ● By Editor
Grand Marais Harbor at sunrise on January 28. Photo: Zach Dwyer
By Zach Dwyer of The St. Cloud Times - August 7, 2020
I've always been a city boy.
I lived the first 18 years of my life in New Hope, just an hour down the road in the northwest suburbs of Minneapolis.
While I went to college at UW-River Falls, which is noted for it's agriculture programs, I always felt a little out of place with Wisconsinites that grew up with hunting and fishing as the norm.
But before I was even old enough to walk, I've been visiting the North Shore of Minnesota.
Some of my favorite early pictures are of just my head poking out of a bright blue backpack being carried by my dad in Duluth and at Split Rock Lighthouse.
Duluth was our annual vacation spot for over a decade when I was growing up, and the magnetic charm of Lake Superior drew me in from an early age.
I've seen the big lake, commonly referred to in Ojibwe as "Gitchi Gami", from other spots in Wisconsin like Ashland, Bayfield and Door County, all beautiful in their own ways.
But there's always been something about the roughly 170-mile stretch from Duluth to the Canadian border that spoke to me. It began with diving deep into the 1,000 foot boats that split through the Duluth Shipping Canal so close you felt like you could reach out and touch them.
The last family vacation with my older brother and parents up to Two Harbors was 2017, and 2018 was the final time I was able to tag along with my parents. When they both went up by themselves last summer, it was the first time in almost 30 years they were free of dragging the boys along.
I knew I wanted to go this year, but COVID-19 had put a halt on most travel plans throughout the spring. But as summer approached, my girlfriend put out an idea: why don't we go camping?
Camping? Like outside? In a tent?
The only time I'd stayed overnight in a tent was my backyard in elementary school, and I'd grown pretty used to having a nice hotel bed and complimentary breakfasts in the morning on vacations.
But hey, 2020's been a weird year. Why not take a leap?
We went about booking a campground, and on May 8 we were able to find one available site left at Cascade River State Park, Temperance River State Park and Tettegouche State Park for the last week of July.
While campgrounds wouldn't potentially open up until June at the time, we took a chance to make the trip happen. As two 23-year-olds on a budget, tenting it was about the only way we could make a true vacation work this summer.
But before the trip began we got thrown a wild card. Due to low staffing during the pandemic, Cascade River State Park wasn't opening until the week after our reservation. With our opening night campsite gone, we scrambled and managed to find a lakeside tent spot in Grand Marias.
What a blessing that was. The city that was voted "best small town in the U.S." a few years back never disappoints, and our campsite was steps away from the crashing waves of Lake Superior. Waking up at 5:15 a.m. to beat the sunrise over the harbor was the best decision I made the entire week.
The campgrounds also had plenty of COVID-19 measures in place. Checking in through a window at the main office, limits on amount of people in restrooms and required masks were all part of the setups.
Grand Marais has a campground with over 300 sites along the harbor, but Temperance River and Baptism River campgrounds had only 20-30 sites, tucked away in the trees for a true "out in the woods" feeling.
Temperance River had just completed a total upgrade of its bathrooms and showers the week before, providing new personal shower rooms that felt almost too nice to use while "roughing it."
The Baptism River site on night three was our first campsite that had electricity, finally giving us a chance to charge our phones after nursing battery life for two-plus days (which was a welcome break from technology).
And the trails. There was Oberg Mountain, a three-mile loop that puts you high above the forests that spread for miles until they meet the big lake.
Waterfalls upon waterfalls could be found at Temperance and Tettegouche, whether hidden in the rocks, tucked down below hundreds of stairs or visible from long distances, including Minnesota's tallest waterfall at the aptly-named High Falls of the Baptism River. We even saw a bear roaming within shouting distance along the river.
After two decades of driving and visiting sites along the shore, there's still always something new to do or see. Whether you want a rugged hike for unparalleled views or a quiet beach spot for reflection, there's never a shortage of opportunities.
And with a handy state park pass good until next summer, I hate to say it, but: I'm ready to go camping again.
Zach Dwyer is a sports reporter and photographer for the St. Cloud Times. Reach him at 320-406-5660 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @sctimeszach.
To read the original article and more of Zach's columns for this link to The St. Cloud Times website.. https://www.sctimes.com/story/sports/2020/08/07/dwyer-north-shore-camping-success/3299272001/
