Getting "OUT there" in Minnesota

Camping is a well known activity in my memory that goes back to pop-ups and tents with childhood cousins, aunts and uncles in the mountains of Upstate New York and New England. Upon coming of age in Virginia Beach, a friend and I even went so far as to rent one of those military green jobbies at the base and took off for the mountains of West Virginia, only to find ourselves floating on our air mattresses the next morning, all of our clothes soaked. It became one of those crazy and romantic activities in the newlywed days with my husband, followed by, as a young family, reluctantly hitting the pop-up scene with other families.... You see we learned the "gee, it's great to be off the ground" lesson with our "firstborn ten-month old in a walker experience" on a rainy, muddy site in Pennsylvania a number of years back. From then on our focus went to KOA's, real bathrooms, clean showers, playgrounds and rec halls.

In Minnesota it almost goes without saying that camping (like hunting, fishing, four wheeling and snowmobiling) is a way of life, albeit different for different people and lifestyles in and around the state.

And, they say that, the quality of life around here follows the direction of the Friday afternoon traffic. Here in the Lakes area, that quality of life is part of the Northwoods economy. Resort camping is a tourism mainstay. Every Friday the route from Route 371 North through Brainerd is thick with more RV's, trailers, 5th wheels, and pop-ups than I have ever seen before. The entourage from the cities heads north to HERE, to what they perceive to be a more spacious and peaceful quality of life, away from the hustle and bustle of every day living.

Interestingly NORTH is also the direction the HERE population heads on Friday afternoons. Oh sure, they take daily advantage of the local lakes, boating, fishing and camping spots, but when they want to "get away" they, too, head NORTH, up near the Canadian Border (Big Falls, Voyageur National Park, or that someplace called the Boundary Waters). They follow the direction they perceive to be a more spacious and peaceful quality of life, away from the hustle and bustle of every day living. It's all in your perception I guess.

For years of visiting, I thought the Central/Brainerd Lakes area was about as "out there" as I could imagine... okay, well I went to Walker once and was seriously impressed...because seriously now, there were acres of forest, lakes, and a fair amount of camping sites without electricity or water.

Then, a friend took me to Ben Lynn Landing up in Big Falls for another Wild Women's Weekend. WE didn't arrive in the area until 9- 10PM. It was dark from Bemidji on so I had no sense of surroundings after that. But when we got to Big Falls, and drove down a single lane logging road for 9-10 miles, I began to get a sense of how "OUT there", "out there" can be in Minnesota.

Of course, it didn't help this KOA tenderfoot that when we arrived at the group site another group of bear hunters had buckets of bear bait smack-dab in the middle of everything. (I must confess I did not travel alone that night, and I breathed a prayer of relief when they packed up the next morning and left.) Those petrified visions of finding myself between a bear and bear bait dissipated quickly in the crisp morning air when I finally got a chance to look around.

That's when it hit me, when I realized I could look around, travel through miles and miles of lush and autumn-touched forest without probably running into another living human (aside from the 15 wild women, that is). It was truly amazing to sit on the bank, paddle around by canoe, and even bath in a most clear Mississippi River, and hear the really sh-sh-ing sounds of silence. Oh, there was the occasional call of a woodland bird (somehow I had expected more of that), the rustling of chipmunk, the angry nattering of a squirrel whose terrain I had invaded, a glimpse of a mink along the rocks. But for the most part, for the first time since childhood, I got in touch with the wonder of the pristine earth... as it once was everywhere and... as it is now for those who seek to find it.

I began to understand the journeys north. And even though I knew from experience that Brainerd Lakes was an outdoor paradise, there was truly something to be said for getting WAY out there in the wild woods. IT somehow connects you to a time in history when the discoveries of exploration were intense and wondrous and, regardless of any bears or isolation, brings a joyful repast from the norm. And so, as I contemplate a new life here in the Northwoods, I think it may just have to become a more frequent quest in my own explorative discoveries to get in touch with my "campy" roots on the roads "way out there" in the Minnesota woods.

(Top of Page)

Previous Fresh Eye Articles