“Stay Fit” Vacations – Minnesota Boundary Waters
Last
summer, I wrote a new article every Friday that offered some insight into
America’s small town festivals. This
summer, I’d like to explore some lesser know spots across the USA that offer a
fantastic opportunity to stay fit while you take a vacation! My wife and I tend to alternate our vacations
so that every other one is a “sit on your butt in the sand” trip (I love
those), and the alternate ones are “walk 6-10 miles per day exploring geography
or an ancient city” vacations. The trips
I plan to talk about on Fridays this summer are definitely the latter.
To
kick off this new series of articles, I will start close to home with an
introduction to Minnesota’s great boundary waters. If you look at Minnesota on a map, you’ll
probably see two big city areas marked.
The twin cities of Minneapolis/St. Paul and the international sea port
city of Duluth (you didn’t know land-locked Minnesota had a sea port, did you? You could swim through the great lakes all
the way to the Atlantic if you wanted to).
Zoom into the state of Minnesota on your google map and you won’t see any
major cities north of Duluth. In fact,
the whole “arrowhead” of Northeastern Minnesota is populated by more bears and
moose than people!
Bears,
Moose, Loons, Minks, Beavers, Lakes, Northern Lights, pristine wilderness, and
absolute silence is what draw people to the Boundary Waters of Northern
Minnesota. There are no motorized
vehicles allowed (not even motor boats), and that’s a good thing; because there
aren’t any roads. There are bodies of
water here that have never been fished by mankind. If you like to camp and canoe, there may not
be a better place on planet earth to do it.
For
the extreme adventurist, there is a marked trail that goes all the way around
the Kabetogama Peninsula. It takes seven
days to paddle and portage your way around the loop. There’s also a 13 mile paddle that points due
north where you’ll be rewarded by the civilized confines of the Kettle Falls
Hotel and Resort. Bring your camera, but
have a plan to keep it dry. Leave your
cell phones at home, because there are no cell towers here…
For
the less "stout of heart," there are several trails (hiking and/or canoeing) that wind
their ways through the forrest, over lakes, and rocky high points. Some park near Lake Kabetogama and begin
their kayak or canoe adventure there.
The lake is dotted with hundreds of small islands with state maintained
camping paddocks and bear proof food lockers.
You can paddle/camp around the southern edge of the Boundary Waters and
still be within reach of your car, if you decide to head another direction.
Find
more information by googling “Minnesota Boundary Waters,” or by visiting the
government’s National Park Service website at https://nps.gov/voya.
EXTRA: If
you have questions for Ken regarding business travel, hotels, airplanes, etc,
please call 1-877-49-EXPERT. Your
questions will be recorded and sent to him.
You can also follow Ken on Twitter @foodbreeze!
