A Camping Weekend

A Camping Weekend

By Allan Olson

We decided late last week that we needed to squeeze in another camping weekend – just a quick overnight trip to a state park we have never camped at before, and an area we have never really explored before. My wife and I discussed two directions – the northwest corner of Minnesota, or east of Grand Rapids. We settled on going northwest, in the direction of Hallock and points west. Our destination was one of two state parks – Lake Bronson or Old Mill. Our initial thought was to stay at Lake Bronson, a larger park and a little more centrally located in the area I had planned to geocache. We checked out the status of both parks Saturday morning prior to our departure, and both still had plenty of openings. My older brother and his family had decided to go camping this weekend, too, and ended up going to that part of the state as well, and when we were over halfway, we decided to point our vehicle toward the campground they went to – Old Mill State Park.

 For the last five years we have spent camping weekends with them, with one adventure out in South Dakota and another in Iowa, and others not quite as crazy but just as much fun. When we departed we knew this wasn’t going to be just any road trip, as we had new territory to explore. I had a few caching destinations in mind when we left at 7:30 on Saturday morning, and it was mostly backroads that we would be traveling. Just outside of Red Lake, shortly before we hit Highway 1, we saw what we had been hoping to see all summer – bears. I spotted the black animals on the road and instantly slowed down. I reached for my camera, which was beside me on the seat. While I certainly won’t win any photography awards for the shots I got of those bears, we were all excited to finally see one. We continued on our path toward the park, making a few stops along the way and eventually made it to the town closest to our destination. We grabbed a few grocery items at a grocery/hardware store in Newfolden, since we wanted to avoid any larger towns on the day’s journey. This fit perfectly into our day. We found our campground, selected a site and, as fate would have it, adjacent to my brother and family! We set up camp, made lunch and then left to continue on our day’s journey.

 We visited so many little towns across that part of the state – I didn’t even know most of them existed. We went nearly to the Canadian border in at least two locations, but didn’t cross the line because our own government won’t let me back in without a passport. We made multiple wrong turns on dirt roads that looked like they would eventually connect to a highway, but instead turned into gopher roads between fields. Part of this adventure was about, as Robert Frost said, “... taking the road less traveled.” One such road required a minor shift to 4WD just to make sure we got back to the highway. I was traveling down the road and looking at the mud flying up before me and decided to make use of the auto 4WD button – just in case. After a brief stop and the addition of several pounds of mud to our shoes, we continued onto the highway, where we fishtailed on the dry pavement as our vehicle shed mud from its tires.

We continued our adventure into Pembina, ND, where we grabbed some fuel for the vehicle and our bellies before making our way back to the campground. The roads on the way back took us through more small rural towns and even some interesting parks – including one where they had movable animals that could be pushed around on carts. We finally arrived at our campsite for the evening, about 13 hours after leaving home. We were all tired, but also excited about all the new territory we had covered. The only disappointment was that we hadn’t yet seen a moose.

I promised the kids I wouldn’t be in a hurry to pack-up and leave on Sunday, and that I would let them go swimming as long as it warmed up and wasn’t raining. As luck would have it, everything worked out in the kids’ favor, and by 9:30 a.m. the campsite was packed up and we headed over to the beach.

The kids enjoyed swimming with their cousins for an hour, and I just relaxed and enjoyed the fresh air and sunshine. We were on the road again by noon, opting again for a slow pace, taking backroads almost the entire way. I admit that we did stop at a box store in Thief River Falls for a few supplies, and I did find a coffee shop to wake my tired eyes up. We stopped in Red Lake Falls for lunch and to find a couple more caches, then rode Highway 2 east until McIntosh before taking back roads again the rest of the way home.

Back at home, we unpacked the vehicle, and Marcus and Alivia set up the tents to air them out. I made supper, and we all just laid around. This week we are enforcing an electronics ban for all the children until they help clean the house that they live in and mess up.

The weekend looks to be full of Fourth of July festivities, including a parade and fireworks and family visiting. Here’s wishing everyone a safe and happy holiday weekend! I hope everyone enjoys their summer vacation and is able to spend some time on the lake and in the woods.

Thanks to everyone for reading, and as always, please be safe while enjoying your favorite outdoor recreational activity and on the lakes. Remember to take pictures to preserve a lifetime of memories. Thanks for reading, and have a great week!