Voyageurs National Park
To make the journey towards home, we had two long days of driving across Canada through the provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba. I found a spot at small community campground in a town called Whitewood. We had dinner at the only restaurant (and bar) in town and then settled in for the night.
The stop would hardly be worth a mention except that around 11 pm, the skies opened and we got to witness “a real zinger of a storm” as our campsite neighbor said the next morning. There was huge thunder and lightning and hail. The trailer was a-rockin’. The power went out in the whole town. We weathered it all fine, in fact, the rain didn’t even wake Ben. And, fortunately, we didn’t even know there had been a tornado warning until the next morning. Had I seen this, I probably would have been much more anxious about the situation.
The next morning, once we wrung things out a bit, we set-off for Voyageurs National Park. This was another long day of driving and included a border crossing and a return-to-the-USA celebratory Dairy Queen pit stop.
Voyageurs, in far northern Minnesota, runs along the border with Canada and is comprised of more than thirty lakes and 900 islands. More than a third of the park area is water, so it’s a park that is best explored by boat.
We are camping on Kabetegoma Lake, one of the largest in the park, at a private and rustic resort called Arrowhead Lodge. The lodge offers what seems to be most coveted of all up here: direct access to a dock to get out on the water. It also, conveniently, has a tasty restaurant with a pretty patio overlooking the lake.
When I called the owners last winter to ask about renting a boat to explore the park, they asked how many times we’ve visited before, how often we’ve fished, and how good we are with navigating a boat. When my answers were 0-0 and “not very good.” He encouraged me to contact a guide named Don Grainger.
Don Grainger has spent fifty years on these lakes. He and his wife owned a small resort in the area until 2005 when they retired, but retained a few acres and built their own summer house. Now he spends 3-4 days each week taking people out on the water. Spending the day on his boat, with him as a guide, was like visiting a Great Uncle who takes great pride in showing off his favorite place.
Don was extremely patient as he taught us the basics of casting a line and fishing for Walleye and Small Mouth Bass. He tolerated our squeamishness around the live bait (I mean we were fishing with leeches…gross). He laughed when we hesitated before holding our catch by the mouth to pose for photos. He was floored when we actually started catching them. In a very short amount of time, we caught more than enough to be lunch for the day.
Ray caught the most of anyone, including two Walleye so large that they needed to be returned to the waters, per local regulation.
With our catch in the hatch on ice, Don took us about forty-five minutes to the Kettle Falls Hotel, a historic location that is only accessible by boat and has been hosting visitors since 1913. Here, you can bring your catch and they serve it up for lunch with beans, toast, and potatoes. (For those of you who know Ben, don’t worry, he did not go hungry: they also serve cheeseburgers.)
After lunch, Don took us to several other notable spots along the shore as well as a few excellent spots for a swim before turning the boat around to make the return trip to the lodge. We spent a full day on the lake in his company and it was an excellent way to see the park.
We woke up to rain on our second day on Kabetogama Lake, so we eased into our activities. We had breakfast at the lodge and then made our obligatory pilgrimage to the Visitor’s Center. The kids worked on their Junior Ranger book and Ben and I watched an interesting film about the voyageurs for which Voyageurs is named.
Once the skies cleared in the afternoon, we rented a watercraft sampler platter – one double canoe, one stand up paddle (SUP) board, and one kayak, and spent a few hours paddling and swimming in the lake. Ben and Ray both really enjoyed using the SUP. Honestly, Eli really liked it too.
After dinner, Eli and I returned to the water one more time to enjoy this beautiful and very out-of-the way spot. It was a very nice way to wrap up this journey.
And, that’s all she wrote, folks. We spend our final night in the Dells tomorrow, mostly to thoroughly clean our tanks and clean up the trailer before we roll back home to Evanston tomorrow.
We’re already brainstorming about the summer trip for 2023.
