I can camp -Grand Marais

After our partial success with the I-can-Camp! Program, we were hungry for more. Partial I say because in the program not everything was done by us right from the beginning –like finding the right spot to setup our tent or lighting up the fire pit. We had some kind of guidance available at Sibley State Park when we attended the program. However we were confident that we should be able to pull off our next camping experience all by ourselves and so we selecting Grand Marais for one reason –its proximity to the town. Worst come worst, if nothing worked for us we could still find food from the local restaurants; which we did just because we wanted to. 

Ice Caves at Apostle Island

A couple of weeks back we heard from a friend of ours about an interesting place which can be wrapped in a one day trip from Minneapolis –Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. A lakeshore consisting of over 20 little islands in the southern bay of Lake Superior, we were there to visit the ice caves along the mainland and not in any of the islands. During winter when the lake has frozen, the place opens up to a different kind of adventure to be experienced –not on kayak or canoe but on foot over more than 12 inches of ice. The National Park authorities make sure that ice formed on Lake Superior is strong enough to bear the weight of people walking on them.

It’s for a short time [maybe a few weeks or less] when walking on ice is safe and hence we were expecting a lot of visitors like us from far and wide. We were also informed that since there isn’t enough parking spots available [for the # of visitors that come] it’s a good idea to arrive and park as close so that we save time on reaching the starting point of our trail. 

I can camp -Sibley State Park

This is part one of a two part article on what I would want to describe as our journey from I-can-Camp! to I-did-Camp!

Camping and fishing seem to be popular outdoor activities that Minnesotans involve themselves in during the summers. You may add cycling, trekking, canoeing to that list as well; basically everything outdoorsy. I guess it has to do with the fact that for 6 months or so, people in this part of the world are pretty much holed up in their warm homes. Of course there are the brave-hearts who find fun outdoor activities like skiing and ice fishing during the winters to keep themselves busy. However for someone like me and my buddy who had never camped on our own, we were missing out on this fun activity and thanks to Minnesota DNR’s I-can-camp program we were able to do that as well this last summer.