Last weekend we went up north about an hour and a half to the big lake of Mille Lacs. We stayed at a state park near the lake and ventured another backpacking experience. We must say, it was much better than our first experience at George Crosby.
Before even getting out of the jeep we saw our first little creature... an interesting bug:
Our site was only .5 miles into the woods. It was actually on a mile loop trail, which made it even better because since it was just a loop trail, no one ever went on it. We got our packs loaded up and loaded harpo up as well this time.
Too bad he took two steps and then the rug fell off his back... but at least we tried, lol. We ventured down the half mile trail to our site, passing wonderful wildlife, this was a pretty cool tree we had to duck under on the trail:
Again we saw some crazy mushrooms
We made it to our campsite and Harpo was able to roam free. He LOVES when we backpack because we don't leave him on his leash (shhh don't tell since this is against state park rules) He doesn't go far, just chases chipmunks.
We decided to try something different with our sleeping arrangements. We knew it was going to be cold this weekend, low of 39. So we decided to bring one big sleeping back to lay on as padding, a sheet set, and two blankets. The sheets and blankets actually fit better in our packs than our two individual sleeping bags. Then we just tied the huge sleeping back onto the outside of one of our packs. We got our tent set up and explored our campsite for a little bit before going off to hike the park.
We hiked back to our jeep and drove down the road a bit through the park to where the other trails started. This park was pretty large, something we read said it is the 4th largest state park in the state. We started the hiking club trail (ya know the trail that has the password - speaking up my hiking club book finally arrived in the mail! So now we have to hike 100 miles to get a free night of camping... we're at 22.5 now, they only count the hiking club trail distances). These trails were wide:
This park had a national landmark area, which was a site that indians used to live at. While Kyle read the signs, I took pictures of the beautiful day we were having.
After we hiked the trails, we headed back to the jeep and drove over to the entry of our site/loop. On our walk back to the campsite Kyle spotted these two huge bird/crane type things. We stood and watched them for a little bit.
Then we made dinner and hit the hay! We had pretty much hiked most of the park, I mean we had the password that was the important part. We decided the next day we'd do one small trail, then drive over to another state park that wasn't too far from this one, and also explore what Lake Mille Lacs had to offer (which really wasn't much).
Day 2 coming up....
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