Bemidji MN Part 2

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We spent more time exploring Voyageurs NP and International Falls yesterday than expected, so we didn’t get a chance to visit a couple of other sights we were hoping to see on our drive back. Since it was only about 20 miles to Camp Rabideau where a historic CCC camp is, we head out in the morning to explore some more of Northern Minnesota. We work a stop at Webster Lake Campground first to look for a geocache since it was kind of on our way. We park in the day use area and begin a short walk to the boardwalk where we are to begin our adventure.

Webster Lake

Boardwalk at Webster Lake

The type of cache we were searching for is a multi-cache. This means there are multiple stages to find. Each stage provides some information that leads us to the next stage. We knew there were a total of 6 stages. As we walked though the campground, we saw that this federally run facility actually has sites that would be large enough for us to fit in with our rig. It’s unlikely we will ever get back to the area to take advantage of the campground but good to know. We end up finding several of the stages but get stumped before figuring out where the final container was hidden. At least it was a pretty location for a short walk.

Trail

Camp Rabideau is not too far from Walker Lake. We see the sign at the end of a road leading back into this old Civilian Conservation Corps camp. Over the years, we have visited a fair number of spots where some of the 2650 CCC camps had been constructed back in the 1930’s but this one is special. It is one of only 3 camps that still in existence and is the best preserved of them.

Entrance to Camp Rabideau

Some CCC Buildings

We pull into the parking area and start to walk over to the nearby RV. There is a volunteer that stays here during the summer months and looks after the place and gives tours to visitors. She had seen us pull in and came out to welcome us. She had her keys for the numerous buildings and we head into the first one. This woman has been doing this hosting job for quite a few years so she really knows her stories about the history of each stop.

Curved Ceiling

Arched Walkway

In general, the buildings are in excellent shape. She explains that there are several volunteer crews that come here annually to take care of some of the maintenance required.

Cribbage Game in Progress

Old Twin Lens Camera

Unlike most of the other CCC camps, this one has been in use beyond the time when the 300 young men were stationed here. During WWII, the buildings were used by the Army. After the war, it sat idle until the University of Illinois leased the camp for their forestry and engineering students. Improvements were made to the buildings in the nearly 30 years Rabideau was under lease by the university.

Bunks in Barracks

Moose Painting

CCC Memorabilia Area

The old barracks are still used by the volunteers that come for maintenance. The old kitchen also looks like it could be used. We particularly liked the old butcher block table since we had a similar one in our old house in western New York. We spent about an hour touring the old camp and really learned a lot about this camp in particular but also some details about the CCC that we didn’t know. It’s not clear if all visitors get such a thorough tour but we appreciated the host’s time and knowledge.

Pantry Items

Big End-Grain Butcher Block Table

Large Gas Stove and Griddle

Menus from 1936 with Prices

We took advantage of the picnic shelter to have our lunch before heading out. We had one more stop in this the area that we had discovered from a geocache listing. There is a fire tower just a few miles to the north. We had asked the guide about it and she said it was still standing and open to climbing. We drive there and find the small parking area with a path to the tower.

Fire Tower

As soon as I saw this fire tower, I knew I was making the ascent on my own. While it seemed sturdy to me, Chris was not impressed with its stability. The geocache hidden is actually on the fire tower as opposed to on the ground nearby. The description mentions that it is 135 steps up to the cache but I find it difficult to count steps, watch my footing and also enjoy the view at the same time. So when I made it to the top level, I had no idea how many steps I had climbed. I enjoyed the view and took some pictures.

Graffiti

View from Top of Tower

Then I  started back down trying to decided where it could be hidden. The cache description also had a comment by the cache owner that it required a taller person to be able to reach the hiding spot which helped me narrow down the location. Sure enough I was able to reach out and find the small bison tube hidden in the end of one of the metal support rods. I tried not to look down as I reached out to make the grab and was very careful to not drop it otherwise I would have to make the trip a second time. When I did come down I noticed the forest service inspection sticker at the base of the tower. Most of the items checked had received a “green” rating but the ladder safety system was a “yellow”. Probably better that I hadn’t seen this before climbing or I may have chickened out.

Don't Look Down!

Safety Tag on Tower

We wanted to get a bike ride in but were looking for something different than the nearby Paul Bunyan Trail. Just a little southeast of Bemidji is Cass Lake which has a trail going around about 75% of it. The Migizi Trail is listed as 19.6 miles in AllTrails but they consider it an out and back trail since it isn’t a complete loop. But we realize that the Heartland Trail comes through Cass Lake as well and if we are willing to bike a couple miles of side streets in town, we could piece together a nice loop of around 15 miles. There are a fair number of geocaches along the route if we choose to take breaks in the ride. We start by parking in the Minnesota Welcome Center next to Cass Lake. There is a short spur trail that leads under the busy road to the northern end of the Migizi Trail. Initially the trail is along the busy road so not the most peaceful or scenic but after a few miles, it heads south into a wooded, more secluded section of trail.

Along Northern Section of Migizi Trail

More Secluded Portion of Trail

We did discover that the mosquitoes were hungry whenever we stopped to look for geocaches so we tried to limit how many we looked for. There were a few nice overlooks along the trail with nice views of Cass Lake. When the trail ended, we picked up a lightly traveled road for a half mile or so before getting onto the Heartland Trail and head north.

View of Cass Lake

Small Beach Area

After 3 miles, we are back in the town of Cass Lake where we take some surface roads back over to the rest area. I’m glad they have given the town a more pronounceable name than its original name in Ojibwe of Gaamiskwaawaakokaag - talk about a mouthful! We ended up with just over 15 miles - biking for 2 hours and stopped for caches or lunch for another 90 minutes. It was an okay ride but we have done better ones.

Welcome to Gaamiskwaawaakokaag 

Back at the campground that evening, there was a concert at the amphitheater. Mike and Tom performed a wide variety of tunes that we actually knew and could sing along to.

Mike and Tom Perform

The following day we head over to Hobson Memorial Forest about 5 miles east of camp. There were 7 geocaches hidden there and several miles of trails. We quickly discovered that this set of trails is like many others in the area - they are generally used for cross country skiing, not hiking. The trails were overgrown and there were a few spots where the storm had brought down some trees across the trail and since winter is a long ways off, they had not been clear yet.

Trailhead at Hobson Memorial Forest

Unmowed Trail

That doesn’t mean we turned back since none of the conditions were real bad. However at one of the early geocaches we went looking for, we had a bit of an incident. The cache was maybe 20 yards into the woods along the trail. The understory was rather thick, so we were moving slowly as we tried to get to ground zero. Just as we were close enough to start looking in earnest, I felt a something on my shoulder. I initially assumed I had simply brushed up against another tree branch and got poked.

Large Fungus

But then I felt something on my leg and realized I had riled up some sort of ground based bee or wasp nest. I started to walk away from the area until I noticed more of them flying around. At that point I went into full flight mode. I just started running as fast as I could which wasn’t terribly fast given the amount of brush. Chris wasn’t positive what was going on other than her husband was yelling and running away further into the woods. I eventually got away from the danger but it did take some effort to get back to the trail. I assessed the stings and knew they were going to swell up and hurt but not bad enough to call it quits for the rest of the hike. We did however leave this cache for the next finder and posted a “did not find” warning future cachers of the possible danger.

We continued the walk and had to climb over a few fallen trees along the way but didn’t need to turn back at any point. There were a few small ponds along the trail and even found some sort of shelter with a fire ring and several makeshift benches. We ended up getting back to the car finding 5 of the 7 hides, getting in about 2.5 miles and had 2 new stings that would hurt for days. This won’t make our best hike list but it was okay nonetheless.

Fallen Trees on Trail

Dock Doesn't Look Safe

Ready for a Campfire

Inside Shelter

That evening was another concert at the amphitheater. Tonight’s performer was Donna and Greg Gaston. They sang a lot of folk songs we knew with some older ones from Joni Mitchell and Joan Baez. It was a nice way to end the day.

Donna and Greg Gaston Perform

We only had a couple more days at Bemidji and had a few places we wanted to visit. One was to find an older geocache hidden back in 2001 and another spot was to check out an area called the Lost 40. They weren’t really in the same direction but we came up with a driving route that would get us to both spots and back to camp.

The Lost 40 is a section of forest that has some old growth trees and was supposed to be an interesting place to walk though. Back in 1882, a crew of surveyors was dividing up the Minnesota forestland into 40 acre parcels to be sold off for logging or homesteading. Apparently the crew made some errors in their measurements and one parcel was never identified to be sold. Having been spared any logging activity, there are some of the largest and oldest red and white pine trees. It’s now under the management of the National Forest system to maintain its old growth characteristics. It’s about 25 miles east of the town of Blackduck. While going through town this time, we discovered the town’s original blackduck statue.

The Original Blackduck Statue

Lost Forty This Way

Given the remote spot, we were surprised to find so many other visitors although it being Labor Day may have contributed to the crowds. There is a loop trail of almost 1 mile and another spur trail at the far end of the loop.

Chris Leads the Way at Lost 40

A Big Pine Tree

It was a pleasant walk in the woods. There was both an EarthCache and a traditional geocache hidden in the woods along the trail. The trees were definitely big, but they didn’t stand out as enormous. In the back of my mind, I was expecting the hike to be like the ones we did out west in the redwoods. Even a 300 year old pine doesn’t get as big as redwoods. I’m not sure I would consider this a must do stop in the area but we still enjoyed our visit.

Chris Picks Her Favorite Tree

Fallen Giant

Next we start to head south towards the old cache but make a stop along the way at another national forest area to do a short walk on the Simpson Creek Trail. We only walked enough of the trail to find the geocache hidden here and then we wandered around the boat launch area.

Start of Simpson Creek Trail

Dock Along Boat Ramp

As we continued south, we stopped to check out Lake Winnibigoshish and its dam. This is another portion of the Mississippi River about 170 miles from the headwaters at Lake Itasca. A fair number of people were out fishing just below the dam.

Dam on the Mississippi River

Lake Winnibigoshish

Our main mission of finding the old geocache took us on a dirt road for about 2 miles south of US Route 2 near the town of Bena Minnesota. The drive was fine and there was a small pullout near another service road. From our map, it looked like we had about a half mile walk back into the woods to find this one. Fortunately we had read logs from previous finders to know that there was a very good likelihood of bugs this time of year. We had long pants and long sleeve shirts but were also forced to don the dreaded head nets. Good thing we had them because we were swarmed by mosquitoes and flies. At times it seemed like there was a cloud of bugs following us along the path. The cache itself was a few hundred feet off the trail and I was the one forced to venture in to find it. I found it relatively quickly but my normal habit of reading through the log books of a really old cache was cut short because of the bugs.

Chris Smiles Under Her Head Net

The rest of the drive was easy, just following Route 2 into Bemidji. We did stop at another large fish display. It seems like Minnesotans love their fish. This big muskie appears to actually be a building with the door in its mouth. That night we were predicted to have favorable conditions for northern lights but alas, even though we are very far north, we had no luck seeing them.

Definitely a BIG Fish

No Aurora Tonight for Us

I think we overestimated how much there was to see in the Bemidji area. Spending 9 nights was definitely more than we needed. I think part of our original reason for our length of stay was to cover the Labor Day weekend since camping reservations can often be difficult to get. We had to expand our day trips by quite a distance just to fill the time. I’m not saying to avoid the area but a few nights would have been sufficient. On our last full day, we took it easy and I walked to a few geocaches we hadn’t gotten to within the park. The beach was deserted on the Tuesday after the holiday.

Empty Beach at Bemidji SP

Next stop Gilby North Dakota - the Disneyland of geocaching!