I last went backpack camping when I was 18. And that trip was a disaster! My girlfriend and I abandoned the endeavor after 1 night of torrential rain. Spending the weekend lazing around in bed sounded much better.
Before that I’d backpacked with the Scouts, but those trips were also full of mishaps. Some fun, some less so. The Scouts and I did not get along.
But as a kid I’d spent a weekend backpacking through Arches National Park with my Dad. I remember the trip strongly and it remains one of the best childhood memories I have. It was challenging but beautiful.
Earlier this year, in the Before Times, I was planning to take my daughter to Yellowstone. Covid ended that plan, but my daughter remained enthusiastic about camping. So we planned a whole summer’s worth of camping trips. Thankfully we did this before every other Minnesotan had the same idea and booked up every camping spot in the state.
My daughter wanted to learn more about camping, so I planned each trip to introduce a new skill. Our first trip was car camping. Our second trip was car camping, but we tried to bring everything we needed in our backpacks. We went on longer and longer hikes. All with an eye towards spending two nights backpacking in George Crosby Manitou State Park.
I could have picked an easier park. Manitou is intentionally undeveloped. The trails are rugged and steep. There are few amenities. The topological map features those tightly bunched lines that lets you know your legs are in for a rough time.
But I fell in love with the park 3 years ago when I happened to hike through it with my then-wife. We didn’t know how rugged the trail we picked was. And we certainly didn’t know that it was going to dump rain on us for the last half of the hike. Like Arches, the challenge and the beauty of the park has stayed with me.
So, loaded up and ready for adventure we left the parking spot and headed to our campsite, number 5, right by the Manitou River. The Yellow Birch Trail is narrow and has a few tricky bits, but is mostly uneventful until the junction with the Misquah Trail. From this point down to the river, the Yellow Birch quickly descends a few hundred very rocky feet.
Once we reached the bottom the River trail had us jumping from rock to rock and hopping red pine roots to avoid tumbling in to the icy water below. This is much trickier when learning how to navigate with a loaded backpack throwing off your center of gravity. Hooray for my trekking poles. They were a life saver.
The campsite was gorgeous and we settled in for a night of star gazing and s’mores (for which I gathered barely enough firewood). Each campsite should have a pit latrine and a bear pole. We easily found the latrine, but never did find that bear pole. We found a suitable tree and made our own. No bears bothered us or our food.
On the second day we left our heavy packs at camp and took a day hike along the Superior Hiking Trail, another place I fell in love with on an earlier trip to the North Shore. I’ve hiked very little of it and wanted to take this opportunity to see more. The SHT in this area is just as steep and rocky as the park trails, so we did not go far. But we got some amazing views along the Horseshoe Ridge.
A small mishap with the water filter meant I had to boil extra water the 2nd night, which led to us running out of fuel the 2nd morning. But I was still able to make coffee, and we had enough food to start the day. An inconvenience so minor it does not deserve the name. Instead I hope it will add to our memories of the trip. We packed everything back up and began the climb out of the river valley, stopping at the scenic overlook by camping site 6.
Climbing out was no easier than hiking in. As happy as I was to give my legs a rest, I was sad to leave the park behind. We will be back!
