Minnesota Hiking Club #58 - Glendalough State Park

Minnesota Hiking Club

#58 - Glendalough State Park

Date Hiked: March 2nd, 2025

Other Hikes That Day: Lake Bemidji State Park, La Salle Lake State Recreation Area, Itasca State Park

Wanderloon Ranking System Score: 2.25

With the options of non-W parks having grown slim, having access to some of them after considerable snowmelt was a productive aid to maintaining the productivity to finish the Minnesota Hiking Club by my self-imposed, arbitrary deadline. 

If one is looking to maximize proximity, as well as efficiency with common road usage, there are pockets of parks that make this possible. The North Shore is an obvious example, with most of the parks being on 61. While not as convenient, the 94 does the same, especially if the W code is (most likely) irrelevant to the pursuit. My initial idea for this day was to pick up the 94 Ws, since I'd already covered the others. Starting with Glendalough, I'd then grab Lake Carlos and Lake Maria on the way back. A quick glance to the Other Hikes will tell you that clearly didn't happen, but for people who don't get weird urges to go knock out three others in a different part of the state, it's a suggestion.

If one is unfamiliar with the park, particularly in winter desolation, searching for the stamp and the Hiking Club trail may take some time. Plan accordingly. 

After accidentally hearing a local radio station out of Detroit Lakes assault my ears with a weather report that sounded like Baby's First AI, I set out, thinking that enough snow had melted that I wouldn't need my spikes. You'd think I'd have learned from such mistakes earlier on in this hiking speedrun, but alas. 

Glendalough's Hiking Club trail is mid-range in terms of its distance. With the shortest Hiking Club trails being a mere 1 mile and several tied for being the longest at 6.2 (though I'd dispute that, more on that in a later issue), Glendalough's 3.3-mile lake loop fits right in that middle ground, and as a mostly-simple route around a lake, it's probably an easy stroll with pavement, green leaves, and temperatures with more than one digit. However, when penguin-walking over thick ice and seeking out the sections with more of the crunchy-crunchy, it adds a bit to the time elapsed. I blame no one but myself, for the record. 

Along the route, I couldn't ignore the urge to go see Itasca after hearing someone speak glowingly on the park. While it was part of another pocket of nearby parks, Itasca was over two hours from Glendalough, and likely just as cold. However, that would also give me the opportunity to knock out three more parks that day, so ambition won out over reason, logic, or any semblance of convenience. 

While I didn't wander into the nearby town of Detroit Lakes before heading toward Bemidji, I did momentarily question if there were any abandoned car factories there, just out of a namesake tribute. When that's the thought I wrote in my Passport journal, I can tell that circumnavigating this lake via boot skating didn't leave much of an impression. But, unlike the same day's #67 hike, it left one.