Minnesota Hiking Club #31 - Charles A. Lindbergh State Park

 

Minnesota Hiking Club

#31 - Charles A. Lindbergh State Park

Date Hiked: January 7th, 2025

Other Hikes That Day: Crow Wing State Park

Wanderloon Ranking System Score: 3.25

This state sure does love to hang on to its figures of cultural and historical significance. 

That's not an insult, I actually admire it. I like being in this Lindbergh a hell of a lot more than the one that's a terminal, that's for sure. 

This hike was really odd. Not in a negative way, but it's noteworthy nonetheless for the particular quirks I encountered along the way. Half of the Hiking Club trail was covered in ice, which made me grateful I wore my ice spikes before descending the stairs into the trail area. Unfortunately, the spikes and some steps up soon after didn't work well with each other, and I nearly slid my awkward ass the whole way down. What also didn't work well with spikes were the beds of pinecones on the half of the trail that wasn't icy. There was no medium, it was either thick ice that made the lovely crunch sound, or it was soft ground and pinecones that got attached, maybe to remind one of the ticks they were missing out on by not being there in the summer. I'll take the ones that don't cause diseases... that I know of. 

The historical location gives a perfect excuse for abandoned and half-collapsed buildings, so that always gets bonus points. The mix of terrain makes what would otherwise be a relatively easy hike through the woods more interesting, though the loop on the map looks like a bad rendering of New Jersey. They can't all be Lake Vermilion-Soudan in their shape simplicity. There isn't much for elevation gain outside of the stairs, but there are some lovely bridges and ridges. The park's namesake does well to inform one of the family's history while along this trail, which reflects its location of being near Little Falls quite well. You can't take a step in that town without learning that a Lindbergh once stopped there to be quick with their joke or to light up your smoke. 

Like most of the hikes before the winter's thaw, I was the only one there from start to finish, and despite the half-convenient, half-nuisance nature of my spike hike, it wrapped up pretty quickly. I wasn't sure if I was on the right trail more than once, and this was another location where I completely missed the password sign somehow despite the AllTrails badge of verified completion (thanks for the assist, Geocaching Bronco!). 

This park's visit was early in the speedrun, and I'm not even certain I'd decided to do the one-season trek by this point. But, with my first hike being at Crow Wing earlier, it was a logical second hike to grab on the way back, as US-10 goes right through Little Falls to get back to the metro from the Brainerd area. This is another instance of two parks being in sequential order in the passport booklet, so that provided me a useless bit of amusement as well. Considering the era we're in, I'll take anything I can get.