Minnesota Hiking Club #15 - Itasca State Park

 

Minnesota Hiking Club

#15 - Itasca State Park

Date Hiked: March 2nd, 2025

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

Wanderloon Ranking System Score: 4.00

Is that graphic representative of the majesty that is Itasca State Park? Probably not, but a lot of people younger than me haven't seen one of those outside of a Clark Kent super spinny locker room solo flash mob, so it's pretty unique nonetheless.

This is one of those places I'm gonna have to revisit. Not just because it's the second state park in the history of this country, not just because Mary Gibbs is a freaking badass, not just because of the Mississippi River headwaters or the Lost 40 or the Hiking Club trail itself or the sheer immense size of this park necessitating four different entry points, but because after three hikes and considerable commute times, it was already twilight and I was on autopilot at best. I couldn't even find the Passport stamp, though I imagine it's inside the visitor's center. Which, of course, was locked because I got there after 4 and it started getting dark, and because it's me visiting a place in this speedrun so it had to be closed. 

The fact that this place has a Hiking Club trail at all is not only a mere afterthought, but almost seems beneath it. There are seven state parks/recreation areas that don't have Hiking Club trails for whatever reason, but if this was one of them simply because it's Itasca and Itasca don't need to join no trendy clubs, I'd also believe it. If the Minnesota State Parks were each a theatre queer backstage at a performance, Itasca is the one with her own light setup and a cigarette in her hand, saying "watch and learn or you'll never work this show again, dahling." Don't let her age fool you, she's a shark and she'll eat you alive if you don't keep your wits about you. 

Twilight was falling fast, everything was icy, I couldn't find the stamp for this park (or La Salle Lake SRA for that matter), so I could either dwell on making the boosty parts of the brain happy with ink on a page, or I could go get a password, even if I wasn't sure I was supposed to just yet. W-codes and all, but there was no one to ask and I was already there and Itasca is no short commute. 

This New Hampshire-shaped loop is a pale blue dot in the universe that is Itasca's massive state park. I was amazed by how much infrastructure there was in this place. Multiple places to visit, entire inns and restaurants, and the echoing voices of how many people likely flood this place when the leaves are green and people can feel their faces. So I'd have to come back and give myself an entire day to experience it, but also choose that time carefully and make sure I had an out anytime I needed it. Autism is fun sometimes. 

It's on the longer side, it's got elevation gain, it's a mystical, ethereal setting far beyond what our species deserves. 

Minnesota Hiking Club #16 - Gooseberry Falls State Park

 

Minnesota Hiking Club

#16 - Gooseberry Falls State Park

Date Hiked: December 22nd, 2024

Other Hikes That Day: Split Rock Lighthouse State Park

Wanderloon Ranking System Score: 3.92

This is where it all started, in more ways than one.

Yes, this was my first stamp and my first Hiking Club trail of this speedrun, but it's more than that. This was the first Minnesota State Park I ever visited, years ago before I even lived here. I walked on a waterfall for the first time while I was on spring break from university. An unseasonably warm day, I was in a t-shirt and standing on a frozen waterfall on a lovely March day. That was the first time I even knew about the North Shore, let alone Split Rock Lighthouse, Two Harbors, or anything else. I owe Jerry a great deal for taking that road trip with me. He didn't have to go with me that day, I was just his kid's friend and he'd met me one time. Yet, he not only did that but wrote me a letter of recommendation for grad school. Wherever he is, I hope he's well. 

I say this was my first Hiking Club trail in more ways than one too. 

The Hiking Club and Passport booklets had been sitting on my table. A brief foray into a hiking-specific Instagram led me to discover that the Hiking Club was even a thing, and when I saw there were two options, I was a bit extra (as always) and decided to do both. It wasn't until I got the yearlong pass that I opened up the book and started figuring out where to go. Most of the names I didn't recognize, as I'm not from here and have mostly traveled along the eastern border of the state, both north and south. The two names (other than Fort Snelling, it was winter and I couldn't go there) that I knew: Gooseberry Falls and Split Rock Lighthouse. Those I could do.

But also, I'd hiked this exact trail before without knowing I could get credit for it. 

On a long Geocaching hike when the weather was perfect, I wanted to see Gooseberry but also needed to be far away from the hoards of tourists. I saw a single Geocache way out in the park, and the only way to get to it was to cross the bridge over the falls and follow a trail out to a cliff. I got that find, and the view I would see from that giant ridge down into the valley looked very familiar when I did my first Hiking Club trail. Though this time the trail was covered in ice, and those cliffs were a lot scarier upon realizing one bad slip and my booklets would remain forever one and only. 

Yes, this is personal and anecdotal, but what the hell else am I gonna write about Gooseberry Falls State Park that nobody else has? Multiple tiers of waterfalls, frozen in the winter, a ubiquitous rest stop always. The Hiking Club trail is on the side without all the people, tread carefully. It's a long way down. It's awesome. 

Minnesota Hiking Club #17 - Interstate State Park

Minnesota Hiking Club

#17 - Interstate State Park

Date Hiked: December 31st, 2024

Other Hikes That Day: None

Wanderloon Ranking System Score: 3.92

Everything I said about the New Year's Day trilogy in the previous entry on Nerstrand-Big Woods? Yeah, run that back, but make it a day earlier. 

We good? We good. Okay. 

Only the third Hiking Club trail trip, fourth stop overall, and it was somewhere relatively close. The lone St. Croix line trail that wasn't W-coded, I just wanted something to do on New Year's Eve that didn't involve thinking or personal insight, and instead I got a truly badass hike at a time when most people weren't in the parks. What an interesting revelation, I think in retrospect and likely noticed at the time: if I do them all on days like this, I won't have to deal with crowds, noise, people, bluetooth speakers, mosquitos, ticks, people, or any of that shit. 

Also, isn't this about where the Glacial potholes are? Holy shit, it is! This ain't gonna be a down-and-back, it's gonna be a down, check out the super cool adjacent park that is also usually super crowded, then head back. 

And thank goodness I didn't need the ice spikes on this one, because I didn't have them yet and that could've gotten dangerous. 

When I think of hiking near the St. Croix, this is what I imagine. Rocky cliffs, steep descents, aerial views of the river, all of these melding together into an experience that transcends arbitrary state lines and gives one a taste of feeling infinite for a while. 

But don't go in thinking this is an easy walk, ice spikes being necessary or not.

Interstate State Park might feel redundant to say, and even to type, but it's a legit experience. Tucked right in along the Minnesota side of the border, up in the cliffs before the road down to Taylor's Falls, the hike runs right along that road. Immediately the signs will advise you to be cautious about the rocks and be aware of the conditions, because the trail is narrow, steep, and covered in smooth rocks that only tolerate your existence and presence until they decide "nope, not gonna do that anymore. I'm a rock, not my problem." Climbing isn't inherently necessary, at least on this portion, but it's exceedingly obvious that it's an activity people do on the slopes right next to the trail. Why wouldn't it be? There are people who see giant slabs of rock above a river and think "I'ma climb that." Of all the places in Minnesota with that possibility, especially if heading out to Colorado or Washington isn't plausible in that moment (dammit), this is an option. It may not reach the same heights, but the difficulty is there regardless.

You've probably already beat me to it, but it's Minnesota, you know what that means.... GLACIERS! Glaciers forming river valleys and not repairing their potholes, infrastructure has always been unpopular, whether it be crumbling roads or ice giving rocks the finger. Don't drive over these potholes, or you better learn the phrase "embrace the void" pretty fast. 

Minnesota Hiking Club #18 - Nerstrand-Big Woods State Park

 

Minnesota Hiking Club

#18 - Nerstrand-Big Woods State Park

Date Hiked: January 1st, 2025

Other Hikes That Day: Rice Lake State Park, Sakatah Lake State Park

Wanderloon Ranking System Score: 3.92

It was New Year's Day, and I was alone.

We established that in the previous two entries, but it is impossible to talk about this hike without that context. 

I don't care about the World's Biggest Non-Event, but for the previous two years, I had spent that time with my special people. For reasons that are irrelevant to this medium, I was not, and it would've been really easy to be swallowed by that pit. This day is what led to the January 4th trilogy, which as you will likely note, none of those have yet reached this list. And somewhere along the way, I decided to do all of them in a single season. 

But this trilogy of hikes was just a means of not falling into a pit of despair and longing. It became mystical, and though I didn't stop missing my people at all, I found something to do with the energy, and that's the theme of this entire series. This is how I spent the time and energy that came out of being far away from my special people, and a descent into dense woods and frozen waterfalls truly kickstarted the concept. This was, by far, the best of these three. 

All three are within a reasonable range. Before I started going to the one farthest away and working my way back as a concept, Nerstrand-Big Woods was the closest of the three, and I don't think I even decided to do all three when I initially set out. i just wanted a place to be that wasn't in my own head, listening to the sound of water swallowing me and finding it even ironically endearing. 

Nerstrand-Big Woods State Park preserves magical forest in an area of the state where that kind of landscape isn't expected if you don't know where to look for it. I know I tend to be sentimental and a bit flowery with my language with the parks I really like, but this one truly is descending into a New World Fangorn without murder by swallowing or stomping, naturally. The loop shape isn't complicated, looking like a stone giant champion bowler trophy, but its sub-3 mile length is deceiving, for it is not a quick jaunt, especially once ice on the terrain is factored in.

The first notable sight along the trail is the waterfall, and early in the morning on a lonely New Year's Day, it didn't make everything okay, but it allowed me to forget about the gnawing in my soul for a little while. The fog of the latter two trails this day wasn't quite as present, but it gave the woods of the big and Nerstrand variety an even more ethereal feeling than the circumstances of the day already provided. 

This journey was never meant to be some kind of diary, as the people reading this initially are already aware of the emotional context, but this Hiking Club speedrun was never just about completing the hikes themselves either. 

Minnesota Hiking Club #19 - Lake Shetek State Park

 

Minnesota Hiking Club

#19 - Lake Shetek State Park

Date Hiked: February 9th, 2025

Other Hikes That Day: Camden State Park

Wanderloon Ranking System Score: 3.58

You know what? I'm happy that Fort Snelling and Lake Shetek are back to back. Yeah, I said it, you can't stop me. It's not just the subjectivity of this ranking system, and how fallible it can be, and how it's entirely dependent on how I was feeling and what I was experiencing at the time, and how even though I prefer trails with distance and elevation gain these two ended up in the highest third of the countdown. On the surface, it makes absolutely no sense. With the rating system the way it is, it shouldn't make any sense. This entire hike took 20 minutes at most because I had to cross a causeway with winds that would've frozen Superman in place at the Fortress of Solitude in order to walk around a flat, tiny island, then get back in my car, hopefully not with any parts of me breaking off and shattering like icicles made of glass for Hollywood effect, and going the hell home while trying to remember why I was doing this to myself on purpose. 

But...

The hike is on Loon Island. 

On a day where I needed a serotonin boost so badly that I could've invented a Zoloft popsicle; on a day where people from Jupiter (Jupitarians? Jupiterese? Jup-Lords? Jupanese? Jujuwhawhats?) would've considered it too intense for a winter vacation; on a day where I visited a snowy place named Camden and didn't immediately remind myself to get a tetanus shot; on a day where nobody had any business doing a Hiking Club trail, I saw that I was hiking on a place called Loon Island, and instantly, everything was a little bit more okay for a while.

Isn't that what all the advertisements tell you that nature is supposed to do? 

Get out in nature, it's an anti-depressant, it's a cleansing of the soul, it's the therapy around you, isn't that what they say? (Take your meds, drink your water, don't stop those to do these things, please.) 

The barren landscape evoked the opening of Fargo, especially season one. The frozen lake surrounding each side of the causeway led me to believe that Mr. Wrench and Mr. Numbers might've had Wish Malvo upside down with a big doofy bandage on his forehead, barely aware that he pissed off the wrong people at a strip club before he went nighty-night in the hidey-hole of icy death. I even made a short video with the Fargo music playing while I did nothing but walk on this causeway because I am nothing if not a referential tramp of the trails. I'd share it, but every time I've tried to share a video, it's been a failure of Don Chumpf proportions. 

This hike is so short, My Adventure Challenge would barely let it qualify toward the 365 patch because it counts for the minimum distance necessary in order to be a valid hike. Nothing about it makes any sense whatsoever. 

But, Loon Island. Game Over. Argument: Invalid. 

Minnesota Hiking Club #20 - Fort Snelling State Park

 

Minnesota Hiking Club

#20 - Fort Snelling State Park

Date Hiked: February 3rd, 2025

Other Hikes That Day: None

Wanderloon Ranking System Score: 3.58

What on earth is a completely flat trail doing this high on the list? 

Everything is not only subjective, but context-heavy on this countdown. 

Like with Fort Ridgely, I cannot emphasize enough that the Hiking Club trail is by far not the most important thing about this place. Fort Snelling is a place of historical significance that is not for me to describe or delve into. It is not my place. 

But hey, I wasn't dodging horseshit, so Battle of the Forts: won. 

Fort Snelling State Park is basically also Historical Fort Snelling. In the biggest population center of the state by a significant margin, I doubt there's anyone in the metro who doesn't know what Fort Snelling is, even if they don't know why it's important. How can you miss it? It's a giant-ass fort on a ridge on the river, which is why it was practical when it was built! The state park is technically separate, but even the surrounding area is also incredibly important to Indigenous people, far beyond the atrocity that happened there. Without giving a spoiler, I am very glad to see that even the Hiking Club password has been updated in recent times to reflect that. 

A light snow was falling. It was cold but not polar vortex cold. The snow was fresh enough that either the W-code didn't apply, or it's Fort Snelling and nobody cared. I felt a little guilty about this one, but I saw people running on this loop, so this was the one time I was willing to make the exception to break it. To be perfectly honest, I really wanted to knock off a password and a stamp, but I also didn't want to go anywhere. Fort Snelling is less than ten minutes away, and I had it in my back pocket for that exact reason: the mid-speedrun blues, because that's a thing that makes sense, right?

It's a midrange hike, so though there isn't any elevation gain, there's at least some distance to be earned for the Hiking Club booklet. The Fort Snelling Hiking Club trail itself is the Pike Island loop, which in the spring last year was completely off-limits due to the confluence of the two rivers essentially becoming one big fuck-off rapids rampage. There are a litany of hikes in this exact area, and I've done all of them. Crosby Farms, Pike Island, Hidden Falls, the Greenway, Big Rivers regional, so I've been on one while photographing the other. It is a gorgeous area, and in the quiet snow, knowing it'll be too packed and loud to move on all fronts soon, I had an easy hike that was absolutely magical. 

The Pike Island loop isn't the best hike in the park, as it's once again a sampler. But getting to the point where the rivers meet and looking out toward St. Paul with the ridges and woods on each side, in what is somehow the middle of the metro, it's pretty freaking awesome. 

Minnesota Hiking Club #21 - Frontenac State Park

 

Minnesota Hiking Club

#21 - Frontenac State Park

Date Hiked: January 25th, 2025

Other Hikes That Day: None

Wanderloon Ranking System Score: 3.50

The snow and frozen water from the views of the bluffs felt apocalyptic, which considering my experience much later with Great River Bluffs State Park, ended up being oddly appropriate. 

Minnesota in January is not a pleasant time. Everything looks dead and brown, the bright sunny days are contrasted with temperatures that people aren't supposed to live in, and any situations or conditions are exacerbated by the depths of depression these times can induce. 

Without going into personal detail, I was mired in those depths more than usual, and the apocalyptic vibes only made me feel more irrelevant and invisible than I already did. 

Which is not to say this wasn't an excellent hike; far from it! It wouldn't be ranked this high if I had negative associations with it. The negative associations were with myself and my situation at the time rather than the only form of escapism that was able to temporarily divert my focus. Even stopping by John A. Latsch State Park afterward, which in the winter was little more than a picnic table and a cork board, was better than my reality at this time. Everything felt far away and distant, and I desperately needed something I couldn't have because it was a thousand miles from where I stood. 

Frontenac State Park and its Hiking Club Trail was a way to try to forget about life for a while and stand on some giant-ass rocks rather than pining for springtime and what would come with it. I still pined, but at least I was doing something while pining rather than sinking into a pit. I missed my special people so badly that I didn't even know what to do with myself once the trail was done. But I did finish it, I did get my stamp, and the sun did rise the next day, for the eight-and-a-half minutes that daylight lasts in January in Minnesota, but rise it did nonetheless. 

The elevation gain at the beginning of the trail is somewhat steep, though nearby Barn Bluff condenses the rise a lot more. To be fair, it was probably more than 70 degrees warmer, so the external factors were different flavors of difficulty. 

Frontenac State Park's Hiking Club trail combines deep woods and the rocky bluffs for which the southeastern Minnesota area is known, though it feels like more of a sampler platter than a main course. That isn't a bad thing, but the trail itself wants you to explore more than the route to get your password. Which, to be fair, you probably should if you like this particular kind of hiking. The heart-o-gram with a tail trail has a loop with a stem at the beginning/ending, and it presents views, descents into woods, and... you guessed it... Information on GLACIERS! Can't escape it, not in these here parts! 

I know it sounds like I was sad on this hike. That's because I was. Not even escapism can be the full solace I need sometimes.