Leah and I have been attempting over the last few winters to get more into cross-country skiing. We received some free used equipment from my dad which has made entry into the sport easier. We decided to finally make good on a yearly activity idea that had yet to come to fruition—doing an overnight cross-country ski trip.
We chose to go at the end of January and make the trip a three-day weekend. I started searching for state parks that had cross-country skiing and also camper cabins. Our experience in the fall in a camper cabin at Lake Carlos State Park had sold us on the idea. After finding that a lot of the camper cabins were already booked we were down to only a few options. We finally decided on Lake Bemidji State Park due to that fact that is wasn’t too far away (just under 4 hours from our house) and there were lots of cross-country skiing options nearby.
We loaded up the car and headed out on a Friday morning. We drove straight to Bemidji, only stopping once for gas. While driving we were listening to the audio book Becoming by Michelle Obama. It was entertaining and insightful to learn about the life of the former First Lady. When we got to Bemidji we stopped at a Subway for lunch. After eating our subs in the car we drove to Lake Bemidji State Park to check in at the ranger station. We made sure our cabin was available and I purchased a Greater Minnesota Ski Pass (a ski pass sold by the DNR that allows access to all state park ski trails and also dozens of other trails that have a loose connection—possibly based on DNR ownership or custodianship). Our cabin was ready so we headed there to unload our gear.
It was pretty cold in the cabin so we cranked the heat a little so that it would be nice and warm when we got back. Our first action of the day was to head out and ski a trail along Lake Bemidji inside the park. There were barely any people out on the trails—though on a Friday afternoon that might be expected. The trail was in pretty good condition for not having had much snow recently. The temperatures were in the teens—not too cold for skiing but definitely not super pleasant either. My hands tend to get cold easily while skiing so I brought some heavy duty gloves on the trip
The trail was really nice. We avoid black diamond sections at all costs, and thankfully the loop was mostly green (beginner) with a couple blue (intermediate) sections. I also fell almost immediately once we started skiing (it’s rare that I get through an entire day of cross-country skiing without falling at least once). We finished up the loop—which ended up being about 5.7 miles—and returned back to our cabin. It still wasn’t that warm inside the cabin so we bumped the heat a little more. We still had some energy left so we decided to boot hike another loop trail in the park that contained the hiking club trail. I was able to guess the hiking club password correctly (though I had seen it before, so not that impressive).
We got back to the cabin and saw some snowmobiles riding past us. We’d find out later that they were our cabin neighbors. Neither of us are fans of all of the noise that snowmobiles make. When we entered the cabin it felt nice and warm. I eventually realized that the device that I thought was displaying the temperature was actually displaying the humidity. This may have contributed to the temperature issues inside the cabin.
We hung out inside the cabin for a little bit, drinking beer and wine and eating snacks. Then we ordered Domino’s pizza for dinner and drove into Bemidji to pick it up. We each got a medium pizza and ate half. We played some games and read—Leah a book and me Twitter—until bedtime.
In the morning we used our brand new electric water kettle to heat some water. You can’t burn a gas stove inside the cabin due to the toxic fumes. In our previous cabin adventure we used our gas stove to boil water but had to wait outside in the cold for it to heat up. Since the cabins are electrified we thought an electric water kettle would be a great addition to our cold weather glamping packing list. It has also seen some occasional use at home. What a luxury it was to sit inside a warm and cozy cabin and heat up water for coffee and oatmeal. For this trip we also filled two 6-liter water reservoirs before leaving so that we’d have enough water for the trip and wouldn’t have to go in search of it at the state park (assuming that they had winter drinking water access).
We packed up our gear and headed out to Three Island Park—a county park located in Beltrami County. It was about 15 minutes north of Lake Bemidji State park. Three Island Park had a lot of cross-country ski trails and most of them were beginner or intermediate. There was also a section for snowshoeing. We parked and hit the ski trails, starting with the trail that paralleled the Turtle River. It was incredibly scenic and we hardly saw any people.
It was overcast and chilly with temperatures ranging from about 10 to 15 degrees. We saw a trumpeter swan floating along the river and dunking its head into the water in search of food. It was quite a beautiful sight to see on a cold winter day. Part of the trail was also designated for endangered species habitat—I think bald eagle—and was closed starting in the beginning of February. According to the sign, the trail would be closed in a couple of days so we really lucked out on that.
We did a big loop around the outside of the park. Near the main parking lot we did end up seeing a few more people—including some skate skiers who flew past us like we were chumps. We finally finished the big loop and made it back to our car. We took off our skis and had leftover pizza for lunch. My GPS watch said we skied 8.23 miles which is the most I’ve ever skied in one day.
Next we decided to do some snowshoeing. We had borrowed some snowshoes from my parents in the hopes that there would be some nice powder to use them on. The trails at Three Island Park were pretty packed down and it hadn’t snowed recently so the snowshoes weren’t that useful. We hiked the snowshoe loop trail which also followed the Turtle River but got down closer to the water. We followed the loop back to the parking lot and then added a small out-and-back hike on a mixed use trail. We ended up snowshoeing about 3.6 miles.
We decided it was time to call it a day and headed back to the cabin. We did some more reading and played some cards. For dinner we had instant noodles (with water from our electric kettle) and avocado wraps. I realized that I brought the wrong crowler of beer from home. I had meant to grab a black IPA and instead grabbed an imperial stout aged in gin barrels. Since Leah doesn’t like dark beers these were going to be personal beers for me and I wasn’t ready to drink that much high ABV (11.5%) beer by myself. I drank wine instead. Eventually we called it a night and made our way to bed.
The next day we got up and had breakfast. We decided to ski on the C.V. Hobson Forest Trail. The trail is inside the Hobson Memorial Forest which was acquired by Bemidji State University in 1948. The university uses the forest for outdoor recreation, education, and research. The property includes a ropes course, amphitheater, two rustic log cabins, and over 7 kilometers of walking and skiing trails. It had snowed overnight so we had some new powder to enjoy. There was one set of tracks in the snow so it looked like one person had beat us to the new snow that morning.
The C.V. Hobson Forest Trail was very beautiful, mostly flat, quiet, and very enjoyable. We did a few loops around the different trails. We never saw anyone else on the trail.
We visited the rustic cabins along the trail. I fell down trying to come to a stop near one, but I did manage to snap a photo of the cabin. It was definitely rustic.
We skied about 4.2 miles in total. When we returned to the parking lot we decided that we were done skiing for the day. We packed up out skis and headed to Jimmy John’s to grab lunch. We took our subs on the road as we drove to La Salle Lake State Recreation Area. We weren’t able to get a passport stamp because for some reason the one for La Salle Lake SRA is located at Itasca State Park. We did, however, snowshoe the hiking club trail and collect the password. It was an out-and-back trail that ended at the confluence of La Salle Creek and the Mississippi River. The trail was pretty packed down so the snowshoes weren’t very helpful (again).
We decided to do a little more snowshoeing in the park before leaving. We did a loop near the parking area that was a little packed down in areas but mostly fresh snow. We finally found great terrain for the snowshoes!
The air was crisp and cold but not uncomfortable. We got back to the car and loaded up our gear and hit the road. It was a really fun weekend cross-country skiing and snowshoeing in the Bemidji area. I’m not a cross-country ski buff nor have I been to a lot of courses or trails, but the skiing we did in Bemidji was the best I’ve ever experienced. The trails were plentiful and not crowded and there were courses that catered to all different kinds of skill levels. Another successful cold weather winter vacation.
Brian's Adventures 