Bagging Minnesota's High Point

Great First Climb for a Grandson.

 We wanted to do something this summer with each of our grandkids separately (there are 8). Although they all love to camp, one in particular expressed an interest in hiking and climbing. We decided that a good start would be to take him camping up the North Shore and climb Minnesota’s highest point. We climbed the end of May during a late spring, so it wasn’t too warm and there were NO bugs whatsoever (too cold I guess!). Not a tick, not a mosquito…perfection! It was a cloudy day, but that was alright too. We were able to go down to just a t-shirt at some point, but we started and ended the hike with 3 layers.

The trail...

 The trail is well-marked and easy-to-follow. It’s mostly made up of large rocks and roots and in the spring, there are many wet areas to get around besides the streams where they’ve placed planks for crossing. The woods along the way are beautiful, I especially enjoyed the section along Whale Lake that was mostly cedar. Once you get to the trail crossing for Brule Lake and head left up to the summit of Eagle Mtn., the trail grows much steeper, much rockier and much “rootier”. Still, it’s not very difficult. There are open areas before the summit. We stopped at the first and had a little lunch then progressed on another ¼ mile or so to the other opening in the trees where the views of many lakes in the surrounding area were very nice! We watched 6 vultures circle and circle and circle along with a Bald Eagle or two. Other than chipmunks, we saw no other wildlife but had been hoping to glimpse a bear, wolf or moose. I guess us northern Minnesotans have to go to ND to see moose now.

 So, with a nice 7 mile hike under his belt, our grandson has much to be proud of and we enjoyed sharing a great experience with him! He was game, appreciative and interesting. Not a whine out of him at any point…just an excellent little hiker!

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