Cruiser Lake Trail

 

Cruiser Lake Trail Hike

Rainy Lake, MN

8/22/12

7.6 miles, 3 hours

137 days to Africa

 

The Cruiser Lake Trail was a beautiful 3.6 mile trek into the protected Boundary Waters of Minnesota.  It provided a great opportunity for us to begin our preparations for the journey to the top of Kilimanjaro.  While the terrain lacks similarity with our final destination, it did provide a nice variety of inclines and declines.  The solitude of the hike was great and it really gave us a chance to spend time soaking in the scenary while also connecting with one another and getting our minds around the goals and outcomes we hope to achieve while in Africa. 

Our access to the trail head can be found in Anderson Bay on Rainy Lake in northern Minnesota.  Deb and Greg took a houseboat trip with Deb's parents for a week long self guided cruise along a 36 mile stretch of the lake.  As you can see, Deb's dog, Cassius, proved quite sea worthy and came along for the ride to see us off on our hike.

 

After two nights on the lake we made our way into Anderson Bay for a planned hiking excursion.  Deb's parent's took the fishing boat out in search of some fish for dinner and Cassius stayed back to guard the houseboat that played host to the five of us.  Deb and Greg took the trail head from the pier and proceeded up the rock faced hill into the woods.  Our journey would take us past Peavy Lake, down past Brown Lake, and ultimately bring us to the crystal clear waters of Cruiser Lake.

 

The pace was steady and our gait was strong.  We were armed with a supply of water, a bagged lunch of apricots, two pb&js, and some butterscotch zucchini cookies to cap off the experience.  The first .7 miles to Peavy Lake was a breeze.  Shady spots provided a cool temperature for hiking and breaks in the cover provided the warmth of the sun and a chance to sneak a peak at the vistas that surrounded us.  We looked down from the hillside to Peavy lake before venturing deeper into the woods towards Brown Lake.

 



 

 

The journey to the turn-off towards Brown Lake was typical of several other hikes we have been on through forest country.  There were pines, non-pines, hills, rocks, dirt, old leaves on the ground, and patches that could have been muddy if we had been so fortunate to have had great weather the whole trip.  The smell was fantastic, warmed pine needles with a cool breeze is a scent that has tempted Greg's imagination since hikes at Governor Dodge State Park as a youth camping with family in Wisconsin.  Without too much difficulty and an additional 1.4 miles traveled we arrived at the entrance to the path that led down to Brown Lake.  Being that it was not our primary goal, we chose to bypass an opportunity to travel down to the lake to see it first hand and prepared for our final push to Cruiser Lake.

 

The final 1.4 stretch into Cruiser Lake featured additional inclines and declines.  Perhaps one of the more unique portions of the trail was what seemed to descending grassy path through a canopy of trees.  The branches were not closed in enough to touch our heads but the cover was thick enough to give us the impression that we were hiking in a natural hallway towards what would prove to be a very spectacular wilderness living room in the form of Cruiser Lake's lone camp site.  We did not spend the night at the location but did take the opportunity to enjoy our pack lunch on the island camp site where its easy to imagine a person could lose oneself in thought and wonder gazing up at the night sky on a clear night. 

 

 

 

 

The water was crystal clear to a depth of at least 10-12 feet at the shoreline.  There was a canoe awaiting the next visitor to the campsite and it would seem that a person could spend hours paddling around in quiet solitude.  As it was we spent 3.6 miles hiking in and another 3.6 miles hiking back out and the only company we had along way was a very startled black bear.  By way of friendly introduction Greg exclaimed "oh sh*t a bear."  Fortunately for all involved, but mostly for us, that was not an introduction that made the bear feel very comfortable and the bear ran deeper into the woods. 

 

 

We emerged from the woods a short time later to find Captain Cassius awaiting our return and to look out across the bay to see Deb's parents fishing the structure on calm and quiet waters.  To finish the experience we took trip around the bay in the boat with Cassius and Deb's parents and the a nice dip in the surprisingly comfortable lake water before moving on in search of the next night's boat mooring location.