Garden Island State Recreation Area (the Great Minnesota Nautical Odyssey)

—GARDEN ISLAND STATE RECREATION AREA—

("The trip of all state-parks-in-one-year trips.")

(Also known as the "Do you have your passport?  Let me see it one more time" trip.)

(Also known as, "The most remote Avian Adventure geocache in Minnesota" trip.)

(Also known as the "Canada has a lot more birds" trip.)

(Also known as, "Gosh darn it.  That is a hard geocache to get to!!")

Picture of Garden Island State Rec Area courtesy of the Minnesota DNR.
Lake of the Woods is the sixth-largest freshwater lake in the contiguous 48 states
coming right after the Great Lakes.

Well, Marcus was sitting this one out.  We'll tell him wild tales about it when he grows older... as in old enough to listen half-in-awe (but not too old to be bored yet) and appreciate the story of the exciting wave-crashing, wind-piercing trip to Garden Island traveling in nothing more than a small 40-horsepower outboard.

From the start we actually planned to have Marcus sit this one out (he really is not old enough for it).  Marcus stayed back at the resort with Grandma Cheryl.                                                                        

We did this trip with our ever-trusty co-adventurer, Grandpa Harvey, who has proven himself on several BWCA trips in the past (and never showed any doubt—not once—during Luke's "go deep into the Boundary Waters until you don't see another person" kind of trip up there).

We woke up early on Saturday Morning to get a head start on our way from our cabin on Zippel Bay (south side of Lake of the Woods) to our road goal on the Northwest Angle.  This is the farthest point north in the Lower 48.  It also takes a lot of driving to get there.  Check out the map below.

On the way to get our boat we had to go through TWO border crossings, but more on that in a moment.

We left the cabin around 8 a.m. and headed off for the great northwoods adventure.  It was 88 miles through pretty remote roads.  We stopped at Warroad, MN, on the way out of the country (literally).  I have to tell you that the gas station there had the BEST donut I have had in years... my dad and Luke agreed.  It is almost worth driving back for it.

We found the border crossing and went through customs – it took a few moments, but we did not have any problems getting into Canada – we had all brought our passports, so it was a fast process.       We headed on our way to the City of Angle Inlet, MN, in the Northwest Angle, and it was pretty funny because the roads kept getting smaller and smaller – eventually they became gravel, and finally (after ~46 miles, or ~74 kilometers as it would be there—believe us, the GPS and cell phones got confused whenever the border got close on this trip!), we got to our next border crossing, this one in order to get back into the Unites States.  (Definitely above the 49th parallel now!)

The northwest angle is a really interesting place.  Here is the description from Wikipedia:

"The Northwest Angle, known simply as the Angle by locals, and coextensive with Angle Township, is a part of northern Lake of the Woods County, Minnesota. The population was 119 at the 2010 census.^[1] Except for minor surveying errors, it is the only place in the United States outside Alaska that is north of the 49th parallel, which forms the border with Canada from the Angle west to Washington State. It is one of only six non-island locations in the 48 contiguous states that are exclaves of the U.S. although not directly connected to them by land. At 49.22° north latitude, it is the northernmost township in Minnesota and the northernmost point in the contiguous 48 states. The unincorporated communities of Angle Inlet and Penasse are located in the Northwest Angle.
Seventy percent of the land of the Angle is held in trust by the Red Lake Indian Reservation (Ojibwa).^[2]
Although the Angle is listed as one of several distinct regions of Minnesota, its total population was only 152 at the 2000 census. The land is mostly forest and the area is mostly water."

 The border crossing here is unique to say the least – it is called a Remote Border Crossing, and all you have to do is call in.  This was a result of a mock attempt in 1997 for the Angle to secede into Canada – they didn't really want to go, but they wanted easier border crossing and a bit more favorable fishing laws to compete with their neighbors to the north, which, in the end, the US government provided.

One interesting thing in Canada was how many birds we noticed while driving through this small section of Ontario on our way to the Angle.  Lots of ravens up there and all sorts of game birds right at the edge of the woods.

 The process was pretty fast and simple.  They didn't even need passport information – just car driven, dates of birth, and a few other basic facts... The phone only has two buttons: one for the US and one for Canada.  You push whichever one you are entering, wait a bit, then talk to the person on the other end.  No big deal.

 My dad and I spent our time exploring while Luke did his best to convince them we weren't a bunch of trouble-makers... Incidentally, whenever you explain that your reason for entering Canada is for geocaching, I think they go, "Well, that's a new one..."

Directions right at the customs phone booth to our next stop.

 After successfully getting back in the U.S., we found our way to the resort where we were going to rent our boat.  When we called up to find out about rentals all of the people were extremely nice.

 We rented an 18-foot Lund boat with a 40-hp Honda outboard motor.  Fortunately, it had a console so no one had to sit way in the back to steer the boat for the whole trip.  Of the three of us, Luke is by far the most skilled at running an outboard motor boat (growing up on a lake helps and driving from an early age), so he took the drivers seat.

Not sure why dad looks so frowny here!  (Luke looks downright gleeful.)

We pushed off and were quickly started on our trek into Lake of the Woods. 

Luke and I had looked over all of the maps (Luke especially had been looking over many maps for a long time for preparing for this trip) and had a game plan on how we were going to make it to the island and the geocache.  There were some pretty big unknowns: (1) Fuel—we didn't know exactly how much the boat would need (but after doing a lot of checking we had a really good idea); (2) the weather (a front was coming in that day and was expected to be over us about 4 hours after we took off); and (3) other unexpected, unpredictable concerns (e.g. how the boat operated, the size of the waves, etc.).

View toward the bow.

We left down the channel into the lake. 

The water was choppy, so my dad had to keep moving closer and closer to the front of the boat until we were both sitting on the same bench in order to balance out the boat.  We figured on just planing out and going at cruising speed in order to save the most gas.  One-third of a tank for getting there, another third for getting back, and one more third "just in case" is always a good idea.

It was pretty windy.  A lot of spray kept hitting us.  Once underway we made some pretty good time, though.

Once we got out of our inlet and hit the open water and the larger part of the lake, I was really happy to be wearing a hat – it was WINDY.  The lake was gorgeous and amazing.  There are a ton of islands all over Lake of the Woods (including fishing resorts out there and peoples houses... it just goes on and on), and we were really close to lots of them.  There were not a lot of other fisherman out in the lake, also.

The same picture again.  Don't ask.

We headed out, and it was a blast—initially we had planned on hugging the coast and only cutting over to the island at a close crossing-over point.  It was windier farther out from shore and there was a breeze, but when we were out in the open we made a call to change from the shore route and take a more direct path to the island and the geocache.  This would save time and fuel (despite the waves), but it was choppier.  As we went, though, we could see a sliver of land, very wide, ahead on the horizon... could it be???

Can you see Garden Island...?  I can...

 

Redistributing the weight to plane out the boat a bit better.  Saves gas.

Everything was going pretty well, but the waves started getting a bit bigger – and we had about 6 miles left to go when we got concerned about how much fuel remained in the tank.  We did not want to get marooned on the lake.  That would be a great story.  Estimating that we were closing in on only half a tank of gas remaining, we figured we ought to play it safe and turn back.  Actually, Luke made the call and left him with a ton of second-guessing on that decision, but he still knows it was the right one to make.

If only!!!

So we made the call to turn around... 

Don't laugh to hard at my map but this is pretty much what we did.....

So close... yet so far...

We didn't want to go home empty-handed, so we looked at the GPS and learned that one of the other islands actually had a Geocache and a 1700s fort that was rebuilt by the Knights of Columbus.  We headed that way for our picnic lunch.

It really SUCKED that we did not get to the island (and could see it in the distance), but the rebuilt fort, Fort St. Charles, was really cool.

Ahoy!  I spot land...

 Luke drove the boat, and we made it to the island and found the fort.  You can't really tell in the pictures, but the dock was in really rough shape and was missing LOTS of boards and was kind of scary.

This land was claimed for Minnesota!

Notice the sun.  The weather really turned on a dime.  By the time we got to the island, this became the ideal summer day.  The lake was also free of any wind and the water was like glass.  Amazing!

 Since we still had over an hour until the bad weather was expected (and we were not far from our dock), we had a nice picnic lunch, took in some of the fort's history, and searched for the geocache.

Seriously?!  Headless bodies were found.  Like a Halloween gravestone...

The geocache coordinates brought us right to the corner of the fort where this turret was located.  We looked and looked and were pretty stumped.

 

Luke took this picture from the other side of the fort--- I am still looking...

 We were about to give up when I went into the chapel, and the goecache was sitting right next to the sign-in log.  Someone (a muggle) must have moved it here.  It was kind of water-damaged, however, so maybe that is why it was now inside.

 It was a multicache so we answered the clue and found our way to the next location.

It wasn't the geocache we wanted to get, but it is still pretty cool that we got one of the farthest north geocaches in the entire Lower 48.  The fort was cool, and I loved it!

View from the fort.

Almost perfect weather behind us.  There were also lots of birds and tons of loons all over this lake.

 After our picnic and geocaching were over, we headed back to the boat and then back to the dock.

When we left the island the water was perfectly calm (the calm before the storm), and I can't help thinking what a different trip it would have been if the water was the calm the entire time.

We would have made it to garden island for certain, but we would have missed out on going to Fort St. Charles.

If we do this again, we will be smarter because we have experience and know what to do better.  Even though we didn't get the card, and instead had to go the alternate, I still think it was worth it, and it rocked!

Before we left the Northwest Angle, we took some time and did one more geocache and checked out the one-room schoolhouse in Angle Inlet.  All of the 1st–6th graders go to school on the Angle – when you get older than that it is a commute to Warroad, MN, every single day (YIKES), 3 hours a day in a school bus!

We checked back into Canada at the telephone and then headed to our next State Park.  But that is a story for next time...