Wild River State Park

After my expedition to Fort Snelling, I was ready for something little more adventurous. Looking through the DNR 's website, however, I was fairly disappointed. Being the land of "10,000 Lakes" and a lot of forests, I was expecting breath taking views and awesome hiking in every corner of the state. I forgot that 10,000 lakes really meant 10,000 places to fish. Also, most of the state parks that were relatively close to the city were pretty small (at least by my standards) and did not look that interesting. Most of the state parks that looked appealing were at least several hours away, which was more than I cared to drive. There were a couple exceptions though, and Wild River was one of them. So on a nice Saturday morning, I headed up towards it.

The Park

I arrived at the park with no troubles, although it was a little later than I would have liked. I faced a little dilemma though, of where to hike. This park lied along a (wild) river so it was very long but not very wide. This left me with limited options of where I was able to hike and get back in a reasonable amount of time. I decided to hike from a boat launch on one end of the park, towards the campground. It was like a ten mile trip (one way), so I did not really except to go the entire way. But I figured I would start out and see how things ended up.

I did not actually get to the Trail Center, but I was about half a mile from it

The trail itself was pretty nice. It was relatively flat, going through forests and having some nice views of the river. The river was kind of high though, so in a couple of spots I had to trail-blaze around some flooded areas. The trail was also pretty deserted (maybe because it was long). The only people I passed on the trail the entire day were a couple of groups riding horses. The name of the park was deceptive too. The river did not seem wild at all. It was actually very calm. Maybe up or down river some, things changed a bit. Then again, I was not really excepting white water rapids or anything either. A nice calm river was nice to hike next to anyway.

Water blocking my path

As I said, I planned to start hiking and see how far I would get. Well, of course I just kept going, and three hours later I ended up in the main section of the park. When I got there I decided that I deserved a break after my ten miles hike, so I ate the lunch I brought with me and read for a while. During my break though, I noticed that one shelter had quite a few people in it. As I was there longer, I realized that a wedding was taking place. I had never heard of having a wedding outside in a park shelter (be forewarned though, I do not know much about weddings), but it seems like a good place to have one. I did notice though, that people had to get up once in a while during the service to apply bug spray. "You may now kiss the bride...but you may want to kill a couple of those mosquitoes first."

After I finished my lunch, I started my trek back. After all, ten miles of hiking were already behind me, but I was only halfway done. The bad part about my chosen route though, was that I had to return on almost the exact trail that I came in on. The hike back was pretty similar to my hike out, except that I almost got stormed on. The sky was pretty threatening, but luckily it only drizzled on me. It was a good thing to, because I had not brought any rain gear with me since the doppler was clear that morning. I guess that was what can happen when you are on the trail for six or seven hours, the weather can change. But I made it back to my car safely and dry. My legs were not really that tired, even after hiking twenty miles. I only had a couple of blisters. That was by far the farthest I had hiked in one day, and another great example of me not estimating how much I should actually do in one day. I think that I made it to the first tier of the DNR's Hiking Club on this trip alone.

Pictures

This is a solar powered outhouse in the campground. Do not ask questions.	These trees were in such straight lines it was amazing (I assume they were planted)