Taking No Gamble in Hinckley, MN

Our original plan from before we ever left home was to spend some time camping in St. Croix State Park, which is along the St. Croix National Scenic River. Because the state park was full last weekend, we ended up instead at the Grand Casino in Hinckley, about 14 miles away, which we found to be a very nice place. Today we visited the St. Croix SP and now are not too excited about relocating there. Casino: paved sites, 50A electric, water, sewer, cable TV, wi-fi, few bugs, close to town and restaurants, $16.00/night. State Park: 30A electric, uneven gravel sites, many bugs, closed hiking and biking trails, $24.00/night. Where would you want to stay? In the morning I will re-up here at the casino until Monday, after which we will have been here 10 nights. We may stay even longer, particularly if we haven't figured out where we are going next. Why take a gamble when we already have a sure thing?

The one thing the state park did offer was access to the St. Croix River, but there are other good access points in the area. At one access we ran into an outfitter waiting for some paddlers. He gave us some good information on the river and said his company could provide shuttle service. We may try to catch a day trip or two on this section of the St. Croix before we leave.

We went into Hinckley to visit the Post Office and buy some supplies. Hinckley is known for the great fire of September 1 1894, and the Hinckley Fire Museum. On that day a forest fire swept through the area killing 418 people. After lunch we were sitting in the town park, and a very unusual specimen of Minnesota wildlife came lumbering by. At first I thought we may have spotted a great woolly mammoth, previously thought to have been long extinct. Perhaps this specimen has been hiding in the north woods, and was driven out by the effects of global warming. Upon further examination I realized we were looking at an African elephant, still fairly rare in wilds of east central Minnesota. We then learned that the circus was in town for two shows tomorrow night, and this guy was out walking his elephant. I hope he was carrying his poop bag. That also explains the huge circus tent that was going up in the park. Perhaps we will go to the circus. I haven't been to a small town circus in a real live circus tent in a long time.

Later we discovered the Kettle River. The Kettle apparently has some very good whitewater and crosses Highway 48 only a few miles from our camp. At that point it is fairly wide and gentle. Tomorrow we plan to go back and paddle upstream as far as we can and float back down. This will be Matilda's first introduction to real canoing. Wish us luck.