Description

The best way to experience the Lake Superior shoreline is to live on it for a week. During this seven-day, seven-night sea kayak camping trip, you’ll do just that. We’ll start the trip Duluth and over seven days kayak 75 miles to the Temperance River. Combine this trip with our Lake Superior Water Trail Kayak Camping Trip – North to paddle the entire Minnesota shoreline in two weeks.

Places We’ll Visit

We start kayaking in Duluth and paddle north along the north shore until Temperance River State Park. Along the way we’ll pass Gooseberry State Park, Split Rock Lighthouse, Palisade Head, Tettegouche State Park and the Manitou River. Depending on our pace, we may camp in some of the parks or in the primitive Lake Superior Water Trail campsites. In the evening, when we camp in or near a state park, you’ll have plenty of time to explore or time to kick back, read a book and relax around the fire.

The shoreline varies from cobblestone and sand beaches to 200-foot-tall cliffs. There are several caves and many sea arches along the way. The beaches are perfect for finding agates and fairy stones, a rock with a natural hole. A boreal forest comes right down to the lake, and in it we could see eagles, owls, deer, fox and other animals. Although our campsites vary, one of our longest days happens on day two when we need to paddle from our campsite almost 16 miles to Two Harbors.

The Kayak Camping Trip Experience

On a guided Lake Superior Water Trail kayaking trip, you can expect to paddle 11 to 16 miles per day with a full-day off for bad weather, rest and exploring the area. Minnesota’s Lake Superior shoreline offers a unique sea kayak camping experience, because small towns and many state parks dot the shoreline. It’s a wildernessy, urban experience. These tours feel a little bit like bike tours in that we can reach towns fairly easily, but we’ll camp at primitive campsite on the Lake Superior Water Trail.

Our days on a sea kayaking trip follow a pattern. In morning, we break camp and your guide makes breakfast. After eating, we launch our kayaks and paddle up the shore exploring, photographing and enjoying the day. June is generally calm, but on rough water days, we’ll stay on shore. Mid-day, we’ll stop for lunch and a break. In the afternoon, we’ll finish paddling to our next campsite where we’ll set up camp. The guide will cook a dinner over a stove or a fire. Then we’ll settle in for the night. Sunset happens about 9pm, so there’s plenty of time in the evening to spend relaxing or exploring before the sun goes down.

Logistics

Because this is a one-way trip, we need to shuttle from one end to the other. On Saturday morning, you’ll drop your car off at Temperance River State park and take a shuttle that we arrange to Duluth, about an hour and a half drive. After you arrive at our campsite, we’ll get ready for the trip. In the afternoon, we’ll get into the kayaks and practice safety and rescue drills. The next morning, we’ll launch our sea kayaks into the largest lake in the world and paddle northeast up the shore. Seven days later, we’ll reach the Temperance River and your car.