The Wilderness Within Reach

At the end of the last ice age, a huge glacier sat on this spot and melted rapidly, carving channels to the aquifer below and creating the Rum River to the south, which flows into the Mississippi near Anoka. Parts of the Mille Lacs shore are rocky. But the prevailing winds covered the rocks with fine sand on the northern shore, creating 100-foot dunes in places. The whole living, breathing ecosystem is teeming with life and swept by frequent storms. The lake is so vast it creates its own weather. It doesn’t take long on Mille Lacs for one to realize that the lake is in control.

The Redding Creek beach is the finest I have encountered in Minnesota, and walking it is the closest thing to a sea experience I have had in the state south of Lake Superior. Though it is certainly a highlight, it’s not the only place I have experienced the wilderness around Mille Lacs. Father Hennepin State Park on the southwest end, between Isle and Wahkon, is another place where the wilderness calls to those who listen. And any time I get out on the lake—especially in a sailboat—barely within sight of shore, I feel its power. It both exhilarates me and causes me to take extreme care in my every tack.