Minnesota

[rivetts]

Anyone from Minnesota who is familiar with the Paul Bunyan rail trail? I go Geocaching in my spare time and I noticed that the Paul Bunyan rail trail has a lot of caches hidden from Brainerd, MN heading north for 110 miles. What I would like to know the best time of the year to go out there. I would be walking the trail and camping along the way so I don't want to run into a lot of mosquitoes or other pest along the way.

 

[JaimeC]

Isn't the mosquito the Minnesota State Bird?

 

[rivetts]

I assume the land of a 10,000 lakes might be the land of 10,000 species of mosquitoes and a few species of biting flies. Here in central Mass we have small black flies with big teeth that swarm so bad they block out the light in early spring, then we have the onslaught of mosquitoes and then a mix of mosquitoes and deer flies. By the end of August it's safe to go in the woods but only after a REPEL 40 shower. One of my geocaching tools is a bug zapper tennis racket.

 

[MRJB]

I've got about 30 years experience canoeing and camping MN. About now until early July is the worst time for bugs. To go now you'll be dealing with deer flies, horse flies, biting black flies, gnats, wood ticks and deer ticks. Things improve by mid-August. A magical time to hike would be early September to mid-October. No bugs, few people.

If your riding your bike, this is a highway I hope to check out sometime. Cruising for Fall Colors: Minnesota DNR