Solo Trip in the Caburban

Item #54 on my 100 Dreams List was to do a solo trip in the caburban. If you’re unfamiliar with what a caburban is, it’s the name I’ve given the suburban converted camper that we bought from our friend Hunter earlier this year (he did the conversion by the way, genius traveler). One of the beauties of the caburban is that the set up and cleanup is so easy, even for someone with zero experience camping on her own. So, wanting to experience the joys of solo traveling camping stylz, I set out to check this item off my list on Monday September 16th. For my first solo journey in the caburban, I did plan a very basic trip. I went for one night to Grand Marais, Minnesota, a town 3.5 hours from home that I’d visited many times before. I chose to camp in an actual campground versus a state park, where I knew they had modern bathrooms and that there’d be other people. I also booked a site with electric (or so I thought), so I didn’t need to pack a generator or cooler (the caburban has a small fridge inside). I hit the road (I guess technically not solo; I did have my pup with me) and had my first snaffoo of the trip almost immediately. The ABS light began flashing and dinging intermittently, something that hadn’t happened the other times I’d used the caburban over the summer. Oddly enough, I had made the decision that morning to take back roads up to Grand Marais, rather than taking the freeway and would therefore be driving almost directly passed where Matt was working that day. Let’s call it fate. He was able to temporarily fix the situation so that I wasn’t listening to the ding ding ding of the dash the entire trip, the cost being just some additional driving around time.

One of the items on my 100 dreams list is to hike the 300 miles of the Superior Hiking Trail (SHT, described in detail in a future post). My first planned stop on my solo caburban adventure was to hike the first few miles of the SHT. With my little ABS detour, Willie and I got a later start hiking than intended. It was also unusually hot for September in Minnesota (not complaining). So my plan to hike the first 2-3 miles quickly dissolved into hiking the first 1 mile so as not to kill off my 14-year-old dog. Still, it felt good to get a start on another goal. We drove through the city of Duluth and then swung into a pullout to cool off and enjoy the pristine waters of Lake Superior. We drove the remaining two hours to Grand Marais stopping only once, at my favorite winery in the state, North Shore Winery in Lutsen.

When we got to Grand Marais, we checked into the campground, purchased some firewood, and were so excited to get walking around after being in the caburban all day that we didn’t really do much other set up, pushing it off until later. We explored the two beaches on the campground property, happily noting that one was just two campsites down from where we were staying. We enjoyed a cold beverage on the Gunflint Tavern’s Raven’s Nest (the rooftop of the tavern) overlooking the water. We watched the sun slowly fade over the harbor of the city. It was not until we got back to our campsite that I thought about getting the refrigerator plugged in. The realization that I apparently did NOT book a campsite with electric hit me, and I debated walking back into town to purchase some ice to throw in the refrigerator. Staring at my old dog who was now passed out in the grass, I decided to risk the little bit of food I had left (coffee creamer and yogurt), thankful that I hadn’t packed much for cold items. We enjoyed a peaceful bonfire and then wandered back to the main beach at the campground to keep an eye on the sky for Northern Lights. While the app on my phone seemed confident they were active, the clouds unfortunately prevented us from spotting them.

The next morning, we made it back to the main beach just in time to watch the sun come up on a new day. Back at the campsite, we enjoyed another bonfire, during which I tried my hand at pour over coffee for the first time. It is now my go-to way of making coffee while camping. Getting an earlier, and therefore cooler, start to hiking on day two, we were able to knock off a couple more miles of the SHT along the beautiful Temperance River near Tofte. We enjoyed a snack at a gem of a pullout between the towns of Beaver and Silver Bays, where oddly enough, the fall colors seemed to be popping more than we’d seem them further north. All in all, my solo trip in the caburban was a success. I learned some valuable lessons about camping, like just pack the generator and cooler even if you don’t think you need them or stop and spend the ten minutes it takes to set up before racing off to do the things. I even got some great suggestions for my upcoming trip to the UP from some randoms at the Raven’s Nest. We were able to get a good start on my goal of hiking the SHT and most importantly I got to make some beautiful memories with my fur baby.