In the twelve months that Willie embarked on his bucket list, his July item may have been his biggest adventure. It’s no surprise that Minnesota is known for our lakes. I am blessed enough to live within ten minutes of three of them, one being the second largest lake in the state, Lake Mille Lacs. And while Willie had spent countless hours swimming, fishing, and relaxing at Mille Lacs, he had never seen the lake in its entirety. So, at 5:13AM on July 22nd, 2023, that’s what Matt, Willie, and I set out to do. Covering 132,516 acres was going to be an adventure any way you look at it. But in a Bennington pontoon with a max speed of 20 mph (averaging more like 8 mph) I knew it was going to be a full day excursion. Not only did we cover a ton of ground (pun very intended) we also covered several changes in weather conditions. We watched the sunrise, hazy as it was that morning, in hoodies with a cool breeze on our faces. By the time we made it to the northwest corner of the lake (Garrison, MN) the sun was up full force and the water was pristine glass. A storm met us crossing the north side of the lake, so much so that we had to dock up to a public access in the small town of Wealthwood and hunker down under the Bimini, making any attempt we could to keep ourselves and our supplies dry. It didn’t work by the way. But by the time we rounded the northeast corner and headed south, we were stripping off the damp hoodies we’d been wearing since 5:00AM and lounging on the boat in swimsuits.
What kind of adventure would our lake day have been without a few stops along the way? Unfortunately, we were too early on the west side of the lake for any establishments to be open, including BayView Bar & Grill in Onamia and Harbor Inn in Garrison. So, our off the boat time was limited to a couple of public accesses; Shah-bush-kung Bay and Pike Point. Aside from our stop for the storm, we made it across the north end of the lake without pausing and made our first stop on the east side at the public access in Malmo. On the average lake day, the east side of Mille Lacs is where I spend the most time and there are a whole list of places one could swing into if that’s your thing. Having been to all of them before, we limited our stops to Appledorns Sunset Patio for fancy drinks, Hunter’s Point where they happened to be having a beachside bonanza and to Cedar Creek Public Beach where we told the tale of our day to some other beach goers. If you get the chance, some other worthy places you can dock up to include MSA Flagship and DaBoathouse Restaurant and Bar. After nearly 12 hours on the lake, we ended our adventure jumping into the refreshing waters of Mille Lacs.
