Lake Vermilion, summer 2022

An old post dusted off from the draft folder: It was time to try out a new lake. After a friend mentioned that Lake Vermilion (in northern Minnesota) was the most scenic lake he ever cruised on, I thought I should give it a try. A large lake with 365 individual islands, I spent 3 days on a leisurely sail around the largest of them.

While taking advantage of my unemployment, I could head out mid-week to avoid the crowds and head out whenever the forecast looked best. Being midweek and after labor day, it also freed up the first-come, first-serve campsites which I’d always seen busy at other lakes. The first night’s spot was awesome, with 270 degree of wind protection for the most restful night ever spent sleeping on a boat. Finally a night without the rudder having any tendency to bang back and forth throughout the night.

Can a camp site get much better? Having a fire pit for the cool evening and an outhouse was a plus.

After other trips seeking out strong winds for sailing I took the opposite approach and looked for calm winds for relaxing nights. A good call! If I didn’t have enough wind I planned to bring a kayak, but wasn’t sure about dragging our bulky plastic kayaks in case the winds really did pick up. So I bought a cheap $65 inflatable kayak off Amazon which arrived the day before I drove off. The storage bag including kayak, pump, and paddle) easily fit in the forward storage compartment. Was perfect for day 2 afternoon where I anchored out from a creek and paddled up.

Photo from a nice couple kayaking, who I met later after taking then photos

Calm super clear water

Towing the kayak under calm relaxing winds.

Found another nice camping spot for night #2. While there were some nice hideout coves on the map, I was a bit bummed that much of the shoreline had houses, and especially the nice little sheltered coves (even areas that appeared to be national forest on the map). This spot was in a nice quiet bay, but not nearly as sheltered. The wind died off at sunset, so I thought another restful night was in store. Instead, the wind picked up around 10pm, so eventually I pitched a tent on land to get some sleep.

The third day was forecast to have the most wind, and it didn’t disappoint. Easily covered the distance I sailed the first couple days in a few hours. Sailing solo, the Pocketship really doesn’t need all that much wind. And it gets a bit exciting (hairy?) when over 10-15 kts in my non-expert sailor opinion. Another great trip with the Pocketship!