Joe & Wilma's Excellent Adventures

June 1, 2024

Leech Lake, Minnesota

Today is our great granddaughter Kallie Jo's 6-month birthday, so happy birthday to her.  She is wanting to crawl so badly, so I hope today is the day.

We are staying at the Leech Lake Dam Recreation Area on Leech River.  This river is huge, and is the Muskie capital of the world.

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There is a lot of power in that water coming through the dam.  And there are a lot of boats in the campground, so we assume this is a big fishing lake.

We have also seen several of these "ice house" campers here -- they pull them out onto the frozen lakes and there are holes in the floor on the inside that they can drop their lines through.  We got to look inside one when we were in Minnesota the last time.

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After our quiet evening last night, today we thought we should look over the area somewhat, so after breakfast we took a "loop" drive into the town of Walker.  Joe had looked up things to do in Walker and it mentioned a Farmers Market on Thursdays and Saturdays, but another article said that had been changed to some kind of "green scene."   So we checked that out, but unfortunately it had been changed to a restaurant, so we just drove on by.  Perhaps it is a farmer's market later in the season.

 As we came into town, we found out that there was a walleye tournament going on, and we saw several boats on the lake.  We didn't see any boats coming in with fish, unfortunately.

We saw this goose family swimming in the lake.  It's very interesting that they always protect their babies by keeping them between the parents.  We have seen this a few times.

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They had a great dock in town, so we checked it out, and the marina beside it.  

Look how clear this water is.  We saw some minnows but no big fish from the dock.

We saw a couple fishing boats on the lake, this one was on the move.  The water was a bit choppy so we don't know how the fishing was.

And this one was of a family getting ready to go out.  I don't think they were fishing, but who knows.

This map shows how big this lake is, and the many fingers that shoot off of it.  From this town, our campground is almost directly across it.

In front of the museum is a monument entitled "Circle of Life" that is quite interesting.  There are 12 statues representing different times and what was going on at that time.  

We made a stop at the grocery store, the first real one that I been in for a while.  We filled up the refrigerator, so I guess I have to start cooking again.

As we headed back to the campground, Joe found one side road loop in the Chippewa National Forest that he thought we should check out.  But we didn't find anything of interest there.

Continuing on our way around the loop back to the campground, we passed this huge fish, a roadside attraction just west of Bena, MN.  It is a 65-foot long wooden structure in the form of a muskie.  It was built as a drive-in restaurant in 1958 but only operated a few years as a restaurant.  The Big Fish Supper Club, located next to the fish-shaped building, was opened in 1972.   

We got back to the RV mid-afternoon, in time for me to watch the Diamondbacks finally win a baseball game.  After dinner, we drove the trash to the dumpster and took a short, 45-minute drive around the countryside, but did not see any wildlife -- except a hawk.  Seemed like a perfect area for deer and turkey but nothing showed.

It was a beautiful day here, 71 I think.  Tomorrow is supposed to be 75, then rain on Monday.  The natives here are loving this nice weather -- I think they were all ready for winter to be over.