u/Significant_Pace9187

Hey everyone -

I am coming to Minnesota for the first time (and parts of WIand MI) to explore in a few weeks. This was originally intended to be a hiking and biking trip, but I recently got injured and can't do those things right now. I own an inflatable kayak that I take around the lakes in Colorado. Yes, I know that's entirely different beast than up there so please forgive me if this is naive, but I was wondering if folks had suggestions on very calm, beginner friendly, places to get onto the water with this level of gear. I'm fit but I'm not trying to go crazy - skirt a shoreline for 2-3 hours here or there, just introduce a new way to enjoy some scenery. Any advice?

Worth going to Voyageurs, or does that require more serious boating ability? Any other of these beautiful looking lakes on the map worth checking out? I am road tripping, love wilderness, but need to somewhat regularly get near a town to work, would love suggestions on free or cheap camping and just some general direction. I know that I'll be in Duluth at some point and traveling to Marquette with some stops along the way, but that's all I got figured out.

Thanks!

Hey everyone, I'm planning my first trip to the northern midwest this year in late August/early September. I'm coming from Colorado and I'll be on my way to New England. I'm planning out a road trip and while I originally wanted to visit both Door County and the whole Upper Peninsula, I'm looking at a map and thinking about my time constraints and feeling like I'll have to choose one or the other. Either hugging the coast of Lake Superior from Duluth/Apostle Islands to Marquette and then coming down through Grand Rapids en route to NY or hitting Door County and Milwaukee/Chicago. I think I'm decided on the latter but wanted to see if there are any factors I'm missing.

I'm interested primarily in access to nature, wilderness, beautiful scenery, hiking/trail running, gravel biking. I love all beautiful scenery, but being from the mountain west I'm partial to deep woods, hills, quiet wilderness, remote rocky lakes etc rather than just cute towns and more cultivated nature.

I'm looking for friendly towns because I do have to stop and work as I go - coffee shops to work in, libraries, friendly communities. Interesting museums are really cool, but I'm not big on shopping/dining/breweries or anything.

I'm traveling in a converted van and looking for good places to camp - all the better if there is free dispersed camping around, rather than paying $30+/night for several weeks.

So it seems like UP is the way to go - but any suggestions on towns specifically (besides Marquette) that might be an enjoyable place to call home for 3-4 days?

I have done, and will do, many many hours of my own research, but I do love personal recommendations!

I have been living full time in my van for 3.5 years, all of that time spent in Colorado, Arizona, Utah, California, Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana.

I'm loosely starting to plan a trip for the late summer and fall that would look kinda like this:

Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan in late summer/early fall. Northeast (NY, VT, NH, ME) in late Sept/early Oct. Down to WV, SC, GA and AL after that, then back to CO by an undetermined route.

It's a lot of driving so we'll see what's happening with gas prices and availability but the planning is half the fun. I'm most familiar with the northeast but could use some direction on the first leg and then the Appalachia and beyond leg.

Door County and the UP are on my list but I'm a little lost as to what to aim for more specifically.

I'm looking for nature, hiking, trail running, gravel biking, scenic places to park and camp, small town vibes that are liberal or left leaning ideally, quiet without being extremely remote, nice coffee shops and indie bookstores are a plus when I'm in towns.