3 Weird Midwest Adventure Ideas👀
+ comparing the North Shore to the South Shore
Right now, I’m out on my women’s guided Climbing Trip! It’s a blast every year and rest assured I am currently having a panic attack (real from last year thank you to a very understanding crew of my fear of heights) at… not very far off the ground.
Climbing is kind of not my thing, but I also think it’s important to try new things and be uncomfortable. And it’s really fun to cheer for other people while they do the same!
Weird Midwest Adventure Ideas…
Ever take a themed road trip? From shipwrecks to bird watching, here’s a quick list of some fun and weird Midwest adventure trip ideas :)
A pasty-themed road trip of the Keweenaw Peninsula on the Keweenaw Pasty Trail
Check out the Great Wisconsin Birding and Nature Trail
Something I’d like to work on? A guide to the best caves in the Midwest. I’m talking sea caves, waterfall caves, sand caves and underground cave tours. I’ve visited a handful of caves but I would really like to visit a few more and put them together.
Best Hiking Sandals:
Hiking sandals are pretty much the ideal setup for hot weather hikes with water you want to walk in, whether that be stream crossings, swimming, or hiking in a river bed. Hiking sandals are also a pretty classic choice for anyone looking for a shoe to paddle in. Check out the best hiking sandals here.
Outdoor Studies Presets are available for download!
Oh hey! The Outdoor Studies presets are live! All of the photos you see in this newsletter and previous newsletters over the past year have been edited with these presets. This is a set of eight presets, or photo filters, designed to emulate the feeling of taking your favorite photo to your dorm room wall, the nostalgia of images in your grandma's photo album and the fun colors of 90s outdoor catalogue.
27 Things to do on the North Shore (Ranked!)
I spent some time last week on the North Shore, which I’ll be sharing more about in the next newsletter. In the meantime, check out my favorite things to do on Minnesota’s beautiful North Shore!
READ: Best Things to do on the North Shore
I moved up to the Lake Superior full time in 2020 and lived up in Grand Marais, Minnesota for a year and a half before landing in Two Harbors for a while before moving out to the West Coast for a few months then promptly turning around and heading back to Lake Superior and Two Harbors to finish 2024. Now, I’m more or less settled in the Northwoods of Northern Wisconsin not far from Lake Superior.
Living on the North Shore VS the South Shore
Living on the North Shore was sort of incredible. It’s beautiful and there’s great hiking everywhere. It’s crowded in the summer some, and touristy but in kind of an endearing way — more so than a lot of other places — and it feels really, really Northern. I don’t know how else to explain it.
Living in Northern Wisconsin is similar, but different. There’s still plenty of hiking, but it’s on the softer sandstone or through forested hills, where the North Shore is all dramatic basalt and spiky boreal pines and thick carpets of moss, hard edges and fog over the cold Lake, spooky in a mythical kind of way.
The South Shore1 is softer and warmer, sandy beaches, a mixed boreal and temperate forest, red rocks and very green water, all bright colors and fields of flowers. More “Prince Edward Island / Anne of Green Gables” than Iceland / Nordic fishing town.
READ: Best Things to do in Bayfield & the Apostle Islands
PS!! Want to win some fun Lake Superior swag and a custom pair of handknit Nordic mittens? Click here!
The term “South Shore” isn’t as ubiquitous as “North Shore” but it is definietly still used to describe the region of Lake Superior on it’s literal southern shoreline, compared to it’s northern shoreline. For example, you can find South Shore Brewery and other small business/ect named for the phrase. South Shore/North Shore considers Lake Superior as the reference point, thinking literally of what shoreline you’re on, the North or South (look at the shape of the lake and this makes more sense), not to be confused with the phrase “North Coast” which also refers most often to the South Shore which references the coast in relation to the land, in which case the South Shore is the Northernmost Coast in this region of the United States.
If you’re not from the area/have never been up it can be hard to wrap your head around why regional phrases like that are used — you can drive 10 hours and still just be on the South shore of Superior. At most points along the shore, you cannot see across the Lake and it gives the feeling of standing on the edge of a large, Northern Ocean.
The pasty-themed road trip sounds fantastic. I'd love to see a Midwest cave guide, especially the Apostle Islands ice caves. Good luck on your climbing trip; I'll happily support you from solid ground!