Voyageurs National Park: Skiing Crane Lake to Casaretto Cabin and King Williams Narrows

I had put my skis away for the season about a month ago. But here we are in mid-April with freezing temperatures and some lingering snow on the ground. I decided to make the best of the situation by going for one last ski. There's not quite enough snow on the area trails, but there seems to be plenty on the frozen lake surfaces, and so I thought a trip down to Crane Lake and ski across to Casaretto Cabin might fulfill my need for adventure.

It had snowed about 2 inches in International Falls last night, so I would get to test the new CR-V's capabilities in some snow. In fact, the snow seemed to get deeper and deeper as I headed south. By the time I arrived at Crane Lake there was nearly 8 inches of  wet snow on the ground. I drove through some pretty deep stuff on the unplowed road to the boat ramp. I donned my skis and headed off onto the lake. It was cold, really cold. The temperature wasn't too bad, just below freezing, but the wind made it feel brutal.

For the first part of my trip I followed a staked snowmobile trail into a stiff headwind. I found a forest service campsite and used it to get my bearings. Then I headed to the west side of Indian Island and there was the cabin, decorated with a layer of white snow.

I went inside to explore a little bit and to eat a snack out of the wind.

Then I decided to do some more exploring before heading back to the car. I headed northeast
to the mouth of the King Williams Narrows.

I wasn't sure what the ice conditions would be like, but I arrived to find that there were not any areas of open water and there were even some snowmobile tracks leading up into the narrows,

so I decided to ski into them to explore a bit. I probably made it a quarter mile into the narrows when I started to see some slush and so I turned around and started to make my way back to the car.

Luckily, I had the wind at my back for the return trip. With rising temperatures it made the return ski much more enjoyable. The wind also aided in pushing me back to the car a bit. By the time I arrived back at the boat ramp, rising temperatures had started to melt some of the snow. The plow crew had also been down the road and so I had a pretty easy drive back to International Falls.