I parked our car on Hwy. 402, a county road several miles inland from Lake Superior's North Shore. My wife, Susan Binkley, and I shouldered our packs and began climbing the ridge into the back door of Tettegouche State Park. We took a rest at the ridge top, a good 300 feet above our starting point. Then we followed the long grade to where our friends waited in an ancient cabin of logs and cedar shingles, 20 feet from the shore of Mic Mac Lake. Birch, maples and conifers dressed the granite knobs surrounding the lake. Turkey vultures and bald eagles spiraled in the thermals rising from the rock ridges.

Why not, Susan wondered, just let people drive to the cabins? After all, the path we walked, described to one of our friends as "rugged," was a good gravel road, steep but not rugged at all.

To eliminate the congestion and noise of vehicles, I ventured. And, I added, I bet the mile and a half walk up the steep ridge makes people really appreciate the place because they had to plan and work to get there. The simple act of hiking creates a special experience that otherwise wouldn't be possible. Arriving on foot at our weathered cabin, sheltered in a thicket of conifers, felt like walking back in time.Tettegouche has four of these unusual hike-in cabins and a unique history among Minnesota's parks.

Like much of northern Minnesota, the craggy uplands overlooking the Baptism River were shaved of virgin pine in the early 20th century. The loggers worked for the Canadian Alger-Smith Lumber Co. They built their camp on the shore of Nipisiquit Lake, and named landmarks with Algonquin words, such as Micmac, from their native New Brunswick.