Pandemic spurs outdoors boom

It was a tale of two summers for fishing camps and other tourist destinations in the north.

On the Ontario side of the U.S.-Canada border, it was hauntingly quiet on many lakes, with shuttered resorts and quiet shops as American tourists were prevented from crossing the border due to COVID-19 precautions.

But on the Minnesota side of the border, sometimes just an imaginary line across lakes, it was one of the busiest summers on record.

By John Myers jmyers@duluthnews.com

RVs and vehicles fill camping pads in July at Two Harbors’ Penmarallter Campground, one of many North Shore campgrounds full all summer thanks to the COVID-19-inspired rush to get outdoors. (File / News Tribune)

As the first wave of COVID-19 spread slowed in summer, and as states relaxed restrictions on travel and opened outdoor areas, people flocked north. Fishing guides, campgrounds, bait shops, canoe outfitters and other tourist-related businesses in far northern Minnesota capitalized on travelers going as far north as they could as the pandemic-pushed border closure dragged on from March through summer and into fall and winter.

Steve Piragis, owner of Piragis Northwoods Co., a canoe outfitter and outdoor store in Ely, said 2020 may go down as the busiest summer ever for the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

“There are hardly any permits still available,” he said in early July. “You’ve got a mass of people who have been cooped up. So they head north, and they can’t even get into Canada. ... I think pretty much all the outfitters around here are having a good season with rentals.”

Other folks simply wanted to get away, to do their social distancing up north. With youth sports shut down for most of the year, and no professional sports to attend — along with closed music venues and other urban attractions shut down — the outdoors became a mecca for people with time off and a need to do something — anything — fun.

“I think people are tired of being sheltered and cooped up, and they just want to get out and do something, to get outdoors and get some fresh air and maybe catch a fish,” Rick Leonhardt, who coowns High Banks Resort on Lake Winnibigoshish with his wife, Kim, said in July. “Everyone I talk to says the same thing. It’s really busy up here. … People call us looking for a cabin and we have to tell them we’re booked. They say they can’t find anything out there. Everyone is full.”

Through September, state park visits in Minnesota were up 13% over 2019 and state trail use was up nearly 50%. Summer permit sales and applications in other areas were up more than 50% across the board at peak periods. Boundary Waters permits sold out fast early in the season and then remained hard to get all summer. Same for Voyageurs National Park with its hundreds of boatto campsites booked most of the season.

Minnesota State parks, once most of them reopened in June, and especially along the North Shore, were booked solid all summer and into fall, as were campgrounds in the Superior, Chippewa and Chequamegon national forests.

“I spend a lot of time trying to set people up with a fishing trip. A lot of these people would normally be fishing somewhere in Canada,’’ Mike

Berg, owner of Seagull Creek Fishing Camp near the end of the Gunflint Trail, said in August. Those usual Canada anglers “are learning how complicated it is to get a last-minute trip in up here in the BWCAW. Permits for day-use are scarce, and so are guides.”

Sporting goods stores ran out of fishing rods and lures in some cases, while bikes, trampolines, kayaks, canoes and ATVs were almost impossible to find. Minnesota fishing license sales ended up 10% after the pandemic summer. And the rush ran into autumn as well, when guns and ammunition were in short supply, or sold out, gobbled up by eager outdoorspeople.

The throngs of visitors into the Northland wasn’t all good news, however. The pandemic rush to get outdoors saw an influx of newbie and careless travelers leaving behind garbage, soiled diapers, human waste and even stashes of gear for others to clean up in wild areas while in some places illegally cutting down trees in campsites.

In late August, one group of six campers at Lake One in the Boundary Waters had to be escorted out of the wilderness and ticketed after complaints they were intoxicated and disorderly. u