Spring Camping In The Minnesota State Forest/EPIC VIEWS!

Added: 2026-05-15

[00:00:03][music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> All right, back out on trail. Finally, I will be on a trail here in a little bit, but I am back in the tent for a campout. I have been itching to get back out for a campout and sleep in my tent. And uh this weekend is the Richard J. Dorer State Forest with a group campout. We're in the southern part of Richard J. Dorer State Forest in the Vinegar Ridge area at a campground uh with about seven or eight campsites. And it sounds like our group might fill this place up tonight or this weekend.

[00:01:22]But uh right now, nobody is here. It's just me and Sarah, WildFox Outdoors.

[00:01:28]We're out here just checking out the sites and we're about to check out the hiking trails here in a little bit and just enjoy the spring weather and get out into the forest. So, I will check back in probably later once we get out on trail and into the forest.

[00:02:09]>> Nice blue sky, beautiful.

[00:02:12]Yeah.

[00:02:19]All right, officially back on trail out here with Fox.

[00:02:24]Hello.

[00:02:25]We are on a trail going towards what we are hoping is the Root River. We're not 100% that this trail is what the map is showing us.

[00:02:34]So, we may or may not get lost, but it's always an adventure to be out in the woods, so.

[00:02:40]We are going to walk towards this river.

[00:02:43]Hopefully we get to it. If we find it, then we'll check back in when we get to the river.

[00:02:51]Lots more Oreos.

[00:02:54]See what else is >> [music] >> Really good.

[00:03:42]Correct.

[00:03:49]All right, we have made it down to the Root River here.

[00:03:52]And we were kind of following on this bike trail that the trail ended up to. So, we're kind of on the I don't know if this is the Root River State Trail as far as the bike trail then or what, but I think we go into the forest here in a little bit, but uh it's kind of nice coming down to the river right here.

[00:04:11]Have this nice open view of the river with the beautiful bluffs in the background.

[00:04:16]I think you were there. Oh, really?

[00:04:18]>> Yes. I think that you were down like cuz I Was there a bunch of people there?

[00:04:22]Yeah, you were talking with someone else sitting there watching the sun.

[00:04:26]That's probably where it is, a bike packing site.

[00:04:29]Yeah, there's a picnic table.

[00:04:31]Huh.

[00:04:32]This is sweet.

[00:04:35]There, the fire pit. This is a bike packing site. This is that campsite. I remember I said I saw on Shane's map.

[00:04:40]Oh. But it's not showing on any other maps.

[00:04:43]So, this is a campsite.

[00:04:58]All right. Well, we've made it down to a what looks to be a canoe campsite is what that was with the uh little lean-to shelter up there.

[00:05:06]But this is takes you right down There's a little path that takes you right down to the river here.

[00:05:11]Gorgeous views of the river.

[00:05:15]So, I might have to remember this spot and maybe come back here another time and either do a bike packing adventure at that site, canoe or kayak adventure, or just hike to that site and hang out cuz this is a pretty cool spot.

[00:05:31]All right, that path did lead down to the Root River.

[00:05:34]This is actually really cool here.

[00:05:43]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Ah, Captain America, What?

[00:06:42]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] >> All right, back at camp like I said and now we have more of the group here.

[00:07:11]And got tents all set up. Steve got his hammock right here. So, we are getting pretty set and now we're starting dinner.

[00:07:22]So, everybody's kind of getting all their little dinner stuff out and ready and cook some dinner.

[00:07:29]>> [music] [music] >> I got more if you want one. It's not very big.

[00:07:44]All right, it's getting later and you can hear all the whip-poor-wills going.

[00:07:52]They are just going off tonight around here and I love whip-poor-wills. That's a good sound.

[00:08:39]All right, good morning everybody. It's now starting to get up. I was kind of the first one up and started a fire but now everybody's getting up. It got cold last night. It was supposed to be 50° for the low last night and it got down to I think 34 or 35 I saw on my thermometer in my tent. So, definitely a chilly night.

[00:09:00]And it's actually it's supposed to be raining pretty soon here but we'll see if we get that. We've only gotten sprinkles.

[00:09:08]But uh we're just going to hang out, make [clears throat] some breakfast and I think today one of the ideas was to hike to the top of that to the caves. So, might be a plan for later.

[00:09:36]All right, we are heading up there.

[00:09:40]Climb that giant rocky ridge.

[00:09:44]So, we got the whole crew together.

[00:09:46]We're making a group hike up there, so hopefully we'll get some good views up there.

[00:10:18]Jesus.

[00:10:19]This is steep.

[00:10:32]>> [music] [music] >> Where did you come from?

[00:10:44]Did you float up here?

[00:10:47]>> [music] >> All right, we have made it to the top.

[00:10:58]Beautiful views up here.

[00:11:05]It was definitely a a hike to get up here, but totally worth it.

[00:11:09]Like I said, epic views up here.

[00:11:12]That's our campground right there.

[00:11:15]So, kind of gives you an idea of where we were and where we are.

[00:11:23]>> [music] [music] >> Woo!

[00:11:34]>> [music] >> All right.

[00:11:40]Onward and upward.

[00:11:46]All right, we are almost to the top [music] of this insanely steep hill we are climbing.

[00:11:57]>> [music] >> Some might call it a mountain.

[00:12:02]Oh, look at this [music] view.

[00:12:16]>> [music] [music] >> Shane seems to have found some morels.

[00:12:56]Oh, and he's got some nice ones.

[00:13:00]We are Not bad, not bad. Nice size ones, too.

[00:13:04]>> Good sized ones.

[00:13:29]Yeah.

[00:13:34]>> [music] [music] >> We made it. We're back from We went up there all the way over there and back down.

[00:14:11]So Nobody died, no injuries, we're all safe.

[00:14:16]Back to camp.

[00:14:19]I don't I don't believe that anybody truly love All right, we are at camp.

[00:14:25]Uh we actually left for a couple hours and went into town and hit the local pizza place, got some ice cream, some people got ice cream, I did not. But we are back at camp, >> [clears throat] >> got a fire started.

[00:14:39]All right, we're finally back at camp after a nice 2 and 1/2 to 3-hour hike, probably 6 to 7 miles up around all these bluffs behind me, down to the Minnesota River or Minnesota River, the Root River.

[00:14:52]And uh back to camp and dinner.

[00:14:55]So it's getting kind of late at night, too, so we're probably going to eat some food and I'll probably crash out early.

[00:15:02]Maybe check in later, maybe check in tomorrow.

[00:15:04]The flower or it it starts flowering it, so So it can be kind of ashy.

[00:15:20]>> water goes down, getting up.

[00:15:59]Well, good morning. The final morning of the group camp out here in Richard J. Dorer State Forest.

[00:16:06]This has been a fun time.

[00:16:09]This morning, it is pretty much just as cold as it was yesterday morning. It's dipping down to the mid-30s, which was not expected. It was supposed to be a low of 50 overnight first night and a low of I think 40 uh last night. So, being down here below the bluffs, I think that's what's making it a little bit colder.

[00:16:31]But, as soon as that sun comes out, it it warms up quick. So, but I woke up early. It's probably 7:00 a.m.

[00:16:39]As soon as I start hearing the birds chirping, saw the sun shining on my tent, I couldn't help, but I had to get up.

[00:16:46]So, I wanted to get out and just take this little trail that I think goes down to the river.

[00:16:52]Um this is the one trail in the area I haven't taken yet.

[00:16:56]And uh it's nice just to wake up. Look at that, a nice big rabbit right there. Up, it's gone.

[00:17:02]>> [laughter] >> I think that was a big rabbit.

[00:17:06]But, I wanted to take this trail and just get out in the morning, get for like a little hike.

[00:17:11]Like I said, the birds were chirping and just singing when I woke up, and it's like this is my favorite time when the birds are loud and this just chirping this loud and singing all morning and it's quiet, skies are blue, and just a perfect morning for a little solo hike.

[00:17:30]Then I'll head back to camp and uh by then hopefully people will be getting up and get some breakfast.

[00:18:30]All right, so I'm following this trail.

[00:18:33]It seems to be down to the river. Of course now I'm looking down this little hill right here.

[00:18:38]Looks like it drops down pretty far. I may not be going to the river.

[00:18:41]But on the way I can probably scope out what's going on down this hill.

[00:18:46]Cuz there's a really cool deer stand or something.

[00:18:50]This is sweet.

[00:18:53]Look at this.

[00:18:55]Someone put some time and effort into that.

[00:18:58]I'm going to climb up in there and see what it looks like. That is that's pretty sweet.

[00:19:17]>> Now, I don't know how old this is, or how strong all these branches are, but I'm going to go for it anyway.

[00:19:26]If anything bad happens, I guess it'll make for good video.

[00:20:14]Well, she all held together.

[00:20:17]This is pretty cool though. It's obviously a hunter's like deer stand that they've made that they must come back here every year to hunt, and they just set this up to Cuz you're pretty far away from the campground, so you can easily be hunting back here.

[00:20:31]I would imagine it's probably a pretty good hunting spot. Not to mention, I don't know if you can tell, there's a bunch of trash down there, and that's typical hunters.

[00:20:40]Throwing all their trash in the woods.

[00:20:42]There's actually a bunch of deer skins in the woods over there that all the hunters just throw into the woods. I mean, I've always said, hunters are the worst people in the woods. They really are.

[00:20:52]They cause more damage, do more stuff with They don't care about leave no trace. They throw trash everywhere. They throw their deer skins just right in the woods 50 ft from the campsites.

[00:21:03]So, I mean, in all my years out in the woods, that's been my experience with hunters.

[00:21:08]Hunters just don't care about leave no trace. They don't have a love for nature.

[00:21:13]The majority of hunters seem like they just come out for a week a year and just there's no rules in the woods so I'll do what I want, you know, as if it's their own property, but it's not.

[00:21:24]But like I said, this is actually pretty cool. You know what I mean? I've never been in like a little deer stand tree stand like this one before. This is pretty elaborate. Someone It's like I said, someone spent some time on this.

[00:21:39]>> [snorts] >> But I'm going to head down to this river. It looks like it's pretty close.

[00:21:42]It looks like I could get to the river.

[00:21:44]I'm hoping I can and I'm going to give it an attempt.

[00:21:48]And uh and I'll head back to camp.

[00:21:55]All right, well, I'm not really finding a path down this hill and this hill is pretty treacherous. So [clears throat] I'm not really going to bushwhack it.

[00:22:03]But you can see the river.

[00:22:05]I mean it's right down there.

[00:22:09]But like I said, there's no clear path it seems like to get down there.

[00:22:15]And there's actually a road now. I see there's a road down there. So and then there's another patch of forest before [clears throat] the river. So I think this is going to be where I call it.

[00:22:28]And uh yeah, you can hear a car coming right now on the road.

[00:22:33]So I think I'm going to call it right here. Head back.

[00:22:36]But still pretty cool.

[00:23:16]>> All right, I am back at my campsite.

[00:23:19]Kind of packing things up and getting things ready to go. I didn't do any filming at the group campsite with breakfast or anything like that. We were all just sitting around having good conversation, so we just sat around talking. No filming was done.

[00:23:32]But like I said, I'm packing things up.

[00:23:35]Next weekend, I think I'm actually going to start heading north. I think I'm either going to do an SHT hike on the Superior Hiking Trail or head up to my secret lake. One of the two. I'm not quite decided yet, but spring has started. I mean, up north it definitely won't look like this. This is southern Minnesota, so when I go to northern Minnesota, it's just buds on the trees, but spring has definitely started, so I'm going to head up there, I think.

[00:23:59]But like I said, that calls it for this weekend. It was a fun weekend with a lot of fun people, so that is it. I will see you on the next one.

[00:24:09]Woohoo!

[00:24:15]>> [music]