500 Adrenaline Adventures (Frommer's) - Lois Friedland [155]
If you want to travel the entire trail in the winter, start in Brainerd and plan on 3 to 4 days for the snowmobile ride to Bemidji. You’ll want to stop in some of the small towns along the way. In these towns you’ll find local craft shops—where you can pick up hand-knitted mittens and a scarf (you’ll need them for Minnesota’s cold winters)—museums and restaurants run by friendly locals. When the snow falls, trail conditions are posted weekly. Snowmobile rentals are available in several towns.
Snowmobiling in the Brainerd Lakes area, Minnesota.
Along the way you might be tempted to explore some of the 1,200 miles (1,900km) of networked trails in the Brainerd Lakes Area, go downhill skiing at Ski Gull, or try the cross-country and snowshoe trails at the Northland Arboretum. In many of the towns along the Paul Bunyan Trail, shorter snowmobile routes branch off into forests and across ice-capped lakes. For a slower-paced, but equally exciting brand of winter fun, head to the annual Ice Fishing Competition on Gull Lake sponsored by the Brainerd Jaycees. Contestants brave the bitter cold to be the first to catch a fish (and hopefully a sizeable one) in the frozen-over lake. The competition attracts thousands and the prizes equal $150,000.
If you want a break, park your snowmobile at the Grand View Lodge on Gull Lake and sample other kinds of winter sports. The friendly staff at the lodge can arrange dog sledding, cross-country skiing, snow tubing, or downhill skiing outings. Then have sore muscles soothed in the resort’s Glacial Waters Spa. In warmer weather, an array of watersports awaits visitors at Grand View Lodge.
In the summer, many hikers and bikers like to overnight in one of the towns along the Paul Bunyan Trail and make day trips. With a car, it’s easy to take your bike to other points on the trail. In this area there are lots of lakes where you can enjoy boating, swimming, and other water sports. —LF
Paul Bunyan Trail (www.paulbunyantrail.com). Minnesota Tourism ( 800/657-3700 or 651/296-5029; www.exploreminnesota.com).
When to Go: Year-round.
Brainerd Lakes Regional Airport.
$$–$$$ Grand View Lodge, 23521 Nokomis Ave. ( 866/801-2951 or 218/963-2234; www.grandviewlodge.com).
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Chapter 6: Camps & Schools
296
Alligator Wrestling Lessons
Gator Bait
Monte Vista, Colorado, U.S.A.
What’s 9 feet long, weighs 600 pounds, has 80 razor-sharp teeth, and wants to kill you? Why, the alligator that you’re holding in your arms, of course. Few adventures can match the thrill of grappling with a prehistoric beast to see who comes out on top, and who will give up a pound of flesh. Not all who try to wrestle a gator walk away unscathed—most folks who’ve tangled with alligators for a while have the scars to prove it, and possibly a missing finger or two.
Think you’re ready to wrestle with one of nature’s most successful meat eaters? Then head to Monte Vista, Colorado, where alligator wrestling lessons and other thrills are available at Colorado Gators, described as the home of the biggest gators in the West. While there are still plenty of places in the swampy South to watch alligators and the men and women who wrestle them, none can provide you the up-close-and-personal intimacy of grabbing your very own carnivorous reptile that Colorado Gators offers every weekend (Fri–Sun). Be sure to sign up at least a week in advance, and wear clothes that you won’t mind getting muddy—or bloody. You’ll start the 4-hour course handling smaller alligators, gradually working your way up to the big 9-foot (12m) beasts.
Heated by geothermal waters, the attraction was originally founded as a tilapia fish farm, and alligators were brought in to act as “garbage disposals.” (The site is still an active fish farm, providing fish to Denver-area restaurants.) Gators have now been joined by emus, tortoises, pythons, and other exotic animals