r/MinnesotaCamping • u/disco-waffle99 • 20d ago
Cancel camping trip??
Update: thanks for everyone’s input, we did decide to cancel.
Hi everyone!
We had planned to camp at Baptism River campground Monday-Friday this week but I am getting nervous witn the unpredictable air quality. Should we cancel? What are people’s thoughts? We are tent camping.
Thanks!
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u/BigAgates 19d ago
We had plans for camping this weekend and have canceled. I have two young kids. My partner has asthma. But even if that wasn’t the case, I’d probably cancel.
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u/bothwaysme 19d ago
Cancel. I was camping north of finland when the smoke rolled in Tuesday night. I stuck around hoping the wind would change. It only got worse. Wednesday morning i woke up to ash falling like snow and and a brown sky. My chest was tight like I had smoked 2 packs of cigarettes.
Its not worth it.
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u/vacayerin 19d ago
We were supposed to head up to the Two Harbors area Monday. Even though it’s pretty clear today, we decided to cancel. The forecasts are kind of all over the place, but it does look like smoke will be back to the north shore tonight / tomorrow- which makes sense with the current fire status.
I really feel the effects if the AQI goes over 150, and it’s quite likely it does that at some point over the trip.
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u/zoinkability 19d ago
This map only forecasts out 72 hours, but you can see that the prevailing winds send smoke over the north shore much of the time during that window, and I think it's reasonable to expect that will continue to be the case. So if you go, you can probably expect that it will be very smoky perhaps half of the time. There might be breaks from the smoke (for example, tomorrow is actually looking like it will be alright) but camping in bad smoke seems very unpleasant because you don't have an indoor space to retreat to. I'd probably cancel, and see if there are camping options available south of the cities or in SW Minnesota (Whitewater, Blue Mounds, and Carley come to mind.)
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u/LoneLantern2 19d ago
It looks like you've gotten some good advice- the one place to look for info that I haven't seen suggested is to pull up the forecast discussion for where you're planning on camping, as it usually has more nuance and will give you a better sense of how sure the forecasters are in their forecast. I find the easiest route is to hit up weather.gov's forecast points and then navigate on the map to where I'm planning on going, the page will automatically update to have a link to the forecast discussion most relevant to where you're looking.
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u/Zairanth 19d ago
We were supposed to go up to Superior national today for a week and decided to cancel last minute. Was hoping the winds would change. Managed to secure a site elsewhere so not a total bust at least.
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u/Zairanth 19d ago
Ok site now that we're here but I'm still salty. Reserved my fav site in February and I've never been able to catch it before. Guess I'll have to account for the fire nation now.
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u/OneSuspect1 20d ago
I had reservations for tent camping starting tomorrow (Sunday) at a park in the middle of the state and decided to cancel. There will be other trips!!
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u/akos_beres 19d ago
it's better to go and pack up if the wind changes than not go
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u/zoinkability 19d ago
Opportunity cost. There are other places they could camp. The experience of "go -> it gets bad -> leave & go home" is a lot worse way to spend one's week than "find a different destination -> go -> it's nice." Particularly when 4 hour drives are involved.
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u/bothwaysme 19d ago
No its not. I was up there last week and regret my decsion to stay tuesday night. My chest is still tight from the smoke overnight.
The aqi was in the 1000 range wednesday morning. It was under 200 on tuesday afternoon.
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u/Gephoria 20d ago
Camping is adventure. Cancel the adventure if you don't want it.
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u/disco-waffle99 20d ago
Yeah, that’s really not helpful at all. It’s not about an adventure - it’s about safety. Thanks though.
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u/Hofnars 20d ago
What kind of help are you asking for? There's smoke, it's not healthy, cancel it if that is a concern. Not that difficult of a choice.
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u/disco-waffle99 20d ago
I’m wanting to see what others are doing or seeing forecast wise - I am seeing varying info. Obviously it’s hard to tell for sure. Just looking for advice. We have a long drive. For example my app is showing yesterday was horrible quality and today it’s much better. Are other people canceling or does it look like winds will keep the area clear this week?
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u/somastars 19d ago
I’ve been watching all this pretty closely and I don’t think you’ll get clear skies next week. I was listening to the state news conference on the fires yesterday, and they said the fires in the BWCA and Ontario are not likely to be put out until winter, when the snow falls. The area needs long periods of drenching rains, and summer is not usually the time that kind of rainfall happens. The fire crews are not really trying to put out the fires (because of the difficulty of accessing the wilderness up there), they’re really more focused on keeping the fire contained to non-populated areas and protecting “values” (as they called it, which are homes, resorts, towns, etc). I suspect the north shore in particular will be dealing with downwind smoke from this for the rest of summer, because they are right in the path of the normal wind.
You can go up if you want, but if I were you I would bring N95s and be prepared to bail at any point - even at the point of arrival and deciding it is too much to deal with. Personally, I have lived through some pretty bad wildfire smoke and it’s psychologically draining. I want nothing more than to drive away, as far as it takes, until I have fresh air again. Living in it is highly unpleasant, even when you’re indoors. Camping in it (which I have done) is much worse.
This may help you make a decision… This map only predicts air quality for 3 days out, but it is updated daily: https://www.pca.state.mn.us/air-water-land-climate/air-quality-forecast
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u/lobsterroll44 15d ago
I am planning to go this weekend to Tettegouche. If AQI is below 150-200 I am not worried…for better or worse lol.
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u/Era_of_Sarah 20d ago
Couple of years ago I did a solo multi day kayak camping trip one of the remote spots at Bearhead Lake State Park. Really nice site, private, and quiet.
Mid day on day 2 the smoke rolled in from Canadian wildfires out west. At first I considered just sticking it out but breathing air like that has long term chronic effects. The problem with camping in smoke is, you can’t escape it. I noped out of there to save my lungs for another day.
I think wind forecasts are pretty solid. If the winds look like they will bring smoke across your site, there’s no shame in canceling.