Cruising in Minnesota

The license plates say 10,000 lakes, and for a boater that number stops being a slogan the first time you try to pick just one. Minnesota's water runs from Lake Superior (cold, vast, and demanding), along its northeastern edge, through the lake-and-portage maze of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, up to sprawling Lake of the Woods on the Canadian border. In between sit the workhorses of everyday boating: the Brainerd Lakes Area with Gull Lake at its center, and busy Lake Minnetonka within an easy drive of the Twin Cities, both thick with cruisers, anglers, and wake boats all summer.

There's river water here too, and it's the real thing. South of the Twin Cities the Mississippi becomes a navigable highway of locks and dams, where a day's cruise mixes bluff scenery with working infrastructure a century in the making. Marinas across the state are generally well-equipped (fuel, pump-outs, transient slips, maintenance), and the charter trade fills the gaps for anyone without a boat: fishing charters on big water like Mille Lacs and Lake of the Woods, scenic cruises on Lake Superior and the St. Croix River.