Swimming

[flipper]

Can anyone point out any good swimming beaches open to the public in the Suomi Hills area southeast of Marcel? Thanks in advance.

[CRBass]

Not exactly in the Suomi, but North Star has a designated swimming area at the Campgrounds. I'm not sure it's designated, but people do swim at the public areaa around the access at Caribou. Most of the lakes in the Suomi are more muck than sand.

[reinhard1]

if your talking north star lake, the swimming area is nice. while the kids are having fun swimming and stuff i am enjoying the water and catching panfish. nice campground. good luck.

[flipper]

Hi Reinhard,

We are staying at a private cabin on Little Bowstring. I have been there a few times and sometimes in August the lake can get a pretty strong algae bloom. My boys (from 18 to 25) are going to spend some time with us and will have girls of the same age along. Really what I was wondering is if there was a place on Caribou for public swimming.

I will check into the swimming area on North Star Lake, I've never been on that one.

Thanks

[reinhard1]

dont know anything about caribou. wish i could help you there. heck what a wonderfull area. i spent a lot of time in the marcell area. clubhouse lake was another great campground. those pumps had the best water i have ever tasted and had a beach as well. small, but was all we needed. it also had a fishing dock where my grandsone has a lot of memories. but your dealing with older "kids" so who knows. have a great time. good luck.

[Jim Almquist]

Another couple of lakes you could check out is the public beach on Moose lake. It has picnic tables and a dock. The other one would be a spot on Deer lake where Moose and Deer lake are on both side of county road 19. They are both on county road 19 and from where you are staying, you just go south on county road 48 and take a left when you hit 19. When you hit the first curve on 19 you will see the Moose lake beach in the back of the bay. If you go past that beach and go through a few more curves and the Moose lake county public access will be on your left and when you get to the bus turn around that is where people swim on Deer lake. It is a nice sandy area and very clear water.

[flipper]

Thanks a lot both of you.

[flipper]

I mean all three of you.

[merc]

North Star is nice and clean and sandy but the roped in area is only two feet deep. If you get outside that you have boat traffic to watch for. Knee deep water is fine for me but maybe not for people that want to swim.

[reinhard1]

merc, you live there but i can remember it being deeper than that. i'ts been awhile for us. after they cut all those big pines at the campground a few years ago we started going to clubhouse with the kids. i remember being waist deep at the time at least and i'm 6 foot. now most beaches are shallow anyway for safety reasons. i agree with you as far as actualy swimming, but most go to those type of beaches just to hang out, get wet, and for the kids mainly. i love that lake. great fishing and nice sites. i usualy went back to the little lakes connected south of the landing. who knows, water levels do change over the years. good luck.

[bmc]

Flipper,

Caribou has nice clean water, but the shoreline/lake bottom by the landing is rocky. There used to be a rope swing by the campsites and I have seen people using it in the past.

Not so sure about swimming in the Suomi lakes area, the bugs would probably carry them off!

Brian

[CRBass]

Flipper, tried to PM you, but your box is full.

[flipper]

Thanks, CRBass I just emptied my message box.

[merc]

Reinhard, many years back it was deeper but like you said I'm sure they went shallow for safety reasons. When the big pines got cut down there Reagen was president so it's been a while. We always stayed there until that happened and then shut down for a few years. We also started to go to Clubhouse but we still do a once a year trip back to North Star now. I have a cabin five miles from there but still fun to get a bunch of people to rough it once a year. Primitive sites with no electric and running water but I grew up on a farm back in the 50s so it's fine with me. Going up tomarrow for five nights, hopefully it's quite there so we can hang out and and have a few brews and a fish fry in peace. Usually not busy but some weekends are pretty packed. Still a great time though to get the same people together once a year and have a great time. Hopefully the federal goverment doesn't shut down or we will be locked out.

[reinhard1]

yea, when those big trees were cut down it was a huge bummer. we decided to go for a week with the kids after the trees were cut down and only stayed two days before we left for clubhouse that week. my parents took us there many times when i was a kid. many great memories. i had the biggest pike follow my lure one time that i ever saw in the first little lake through the narrows. that little body of water also gave up plenty of crappies on the south end. every evening around 6 pm you could see them come into the weedline with their backs out of the water like clockwork. good luck.