Tal Ben-Shahar’s Happier suggests that people should engage in a quest to constantly improve their lives (make themselves “happier”) as opposed to striving for some unattainable level of ultimate perfection. Minneapolis is no Denver or Seattle, dramatically situated on the cusp of mountain adventure, but I am coming to realize it is significantly better than Baton Rouge and New Orleans on almost every front of outdoor life.
- That 13,000-foot Mountain: Finding Mount Potosi in Nuevo Leon, Mexico was a huge discovery in Louisiana. About 1,000 miles from New Orleans, it was the closest 13,000-footer, followed by some peaks near Taos, New Mexico. While Minneapolis is not perched on the Front Range like Denver, Cloud Peak in Wyoming is 25% closer than Mount Potosi was, and it does not have the impediments of a border crossing or a language barrier. If I get sick of Cloud Peak, the Front Range is only about 100 miles further away.
- National Parks: The closest National Park of note to Southeast Louisiana was Smoky Mountain National Park, over 600 miles away. About equidistant from here are the eerie Badlands, but I’ve also got two amazing parks about 50% closer (Voyageurs and Isle Royals). In addition, unsatisfied by the Smokies, I frequently hauled ass to Big Bend and Guadalupe National Parks in Western Texas. While I’m probably not willing to make those sorts of trips that much anymore, I still have more and arguably better options about the same distance: Rocky Mountain National Park and Yellowstone are a bit closer, and Glacier and Grand Teton are just a couple hours further.
- Nearby Hiking: I’m no expert yet, but with the bluffs of the Mississippi to the southeast and the waterfalls and crags cascading into Lake Superior to the northeast, I’m fairly confident that the nearby hiking options kick the pants off driving to Mississippi.
- Kayaking/Canoing: I kept saying I’d get into this down south but never did. Here it seems almost impossible to avoid. Lakes are built into the fabric of the Twin Cities, and people sail, kayak, and canoe on them all the time. Outside the Twin Cities is of course the entirety of Minnesota, the state of 10,000 lakes (actually 12,000), so the possibilities seem endless. Finally, beyond simply quantity of options is the quality: the Boundary Waters are proclaimed as the best canoing in the world, and they are just a few hours north from here.
The only downside to these massive upgrades is that these options are available only half the year. Surviving the winter here the way I survived summer down south will be the subject of a separate post, but given that I was pretty inactive over the winter in Louisiana, it’s not much of a loss to have come here.
