Folks from Minnesota?

[JohnnieMo]

I've just recently discovered a new job opportunity in Minnesota. It is a small startup company working out of Minneapolis (warehouse district) and Mankato (head office). Normally I wouldn't consider relocating at all as it is somewhat terrifying, but this opportunity is such a perfect fit for me, it is practically my dream job. I'm looking for some information on the region. I thought some folks here might be from that area.

Obviously, having made a giant lifestyle investment in a Tige this year, I'm looking to keep that in my life. I know Minnesota is the land of 10,000 lakes (or whatever number it is). So that has me curious. What are the lakes like? What is the summer like? I can handle cold winters as I grew up on the prairies (Saskatchewan) and now live in Calgary.

So please weigh in with what you know about the region in general, and boating there as well. Just looking at real estate alone, I could double the size of my house and not spend any more money, so that is an incentive. I'm not sure how taxes etc. compare however. Alberta is pretty good for that.

[sandm]

pm dandy on here. I hooked up with him earlier this summer and his family was gracious enough to host us for a surf day. he knows the area well and was a great guy to talk to...

[boardman74]

I have lived in MN my entire life, feel free to shoot me a PM with any questions. With over 14000 named lakes its truly has more water than just about anywhere. Metro lakes can be a zoo on the weekends, but there are literally 100's of lakes within an hour drive of the metro that aren't.

[lems52]

I hit up about 5-6 different lakes in a season. Most are within 45 mins. The other is 3 hrs away at my inlaws cabin, but I love that lake when it gets warmer since we can wakeboard and surf right off thier shoreline.

My folks lake is the one I frequent the most. Never crowded. It has milfoil (invasive weeds) in the shallow areas, but its problem on quite a few metro lakes. Water temps in July will hit 85 for brief periods. It was still 66 degrees at the end of September this year. I should state that this lake is only about 30-35 ft at it deepest part. The part we wakeboard is a smaller bay and is about 10-15 feet deep. Its one of the bigger acreage lakes though.....

Calgary is a very nice place from what I remember of it, but I think you'll find yourself at home in MN too.

[JohnnieMo]

Thanks for the feedback so far.

Calgary is a funny place because there is a lot of money here, hence a lot of boat ownership. But we literally have one useable lake - Chestermere. It just so happens it is 10 minutes from my house. However the fees to use it are quite high, so people will generally drive elsewhere. The next closest lakes are an hour, and really we are talking ponds here. To get anything nice you head into BC - and you are looking at 3 to 5 hours. So Calgary isn't really a good boating town, it just has a lot of money.

I'm looking primarily at Mankato. I like the smaller centers. I don't think I'm getting ahead if I leave Calgary and move to Minneapolis. I'm tired of traffic, and I'd like to upgrade the house. I really really would like a shop where I don't have to store my toys outside.

From what I remember about growing up in in Saskatchewan, the winters are a lot colder and the summers are a lot warmer. However that comes with a LOT of bugs, and the lakes are green with sludge. I assume Minnesota is probably similar. Here is Alberta / BC we are almost mosquito free, and the lakes (in BC) are crystal clear, deep and warm.

From Mankato, where are the best lakes for watersports? It doesn't look like there is anything in town. Living on a lake would be a dream for us, but I don't see that as possible there.

[Dandy]

Hey Johnnie - I work with a rep that lives in Mankato, I will shoot him an email and see what he can provide for info on lakes in that area. As Sandm mentioned, I do live in MN, but I am the other direction from MSP (1:15 NNW of MSP).

With regards to MN as whole, there are several lakes, but I have never been sure of what defines a lake to our wonderful State. For larger recreation areas, I would say the following are the most popular (not in any particular order)
-Minnetonka (gets very busy and due to that, I believe it has about every invasive species in the state) - don't get me wrong, there are alot of good people on Minnetonka, but due to it being in the Metro it does get alot of traffic and I believe there are a few different rules with regards to water sports because of this.
-Brainers Lakes/Cross Lake Area (2.5-3 hours +/- N of MSP):
There are several large chains of lakes in this area, this is north central in the state. Many of the lakes there are nice an clean. I have a buddy with a lake on the Whitefish Chain (Cross Lake) and the lakes are beautiful and there are a few resorts, bars... The water can get busy, but there are several smaller lakes (don't have the resorts) that tend to stay quiet for water sports - everyone tends to stay on big water and near the bars
-Alexandria Lakes Area (2.5 hours +/-):
I haven't spent alot of time in this area, but it has grown in popularity tremendusly over the past 4-5 years.

Aside from this there are ALOT of lakes, most running 200-600 acre range. The closer you get to the MSP area the busier they are. We just sold our cabin that was on a 200 acre lake, on a busy day, there would be us and 2-3 other boats, the others we usually fishing. The water clarity differs based on location as well as how the lake is fed. Spring fed lakes (we are lucky to have 2 close to us) are cooler, but stay nice and clear all season. If they lake is tied to a river system, expect it to get green late in the season (Late July - August) but will clean up nice late in the year.

Check out the following site. The MN DNR does a great job of taking lake clarity sampling and providing lake date for most of the lakes:
http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/lakefind/index.html

If I get more info from the rep in Mankato, I will pass it along. Any other questions, please feel free to send a PM and I will try and help. Don't worry, most of us Minnesotans are not afriad of Canadians (there are a few of us however that believe in BigFoot and to be clear I am not one)

[JohnnieMo]

Thanks a lot dandy. It looks like the best lakes are up north. The south looks more like the prairies that I am used to.

Doing almost all of my boating on shuswap lake has me spoiled. Beautiful mountains, clean water, 80 degrees, hundreds of miles of shoreline, and barely any other boaters (in my region). It will be hard to top that.

[Dandy]

JonnieMo - Just hear back from the rep in Mankato, below is what he had to share. If you want his direct contact information, PM me and he OK'd me to pass it along to you if you are looking for more info. Good Luck and Happy New Year!
Begin Email Copy:
There are 5 big water ski lakes in the burbs of Mankato.
(Lake Washington/ Duck Lake/ Madison lake / Lake Jefferson): these are all decent sized lakes for water skiing etc... They are all within 10 miles of the city limits of Mankato. No rentals for wave runners except at lake Washington they have pontoon rentals
End Email Copy

[JohnnieMo]

Thanks dandy. Madison and Washington have houses for sale right on the lake within our price range

The company has requested more information on me, so it's moving forward. If it looks like a move is inevitable I will look up your colleague.

Thanks so much. One of the wonderful things about this forum is how international it is. No matter where you go you feel like you already have friends there.

[Dandy]

JohnnieMo- Glad to help. Let me know if you need more info. If you move down, I will be happy to let you take me out for a pull and may assist in drinking a beer or two Don't worry, I will gladly reciprocate! Best of luck, its a huge decision to make a move like this.

[99bison]

I'm also in mn, the north west, send pm if have any q's in that area.

[Tulsah]

I moved to Mankato from Lethbridge, Alberta in 2001, and lived there through to 2005. I know exactly what you are going through! I was recruited to work as an engineer for one of the local soybean operations.

As far as the area goes, I found Mankato to be ideal. It is not too big and is also close enough to just about anything you could possibly want for shopping and most recreation (if you ski, that will require more effort than Calgary). My wife and I made friends quickly and those friendships have endured to this day, even though we are no longer in the USA.

My biggest challenge was the humidity of the summer ... 72deg dewpoints at 7 in the morning were not exactly comfortable for me, but I did survive. All told, when I took the job there, I did it on a bit of a leap of faith, but we really came to love the community and the people. If I were looking to live and work in the USA again, Mankato would be top of my list.

[JohnnieMo]

That's awesome to know. Thanks.

As an update it looks like I didn't get the job I applied for. The process was a bit bungled and I elected to take a step back before looking at other options with the company. Ultimately I'm not in a hurry and I have a lot going on this year in my personal life so I've decided that if it's meant to be, it will happen. I'm not about to force it.