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The map indicates with pins the home area of visitors from just the last two years.
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The Hungry Hippy Hostel in Grand Marais, Minnesota offers a warm, woodsy feel to the rooms (some private, some communal).
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OULLIS PHOTOGRAPHY
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The Hungry Hippy Hostel in Grand Marais, Minnesota offers a warm, woodsy feel to the rooms (some private, some communal).
Kate Keeble’s daughter, Addie, was enamored with the idea of Paris.
“She was obsessed,” Kate says.
So what to do when your home is 4,000 miles from the City of Lights, on a bluff with a view of Lake Superior, just north of Grand Marais?
A supportive mother wants to encourage the interests of her 9-year-old. “I told her to go outside and talk to them,” Kate says.
“Them” were the couple just outside. Lucky for Addie, her mom and dad run a hostel on their farmstead off Cook County Road 14, and one day last year, a French couple was on the guest list. Addie made them an offer. She’d show the visitors the process of making s’mores at the fire pit if she could pepper them with questions about Paris.
Her daughter’s simple trade had a simply delightful impact. “Now she’s even more fascinated,” Kate laughs.
ADDIE KEEBLE
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Your newest hostel hosts The Keebles of Hungry Hippie Hostel near Grand Marais are Addie, Kate, Jeremy and Mavis, at right by the water.
The Paris connection is one of many treasured stories Kate and Jeremy Keeble can tell when reflecting on the surging success of the Hungry Hippie Farm & Hostel, which after just two years in operation has seen more than 5,000 bookings, a higher occupancy rate than the Keebles ever imagined.
“It’s humbling, and it’s cool,” Kate says. She marvels at the pins dotting a world map in the common area inside the barn, marking guests’ hometowns.
Maybe the draw is a fantastic view of the Lake. Or the smartly remodeled barn that can house up to 20 travelers with five semi-private rooms and bunks in the former hayloft. Or maybe it’s the unique factor – it’s the only operation of its kind on Minnesota’s North Shore.
It may represent a mini-trend around the Lake when it comes to today’s version of budget lodging.
A second new hostel opened in Thunder Bay in March, making the city home to three such lodging options. Planning is also underway for a hostel in downtown Duluth.
Given a lot of word-of-mouth traditional and social media buzz, the Keebles no longer worry about people wondering what they offer. “Now everyone knows what a hostel is,” Kate says. “People form a bond.”
COURTESY THE HAVEN HOSTEL
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Sleek and modern with the amenities of traditional hostels, The Haven Hostel in downtown Thunder Bay features group rooms.
Perhaps that’s why the idea of hostels has bloomed in various fashions across the world for more than a century. Like Addie, people from different cultures can meet and find touchstones in shared spaces.
That communal aspect of hostels, along with relatively cheap rates, has attracted people to them since the concept was conceived by a German schoolteacher in 1907.
Richard Schirrmann, concerned about children living in overcrowded industrial cities, wanted a place for them to wander the countryside. He envisioned a string of clubhouses, where hikers could stay under the watchful eye of hostel caretakers. Sleeping was in shared rooms, and meals were taken in common areas.
Hungry Hippie Hostel, centering around a barn once used for horses, seems apropos since many of the first European hostels were on farms with lofts as sleeping quarters, only later popping up in urban centers.
By 1935, there were 4,000 hostels across Europe and more than 7 million members of promoting associations.
Richard came to the United States that year to amplify the idea in a country slow to catch the wave. The first U.S. hostel opened in Northfield, Massachusetts, in 1934, and soon there were dozens across New England. But the concept never replicated as it had in Europe, perhaps because of the long distances to travel and the culture of the automobile.
The Grand Marais hostel remains unique in Minnesota. The only other operation that fits the description is a state-run facility at the headwaters of the Mississippi River in Itasca State Park. The Hungry Hippie was conceived as a respite for hikers on the Lake Superior Hiking Trail. The Keeble farm is a quarter-mile away from the trail as it crosses the county road, 8 miles north of town.
“Hikers were expected, but we haven’t had as many as we thought,” Kate says. Instead, the hostel has seen a swell of people from the Twin Cities looking for a change in the North Shore experience, she says. Groups also are renting the entire hostel and travelers from other countries have found the farm. A couple from Switzerland was impressed with how “clean and tidy” the place was, “like a mountain chalet,” quotes Kate.
The Keebles appreciate such compliments from people who have had a panoply of hostel experiences across the world. Prospectors have come to see the operation, too, with designs in their heads for a hostel of their own.
The popularity of Hungry Hippie has the Keebles expanding options at the farm. They plan to add rustic camping sites and a shower house.
The rural setting attracts visitors. “There is no foot traffic. There’s lots of stars. It’s people from everywhere, and they all say they enjoy how different the experience is.”
The hostel, like the name, is a throwback, really, offering amazing connections made with each batch of guests, much like that French couple and Addie, Kate says. “That campfire brings everyone together.”
About 80 miles northeast of Grand Marais, the hostel tradition is both long standing and beginning anew in the Thunder Bay area.
During the 1960s and ’70s, many cities in the provinces struggled as hitchhiking across the country took hold. While there were many underground safe havens for travelers, the network of cheap hostels was mostly relegated to schools, YMCAs or Salvation Army shelters.
There was talk in government circles of creating a more structured, low-cost option for wanderers; but not much came of it, especially around the shore of Lake Superior, where the completion of the Trans-Canada Highway in 1960 became the final link in the Lake’s Circle Tour.
By the late 1970s, the Canadian Hosteling Association strove to broaden the appeal of the 100 or so hostels that stretched from Newfoundland to the Yukon.
Lloyd and Willa Jones were part of that network, having opened a backpacker’s hostel just northeast of Thunder Bay and near the highway in 1976. Today, Lloyd at 82, still runs the Thunder Bay International Hostel, which may be the oldest continuing operation of its kind in the country. The backpacker haven is a throwback to the original rugged hostels for ground adventurers. There’s a flat rate of $25 to stay in one of the 40 beds, many in the “Longhouse” village, a tribute to facilities in Borneo, a favorite travel destination for the couple.
For the past 18 years, daughter Gail Jones has run the Sleeping Giant Guest House, a seven-room hostel with five-bed dorm in downtown Thunder Bay. Gail’s operation falls under the new model for hosteling, offering low-cost rates via shared spaces in an urban bed-and-breakfast mode.
“I would say mostly … young people,” she says of her guests. “It’s about wanting to keep the costs down and the community they want to look for.”
COURTESY THE HAVEN HOSTEL
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Community space, like the big yellow couch at The Haven Hostel in Thunder Bay, is one reason travelers choose hostel stays.
This spring, a new option – The Haven Hostel – opened in downtown Thunder Bay.
The Haven, located in a remodeled warehouse space, is definitely not the old-style hostel.
It has keyless entry that allows guests to come and go on their schedule. There are sleeping pods, a new spin on bunking with plenty of privacy in an enclosed sleeping area. It’s the first of its kind in the province, the owners say. There also are dorms with railcar-style bunk beds.
COURTESY THE HAVEN HOSTEL
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Your newest hostel host Holly Watson of The Haven Hostel in Thunder Bay.
Holly Watson, who co-owns the hostel with Paul Pepe, had definite ideas about what she wanted in a hostel.
After years of traveling in Europe and Central America, Holly was ready to come home. “I hit a wall,” she says of her travel days. “I wanted roots. I wanted to go home. My purpose changed. I want travelers to come to me now.”
She had stayed in a variety of hostels and stored up “best practices” for a place of her own, something she’s pondered for about 10 years.
High-speed internet was a must for Holly, as were large, open shared spaces with comfortable seating and plenty of information about area attractions. Indeed, the “big-ass yellow couch” that can seat 12
COURTESY THE HAVEN HOSTEL
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Your newest hostel host Paul Pepe o The Haven Hostel in Thunder Bay.
people was a big hit as the hostel opened to a large group of skiers in early March. A house dog – just a puppy for now – brings a homey feel. (It’s a hypoallergenic breed.)
“It’s communal,” Holly says. “The whole point is sharing information. I got to the point where I don’t trip plan any more. You get so much from the people you meet. … We’re a place where you can find information to get from A to B.”
While Holly’s dream is the lodging side of the large, 8,000-square-foot hostel, co-owner Paul’s dream is the Get Out Gear Rentals shop that will occupy the second half of the old industrial building.
An avid motorcycle rider as well as outdoor enthusiast, Paul envisions The Haven as a focal point for guests to tap the recreation resources right in the neighborhood, both along the city’s waterfront and just outside of the city limits.
He has plans for the shop to offer multiple types of bike rentals (fat tires, mountain and cruisers), helmets, camping kits, paddle sports, skates, maps, safety kits
and anything you might need for
recreation.
“There’s a renaissance going on down here,” Holly says. “And there’s lots of options for all travelers, in the city or the more remote places.”
Lake Superior Hostels
Hungry Hippie Hostel
Grand Marais
$29 a person per day in 10-person bunkhouse; group bunk room (up to 4 guests) is $99 for the room, $59 for one of five private rooms, $549 to rent entire hostel (20 people); camping sites; shared three bathrooms, lounge, and a primitive kitchenette with a refrigerator, hot plate, microwave and sink; linens and towels provided; showers ($5 for day-use hikers); wireless internet; coffee, campfire ring, lakeview deck.
The Haven Hostel
Thunder Bay
$40-45 per person per day peak season in shared quarters, $90 for private rooms; two dorms (male and female) with six pod-style, enclosed beds; three 4-person bunk dorms; two queen private rooms; lockers and linens provided; kitchen, large lounge area, book-swap nook; continental breakfast; coffee and tea all day, $5 laundry service, high-speed wireless. Secured covered parking for motorcycles.
Thunder Bay International Hostel
Shuniah near Thunder Bay
thunderbayinternationalhostel.ca
$25 per person, per day; 40 beds available, 1-2 beds per room; private washrooms; washer and dryer; full access to shared kitchen; lounge area with games, books, movies; high-speed internet and wireless; outside fire pits.
Sleeping Giant Guest House
Thunder Bay
$25 per person per day in shared five-bed dorm, $50-$60 for limited private rooms; shared bathrooms, sauna and shower room; free linen, coffee and tea; large outfitted kitchen; two laundrettes one street over; bikers welcome.
Writer/editor Mike Creger of Duluth is writing a memoir that includes tales of his biological mother hitchhiking across Canada in 1970 to get from Winnipeg to Vancouver along the Trans-Canada Highway (and using its hodgepodge of hostels ).