Top: (L-R) Mavis, Kate, Addie and Jeremy Keeble. The family has been busy getting the hostel ready for use.
Cook County will soon have its first, year-round hostel. Jeremy and Kate Keeble along with their two kids, Addie and Mavis, have owned and run the Hungry Hippie Farm for several years. Since purchasing the farm in Colvill, they’ve enjoyed being able to raise chickens as well as grow their own food.
However, they have also kept their eyes open for other possible uses for the farm to make it more self-sufficient.
“We thought about different animals we could raise, the kinds of crops we could have,” Jeremy explained. “This is the perfect area for the outside adventurer.”
One part of the farm that Kate and Jeremy were initially unsure how to use was the horse barn stationed near the house. They briefly considered owning horses, but decided this was not for them.
However, both Jeremy and Kate enjoy traveling. Prior to coming to Grand Marais, Jeremy had hiked the Appalachian Trail, staying at various hostels along the way. The hostels provide economical housing that is perfect for hikers who are just passing through. Considering the farm’s proximity to the Superior Hiking Trail and to Grand Marais, Jeremy and Kate realized this was the perfect opportunity to start using the horse barn.
Left: Originally a horse barn, the Keebles worked hard to transform it into a hostel with beautiful views. Above: These former horse stall doors have been repurposed to serve as doors for the hostel’s bedrooms.
“We do want something budget-orientated because, when we travel, we’re always looking for the budget place or we tent it,” Kate explained.
Transforming the barn into a hostel would fill the need for economical housing in Grand Marais.
During the first year that the hostel was in the works, the Keebles were excited to see that people were interested. Even though they hadn’t done any advertising and the hostel was barely started, they were already fielding calls from people who were interested in staying with them.
“A lot of people had people to send our way. We had a phone call every week [last year],” Kate said. “There was a wide range. It was groups, it was couples who were just hiking the Superior Hiking Trail, and that was really the group we were trying to target.”
Cook County definitely holds a lot of potential for the new hostel and the Keebles are excited to see what the first year brings.
“The goal is, once we get everything going over here, we’ll be able to focus on farms and animals again,” Jeremy said.
In addition to working on the farm and getting some more animals, the Keebles have also noticed there is a potential to do some catering during the slower seasons, possibly for wedding parties. They are also looking forward to possibly setting up a greenhouse, growing apple trees and being able to offer guests food that is grown on the farm.
The former horse barn had lots of potential to be a really nice hostel with rooms already built in and a rustic and comfortable quality that would make visitors feel at home. The Keebles have had fun collecting rustic themed décor including a 10-point deer rack, alarm clocks, and more.
The hostel will also have a break room with coffee, a fridge, TV, and various other amenities. The first floors include several private rooms and two full bathrooms. The Keebles also made an effort to accommodate the handicapped, with wheelchair accessible rooms and large bathrooms on the first floor. The second floor includes a row of bunks for individuals just looking for a place to spend the night.
As the hostel was being built, Kate and Jeremy made it a point to reuse and repurpose old material, and the result is a very cozy set-up.
“Being the Hungry Hippie, we’re trying to reuse as much stuff as possible and recycle,” Jeremy said. “I work up at Grand Portage. We redid the lodge up there, so they were trying to get rid of a lot of their old stuff. So we grabbed as much of that as we could.”
Some of the material included furniture as well as some wood taken from the Lodge’s lobby. In addition to reusing material from the lodge renovation project, the Keebles also used some old pallets that had been collecting in the barn and wood from the horse stalls.
One particular group of items that stand out were the red and white sliding doors formerly used for the stalls. Now serving as doors to the private rooms on the first floor, they are a beautiful, decorative addition keeping with the rustic theme.
The first floor also offers a lovely view of pine trees and hills, but the top floor boasts the best view in the hostel with a window overlooking Lake Superior.
In addition to their interest in reusing material, Kate and Jeremy were also eager to do a lot of the work themselves.
“Our goal was to do as much of it as possible ourselves,” Kate said. “And his [Jeremy’s] dad is a carpenter, and so he came up and those two were in here a lot.”
The kids, Addie and Mavis, have also been helping out with the renovations. Mavis enjoys riding her little tricycle around the nice, wooden floors, picking up bolts and doing whatever odd job her parents assign her.
With the hostel building nearly complete and a lovely new website at www.hungryhippiefarm.com, the Keebles are ready for business. You can call (218) 387- 4827 for reservations.
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