In August Dale and I flew to Minnesota for a 5 day trip to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. It was a great time, we flew into the twin cities after a 2 hour flight delay, and got our rental car and met our friend Jennifer at a nearby restaurant for a nice breakfast and a great visit. She works just a short way down the road so it worked out well for all of us. We then picked up a few items we needed for camping and drove all the way up to Ely where we stayed overnight. We had a nice dinner downtown at the Ely Steak House. It was super busy, and Dale and I had a drink/dinner right at the bar, as the place filled up very quickly. I would very much recommend this place for a nice dinner if you are in Ely. Good food, traditional, with a nice MN flair, and best of all good people!
Early the next morning after a hearty breakfast we drove further up to the end of the road. (I mean, The END of the road..it does not go any further) This is where our outfitter was located where we picked up our canoe and got a tow up to our first portage at Lake Ensign. We paddled through this lake, about an hour and a half, and then a 1/2 mile steep portage to our final lake Vera that we wanted to camp on. We had spotted a campsite here last year when we were up at this lake for a day trip, so we had it in mind. Unfortunately the special campsite was occupied, but no problems as the one just across the lake from it was equally as beautiful, and we camped there for 3 nights!
We got the tent up, set up our cooking area on a nice rock outcrop that came up to my waste to make a nice little "counter top" for cooking. We got everything set, and I went out to try some fishing on the lake. No luck, but it did start to rain and I had a nice time in the lake with a light, and gentle rain coming down. It was very serene and peaceful! Dale took a nice nap as he was a bit tired. We were not able to have campfires because of a complete fire ban. The area was completely dry and some of the portages were so brown, it reminded me of California mountains. We did manage though to keep ourselves very well entertained with books and some nice reading lights that we bought along the way, that worked out great, just clipping onto the book you are reading!
We did a couple of nice day trips from our campsite, one south to a few smaller lakes, and some fishing, and one North up to knife lake right on the border of Ontario. We really liked this lake a lot, and found some superb campgrounds that we want to go to next time. We felt like we were looking for real-estate, and going to open houses for our camping spot for next year. We also had some great luck fishing right on the border, where we each got several rock bass, and we had a superb dinner that night with our super fresh catch, a little fish fry batter, a hot pan and some olive oil.
The Boundary waters is always a relaxing, and revitalizing time. The lack of civilization in itself is a great thing to experience, but also the nature that abounds, from the lakes to the trees, to the birds, fish, and animals and all their sounds they make. Mosquitoes were almost non existent in such a dry year, but I did have one or two bites at the most. Nothing like it would have been in the wet springtime.
We took off and pulled up camp before our last night, and canoed back across Lake Vera, and Lake Ensign to a new lake, that we had not camped on before, but on the way back down to the outfitters. It was Sucker Lake, and was not too bad. We found a nice campground on the leeward side of the lake, but the wind was so strong it didn't make much of a difference. After we got to the campground and made camp, the clouds picked up and it became overcast. It was overcast for much of the late afternoon and evening, until just around dusk, when the moon started to rise and the clouds cleared out so we could enjoy the full moon in all it's glory. It was a brilliant rosy color from all the dust and wind, and then just as if it was planned, it clouded up again in the middle of the night and rained a few sprinkles. We were lucky, we then made a nice last breakfast and packed up our canoe for the long. (2 hour) paddle back to the outfitters. The wind was a bit strong in places, but not too bad. We made it back just fine, and loaded up our gear in the car and headed to Ely for a nice lunch at the Chocolate Moose! It was a very touristy place, but a nice lunch! Then we drove to a resort south of town where my old friends Doug and Mike from Minneapolis were staying for a week or so. We had a very nice visit, and a great time catching up with them about things. It had been 10 years since we saw them last time, so it was a lot of fun to see them again!
We then took off driving across the state to my dad's place in Menahga. We heard of some severe weather storms going on in the counties we were driving through, and when I called my dad from Hibbing and he said it had just hailed in Menahga, so I knew we would probably hit some bad weather driving south west. We certainly did, at least 3 different bands of rain that was so hard it was nearly zero visibility and we had to slow down to a crawl on the road. I was just hoping it was not going to hail. Thank goodness it didn't and we eventually made it to Menahga and dad's house in one piece and in good condition!
We had a very nice visit with Dad and my sister Donna before heading out 2 days later to Minneapolis to catch our flight back to the megalopolis of Los Angeles/Long Beach. From the wilderness to the urban jungle in just a few days. It seems unfair in some way!
