Saturday, August 17, 2019

Last day...sigh. Loved getting to have a trip longer than our typical Labor Day weekend trips from the last few years, but I could have stayed a lot longer. Have to admit that I am very jealous that my son spent 5 weeks in the wilderness this summer. Next year I am determined to arrange my schedule to allow more than one trip.

Portage from Snipe to Missing Link has a spot with a nearly chest high vertical rock face. There is sort of a tight path beaten around the side. But when I arrived at it carrying the canoe, my son was waiting. He said, "Let me take it up this." Okay...Sure enough he just bounds up it with the canoe like he was walking on flat ground. How did he do that? He gave me back the canoe and waited for his dad and repeated his feat of wonder. When I asked him later how he did that, he simply replied, "Mom, that is the kind of stuff I am built for! I have REALLY strong legs!" Guess I can't argue with that statement.

After we exited at Round Lake, we packed up, and then drove up to the end of the Gunflint Trail to see Chik Mauk museum. We had never been before and really enjoyed it. Favorite parts: reading about the early businesses on the Gunflint Trail...all the names I had heard through the years, and visiting the new boat museum. Turns out they used the exact same plans as Menogyn used to build their timber frame canoe repair building (only Chik Mauk decided to enclose theirs).

Made it to our friends' house near Duluth for their annual corn roast. Great food, great people (no one even said a thing about our trail funk). We decided to not camp over at their place Saturday night as originally planned. Instead we headed back to the Cities.

Total time: didn't track it but about 2 hours

~Snipe Lake, Missing Link Lake, Round Lake