The End of the Trail

Our weekend was so much fun. We didn’t get out of Duluth until about 6:45pm on Friday. It took longer than expected (of course) to get everything loaded up in the truck. And we had to stop at Steve’s Dad’s house to drop off our house keys and also to have a beer with him –ha! Steve was very stressed out so that was a good thing. He’d been really busy and harried all day. We stopped at Culver’s in Two Harbors to grab something to eat because the thought of setting up camp in the dark and then trying to get a meal together was just not that appealing. We knew we wouldn’t make it to the end of the trail by time we wanted to make camp ­and it was very possible that there wouldn’t be any trails, so, we stopped at Flour Lake Campground instead. We set up our camp, took a little walk (in the dark – eek) and then went to bed. We didn’t even have a fire because it was kind of late and we didn’t have that much wood.
Saturday morning we got up around 8 or so – oh – LOONS all night – they were so beautiful. Steve got up around 6 or so and went to the outhouse or for a walk or something (I was sleeping, I didn’t care!) and came across the campground host. She said that there was a bear cub around the campground and to make sure and keep all of our food in our car as it’s been tearing into screen tents (where people left food out – stupid!). Apparently the bear cub had just been “left” by it’s mother – it was time to leave the nest, so to speak, and had been hanging out at the campground. Yikes. We never saw it. Bummer (not really). I’m glad I didn’t know about that when we went for our nighttime walk!!!

We packed up camp and headed up the Gunflint – north north north! We stopped at Magnetic Rock Trail . We hiked 3.5 miles (there and back)…the trail goes through an area that had a prescribed burn after the big blow down storm in ’99 (?). It’s amazing to see all the new growth – trees everywhere! Sadly, it’s pretty wide open (due to the blow down and the fire). Steve said it used to be a much more beautiful trail. Part of it is still very woodsy which was nice. There were blueberries EVERYWHERE which was awesome. Soooo tasty. It was cloudy which was good because otherwise we would’ve been DYING of heat!! The rock was pretty cool – it really makes your compass go wonky – which is fun if you’re a dork like me and Steve and EVERYONE there (there was one other older couple playing with their compass and then as we were leaving a dad, a son and a friend/uncle (?) )
After our hike we headed further up the Gunflint. We stopped at a cute little store (totally Northern Exposure-esque) to buy some marshmallows and then we were off again. We got to Trail’s End Campground (not my pictures but shows the beauty of this campground!!) (also part of the Superior National Forest Campground system). That website has some great pics from someone’s personal website. It is SOOOOOOOOOOO beautiful. We were nervous about finding a site because it really gets filled up and half of the sites (well, maybe not half) were closed due to an Eagle nesting. Steve has come to this campground with his Dad since 1981! I was as far north in MN as I’ve ever been. We lucked out and found a PRIMO spot! . Our site had a short trail down to the site area….right on Seagull River/Lake. Quite private with one campsite kind of close. We had direct lake access and put the canoe in there both Saturday and Sunday. We set up camp and headed out for a paddle. I actually paddled in the Boundary Waters! Whoo-hoo! It’s very close and there’s a sign marking the border so we made sure to go through so I could say that I have officially been there. We didn’t want to go too far because we didn’t bring a self-issued day-permit with us. We also went swimming by the canoe landing (close to our site) (thank GOD for Tevas because NO WAY would I swim near those algae laden rocks otherwise!!). We had a nice campfire, tin foil dinners and beers. It was sooo awesome. The lake was SO SMOOTH when we went out – just like glass (okay, a little ripply but so nice). It’s so beautiful. It reminded me a lto of when I went up to Canada in June. No people, no structures, just nature, trees, rocks, water, loons, eagles. It’s like you’re camping in the BWCA but with all the luxuries of car-camping. I am SO going back to this campground! We had “happy hour” out on the lake with some beers and trail mix. It was awesome.

Our neighbors turned out to be 4 or 5 guys with HUGE trucks and lots of gear. (they were not “cool” extreme guys – we were worried). They were drinking beer (busch light) when they pulled up at about 7pm. Ugh. We were worried. They were loud, they blasted music from their truck and played your game (name that artist) for a while – we were very worried….but they were all passed out and asleep by 10:30!! And they SNORED SO D*MN LOUDLY! Oh my god. Yikes. They were headed into Quetico the next day so they were up and gone early. Whew.
Sunday we got up and made breakfast….and went for a paddle. It was super windy and not much fun. Out on seagull Lake we paddled and paddled and got no where. Ugh. So we didn’t go very far. We were going to have lunch out there (brought the big cooler and all) but it wasn’t worth it. So we headed back, cleaned up, went swimming, packed the truck, had lunch and hit the road about 2:30pm.
Upon getting home, we were pooped. Ugh. Unloading the truck sucked….but we got it all unloaded and some cleaning done. There’s more work to do but it was worth it. Such a beautiful trip. I can’t wait to go back! I’m tempted to say ‘screw Portland’ let’s go to the BWCA!!!!