Day 2 7/7

Tuesday

Woke up at scenic to an awesome view of the lake from out campsite. Mike called scenic the “training wheels” for the boundary waters. It’s was pretty sweet canoe-in site. Maybe 20 min trip and then secluded sites right on the water.

We canoed out, then went for a hike/run in the park, respectively. They have nice trails here. I put in a number of miles on the trails before dipping out to the park road for the last few.

Brunch/lunch was at the Effie diner per a friend of mike’s suggestion. The caramel roll was outstanding, the biscuits and gravy was meh. Mike reported that the hash browns were solid, also admitting that hash browns are hard to screw up.

We then drove to voyaguers through a series of crazy little traveled state highways. Big falls and little fork were the only towns in 1 hr+ of driving.

Put in around 1:30 at ash river visitor center bound for mica island campsite. It actually went pretty quick. Maybe a 3.5 hour canoe. I kind of went full circle again with the park. Mad the first hour about all the boats in the narrows, then appreciating the landscape and relative solitude/lack of portaging as it opened up into namekon. Got into camp around 5 and after a short debate and setting up camp, headed to kettle falls even without knowing the bar would for sure be open. It would be at least cook for mike to check out.

It looked dead when we pulled up, but the bar was open so we had a beer out on the porch and chatted with the bar tender. I guess they were slammed earlier in the day, but it was just the two of us at the time.

Canoed back, had a good camp dinner of tuna Mac and cheese and hit the hay at dusk as the mosquitoes got horrible.

A good second day on the road.