As far North as we can go.

7^th – 8^th July – Tettagouche State Park

It was a relatively short drive along a picturesque road from Ely to Tettagouche, on the shoreline of Lake Superior.  The wild flowers along the highway are colourful.

Logging was one of the main activities during the 1880s-1900s.  After all the good-sized trees where chopped down the logging companies would move onto another section of the forest.  Incredible to think these forests have now re-grown in the last 100 years and everywhere we look there are trees. During the years of logging and mining, emphasis was put on rail-road and water transportation and no public money was spent on roads.  It wasn’t until 1920s that they started to develop the road network. 

After setting up camp and having lunch, we had an afternoon hike to see the waterfalls in the park. It was a lovely sunny afternoon.

The next day the weather had changed; the temperature dropped and the mist on the Lake did not lift until the afternoon.  We did a couple of hikes along the shoreline; Shovel Point and Palisade Head.  Although the area is known for Peregrine Falcons we believe the bird we saw was an Osprey, but it was hard to tell from a distance.

9th – 13^th July – Grand Portage

9^th July

We spent most of the morning driving 70 miles along the coastline up to Grand Portage just a few miles below the Canadian border.  We stopped for coffee near the Cross River, cascading into the Lake.  We booked into the campground on the Ojibwe Indian Reservation lands and then drove around the village and booked our tickets for the ferry across to Isle Royale National Park in a couple of days.

In the evening we got chatting to our camp neighbours and they kindly invited Paul to go out on their boat to go fishing the next day.

10^th July

Paul was up early and on the lake by 9am with Mark and Don.  It turned out to be a beautiful sunny day and the Lake waters were still – so an excellent day for fishing and the three men caught five good-sized lake trout. The trip was a learning curve for me as I have never been on a boat like this to go fishing. We were fishing at a depth between 70 and 110 feet using trawling gear. Four rigs were out with one lure per rig. The water is still very cold after a bad winter. Trout need the water temperature to be up in the 50s but at the moment it is around 42f so very few people were catching anything.

Alison drove into Grand Marais for some window shopping; a lake-side town with a lovely little harbour.

11^th July

The weather was abysmal all day and we watched the other side of the bay appear and disappear as the mist came and went.  In the afternoon we visited the Grand Portage National Monument.

 The Heritage Centre had well-presented exhibitions and displays and explained the life of the ‘Voyagers’.It then led into a reconstruction of 4 main buildings of what the Village would have been like in the days of the fur trade in late 1780s/90s.  The local Ojibwe Indians traded with the British & French here during the days when beaver hats were fashionable.  When the Canadian/USA border was finally established here the trading post had to relocate further north in 1802, putting an end to 20 years of trading.

12^th July – Isle Royale NP

As forecast this was a beautiful day and just perfect for catching the ferry over to the Island.  We stopped at the ‘Witch Tree’ which is a tree seemingly growing out of a boulder which is held
‘special’ by the local people.

We had only 4 hours on the island, which is around 50 miles by 5 miles, so we established the best hike to do in that time and set off up to Grace Creek overlook where we had lunch looking down on Feldtmann Lake in the valley. It looked an ideal place to spot a Moose but sadly all we saw were hoof prints in the mud and moose poo. 

When I first read about this Island 8 or 9 years ago it was described as the best place to spot bear, wolves and moose.  The animals may have crossed to the island years ago when Lake Superior was completely frozen over – as it had been this winter, a rare event.  Sadly there are no more bears, only 5 wolves and the population of 2400 moose had depleted to 1000.  In fact the whole north-eastern moose population in Minnesota had reduced considerably in the last few years and they are not sure why. The Island is described as 99% wilderness and primarily used by backpackers who camp out overnight travelling one end to the other.  There were a couple of Scout Troops doing just that who travelled out or back on the ferry with us.

13^th July

Another sunny, but windy, day and we drove up to Grand Portage State Park which is right next to the Canadian border. This is the most northerly point of our trip this year. The Canadian/USA border follows the Pigeon River and was named after the hundreds of Passenger Pigeons that used to be caught here (unfortunate for them they tasted good). 

We hiked up to High Falls which was the main obstacle for the fur traders. Traders brought their furs down the river to Fort Charlotte.  It was then too dangerous to continue in canoes so they carried their goods and canoes 8.5 miles to the village of Grand Portage on the shoreline – the Indian name was "Gichi Onigamiing" meaning great carrying-place.
They also grow wild rice in this part of Minnesota.

Later in the day we made use of the Casino swimming pool and restaurant.