Boundary Waters, Trip Reports, BWCA, Stories

Labor Day Week Adventure
by Bigbriwi

Trip Type: Paddling Canoe
Entry Date: 08/31/2018
Entry & Exit Point: Lizz and Swamp Lakes (EP 47)
Number of Days: 10
Group Size: 2
Day 2 of 10
Saturday, September 01, 2018 Woke up early and went done and enjoyed the complimentary breakfast then decided to walk around the area for a little bit. The weather was perfect! The have a nice river walk that went out to the mouth of the river by the light houses going into Lake Superior. As we are walking along the break wall there is a gentleman looking over the edge and he points out that there is a big northern right by the wall. He wasn't kidding, it was a really nice northern and as we kept looking we saw about 6 or 7 other northerns, very cool. We then walk out toward the lake and we see something moving way out in the lake and as we look closer there is some guys swimming out there! Seriously?? After enjoying our last hot shower for a week we head off to Grand Marais for lunch and some shopping. We decided to eat at the Angry Trout and had a great lunch lake side. We did a little shopping at the Outpost which was a very cool store, and then got our fishing licenses before heading to Rockwood Lodge.

We got to Rockwood Lodge and were warmly greeted by the owners, I just love dealing with these people. They are just so friendly and helpful, Mike and Carl run a great outfitting business and Stephanie and Carol keep the place looking great. We worked out some of the logistics for our departure the next day, and got our portage packs and bear barrel so we can get them all packed up and ready to go for in the morning. We see that they have paddle boards, my wife has always wanted to try one and Mike said go ahead and give it a try. We got our stuff situated in our Bunkhouse, got our packs loaded up, so we headed down to the water so she could go for a ride. As it turned out Carl was out on one of their boards so he gave my wife a quick lesson and the went for a zip around the lake.

After that we headed over to the Poplar Haus right down the road for supper. It is a newer place right on the lake with some killer views. We had a nice meal and headed back to the bunkhouse to chill, enjoy our last internet connection for a while, and hopefully some good sleep.