Hustler is a beautiful lake and hopefully Ill be back to stay there. Noah catches a decent pike trolling across the lake. Upon getting into the bay where the portage to Oyster is I see two people on the portage just finishing it. They are USFS folks and when they see us and we get closer I got the feeling they were going to tell us something important. The guy who seemed in charge asked what day of the trip we where on and then was like “So I assume you haven’t heard of the closure order?” Austin and I looked at each other and we both knew it was game over for this trip. The guy was very nice and apologetic about it. He advised us to at least get to Nina Moose tonight then exit the next day understanding that from Hustler to exit is a push with kids along. It turned out this guy married a women who grew up not far from our hometown and actually knew the wife of one of my Dads employees. We thank the rangers and wished them safe travels.

So here we are with a still very heavy food pack and a long way to go to get where we need to be with the longest portage ahead of us. We get going all along looking to the sky as we walk. Distant thunder becomes not so distant and by the time we are on the Oyster lake side of the portage its clear we are going to get hit. We are fortunate that we're on this side of the portage as the topography really blocked much of the wind and we were able to ride out the storm under the canoe. We later learned that a guy drowned on Loon Lake in this same storm.

Its about 11:00am when we are able to start our way across Oyster. We decided to book it out in one day as a stay at Nina Moose Lake didn’t appeal to us. We made our way through Agnes and down the river not seeing anyone until the 2nd portage from the takeout. It was a large group of younger 15 -17 year-olds. We eventually got ahead of them on a portage and then the next group we saw heading out was a crew of Stu Osthoff’s finishing up there carry to the parking lot. Stu speaks often in his magazine about how he brings gallons of milk and lots of fresh food on his guided trips. It was apparent these guys didn’t appreciate having to carry fresh milk and milk jugs of ice out of the park. We had our heavy packs too. At the end of the portage near the parking lot the Sheriff had put a road closed sign in the middle of the trail and yellow tape across it. He then took down our names. He talked deer hunting with Noah and Brody while we went down for our second trip. Austin and I were beat. That’s as much paddling and portaging as I’ve ever done in a day all with a food pack that was still nearly full. Lynx to Oyster to Nina Moose EP is a jaunt by my out of shape standards.

Not wanting to go home so soon we decide to stay a few nights in Crane Lake. We had Andersons move the truck from EP14 to EP16 so we had to go and pay the bill anyway. After settling the bill we went over and talked to Beth at Pine Ridge Motel. We have stayed here numerous times before and hoped she wasn’t booked up. I explained our situation and she moved a group to the cabin they have and put us in a motel room. Beth is awesome and I so appreciate her being able to accommodate us. After showering up and making the required calls home we went on down to Trails End Resort to eat. They have some really good burgers and we usually hit them up whenever we are on this side of the BW.

After taking in a meal at Voyageur Lodge on Crane Lake we drive to Orr to stay for the night then we headed home the next day.

All in all the trip was not what we had planned but I’m happy that we salvaged the trip after receiving the news of the closures. The Vermillion River is really an awesome” BWCA “light” option if your ever in a situation like ours or as THE option it wouldn’t disappoint either. I’m very proud of the boys as well they were in good spirits the whole time. A great trip in a weird year!

The Height of the Lands portage was as described to us, a muddy mess, with a river heading down the trail into South Lake. It was still neat to see the monuments, and I mounted a camera on the canoe to film the entire portage.[paragraph break] After completing the portage, we stood in the waters of North Lake, and completed our Voyager's ceremony - sprinkled each other with a wetted balsam branch, vowed to do this ceremony with another newbie when we crossed over, vowed to never kiss another voyager's wife (unless she asked), and then took a swig of rum. We didn't have guns, so we couldn't do the gunfire :)[paragraph break] The crossing of North was nice - 68°, sunny, and little wind. We took off left, which led us into confusion as the bays of North are deep. We eventually ended up in Canada as we tried to determine where the channel to Little North Lake was, and saw the boundary markers: We finally settled into a decision, and found the right channel, gliding up between the banks and listening to the birds. [paragraph break]I wondered how we would identify Little North Lake, but it was really apparent to see, as there was two peninsulas of weeds separating.[paragraph break] The rapids between Little North Lake and Little Gunflint lake seemed to be navigable (with an experienced team), but we took the portage, which was an old boat transport rail system for most of the portage: Since it was wide and short, we unloaded, pulled the packs across, then luggage-carried the canoe over. [paragraph break] We ran into a few Scout groups going across Little Gunflint, and eyed the thunderstorms brewing in the north. As we got across Little Gunflint, the storms began in earnest, and we paddled hard to get off the lake, stopping at the beach on the west end of Gunflint while watching the weather cross the big lake (and, of course, joking that we have a beach vacation as well, with boat drinks. [paragraph break] After the weather broke, we headed to our final campsite - Camper's Island, which was right aside of Bridal Falls. This was an awesome campsite, with even a picnic table!  We spread out a tarp to handle the inevitable rain, made dinner, and generally relaxed on this little oasis. Even the latrine is fun, since it sat in a circle area of dense pines, with the path directly to it (we called it the Throne Room): The campsite is evidently popular, since 2 other groups decided to come by later. Dinner, and a bedtime chase by the mosquitoes.

Waking up early, I got a few shots of the sunrise over Gunflint, with the morning mist hovering between the islands: Packing up and launching early into the calm water, we anticipated a smooth paddle back to Gunflint Northwoods Outfitters. Well... [paragraph break] the winds on Gunflint did not cooperate, and were fetching straight from the west, making 1½-2ft waves. Of course, this was right in our face too, so progress was slow. We took to a strategy we called "dock hopping", where we would rest periodically by holding the end of the cabin docks on the southern shore..

2 hours later, we arrive at Gunflint Lodge, and portaged our way back: