Like all the years before, Matt and I left for Gopher’s house (which he had bought in the spring) on the outskirts of Duluth right after we got off of work. I was living in Excelsior at the time so right after I picked up my gear I drove to Matt’s to pick him up. We made quick time to Mora where, again like the year before, we had to borrow a canoe from Michele and Denny. We would once again be a group of three so, instead of picking up the Trupe’s two canoes, we grabbed the Roylex canoe (from the 2008 trip) and one of Michele’s plastic kayaks.

We reached Gopher’s house in the early afternoon and shot the breeze as we checked over our gear and repackaged all of our food. After that was all said and done we stored all our gear in my car (my recently bought Chevy HHR) and watched some TV. Matt and I, still awake from working the night before, fell asleep well before 9pm, which was fine since we planned to be on the road for Grand Marais early in the morning.