At the end of Oct. I took a 1-night solo trip up the Gunflint Trail to hike (part of) Caribou Rock Trail, Honeymoon Bluff and Lima Mt. I followed Caribou Rock until I wasn't certain where the trail was - does it go through that massive boulder field before getting to portage between Duncan and Bearskin?

Also, from White Pine Lodge to Lima Mt., I followed these driving instructions to no avail. I parked off the side of snowmobile trail and road. Walked 5 min. in each direction before calling it quits. I'm 99% sure I could SEE Lima Mt. itself but could not locate the trailhead. Any advice on finding the trailhead? If you've hiked Lima Mt. recently, how's the navigation?

For Lima Mountain, those directions are correct (coming from that lodge), except that it says to turn onto 152 twice. It's a little confusing with multiple numbers and/or names for those roads. Basically you just:
- turn west off of the Gunflint Trail onto Forest Rd 152 (aka Twin Lakes Rd, aka Lima Mountain Rd)
- take that for 2 - 2.5 miles until it makes a triangular junction with the Lima Grade (aka Bow Lake Rd).
- the trailhead is near the southernmost corner of the triangular junction, you'll see it from the car if you poke around a bit.

This site shows how to get to the trailhead (you'll see what I mean by the triangular junction):
USFS: Lima Mountain Trailhead

This site has a good map of the trail itself:
hikingproject.com: Lima Mountain Trail

Thank you! I'll give it another shot.

Answer to your first question is yes.

Answer to your first question is yes.

talusman: "Answer to your first question is yes."

Thanks! I figured. I will definitely hike there again.