We were up at 5:00am. Jim was up and moving thinking it was later than it actually was. He made a pancake breakfast, and we left the campground at 6:30. Just for a change we decided to go down the Old Gunflint Trail. We checked out the Poplar Lake put-in, the one we originally planned to use. It certainly was used more then the Iron Lake access – large parking lot and pretty full.

We also checked out the NFS road that intersects the Portage Lake to One Island Lake portage – ie the road that could cut the portage in half and where we saw the NFS truck parked. We only saw where it started and didn’t drive down it, but it did look to be drivable with a regular vehicle. It looked drivable where the portage intersected it, too, but who knows what the rest of the road was like. Maybe there were bad spots or stream crossings that could be seen from those two points.

We saw two deer on the Old Gunflint Trail. We added them to our list of critters seen on the trip: Deer Wolf Woodchuck Snowshoe Hare Chipmunk Red (pine) Squirrel Humming Birds Loons Cedar Wax Wings Robins White Throated Sparrows Wood Thrush Black and White Warblers American Redstart Song Sparrows Canadian Geese Herring Gulls Mallards Ruffed Grouse Moose Otters And probably more

We linked back up with the “new” Gunflint Trail, made our way to Grand Marais, and continued on to Duluth where we stopped for gas at 9:45 a.m.

At 12:30 p.m. we stopped at the DQ in Eau Claire, WI for lunch. After we ate, Jim went out to the car and I was a minute behind him. When I came out Jim was in a conversation with some guy. Apparently he saw the canoes on the car, asked where we were and if we caught any fish, and Jim told him we had caught a couple smallmouth bass.

This is what I heard the fellow say as I walked up to them: “Smallmouth bass? I’ll tell ya where ta catch smallmouth bass!! You drive to Canada and take a left. Then you’ll come to a lake. I don’t remember the name of the lake, but you can’t miss it. There is a boat launch right there and some kind of resort. Well, you go out to the island … not this side of the island, but the other side …. And you can catch smallmouth bass there all day long, … at least ya could one day we were there. The other day nothin’! You can use anything for bait, too. Doesn’t matter what. They’ll hit anything …. and if they don’t try something else. If they still don’t you can go to the other side of the lake and fish for largemouth. They’re by the weeds. …. Yep just across the border and take a left.”

We thanked him for the tip.

The Sawbill Outfitter’s website said that the high temperature for the day was 68 and the low 50. The sun came out, too. The nicest day of the trip and we were in a car driving.

Jim dropped me at home at 3:30pm. I think that is the earliest I ever got home from a trip to the BWCA.