Saturday, June 26, 2010: We reach the Cabela's store at 8:15 and go in and have breakfast and soon this guy with a BWCA.com hat and T-shirt shows up. It is Brad!! We have a great visit for about 30 minutes or so before we have to finish getting what we need and keep moving north.

Next stop is Gordy’s Hi Hat in Cloquet, MN for lunch! If you have not tried Gordy’s you need to! My fish sandwich was huge Kim loved her California Burger, and the single order of onion rings was too much for us to finish, so we took them with us to Ely.

We get to the Ranger Station at 4:30 and get our permit, there was no LNT Video or anything of that nature, just some suggestions on what we might do while there. Mainly he talked about the knife makers we have in Russellville AR, as he was a man who loved handmade knives. Now all that is left is to go to V-North and get our bunkhouse rooms, get a snack at The Moose, a quick look into Piragis and a trip to the Bear Center since Kim loves bears so much! She had a blast watching those bears! Then the before we head back to our bunkhouse and an early bedtime, stop at Zup’s for the first night’s Rib eyes! The finale to our day is a quick check of all the packs, put the rib eyes in the freezer to freeze and then a good hot shower before finally going to sleep. Driving and 4 hours of sleep have taken their toll on me!