We awoke early (5am or there about) with the intention of getting up to Seagull Outfitters (where we would meet up, once again, with a Wenonah Minnesota 3 canoe) and getting on the water by no later than 10am. We hit the McDonald’s in Duluth for a quick fast-food breakfast before making the long drive up to Grand Marais; which is never that long when you are excited about starting your vacation and talking about every topic you can imagine.

We pulled into the Holiday gas station in Grand Marais a little after 8am. I did not want to leave my car at the end of the Gunflint Trail on less than half a tank (not sure what time we would end up coming out and fearing that it might be after the gas stations close) so I filled her up, bought some Mountain Dew, some smokes and some last minute snacks. We did not linger in Grand Marais and were back on the road by 8:30am or so.

We made it to Seagull Outfitters at a bit past 9:30am, said “hi” to Debbie (the owner of Seagull Outfitters) and got our route explained to us before we loaded up their old Suburban people transporter. They already had our canoe waiting for us on the trailer rack so all we had to do was transfer our gear into the trailer and pick out our canoe paddles; which we did in all haste.

Since we were taking a longer route for this trip we opted to start the trip with a tow ride out to American Point (the infamous “Rocky Point” from the year before) in order to save ourselves more than a couple hours of paddling. The ride was smooth as we passed other canoes heading into, and coming off of, Big Sag. There was a Bald Eagle sitting in a tree on the left who seemed to see us off. It was not long before we were dropped off on Hook Island (Seagull Outfitters preferred drop-off point), just off the shore of American Point.

We got the canoe loaded up (with Gopher in the stern, Matt in the jump seat and I once again in the bow), our gear set in so the canoe was balanced, said our goodbyes to the tow-boat driver and started out. The sky was crystal clear blue, the water was calm, and there was hardly a hint of wind; it made for a perfect day of paddling.

Because of the distance we were going to be traveling during this trip we knew we had to put in some miles that first day. We passed through Swamp Lake (the area we had seen the moose the year before) and were surrounded by a group of Loons who seemed not to care that we spent a good 10 minutes taking pictures of them. We crossed the little five-rod portage that puts you into Swamp Lake proper (stopping to snack on some GORP) before taking on Monument Portage. We stopped once again by one of the boundary markers for a cheesy photo op.

We hit Ottertrack Lake shortly after, put all the gear back into the canoe, and hit the water for what we knew was going to be a long paddle down the lake; thankfully, a paddle with no more portages that day. We passed a few other canoes at the end of Monument Portage as we pushed off but otherwise did not see anyone else on the lake.

After an hour or so, while paddling on the Canadian side of the lake, Matt spotted something on the rock face that seemed out of place; a color and shape that stuck out like a sore thumb. We pulled up and found that ist was a plaque dedicated to a “Ben Ambrose”, a person we had never heard of. We snapped a few pictures (including a few of me standing on a shelf of the cliff next to the plaque – the water here, I should note, is incredibly clear and fantastically deep) of old Ben before continuing on our journey.

We hit our campsite, a chunk of land that divides Ottertrack Lake from Knife Lake, in mid afternoon. We set up camp quickly and lounged next to the fire pit as we watched a few canoes come down the lake and take the portage into Gijikiki Lake. Other than those few canoes (seen in the distance) no other people were around to spoil the “aloneness” of our little camp in the woods. Dinner that night was “Damn Good Chili” and rice; it was a delight to skip the MRE’s that we ate the year before. Too much trouble, too much weight and too much trash; repackaged boxed food is much easier.

The evening was calm and we were enjoying the cooler part of the day, near sunset, when we suddenly heard something messing with our packs! We all jumped up, not knowing what to expect, and ran towards our packs. In hindsight it was probably not the best idea, seeing as it could have been a bear, but we were pleasantly shocked to see that the animal that was intent on our gear was, in fact, a Pine Martin. I had never seen one in the wild and it took me a few minutes to even remember what the name of the animal was. I am not sure what Gopher and Matt think about this little encounter, but I consider myself extremely fortunate, Pine Martin’s are one of the rarest animals to see in the wild.

Laughing at our animal encounter we went back to lounging by the fire pit. I had scheduled this trip to coincide with the full moon; to which we were not disappointed. The moon, when you are in such a setting, reflected so much light that our need for flashlights and headlamps was almost pointless. You could see every detail in the landscape. The only problem I had with the moon being this bright was in my sleeping; I woke multiple times thinking the morning had come only to open up the tent fly and discover it was still the middle of the night.