Finally, it was time for our trip. We headed out from our home in Grand Haven, Michigan, around midnight on a Thursday evening in late June and drove south along the shoreline of Lake Michigan, through Chicago (not much traffic at 3 a.m.), and then up through Illinois, Wisconsin, and eventually, arrived in Ely, Minnesota.

We took the less direct but more scenic route out of Duluth, following 61 up to Two Harbors, then north to Ely. At one point, we pulled off the road in a small clearing to switch drivers, and were instantly swarmed by thousands of deer flies! We rushed back into the car, hoping that this wouldn't be a sign of things to come the rest of the trip.

We arrived in Ely, checked in at Piragis Outfitters, had dinner at the place that used to be Cranberries — a microbrewery who's only beer they had on tap was their version of Budweiser. Seriously?

We stopped at a few other local establishments, shot some pool, did some window shopping, then headed back to the Canoe On Inn to re-organize our gear one more time and get ready for bed.