I decided to take the route down through Chicago and we left my house at 2:00 am Saturday morning.

I was already exhausted from the work day and the excitement of the trip left me without any sleep or even a brief nap before departure.

Joe was feeling terrible and once he was in the truck and covered with a blanket he was lights out until sometime in Wisconsin.

While there was zero traffic the trip around Chicago was so slow, stopping every so often to pay tolls. It seemed to take forever. It took us about 14 hours to reach Ely. Of course, being cooped up with Joe in the truck I felt the manifestation of my own chest and head cold the first night in Ely.

We checked in at VNO, loaded up our Wenonah Boundary Waters Kevlar canoe, paddles and PFDs. Everything else was packed in our packs and all ready to go. We picked up a pound of leeches at Skubes (I think it was the last pound in town) and tucked them in the fridge of the bunkhouse.

Once our gear was secure along with our permits, fishing licenses etc we headed to the ranger station to pick up our PMA permit. We were really hoping to go into the Tick Lake PMA and spend a night on Jackfish Lake. We secured the PMA permit and from the ranger station, we headed down the Echo Trail towards Entry #23. I wanted to see where it was and familiarize myself with the roads as we would be driving in the dark, very early the next morning.

Back in town we parked the truck and started walking to town. We wanted a steak dinner and a handful of beers before bed. Neither one of us would give up the beers to be the driver so we started walking.

It was hot. The temps hovered around 90 degrees and by the time we made it to the first little tavern I was soaked through, but that first beer was amazing! We stopped at another place and had a beer there as well, I can’t remember the name, I think it was Rockwood. After that, we went to The Ely Steak House and had a big dinner and a pitcher of beer.

By this time the temps were coming down and we enjoyed a nice leisurely stroll back to VNO and shut it down for the night.