The Friendly Flies Trip 2002
by Spartan2
What a place to be stranded! We were comfortable for an extra night in Charlie's Room, and we used hot water to fix some freeze-dried supper. [Clearwater only has food service at breakfast.] I was dismayed to realize that I hadn't picked up my tote bag (which contained all of my clean underwear and our bathing suits) but we made do. It felt good, as always, to shower and clean up. We attended the bonfire Thursday evening and enjoyed talking to the other guests and the staff. Everyone is so relaxed and friendly at Clearwater--and such interesting people, too!
Breakfast the next day was blueberry/raspberry pancakes and sausage. Thus fortified, we decided to walk down the road and see if we could see the bull moose again. We even ventured down a little snowmobile trail to a marshy spot, but there was nothing to reward us except some flowers and the usual mosquitoes. After walking to the West Bearskin dock, I began to realize that it was quite enough for my knee, so I photographed another puddle of yellow swallowtails and we headed back.
We read our books, napped, and enjoyed Clearwater Lodge until after lunch (summer sausage and crackers, dried fruit) when Neil called and learned that our car was repaired. It was just the serpentine belt ($100), and the towing was $125. We didn't feel like it had turned out too badly. Bob drove us in to Grand Marais, where we picked up the car, bought some new Woolrich rain gear for me (!), and then headed back for our second night in Charlie's Room.
We had dinner Friday evening at Old Northwoods Lodge. This is an old resort location where they have built a new lodge. [Present-day "Big Bear Lodge".] It was a delicious walleye dinner--much better than the freeze-dried beef stew of the night before! The Russian potato salad was excellent!
On Saturday we had a French toast and bacon breakfast at Clearwater and were on our way by 9 AM. Traveled the twisty-turny road to Ely, ate our lunch at the Chocolate Moose, and did some shopping before going out to Pine Tree Trail to visit with our friends who had a cabin there. We enjoyed a visit with them, capped off with dinner at Northern Grounds, before heading to Eveleth for our night's lodging.
The trip home included visits with friends in Minneapolis, St. Louis Park, and Brooklyn Park, as well as a stop to enjoy the aquarium at the Mall of America. We spent Tuesday night with friends in Rochester, and Wednesday night with our daughter and her husband in Downers Grove, Illinois. It was fun to share details of our trip with them, as they had been on Cherokee Lake the previous summer on their own canoe trip--sans "friendly flies". They seem to have picked a better time to go!
We left Downers Grove on Thursday July 4th, stopped in Chesterton, Indiana to visit with more friends, and ended up arriving home about 8:45. In spite of some challenges, it had been a successful vacation, and we were glad to be safely home again.