The plan was to drive north today and camp near the put-in. Now that Virginia, MN has a DC fast charger, it is much easier to drive our EV. While the car charged, we hiked along the Mesabi Trail and checked out some overlooks of the mine.

Once we arrived in Ely, I hopped out at Piragis to pick up the rental canoe and get our permit, while the boys plugged in the car at the library's level 2 charger. They walked down to sign their waivers and receive the warnings about the cold, high water conditions. After portaging the canoe back to the car, we strolled to the Boathouse restaurant for a delicious supper.

We drove to the Birch Lake campsite for the night. Joey helped Stew learn how to put up our spare 4-person tent that we weren't taking on trail. Apparently, Joey walked away from the lesson at a critical point that we only discovered the next morning...stay tuned.