Day 1: Day Trip
Saturday, June 13th, 2026
We rise as enthusiastically as one possibly can at 2:15 A.M. Moving quietly but with purpose, we dress and soon are in the car headed up toward the Gunflint Trail. As darkness rapidly gives way to twilight on the trail, I feel the tension start to melt away from me for what feels like the first time in a year. To the unfamiliar, a drive up the Gunflint Trail looks like a slightly hillier, bumpier version of a pine-lined corridor, similar to the drive up interstate leading to Duluth. But now, beginning this fifth trip, I know better. I can feel the trepidation melting away, the excitement rising within my soul. I know this place deeply, and sense that I am on the very road that has led me to the kind of outdoor adventures I have dreamt about since my childhood. When Andrew rouses from his sleep near the end of the trail, he picks up on the positive energy as I simply say “It just feels so good to be right here, driving up the Gunflint Trail again.” It feels even better that he, my oldest son, is one of the few people I know that truly understands what I mean.

We pull into Voyageur Canoe Outfitters and unload our gear as quietly as possible as the sun rises. At 5:15 A.M., we have the canoe in the water to paddle across the Seagull River, and in our excitement, nearly get into the canoe without our paddles! I suppose that's why we do a day trip! Soon we are on the portage to Gulf Lake. While Voyageur has aluminum canoes available for use at Gulf, we want to test our portaging legs and packing today, so we are more ready for our entry day tomorrow. While the length of the portage isn’t officially known, I estimate it to be close to 200 rods, with some mud, overgrowth, and plenty of rough footing along the way. While it isn’t the easiest, such a portage is the perfect test for us today. We even spy multiple lady slippers right on the path and take care not to trample them.

Gulf Lake greets us with a cool northerly wind and steady rain. It’s one of those days that doesn’t look ideal for fishing at all, but having come this far, we have little choice but to don our rain gear and press on. Even if we don’t catch much, constant movement is the best way to get warmer! We have little trouble finding the short portage to Romance Lake, and are at the landing on the Romance side with our gear at 6:30. We set a goal of leaving Romance no later than 11 A.M. so we can get back to Voyageur with plenty of time to check in to our bunkhouse and make final packing adjustments before heading back to Mass in town. Given the rain and wind, I’m skeptical that we will be fishing here that long!

Before I can finish configuring the canoe for fishing, Andrew, with his third cast, reels in a beautiful 15” tank of a Smallmouth from shore on a swim bait. All of my skepticism vanishes…this is a better Smallmouth than we were able to catch on our whole trip last year! I hustle through getting the canoe ready and soon we are off to explore this beautiful lake made up of countless bays that add interest and beauty. I am hopeful to catch both Northern and Smallmouth today, so I tie on a Mepps Syclops 2 in Firetiger, but have no luck aside from one smaller bass. I switch to a Perch Deep X-Rap and find one more, but finally start to find the fish with a purple Vibrax spinner. Andrew sticks with his Z-Man swim bait which provides steady action, including one more 15” bass. We even double up on bass once. We also find a way to get into the most horrid tangle I’ve ever witnessed, burning over 20 minutes just to get Andrew’s lure untangled from mine. In spite of this, as well as intermittent rain showers, our spirits are high. There’s a surprising amount of traffic on Romance today, with all three of Voyageur’s canoes out on the water by the time we leave.

It’s been a great morning, but by 10 A.M. the wind is building, and we’ve had enough fun for one day. As Andrew and I water the bushes in the woods next to the portage landing, an aluminum canoe appears around the corner and begins heading our way. Between the gusty tailwinds they have and my indisposed situation, it seems they are right on top of us in about ten seconds. I hurriedly “recover” just in time and see it’s a couple with 2-3 kids who quickly apologize for how “the wind just blew us right in here.” It’s all Andrew and I can handle to not bust up laughing as I make small talk with one hand holding my pants up. We allow them to pass us on the portage to Gulf so I can put myself back together and eat a snack before making our way back to Voyageur. Whenever the wind blows, he and I both laugh about how fast that canoe was upon us exactly at the worst possible moment.

We make steady progress on the long portage back to Voyageur, where we check in with Bill and watch the permit video. We both chuckle at several moments during the video that remind us of bloopers and follies we had in the park last year. Now that we are at last here and entering tomorrow, it feels wonderfully comfortable to rekindle these random memories of our misadventures. I ask Bill if he has heard of any bear issues on the South Arm of Knife, and he says he hasn’t. I also ask about the Swamp to Ashdick portage, since we are planning to stay on Ashdick for our first two nights. I know this portage is a notorious one, but both Andrew and I have joked about how we just can’t resist the thought of trying it to see how bad it really is. Bill’s response is about what I expected, saying they don’t really recommend that portage to anyone, nor has he heard a report from anyone that’s been through there in quite some time. He asks someone back at a desk behind him about it, and the response is comical. The man smirks, shakes his head a bit, and echoes Bill’s sentiments that he doesn’t recommend it, especially given the recent rains, but that he would love to hear all about it if we give it a try. We also ask about Rabbit, where I’ve never camped but caught my first ever fish in the park, a Lake Trout, on my first trip. Bill says he recommends it to lots of folks but hasn’t heard a report back from anyone.

As far as fishing goes, he tells us that Walleye and Smallmouth are starting to warm up, and Northern Pike are just a little behind them as far as action goes. He also adds that just last week, people reported catching Lake Trout on topwater lures, which is exciting news! While the main goal for our trip is to enjoy our time together, our “GREAT BIG GOAL” is to catch the grand slam. If we can’t do that, we’d both love to catch either a Walleye or a Lake Trout, alongside the Northerns and Smallies that we are confident we’ll catch. I purchase two more tail dancers and a deck of cards, then we head to the bunkhouse to organize our gear and make sure everything is in order for our paddle out at first light on Saganaga tomorrow.

When we enter the bunkhouse, Andrew comically dives through the front door, hurriedly shuts it behind him, then frantically closes all the windows. I only wonder for a moment what’s gotten into him, when I remember our hilarious and terrible bunkhouse experience last year, when the mosquitoes infiltrated our sleeping quarters as we went in and out of the door cooking meals and sorting gear. The goal is to sleep much better this year with no mosquitoes! As I shuttle loads of random small items back to the car and prep tomorrow’s meals in the thermoses, Andrew takes a long nap, and soon it’s time to head to Mass at St. John’s. I remember that I have the audiobook “Unbroken” by Laura Hillenbrand on my phone and regret not listening to it more with Andrew on the drive up, but we start it on the way back into town and he loves it! This should be great to listen to during the long drive home as well.

After Mass, we make our final phone calls home and check the weather one final time on my phone, since the weather radio wasn’t working at Voyageur for some reason (I later find out the Gunflint weather broadcasting station is out of service). It looks like the winds will blow steady at 15 mph all day tomorrow, but Bill did say he thought tomorrow would be significantly better for paddling across Sag than today was. Morning still looks like the best time to be out there, but I know it’s going to take a strong effort all the way to the Sag narrows tomorrow. While Ashdick has been on our minds for steady bass and pike action all year long, I tell Andrew that I am seriously thinking about trying for a camp on Rabbit for our first two nights to take a crack at those Lake Trout, figuring it’s the best chance we’ll have. I tell him that I remember the sites there looking inviting, and soon we both agree that Rabbit will be our primary target for tomorrow.

After our final phone call back home, we leave Grand Marais, open up thermoses of chili, and listen to “Unbroken” all the way back to Voyageur. After the last of the tiniest details of packing are complete, we lay down and listen to the closing minutes of the Knicks and Spurs in the NBA Finals. The Knicks close out the series in game 5, and then it’s lights out on this most anticipated of nights. Tomorrow we enter the wilderness.

Stats—> Portages: 4 | Portage rods: 410 | Travel time: 3:00| Fishing time: 3:30 | Fish caught: 12 smallmouth | Top lures: Z-Man 3” Minnowz Swim Bait (The Deal)-5 bass, Vibrax 3 purple/silver-5 bass) | Lakes: Seagull River, Gulf, Romance