Boundary Waters, Day 5

On Wednesday, we packed a lunch of summer sausage, cheese, crackers, cherries, and yogurt and headed out for our annual drive around the back roads to Ester Lake.

On last year’s trip to Esther Lake, it rained the whole time, but we saw a moose. This year, the road was dusty, and we didn’t even see many birds. I saw one mammal run across the road. It was brown, two or three feet long, had short legs but was too stocky for a weasel, and a short tail. It was bigger than a martin and had a shorter tail than a fisher. I suppose I’ll never know.

As we approached Ester Lake, we saw another unknown small mammal, sort of like a muskrat, but with a short furry tail. Not a muskrat.

Someone had the nerve of being camped at our favorite lunch spot on Esther Lake. There was also a truck with an empty boat trailer in the little parking lot. We could have parked in the no parking zone at the boat landing and had lunch there but decided to go up to Devilfish Lake campground and see what was there.

There was no one at Devilfish Lake that we could see. We found a campsite with a view of the water and ate lunch there. It was lovely and peaceful. We were serenaded by white-throated sparrows.

Jane sets out lunch at Devilfish Lake

The view of Devilfish Lake from the shore

We’d had enough driving through the dust. In past years, we took Tom Lake Rd. down to Irish Creek Rd. on the way back to Arrowhead. This time, we went back out the way we came in.

Last year I’d read about a trail that went along the Kadunce River that I thought sounded like a good choice for us as it was described as easy walking on fairly flat ground. The guide cautioned against hiking it in wet weather, and that was all we had on that trip. This year, we stopped on our way to Grand Marais and walked a little way up. The Kadunce is a scenic little river with lots of cascades.

Looking downstream at the Kadunce River

Trees on a cliff next to the river

A small waterfall upstream

It was a perfect day for a hike, pleasantly cool beneath the trees. The trail was lined with thimbleberries which had grown enormous leaves in the shade.

These thimbleberry leaves were huge--maybe 10" from base to point

We went to the car wash, filled the gas tank, and went to (of course) Sydney’s for custard. The latter was not busy, for once, and we got a seat at one of the outdoor tables near the street. The custard was not as soft as it had been on Monday. We sustained no drips to clothing or persons.

Then it was time to head home. We sat on the deck enjoying our beverage of choice. Jane had a margarita. I had a glass of wine. We watched birds flit around in the treetops too far away to be seen clearly enough to be identified. One flew off straight over the cabin. I noticed something black and white on my pant leg that I thought was a bit of birch bark. I was just about to brush it away when dampness soaked through to my skin.

“Is that bird poo?” I asked. I was beginning to think of this pair of jeans as my unlucky pants.

Jane was still wearing her sunglasses and couldn’t see it very well. She did, however, offer to wash my pants again. That seemed too much to expect even of a best friend. I could wash the bird poo out of my own pants. I wiped the poo off with a paper towel first and then spot cleaned with soap and water. I tossed my pants onto a deck chair and asked Jane to hang them on the railing while I put on my sweats.

Meanwhile, Jane had discovered that her pants were also dirty. Our best guess was mud from the car wash. The pants went back on the deer antlers. Laundry at the cabin.

Somehow it got to be 5:45, and I thought I’d better be making supper. I took the chicken and tortellini leftovers from last night, covered them with chicken stock, and brought it to a boil. Presto! Chicken soup.

Chicken tortellini soup

We ate on the deck but retreated to the house immediately afterwards. The mosquitos were the worst they’d been, probably because there was so little wind. Jane washed up the dishes. We played Farkle until 8:00. We went down to the lake to see if the loons were back. They weren’t, and the mosquitos had not gone anywhere.

It was too early for bed. We switched to playing Marble Chase because our brains were tired of doing the math required for Farkle. We played until 9:00. I checked for loons one last time. Still nothing. There were plenty of calls, though.