Vacation, Days 5 and 6: Chik-Wauk and Custard

Thursday, August 15

We had a leisurely morning beginning with blueberry pancakes, peaches, and bacon. After breakfast, we went down and fished off the dock. We didn’t get anything, which was okay. It was a pleasant day to sit in the sun. Jane was watching little fish nibble at her twister tail in the water just off the dock when a large snapping turtle came into view.

“Pull your hook up quick!” I said while reeling in my own line. There are few things as horrifying as hooking a turtle. I’ve done it only once, but that was more than enough. That was a mild-mannered painted turtle that was half the size of this one. And snappers are mean.

I wanted to take a picture, but by the time I had my camera out, the turtle had disappeared under the dock. I looked under there as best I could without spotting it. I concluded that it had slipped off to the side when we weren’t looking. We kept the hooks out of the water until we thought it was safe to resume. I spent my time looking at the plant life along the deck. I’d see water lilies and Engelmann’s arrowhead on previous trips. There were two small white flowers that were unfamiliar. One looked like a giant pin, and the other was tube-shaped.

Giant pin flower on the left, tube-shaped flower on right

Both had leaves in basal rosettes at the bottom of the lake with long stems to elevate the flowers above the water. One of them was easily identified as water lobelia.

Water lobelia

The other remains a mystery. Even Nancy didn’t know. It looked like the head of a pin, only larger. Up close it was rather pretty.

Mystery flower

When we went up for lunch, there was a white admiral poking at a mushroom with its proboscis. Was it after water? Food? Minerals? Only the butterfly knows.

White admiral on an old mushroom

In the afternoon, we drove down to the end of the Gunflint Trail. At the Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature Center, we discovered that they had added Watercraft Exhibit Building.

The new Watercraft Exhibit Building

The display showed the progression of boats commonly used since the area opened for tourism. There were some beautiful wooden boats, which I could only assume were pretty heavy to be portaging. I learned that Grumman, the manufacturer of the canoe we had when I was a kid, started making canoes when the conclusion of World War II put an end to the demand for airplanes. Duh! Why had I never recognized the similarity in the rivets?

The inside of the familiar Grumman canoe

Another boat I felt was picture worthy was the Folbot, which broke down into two presumably very heavy packs. The company claimed that it could be put together in 45 minutes, although the person who donated the boat remembered that it was at least two hours.

The Folbot canoe can be disassembled and put in two packs

It looked complicated. The cross pieces of the internal frame attached to the sides with wingnuts. Then somehow one would have to get the canvas stretched taut to keep the water out. I’m sure it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Inside detail of the wooden supports that attached to the sides with wing nuts

We took a drive through the Trail’s End campground. It always brings back memories for me. We were surprised that the campground was nearly full. It made us happy that so many people are still camping, including several youth groups, but it did prevent me from hopping out at Campsite 19 to look at the rapids.

We had dinner at the Red Paddle Bistro, as is our custom. They don’t have a Buddy Burger (one burger cut in half with two side orders) on the menu any more, but Lucas, our server and bartender, said that he could “make that happen.” No one needs to eat a half-pound burger. We ordered the Lodge burger with mushrooms and aioli. We got a burger with cheese, onions, and pickle. The bill said “Gunflint burger.” It was still a good burger, and we had it mostly eaten before we realized we hadn’t gotten what we ordered. Even though it was late in the season, Lucas seemed like he was new on the job.

We took a break from Marble Chase to go down to the dock at sunset. The sky was too cloudy to see the sun or for the sun to make the clouds pretty. The lake was so calm and peaceful that we weren’t disappointed.

We heard the loons laughing before we went to bed.

Friday, August 16

The morning was still and cloudy. We had the last of the eggs for breakfast. We were in the clean-out-the-refrigerator mode, which meant that meals no longer followed a cohesive theme.

Breakfast--scrambled eggs with ham, peppers, onion, and cheese curds; bacon, and English muffins

We started organizing our things to get packed for the trip home. We went up to the office to pay our bill. A drizzle turned into full-fledged rain as it was getting to be lunch time.

We went to town in the afternoon for our last stop at Sydney’s for custard. We drove out of the rain on our way. There was a new store called Yellow Bird Art Gallery. It featured a number of local artists and seemed reasonably priced. Still, I held back because I already have too much stuff.

We stopped in several other stores and bought nothing. We had our custard and went back to the cabin.

I made fajitas with the remainder of the chicken, peppers, and onion. We topped them with the last of the pico de gallo. We also finished the green beans and drank the rest of the wine. We had to eat inside because it was too wet on the deck.

We loaded as much as we could into the car so we could get on the road faster in the morning. The end of vacation is always sad, but it was nice not to have the stress of thinking about going back to work after I got home.

The sky cleared during the night. On Saturday morning, the lake mirrored not only the shore but also the nearly full moon. Goodbye, Cabin 1! Until next time….

Last view of the lake with the reflection of the moon (right of the dock)