Day 4: Mergansers

 Day 4, Wednesday, August 11

The morning began with a brief and most-welcomed rain shower. It was not enough to reverse the fire ban, but it did get the ground under the car wet.

We had the second batch of blueberry pancakes for breakfast. We had bacon this time to change it up.

Blueberry pancakes with peaches and bacon

We lounged around the cabin most of the morning. I was catching up my notes while Jane read her book. At 11:00, we packed up some lunch things in the cooler and headed to Lima Mountain Road. It is recommended for wildlife viewing, but probably not in the middle of the day. We saw zero wildlife except for numerous butterflies who were giddy over the recently-formed mud puddles in the dirt road. I worried that we were running over a lot of them. I hope they moved away fast enough.

We stopped at the Kindall Lake campground for lunch. There is a nice view of the lake from the boat landing. We saw an osprey there once years ago. Alas, there were already people at the boat landing. We settled for an empty campsite with no lake view. Some poor schmuck had gone around and put pin flags in every fire grate that said, “NO FIRES.” I wonder if the Forest Service workers drew straws for that job. Maybe they had summer interns for that sort of thing.

NO FIRES pin flag in every fire grate

We ended up in Grand Marais. We walked through Superior Trading Post for old times’ sake. In our days of canoe tripping, we always had to stop in for one thing or another that we remembered that we’d forgotten to pack. I can’t recall the last time we went in. They have expanded their inventory well beyond camping gear. They now stock clothing and décor for the cabin, none of which we needed.

We went to Sydney’s to spend $5.95 each for a single frozen custard cone. It’s good custard and a long-standing tradition with us, but we’ve cut our number of visits to one now that it’s so outrageously expensive.

Our traditional stop at Sydney's

Jane found seats on the beach while I waited 6 feet behind the person in front of me. I had to move fast to get to Jane before her cone started dripping all over. It was a hot day. There were loon-sized birds on the water. I tried to get a picture with my little camera, but was not successful. When I finished my cone, I went back to the car for the big camera and telephoto lens. At that magnification, I could see the punked-out hairdo of mergansers. I had forgotten they were so large.

A pair of mergansers

We watched a sailboat by Artists Point. It was a good day for sailing, blue sky and steady wind, and they looked like they were having fun.

Sailboat and Artists Point

I stopped in the restroom before we headed up the Gunflint. The soap disperser followed the motto, “necessity is the mother of invention,” but violated the principle of “never put chemicals in food containers.”

Interesting soap dispenser in Sydney's bathroom

For supper I cooked two brats in a skillet, since we still couldn’t use the grill. We also had fried corn and potatoes, one of Jane’s favorite sides, and cucumbers in sour cream.

Brats, fried corn and potatoes, and cucumbers in sour cream

We caught Dave on one of his trips back and forth between home and office. He said the morning rain had totaled “38 hundredths.” And I thought Terry was the only one who talked like that.

We spent the evening down on the dock. It was relaxing to be by the water, but there wasn’t anything to photograph. Sometimes it’s nice to enjoy some downtime.