Traveling solo is awesome. You can find a million and a half blogs online (if you have internet) and see why many profuse that traveling solo is the way to go. I’ve been doing it, and so far its worked out well. But having a companion to not only see and crash on their floor, but to also go out with you on long days and experience the wonders around you is also truly wonderful. Travels are worth little with no one to share them with.
Waking up early, I got ready, and was ready to rock, this routine of mine pretty solid at this point. Hoobs…not as much. His sleeping situation was not as comfortable as mine and his back needed a bit of a reset. Thankfully, my bed was a bit…flatter…and I let him rest a bit longer while I again read some more. The quick nap turned into a 2 hour extension of sleep. Starving, I decided to make breakfast, hoping he would awake. No one can say no to the smells of oatmeal in the morning parking lot.
We ate, happy, and began the 3 hour day trip to see the North Shore and get somewhat close to Voyageurs National Park. We shot off, knowing only that we wanted to go north. We started off with a quick stop at a tourist shack to get some info on the drive, as well as beer coupons, more on that later. With stops known, we headed off…again.
Stopping along the shore was great, guided by my spastic brake pedal use, and Hoob’s alerting me with flashing high beams. The first stop was to use the beer coupons we’d found earlier at the tourist hut. They were for a bar in a resort for $1 draft beers. We went in, and found a grand total of 3 beers on tap, but for a buck, you can’t complain. Sipping them down, we asked if we could take them outside and wander around, and to our astonishment, they said yes! We gladly headed out to wander the grounds and enjoy the coupon beer, where we found a nice fire pit on the shore still blazing with no attendant. Feeling this a waste, we sat down to relax and admire how elegantly we’d managed to basically get a mini-resort vacation, for a buck each.
After walking the grounds and see how nice it was, we paid our tab, 3 bucks (yeah, I left a 50% tip) and headed out. The next stop on the list was Gooseberry Falls. We weren’t sure what to expect, but somehow it wasn’t what we were looking for. The river seemed very dried up, but made for a good place to wander around where the water would have been. Next up was Split Rock Light House. Originally we were going to camp here for the night, but every single site was filled for the night. It was still beautiful during the day, and gave us a friendly reminder: it’s a sign, not a cop, proceed at own risk.
Finally we arrived at the cut off for Ely (pronounced E-LEE) to wander further north. I’m not sure who designed the road from Illgen to Ely, but they deserve some props. Driving down, rocking out and hitting the turns just right was an absolute blast! Would recommend to anyone who has a car with more than double digit horse power. Arriving at Ely, it was a good stop for dinner, and a quick connection to the real world, provided by the local library and its parking lot since it was closed. Satisfied, we headed as far as we wanted for the night to get closer to Voyageurs for the following day.
An hour in, and sun beginning to set, we started scanning the map for camp sites. After straining our eyes for a sight, we found one just outside of Cook, MN. We headed that way, and after getting lost, then lost, and finally lost, we made it. Except we didn’t, and accidentally wandered into someone’s front yard. Woops. Back on the road, it was now pitch black, and we had no idea where to go, with no guidance except our poorly marked Atlas’s, and my offline gps. The problem was all three maps differed in the location of the campsite, and none had a zoomed in view to show its whereabouts in the maze of roads on the edge of the lake.
Determined, we kept looking. More wrong turns, dirt roads mixed with paved, and a dark night sky ever present, we finally found it! Vermilion Camp Road! Except it had houses on it…the whole length of it. There were no campsites at all. Frustrated, Hoobs had seen a small pull off, and we called that home for the night, too exhausted to keep looking.
