For the last four years, I have joined the Parents on a Memorial Day trip up to Grand Marais, MN. It's just a short drive for me - maybe 2 1/2 hours max from my driveway to the Municipal Campground. I usually come up on Friday, but this year I was able to get away Thursday night. I just love the drive up there, as Hwy 61 winds along Lake Superior and you get to catch glimpses of it through the budding aspen trees or along the rocky stretches where the road follows the lake shore a bit more closely.
We've actually been doing these trips for about five or six years, and they've all involved hiking stretches of the Superior Hiking Trail. A lot of the trail is day-tripable from Duluth, but once you get north of say, Lutsen, MN, those stretches require an overnight stay.
This year we hiked the second segment down from the Canadian Border - a 5.2 mile stretch that followed a beautiful ridge line that went in and out of a mature aspen/birch forest with fantastic overviews of Lake Superior. In a couple spots you could even see Isle Royale! We knew from experience that that interesting island was at least 30 miles away. Very cool.
That was my only big hike for the weekend. I had hopes of doing the very first (or last depending on which way you are hiking) segment, but our travels and plans didn't get me back up there. Otherwise we lounged around the campground, reading or in my case, knitting; I did a lot of 2 mile walks with the hounds; and we did a 2 mile loop trail up the Gunflint Trail in anticipation of Afternoon Tea at the Naniboujou Lodge.
Now that was just lovely and I highly recommend it to anyone needing a calming respite from their travels up the North Shore. Tea is served in the lodge's solarium, which over looks the lake and the Devil Track River. A pot of hot tea is brought to your "table" accompanied by full plates of tea sandwiches, scones, jam, chocolate dipped shortbread cookies, chocolate orange bundt cake and some red grapes. Yum yum! We took a stroll down the beach afterwards and skipped rocks.
The weather this year was a bit on the cool side...no, I tell a lie...it was darn cold! It think it got up to about 50* when we were hiking (which honestly, it the perfect temperature for hiking), but otherwise the evenings stayed right around 35-40*. The leaves were just starting to leaf out.
Oh, heavens, I could go on! But I'll leave you with these pictures instead:
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