Minnesota Vacation Day 21

What a fun adventure Tim and I had today!  We wanted to take at least one canoe trip while we were here.  Mom agreed to take the boys for the afternoon.  She took them to town to do a load of laundry and go to lunch.  We took the canoe to the public access on the south end of Burntside Lake.  I've never been on Burntside before.  It's a huge lake compared to Eaglesnest, but a beautiful one.  It has the same clear water as Eaglesnest.  Much of the west shore borders on the BWCA and has We paddled along the south shore, where there are just a few cabins.  That took us to the Tamarack Creek.  We followed the creek for about a mile and half until it ended at a beaver dam.  The dam was all the way across the creek, and the level was at least two feet higher on the other side of the dam.  The entire way, we saw no wildlife other than birds!  Back on the lake, there was a small island covered in seagulls and one heron.

We got back to the cabin around 3PM, only to hear that Mom and the boys had seen 3 bear right by the old railroad tracks when they were on their way back from town.  There was a mother and 2 babies.  They watched them for 5 minutes or so, and one of them went right up to Mom's car.  I'm excited that the boys got to see some bear, but bummed that we went into the wilderness and didn't see anything!

After Tim and I ate some lunch, I went swimming for a short time.  It was a bit colder today and not as easy to stay in the water all afternoon.  Then, I heard the boys singing over at Knapps, so I walked over.  I found them having a "band" with Lydia - they had fake wooden instruments and were "playing" them and singing Dynamite.  After their performance, they went back to our cabin, but I stayed and chatted with the Knapps and Lisa (our next door neighbor) and her son Nelson.  We had invited Lisa and Nelson over for Skyline Chili, but Lisa is on a special diet.  Nelson wanted to come anyway, so the 2 of them wound up coming over and Lisa brought her own dinner.  It was a last minute thing in the end - it's nice to have neighbors that you can do that with.

After dinner, Tim, the boys, and I went out fishing.  It was a quickish trip, because wee started late.  The sky was mostly clear, with a few clouds, and the moon was nearly full and low in the sky again.  Though we didn't catch anything, it was an absolutely beautiful evening.  We rounded out the night with a game of penny in the pot.