July 9, 2012

We got up at 6 am this morning and left Ely.  We stopped at the Ely Visitor’s Center and used the dump station and then went to the grocery store.  We had to detour on our way to Grand Marais today through a gravel forest service road.  The Casita really got dusty.  We found an RV space in Grand Marais at the city RV park that is right on Lake Superior.  We finally got to see a Great lake!

We had a quick lunch and then drove to Grand Portage National Monument.  This is where the Voyageurs (French fur traders) came to sell the furs from their trapping trips to the northwest.  The furs were shipped to London and Paris to be made into fashionable clothing and hats.  There is an 8 ½ mile foot path (portage) that the Voyageurs used to go around waterfalls and cliffs on the Pigeon River before they could reach Lake Superior.  They had to carry two ninety pound packs and their canoes over the portage.  There is a reconstructed trading post and fort with people demonstrating period activities like canoe building and cast iron cooking.

On the way back to camp we stopped at Naniboujou Lodge.  The lodge was built in the 1920s as an ultra-exclusive private club. Babe Ruth, Jack Dempsey and Ring Lardner were among it charter members.  They originally wanted a membership of 1,000 but when the stock market crashed on Black Friday precipitating the 1929 depression, the club began to fail.  By the mid 1930’s it was in financial shambles and was sold.  The paintings on the ceiling are by Antoine Gouffee and have never been touched up or repainted.  They were absolutely gorgeous.

When we got back to town we went for a walk on Artist Point and out to the lighthouse.  Then we had a Surly beer at a bar.  We didn’t get to go to Surly Brewing while in Minneapolis because the tours were all booked.

There is an old 13 foot Boler and a 13 foot Scamp at camp.  We talked to the Scamp couple from Minnesota.