Category Archives: Grand Portage

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Back in the saddle

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I am finally settled in my new city and working on my Great Lakes islands book and more clear about future projects.  Been a very, very long process that continues.

For now I am sharing an island image from my circling of Lake Superior on the U.S. side with my dog Henry in a small motorhome.  This is an island in Minnesota near Grand Portage and within the Grand Portage Indian Reservation.  Lake Superior was unusually calm as you can see.  I took this the morning right before I headed south to return home to southeastern Michigan.  So it was bittersweet.

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Minnesota’s North Shore Part 1

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As promised, with this post I’m sharing images and narrative from my trip north from Duluth (after Dean replaced my freshwater tank) to Grand Portage way up near the Canadian border.

The image above is very typical of the drive along the north shore of Lake Superior.  Truly lovely, and as you can see I continued to have amazing weather.  I’m actually writing this while staying at Straits State Park in St. Ignace, Michigan.  I’ve been driving way too many hours each day then poking around the communities and lake area where ever I land to post to this blog.  On top of that, WordPress and.or my Mifi have been incredibly SSLLLOOOWWW.

I had a fairly long drive (for driving a motorhome) and had planned to stay in Grand Marais.  One of the first things that caught my eye on the drive was this log structure that is Norwegian in type:

I’ve been fascinated with these structures for decades after I saw one on Washington Island.  I even corresponded for years with the person who had a small business importing complete cabins directly from Norway that were built there, disassembled, and then put in shipping crates to the United States.  This particular structure is actually a business, not a home:

Here are more details of this log structure (except for the teddy bear that is a bonus):

In the parking lot was a station wagon with alot of nice things to say:

I stopped at Grand Marais with the intention of getting settled into my reserved space in the campground.  As I posted previously, in the few moments I opened my door to check things out at the extremely small, tight space that I was assigned (and the last one available), I had black-fly issues.  One black fly flew into Ecovision right onto my front window while another flew straight to my neck.  I was able to squish both before they grabbed a chunk of skin off any part of me.  Unfortunately, I strongly attract and strongly react to black-fly bites.  I get red lumps the size of a quarter that hurt and persist for over a month.  I had about a dozen of these in May while on photo safari in Tobermory, Ontario, so I knew I had to get out of there and did.

I headed further north about 40 miles to the Grand Portage Reservation.  The Reservation is very large at over 73,000 square miles.  It is 12 miles from the first Reservation sign to the town of Grand Portage.  The “town” is mostly a casino complex and the marina and RV park where I stayed.  When I arrived several anglers were cleaning their fish:

After I picked my site and paid, I got back into Ecovision and headed further north.  I wanted to see where one catches the ferry and half-day tour boat to Isle Royale.  It was closed at that time of early evening and I’ve found it difficult to communicate with the company other than through their website where they take (and prefer) on-line reservations.  I did see one of their boats at the dock, the Sea Hunter III:

The Sea Hunter III

It might of have still been possible for me to get on the next day’s 8:30 a.m. trip to Isle Royale, but I just cannot leave Henry alone for the seven hours I would have to be gone.  Next year I’ll have to figure something else out.

On the way back to the campsite I stopped to take a photo of what I believe are wild-rice fields:

I continued south of MN-61 the mile or so back to the campground.  I had plenty of freshwater in my new tank so I just plugged in electric for the one-night stay.  No black flies or even mosquitoes so Henry and I had a nice long walk before cozying up for the night.

To finish this posting, this is a photo of the peek-a-boo view of Lake Superior’s Grand Portage Bay that Henry and I enjoyed the next morning while eating our breakfast outside:

Next I’ll post Part 2 that will include images of the Grand Portage National Monument, a second and much better visit to Grand Marais, and the iconic Split Rock Lighthouse.

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Enjoyed Grand Portage Reservation and National Monument

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Grand Portage reservation in taupe and monument in green

Henry and I had a quiet, restful night staying at the campground on the Grand Portage Reservation.  It is very close to the Canadian border and we were surrounded by many Canadian RVs.  From the time you see the sign for the Grand Portage settlement you drive 12 miles in this large reservation.  On the map, the campground, marina, and casino are on Grand Portage Bay.

I bought a small ceramic heater at the Grand Portage and had it going all night to help dry the carpeting.  No more new water so the new freshwater tank did the trick.  But the carpeting throughout and pad underneath will take some time to dry.

Slept so well and was glad I pushed to get this far.  I let my soul have its way and decided to head back south and not do the Canadian portion of the Lake Superior Circle Tour.  The delay and expense of a new freshwater tank meant I would have to rush and just not have the experience I want.  So after feelings of sadness, I came to deep acceptance and then happily moved on.

Stops today included views of islands, Grand Marais, huge Cleveland Cliffs facility in Silver Bay, and Split Rock Lighthouse.  I thought I might go all the way to Duluth, but I’m at Gooseberry Falls State Park in their visitor center charging my iPhone and Macbook Air.  I took a chance because I really wanted to stay here, but they didn’t have any reservable sites.  So we got here around 5 and they had one site left!  I’ll take it!  I used the $25 Minnesota State Parks gift certificate from my son and daughter-in-law, which was the exact cost.  So all good.  No hook-ups though, which is fine because I have water in my brand-new tank, plenty of food to eat (way too much, as a matter of fact), and I can bundle up under covers to stay warm.  So this is a brief posting before Henry and I get settled in for the night.

This is the view of Grand Portage Island that I enjoyed this morning before heading south. Pretty nice, eh?  I’ll post more about yesterday and today hopefully tomorrow.