Sunday, September 8, 2019

Beef is more filling than walleye


(Continued from this post)

We woke up on our last day ready to head out. Everything was packed. We ate a couple of boiled eggs that we had left from the week and finished putting our last-minute gear into our totes and bags.

By 7:15 a.m., everything was ready on the boulder by the dock.

Now, we weren't exactly sure what time our plane would arrive. We had gotten an early start when we were being dropped off, so the people who were there to leave the week before had gotten on the plane back at about 7:45 a.m. We figured someone between 7:30 a.m. and 9 a.m. was probably reasonable to assume, depending on if another group was taken to its cabin before ours was.

We walked and relaxed, read, listened to the waves and time passed slowly. I was just trying to stay upbeat, even though we had wanted to be on the plane by at least 9 a.m. in order for the rest of our day to go as planned.

That didn't happen, so we grabbed our pillows and laid down on the dock in the sunshine and tried to get a little more shut-eye. I dozed, and Nate smiled as I sleep-twitched.

It was finally about 11:30 a.m. when we heard the roar of an incoming float plane and went to stand on the boulder while it quickly dropped to the water. A French couple got off the plane, the woman with purple hair, and we helped them move their stuff and then got ours on the plane and took off.

From the air, we could see the area much better than from below. We could see that a trail behind our cabin actually wasn't that long and we could have followed it to an open area to explore. We could see where the streams that we tried to paddle down actually ended up.

"I guess we could have just kept walking and found some areas to explore!" I said to Nate.

We shrugged.

It still had been a wonderful time.

----

Fast forward about two hours, and we were back in Long Lac, where we again stopped at the pharmacy that had been so helpful to us on our way to Hearst.

The building was made of large, shiny windows, and as we walked inside to get some bottles of water --- as opposed to the slightly rust-colored water filtered from the lake that was still in our own bottles --- I caught a glimpse of myself and giggled.

"I look rough," I said to Nate.

It had been three days since I'd last showered, and although my clothes appeared clean, my ponytail, hat, leggings, wool socks and hiking boots didn't give a sophisticated aura. My greasy face didn't either. I needed a shower.

----

Fast forward another two hours, and we arrived back to the first town we had stopped at in Canada to get gas and some Tim Horton's again. We split ways, and I asked Nate what he wanted to eat.

"You know what I like," he said.

So I ordered two sour cream glazed donuts, a turkey sandwich for him and a chicken wrap for me. I handed him the food in the car and told him what it was.

"Is that OK?" I asked.

"That's great. As long as it wasn't fish. That would be just mean."

----

Fast forward another three or so hours, and we arrived in Grand Marais, MN.

It was an adorable little town, and our hotel had the perfect view of Lake Superior and sailboats in the harbor.

Before enjoying the view though, it was time to shower. And then I realized I left my razor in the cabin. So Nate went to get me a razor from the nearby grocery store while I hopped into the hot spray.

All I will say is, I was dirty. After having been in the shower 10 minutes, I decided to wash my arms once more with the white washcloth, and I squeezed it to see brown water flow out.

I was that dirty.

Fresh as a daisy, we headed off to find hamburgers. After a week of fish, that's all we wanted, hamburgers.

We found a restaurant-bar and ordered what were the biggest burgers I had seen in a while. In fact, I ate half of my jalapeno-topped burger and just couldn't fit anything else in.

The waitress came back and looked at me oddly when I said I was done. I assured her I did like the food.

"I just can't eat anymore."

It turns out, beef is way more filling than walleye.

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