St. Paul to Tofte

Left St. Paul at 2:30 PM, under a blue sky. I had Dave, Jack, James and John in the Honda and Jim took Max and Colin in his wagon. The boys were quiet, apart from an occasional chortle. Dave filled me in on his and his families recent developments, including a golf outing with his kids Jack and Madeline where he managed to fell a juvenile goose with a well (or ill?) placed slice. Before the next outing, Madeline thought he needed lessons. I thought we should put Dave in charge of the hunting parties if we were to run out of food.

We arrived in Tofte around 6:00 PM; since we were late for the Forest Service Office we headed straight for Sawtooth Outfitters. To our surprise, they are located right across the street from the main office of Bluefin Bay Resort, where all of us had stayed at one time or another. Somehow we had never noticed the outfitters. The explanation turned out to be simple, Sawtooth had opened its doors only about eight years ago which would postdate our last summer stay in the area.

The good folks at Sawtooth took a no-nonsense approach to getting us set up with four canoes (two Wenonah Boundary Waters and two Wenonah Spirit II ), eight life jackets and eight paddles. Nice, wooden paddles, which helped me to get over the pain of forgetting my brand new Mitchell 7.5 bent shaft paddle at home! I was able to try out the 78" Yakima bars, though, they worked beautifully to carry two canoes.

On to the AmericInn, dropped our overnight bags and headed out for dinner. I thought it would be nice to eat at the restaurant affiliated with Bluefin Bay, but of course they were crowded with their rental guests. A short walk along Lake Superior brought us to Koho, a small restaurant and deli, with excellent pizza and delicious desserts and probably a more relaxed atmosphere. I walked Mellie in to the woods, along a horse trail (from the smell of it, since it was too dark to see by now) and next to the cemetery. A chilly night, I was glad to be back at the hotel since I was only wearing shorts and a t-shirt. We did not stay up long after dinner. After a couple of beers we turned in. Very much to my surprise Colin, James and John did not object too much when I requested the TV to be turned off, long before their usual summer bed time.