Once my family all disbursed on Sunday, I got word that some hiking plans had changed in my favor!  I loaded up my motorcycle for another long-ish haul to the north shore of Minnesota to a friend’s property located near McDougal Lake off Highway 1.  I’ve been there before, but after riding in the rain and storms we’ve been enjoying this summer, I might have mistaken a driveway for a road and rode down to someones cabin on a very not-so-safe double-track road.  I’ve never gone through a puddle that deep…

I finally made it to the land and set up a borrowed tent in a very fern filled section of the property.

The food was AMAZING as Ang, Honor, Sam, and Jason all had dinner already cooked. Pork ribs, corn on the cob, and potatoes cooked from a fire.  Mmm

We did have some casualties at the land.  Two bears wandered past my tent, visited Ang in her tent, then meandered to the kitchen and stole 3 loafs of bread, a package of peta bread, and a whole bottle of newly purchased, glass encased, maple syrup.  I guess no french toast for us.  What is interesting though is that the bears opened two coolers, passed up the smoked salmon, the half eaten cherry pie, and all the random snacks minus one claw or bite into a banana.

The only permanent damage was a hole in a cooler from a bear claw and a torn tent fly on Angie’s tent.  She has some GREAT pictures of just how close the two bears were… sadly I don’t have access to copies of those pictures yet.