Sun 27 Sept

Had a wonderful week in Grand Marais. Despite some worrying, our cabin reservation was waiting for us (even without recent confirmation). The cabin was clean and cozy and very adequate to our needs. It was chilly on Thursday, so we had a fire in the Franklin fireplace that made the interior almost too toasty. We had a large picture window to the yard behind our cabin that was not really open to any other people except through back or side windows. We were treated to a young black bear that wandered in from the woods and climbed a crabapple tree behind cabin 5 to get his snacks. He came back so often (three times) that I named him Buddy. We also had visits from several grouse, though not at the same time as Buddy. The color was absolutely beautiful, at peak, and second only to the amazing first year (but not far behind)! We had beautiful sunshine on Monday, Tuesday, and part of Wednesday to really bring out the color, and even in the cloudiness the rest of the time, the brilliant colors shone through. Somewhat unusually, the yellows of the birches were also close to peak along with the brilliant maples. We did a long hike on Moose Mountain/Mystery Mountain along a newly-improved mountain bike trail on Tuesday, Lake Agnes on Wednesday, Carlton Peak on Thursday, and Kadunce River on Friday. Good hiking, some amazing views, and wonderful mild weather. It was actually a bit warm on Tuesday and Wednesday. We enjoyed two meals and last-day takeaway from the Coho Cafe (lox and bagel sandwiches and good pizza), delicious fish and chips from the fish market, adequate burgers from My Sister's Place takeaway. We had one evening of the leek and potato soup I had brought from home. It was nice to have a comfortable place to eat in the cabin so we didn't have to sit outside if it was too cool toward the end of the week. We did eat at the Gunflint cafe-on-the-street on Monday night. Food: 8:00 am Caramel roll, 102 g blackberries, coffee