Cascade River: hanging out to camp, hike, and try to find that moose


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Statistics for today
Distance 145 kms 90 miles
Statistics for trip to date
Distance 3,921 kms 2,436 miles
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Thursday, July 20th, 2017

I'm hanging out here for a few days to rest, hike, camp -- basically enjoy the back woods for a while. I occasionaly make the white-knuckly gravel drive into Grand Marais to shop for supplies, get a coffee, and get on the internet.

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Greta's insignia. For some reason it struck me as beautiful tonight. I read somewhere that it represents the propeller of an airplane in motion.
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One of my nightly fires.
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Hard to tell what's what but that's a porcupine up a tree next to my campsite. His feet are on the branch, then his butt, then his white-tipped quills to the right.
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Descending Pincushion Mountain into Grand Marais, Lake Superior in the distance.
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Lake Superior.
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I bushwack around in the woods between the spot on the road where I saw the moose and the river. I find a number of signs that he is around: scat, a bed he made laying down in tall brush, tracks... but I don't see him again.

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Looking for the moose, I found one of his beds. Fresh one. He must have layed down here earlier today or yesterday.
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Scat, could be my moose.
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I think this is a grouse.

A few other campers come and go in the campground but I'm mostly alone. I chat with a guy and his kids from Minnesota who are on a fishing trip. I get to shoot one of the kid's Co2 BB guns. Those things are surprisingly powerful.

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In three weeks my "spork" became an "ork" now just a "rk". Soon I'll be eating with my fingers.
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Bought some chorizo, dinner was excellent tonight.
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Deer on the Cascade River. I'm pretty sure from the tracks that the moose comes here to drink as well.
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Bally Creek.
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Deer tracks
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The other red meat.
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Loading up on wood for the fires. It takes some work to collect.
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On one of my trips into town to get coffee I meet Dan, a southern Vermonter who has ridden his K100 to the west coast and is now on his way back, headed up through Thunder Bay to take the Canadian route. He is mostly camping. He has been across the country a number of times on various bikes; the first time was in 1967 on a Suzuki 250cc. He took route 66 most of the way. Back then he said he was something of a star... not many people were making that cross-country trip on a motorcycle and everyone wanted to talk to him. Nice to see a fellow New Englander. I actually bought Greta from someone in southern Vermont close to where Dan is from.

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Dan from Vermont with his 1985 K100RT.

Stats for the bushwack (Strava data):

Miles hiked: 2.4

Elevation gain: 63 feet

Moving time: 0:53:46