The whole point of going to Voyageurs National Park is the Lakes. Depending on where you stay, there are two lakes to enjoy. Rainy Lake to the north and Kabetogama Lake to the South. Since we were staying in the township of Kabetogama, you can guess which lake we got to go to.
Upon arrival we learned two important things. One is endemic to Minnesota -- it is cold. For weather, we had a highs in the mid 60s to look forward too. The water was approximately 50º. Needless to say, swimming was out of the question. The second thing that we learned was that the lake was high. As in really high, as in so high that all the docks on the lake were underwater and many of the lake side cabins had 6 inches of water in them. The lady in charge said that she had to canoe to her house each night. They said that there was a cold snap in early May that froze the ground, followed by several strong rain storms. This prevented the water from soaking into the ground and it all ran toward the lake. It was higher than anybody was prepared for.
This left us with a choice, we could spend the day in the pontoon boat like we had originally planned, with the downside that we couldn't dock at any of the islands. Or we could rent the canoes instead, taking on the risk of falling into 50º water. Matthew & Elisabeth were all for the canoes, but Stacy and Rebekah thought it a little risky. Without Julia and Joanna we may have gone for the canoes, but a pontoon boat ended up being the order of the day.
After getting our safety course and a quick lesson in driving the boat we were off. Elisabeth was in charge of the map and I got to zoom around the lake going from island to island. Our first stop was Sphunge Island to see the Bald Eagle, and she didn't disappoint. We were told approximately where to find the Eagle's Nest and quickly found it with a beautiful Bald Eagle one tree over.
From there we island hopped, going first to Jug Island, then Potato Island, and Sugarbush Island. Then we went along the eastern end of Cutover Island to the Ellsworth Rock Garden. This is a popular point to visit in the National Park and is only accessible by boat. We arrived and as was expected the dock was completely underwater. We got a glimpse from the boat, but there would be no stopping here. So instead we got out lunch and continued our quest.
We passed the north side of Cutover Island and started heading south to Shipwreck Island. We got a little lost, and ended up going too far south. But a curious thing happened. Going north, the water was calm and the wind was non-existent. But as soon as we turned south, the water became choppy and the wind picked up chilling everybody in the boat quite significantly. Remember, poor Alabama folks here. The locals would have laughed, but even with our coats on it was very cold. So we decided it would be better to continue north and hope it warmed up in the afternoon. We got all the way to the north end of the island to a trail head and dock. Not only was the dock underwater, but the trail head sign was almost completely submerged.
We were as far north as possible, so it was time to face the music or rather -- the wind. I cranked up the speed and after a quick stop at School Teacher Island, turned us south toward Bald Eagle Island, Wood Duck Island, then turned southeast toward sheep & ram islands. Finally there was nowhere to go but straight south back to our origin. We arrived freezing cold and quite ready to be done with boating for the day. It was still early, but nobody wanted to do anymore. Instead played a game of Parks while waiting for the laundry.
I had read that one of the 3 visitor centers was open prior to Memorial Day. The only one that we weren't going to be anywhere close too of course, so since we had extra time We went to the Rainy Lake Visitor Center to grab our National Park Magnet. When we got, we discovered that it wasn't open either and just like everything else, it was going to open on Memorial Day weekend. The day we were to leave.
Oh well, we got a picture with "Big Vic" in Ranier and then drove to the 2nd highest rated restaurant in International Falls: The Chocolate Moose Restaurant. It was a delightful dinner with only one complaint: they didn't serve chocolate mousse. Afterwards, we went right across the street to Berean Baptist Church. At the Church we were told about the best attrcation in the area: The Bear Sanctuary in Orr, MN. We looked it up, but like everything else in Minnesota, it didn't open until Memorial Day weekend. One our way home we stopped at a huge statue of Smokey the Bear before finally retiring for the night.
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