Arielle was amused by the fact that we were the only co-ed pair in the restaurant, which had mostly older patrons. We walked back across the street and got in the car to head back across the border. Crossing back into the United States was considerably simpler and quicker than coming into Canada, though it’s interesting to note that there is only one line to get back over rather than divided by citizenship.
We drove about twenty minutes to the Rainy Lake Visitor Center of Voyageurs National Park, where the very friendly ranger Lester, who had a fantastic Minnesota accent, told us that we should hike one trail there but then go to the more worthwhile Ash River Visitor Center about forty miles away. We put on sunscreen and set out to hike the Oberholtzer Trail, which all told was about 1.4 miles, taking us through the woods and to two overlooks of the water, which weren’t all that majestic.
We left and drove a little less than an hour to the Ash River Visitor Center, which was considerably more rustic. We got some recommendations from a ranger, put on some more sunscreen while overlooking the water behind it, and drove a few minutes to the Kabetogama Lake Overlook. We set out on the Blind Ash Bay Trail, which took us deep into the woods on a nice hike that felt considerably longer than we had expected. The overlook we ultimately came to was pretty incredible, but we couldn’t stand still for long because of the number of bugs buzzing around us. The 0.7-mile loop section of the trail that included the overlook took us far down and right next to the water, which of course meant we had to go back up after that. We returned to the car thoroughly exhausted but satisfied with our nearly ninety-minute hike.
We drove a few more minutes to the Beaver Pond Overlook, where we ended our exploration of the park with a short .15-mile walk to a view of the calm pond which had a swan peacefully sitting in it. We drove about eight miles back to the main road and stopped at Jim’s Ash Trail Store, a gas station with a big convenience store. We chatted a bit with the clerk after we bought two Gatorades about what to do in the area. We drove about 45 minutes back to International Falls along the same route we had traveled the day before, heading first to Coffee Landing, a breakfast place that had been recommended by the owner of our motel, so that we could check out the menu for the next day. It was closed, but we were able to walk in and determine that we might be interested in the chai milkshake. We continued on about ten minutes to the Chocolate Moose Restaurant Company, the top-rated restaurant in International Falls. We were immediately happy with our choice since it smelled great, and the food turned out to be fantastic too. Arielle ordered the specialty salad with romaine, strawberries, mandarin oranges, pecans, and poppy seed dressing. We got waffle fries to share, and Abe took advantage of the 80-cent wing special, ordering four with sweet chili sauce and four with barbecue sauce. Upon trying the barbecue wings, he found them extraordinarily spicy but opted to forge ahead, only later finding out that he had accidentally been given buffalo sauce. The waitress was apologetic and replaced the remaining two with the correct ones, which were very good, and Abe ordered another four wings with honey-garlic sauce, which was good but the least fantastic of the three. We also got another order of waffle fries, which we probably didn’t need.
After a great dinner, we drove back to the border, paying the $7 toll to cross the bridge and getting through quickly and easily. We returned to the motel, got some work done, watched some TV, and went to bed.
Approximate number of miles covered: 93
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