Up, Up and Away!

After Grand Marais, our group of 25 WINs moved on to Ely, MN. The town allowed us to park at their old garage, in the middle of the picture.


This is beautiful country, surrounded by the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. What better way for a non-kayaker to see it than by air? No one had to twist MY arm! Phil, Kurt, and Cory agreed to go with me on a one-hour floatplane trip.


I finagled the back seat, where I could see out of either side.


Off we go!


You can see why Minnesota is the Land of 10,000 Lakes. Ely is in the lower right corner on this map, and the double triangle is where we flew. Over the Boundary Waters, into Canada, then back through non-Boundary Waters so we could fly lower.


WOW! You can see how canoers and kayakers travel great distances by portaging their boats between the lakes.


A lot of the lakes are at different levels, so there are waterfalls between them.


This was a spectacular double waterfall.


After we got out of the restricted Boundary Waters, we flew lower to look for wildlife, especially moose. Wait! What are those 3 black blobs?


A mommy moose and her 2 calves!