Sunday, September 8, 2019
It was another very cool morning. It was overcast most of the day with an occasional sunny break through. Today we planned to be our canoeing day. Voyageurs being water based, it seemed appropriate when we planned our trip. However, Semper Gumby. The temperature in the 50’s sort of changed our plans and today became a hiking day.
We did a little more work this morning and then headed out to another bogwalk. We forgot to mention our first bogwalk. It was Friday on the drive up to International Falls. We stopped in Orr, MN for a rest stop at what was marked as the rest area on our rest area app. Turns out it was the town hall for Orr and the visitor’s center with a bogwalk. We just walked a short ways on that one.
Today was a bogwalk developed by a local ski club. When the bogwalk ends the cross country ski trails begin. Hikers are not allowed on the trails in the winter but in the summer/early fall, it’s okay. However, there are lots of mosquitoes and biting flies. It was a beautiful hike but you had to really keep moving to keep from being carried off. Only wild life we saw were some grouse that were too shy to have their picture taken.
After stopping by FRED for some additional insect repellent we decided to visit the Kabetogama Lake today since we were on Rainy Lake yesterday. We first went to the visitor center in Kab (as the locals call it). The center was small but had interesting displays, but unless you have a boat there is not much to do there. 
The lady in the center was very nice and gave us a trail map for the Ash River Visitor Center. She also mentioned the Ash-Kab Trail which is is 26 miles long and connects Kab and Ash River. No thanks. The Ash River Visitors Center is in a great old log cabin. The rangers were very friendly and helpful. From there we decided to hike the Blind Ash Bay Trail which is about 3 miles round trip. There were great views of the Kabetogama Lake from up on the ridges and on the water front. The trail was out through the woods, quiet, and beautiful. We only saw 5 people the entire hike. It was strange that the north side of the ridge and the south side had such different plant life. As we were leaving the Park we stopped to hike out the Beaver Pond Overlook Trail which was a little short hike out the see a beaver pond. Since it was getting late we hoped to see some wildlife activity but it was not to be. All was quiet. We didn’t see much wild life today. We saw some interesting birds and thought we heard an eagle but not positive because we never saw it. It was such a peaceful relaxing day. Total we hiked about ten miles today. Not what we had planned but another really nice day.
RVing With a Purpose 