Day 6, September 14; Ely

 9/14/26; 7 miles of this and that

We found Ely displaying, in big and small ways, its gratitude to the firefighters who had come in and went out onto the Boundary Waters to fight the numerous lightning cause wildfires that were raging several weeks earlier. 

We planned this day off in January when we sketched out the Mesabi tour. We smiled several days ago when we saw the forecast that it would rain today, and only today. It was, indeed, raining as we created this post, but we had a cool dry morning. we walked several pleasant blocks to breakfast: eggs and cranberry-wild-rice toast! At the long table next to us sat three Forest Service couples from Fort Collins headed out into the Boundary Waters--not an ideal day for that. 

We did laundry, got cash at a Wells Fargo bank, and we got on our bikes to visited the International Wolf Center and its pack of five wolves. The center is pleasant and informative. On the other end of town there is an International Bear Center which also has good reviews. We made a quick stop there yesterday but decided to limit our education to one species.  

On our way back from the wolf center, we stopped at a supermarket to pick up something from its deli for lunch and dinner. While Marney went into the deli, Bob sat outside at a picnic table near our bicycles. A couple, now living in Bemidji, sat down.  They grew up in Baudette. "Do you know the Ullstroms?" Of course, they did know my deceased brother-in-law Gene Ullstrom's family and had gone to school with some of them in this community near Lake of the Woods, almost in Canada.

We got back to our room before the rain started, enjoyed two in-room picnics and played with pictures for this blog.