highway 61 runs right by my baby's door

i am back from an excellent trip backpacking with phil on the superior hiking trail and picking up his bro shawn from a 45 day canoe trip in the arctic.

ups:
-i have wanted to hike this part of the trail (btw magney st park and grand marais) for years, mainly because it includes the only part of the trail to cross hwy 61 and go right on the lake shore. this was indeed awesome, on a windy morning the waves were huge and people were surfing! wild raspberries were in abundance.
-the rest of the route was great too, especially devil's track gorge (a real canyon-seems like in a real mountain range or something) http://oregonstate.edu/~martjona/secondary_pages/MiscIce_files/image005.gif (this pic is from winter but you get the idea)
-relaxing on sunny saturday morning at pincushion mtn. amazing amazing views
-beautiful weather, warm but not hot and only a few hours of clouds
-perfect hiking partner...
-wonderful to go back to menogyn and hear about shawn's insane trip, and see him in his element.
-yummy lunch at angry trout in grand marais
downs:
-sad to see so many dried up creeks after such a dry season.
-crappy traffic
-washing smelly dishes and finding a tennisball sized mold chunk growing in the lemonade cup i left on the counter since the uptown artfair. sick


reading this over, i feel like i haven't really done it justice.... i'll just say, i love the northshore, i love phil, and it's hard to come back and deal with real life (lack of studying, impending move, car troubles, meetings...). i did get my crp refund deposited while i was gone... SWEET. phil's b-day dinner may now involve more than that dusty can of garbanzos on my pantry shelf.