Delta Bear Hunt Day 2 - Crossing the Border

Not surprisingly, I was up really early.  I putzed around the hotel room a bit before deciding I might as well leave.  After packing up, I was on the road before 5:00 local time.  Traffic was non-existent while the lights on the wind turbines winked at me.  Being nearly the only car on the road, I slowed only slightly for a construction zone, only to see the car that came up behind me was a cop car.  I'm glad he had better things to do.

I continued north, crossing the Wisconsin border in time to see the sunrise.  The sunrise didn't last long since there was very heavy rain just to the west.  I kept an eye on the radar, happy that the rain largely dissipated before it got to me.  Because it was still early, I was into and out of the Madison area without even realizing it - that does not happen at a state capitol very often.

Traffic did thin somewhat as I continued north.  

I was listening to Robert Heinlein's Stranger in a Strange Land.  I had read a glowing review of the book about how it explores what it means to be human.  The book started out OK, but it got worse and worse through the day.  I'm not sure what book the reviewer was reading, but the book does not explore humanity.  It only tangentially explores screwed up 1950's society, but then devolves into a storyline of the creation of a messed-up sex cult.  The only blessing of the sex cult is that it breaks up the long periods of the book where absolutely nothing happens besides some arrogant and verbose doctor/lawyer pontificating ad nauseam - I can only surmise that this was a vehicle for Heinlein to share his own rambling thoughts.  I will finish the book, but only because there is enough time invested in it that I feel stupidly compelled to do so.  And once finished, I hope I never hear the word "grok" again.

I got in US53 and continued north.  The stretch of highway between Eau Claire and Duluth had much more traffic than I recall from previous trips, but north of Duluth, it thinned very quickly.  Duluth was a bit of a mess with a poorly signed US53 detour.  This was made worse by extremely heavy fog which seemed confined to just the Duluth area.  Garmin to the rescue.

I had about an hour of heavy rain in Northern Minnesota, with it stopping just as I was getting into International Falls.  The rain only slightly detracted from the awesome "Northiness" of the scenery.  Birch trees.  Boggy spots.  Granite outcroppings.  Magical...

As I got near the Canadian border, I started to feel a bit of apprehension:  Was all my paperwork in order?  The initial contact with the border guard was typically terse as he looked over everything.  I don't envy the guards since they need to interpret an infinite number of formats for the COVID PCR test reports.  Mine must have been acceptable so he sent me inside to complete the gun paperwork.  Inside the guard asked what I was bringing in.  "A rifle and a shotgun."

"The shotgun is a Thompson?" he asked looking at my form.

"It's a slug gun."

"What are you doing with it?"

"Bear hunting."

"What do you do with the bear?"

"Eat it, maybe put it on the wall..."

I said that bear tastes a lot like beef.  He just shook his head.  I wasn't going to argue with him, his arms were about as big around as my legs are.  I paid the fee and was on my way into a foreign country.

My hotel was only a couple miles away.  I texted the other hunters that I was in Canada.  Mark called and we talked about the border crossing a bit.  

It was still pretty early so I took a walk by the bay - there was a really nice walkway and park which I was surprised was nearly empty.  The walk felt good after driving all day.

I realized that the other side of the river was the US.  So close, yet so far away.  I guess boats have to (mostly) stick to their own side.

There are train tracks across the river, which means someone could walk across if they chose to.  This was a stupid realization since there are hundreds of miles of the US/Canada border that someone could walk across if they wanted to (hello North Dakota and Montana).  It was also really stupid to take this picture since there are probably 289 cameras watching this spot in the border.  When a cop pulled into the park as I was leaving, I couldn't help but think that getting deported for farting around on the train tracks would be a new level of stupidity even for me.

When I was looking at my route to Manitoba, I saw something called the Fort Frances Tower, which is a 100 foot tower (I'm in Canada, shouldn't that be 30.5 meters?) that overlooks much of the area.  This looked really cool, so I walked down to it only to see that it was clearly marked Closed.  I might have made a fool of myself and asked anyway, but I didn't have a mask to go into the Marina.  Still, the second walk for the afternoon was just as enjoyable as the first, if also a little disappointing.

Back at the hotel, Dinner was another Annie Chun's noodle bowl and Zingers.

Thank you Canada for letting me in.  I am ready for the Adventure to really begin.