day trip {ely}

On Sunday we took a drive...in search of autumn colors, fresh crisp air, and sunshine on our faces. It was a lovely, sunny day and we hopped in the car for a two hour ride to Ely...

When Hub and I first moved here, north from the Twin Cities, we always talked about taking little trips to nearby cities like Ely or Bayfield...but we've rarely followed through on this...life always seems to get in the way, no matter where you live. But on Sunday we seized the day and enjoyed visiting a somewhat new-to-us city, having a really good lunch at "The Chocolate Moose" outside on their deck, and then getting out for a vigorous hike that I found out about from a guy who worked at an outfitter store in town.

We nicknamed our hike something like "the many mushroom, mossy-covered, laughing bird trail"...which pretty much summed up all the the things we encountered. In reality, the trail was called "Dry Lake Trail" and we did wrap our way by one lake and then all around Dry Lake (which really isn't dry at all).

All in all the hike was great, except for a few moments of confusion when we couldn't really tell for sure what was the actual trail and what was just plain wilderness. The only thing more disconcerting than that was perhaps the couple of shots we heard fired, from a not too distant location. What could they be hunting? At the time, Hub only suggested Grouse...and we did happen to scare up several later on along the way. But on the way home, he told me they could have also been hunting Bear. I was glad he saved that part for the ride home.