Camping on Rainy Lake

Our totally kick ass campsite...one of my favorites in Voyageurs National Park. Hauling all of your gear, coolers (we don't really like to rough it), therma-rests, etc. up the rock is not fun. But once you are set up...beautiful, beautiful, beautiful.

I know that I am biased, but is there a more beautiful lake anywhere?

As we were cruising around, exploring the little bays around our campsite, we came across this tiny little deer swimming across the channel.

The poor, tiny thing was either so scared or so tired, that when it reached the shore it just stood there, shaking. It wouldn't jump out of the water. I wanted to take it home and raise it and love it and protect it. But I'm not sure that Kempton would be cool with sharing the tent with a baby deer for the next couple nights.

While Steve was catching walleye, I was catching tiny bass that were barely bigger than the bait I was using.

Almost every time we dropped our hooks down, we had a bite and reeled in a fish...most of them were small, but a couple of them were around 19 inches.

Finally I catch a walleye! Wanna kiss, little fishy?

Taking a rest in the front of the boat...fishing is hard work!

Breakfast on Sunday morning...fried eggs over the campfire!

Chef Steve (he specializes in breakfast entrees)

Loons...the sound of Rainy Lake...

I've seen a lot of sunsets on Rainy Lake, but this one was up there in the most beautiful ever. Did I mention that a huge storm blew in right after this? Steve and I sat on the rock at our campsite, and watching the lightening and sipping wine for about an hour before the rain started. And the wind. And then for the next couple of hours, we stood outside in the hurricane-like conditions holding our tent from blowing away. Literally. But we continued to enjoy ourselves (and continued to sip wine)!