Since our last State Highpoint venture had been in November of last year, we decided to get serious again and knock off four more in another epic (3800 mile +) road trip over the Memorial Day Holiday week. Our target was the Midwest, specifically MN, WI, MI and IL. The entire trip was crafted around the IL Highpoint access as it is on private land and only open 8 days each year. More on that later …

The first order of business was to stop in New Ulm to see Joel’s folk’s house as it had been recently remodeled . It looked great and they seemed quite pleased with it. We had a nice dinner and then it was off the next morning to Grand Marais, MN, with a stop en route to visit with one of Joel’s hunting buddies to bring some of the gear back to him that he had left after their hog hunt last winter.

Joel’s older sister, Joanne and her husband met us at the hotel in Grand Marais, as she had asked to be included on the MN State Highpoint climb.

Eagle Mountain (elev. 2,301′) is about 20 miles outside of Grand Marais, MN, in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. The hike is 7 miles round trip with an elevation gain of 600 feet, most of which is in the last 1/2 mile. There had been some recent rain and more rain was predicted on the day of our hike so we decided to get an early start to try and stay as dry as possible. We were the only car in the parking lot when we arrived and we took off at a quick pace. Joanne was a welcome addition to our little group and she did great. We all “summited” with minimal huffing and puffing, had a quick snack at the top and then headed down as the bugs soon discovered us.

On the way in we saw a lot of moose poop. On the way out, we saw the manufacturer of said poop, standing about 10 yards off the trail. I came around a corner and was really startled to see her/him. It seems that a few foul words flew out of my mouth as I came to a screeching halt. Joel was at the rear of the caravan and figured I had seen a bear. Since we weren’t sure if it was a cow with a calf nearby, we make a quick exit and didn’t stop to take any photos. On the way out we met a couple of park rangers who indicated that it was actually pretty rare to see moose in the area anymore so we felt pretty lucky to have even seen her/him.