the north shore

Matt and I got home late last night.  On our way through town we picked up our already-sleeping children, loaded them in our road weary van and the five of us pulled into the garage here at Chestnut Street, tired but happy to be together again. 

The north shore was A - MAZ - ING!  I loved every minute.  It made me so very grateful for the national and state park system here in America.  Oh how I wish we had trails and parks and loads of purposefully undeveloped earth to enjoy in Asia.  I didn't realize how much I missed this kind of thing.  Road trips, gallon jugs of water, muddy hiking shoes, trail maps.... that stuff feeds my soul.  We often wished our children were with us to enjoy it, but also realized it was fun to cover ten times as much ground ten times as fast!  

In two and a half days of hiking we covered twenty miles (yes, my feet are a little sore today!) and saw some of the Lord's incredible creation.  

Our longest hike (a 12 mile day to Bean and Bear lakes, looping at Round Mountain and ending in the teeny town of Silver Bay).....

Do you see Matt sitting in the top corner of this photo?  These back country lakes always astonish me with the feeling of "sheer wilderness".  I mean, nobody is boating or swimming or even looking at this lake - as far as we could tell we were the only people in the entire area (we saw not one other hiker all day long, only lots of wildlife).

Lake Superior always looms large in the background- it seemed every mile or so we would round a corner to a view like this!

And the last day... less hiking (thanks to tired feet!) and we visited several state parks and the Split Rock Lighthouse.  It's impressive :)

So very grateful that we got to go!  I can't wait to go back.  This was my first time on the north shore (other than driving through Duluth) but it definitely has me hooked!