Voyageurs National Park: Little American Island

Two days in a row, out on the water! Today, after a short trip to town, we headed over to the boat ramp at Dove Island

and put in headed for Little American Island.

Little American Island is a detached unit of Voyageurs National Park and is best known for the gold mining that happened there in the 1890s. There are some old mining adits located on the island,

along with some mining shafts, equipment

and tailings piles. We explored the roughly 1/4 mile long trail and saw lots of evidence of the mining era, along with some wildflowers

and berries

(and a few mosquitoes).

We walked to an overlook of Rainy Lake

on the east side of the island and found the Hike to Health rubbing plate.

Sierra and I worked to make a rubbing in our book,

and then walked quickly back to the canoe

to get away from the mosquitoes. It had been a short paddle and hike, and we were not yet ready to take the canoe out of the water. Instead, we paddled west to the small island the lies just off the mainland from our house. Really, we wanted to see what our house looks like from the water.

We paddled around the island and then headed back, passing relatively closely to the old fire tower that makes a good reference point out on the lake.

It was perfect weather for a paddle.

Warm, but not too hot. There was little breeze, but the little bit we had helped to push us gently back to our put-in at Dove Island.