Matt and I left the cities after work and headed to Gopher’s apartment in Duluth. We had packed all of our gear the night before and had it laid out on the floor, waiting and ready for us to go. Our (Matt and mine) food was stuffed in my old sea-bag, our backpacks were packed, our fishing gear was waiting; we were ready to get on the water.

The drive up to Duluth was uneventful, as always, and we arrived at Gopher’s apartment around noon. We took the packs out of my car and brought them up to the apartment (the neighborhood where Gopher was living at the time was… let’s say, interesting) and we did not want to leave all the gear outside. Matt and I dumped out the contents of the food bag and we started the process of repackaging the food into zip-loc bags. We spent most of the rest of the day just prepping for the trip, excited to leave. We were in bed fairly early (Matt and I were both working the night shift) so falling asleep, regardless of our excitement level, was easy.