We left Duluth around 830 (after my night shift) and started heading up the shore. I napped most of the way while my buddy Casey drove. I had already done the grocery shopping, gotten bait, and got our permit, so we didn't need to stop until Grand Marias. There was a few items we needed there, so after a couple of quick stops and the last toilet use for a few days, we were off up the gunflint. There was some construction in Grand Marais, which through us for a loop back down to HWY 61, but after 15-20 minutes of confusion, we found the Gunflint.

East Bearskin was a short trip up the trail, and the landing was ready for us. It was noon, and we only had one portage to do, so we were in a great spot. The weather was BEAUTIFUL; it was sunny and we even had a tail wind in our favor. We ran into a couple guys leaving crocodile after fishing for the morning and catching a TON of very large perch. Excited for the fishing, we reached the portage. The portage from East Bearskin to Crocodile consisted of some serious elevation. It was not fun. Maybe we aren't in the best shape, but at our midlife age portaging up this hills is not something we had on our bucket list, but I guess we will check it off!

Our targeted site on Crocodile was taken, so we chose to journey to the East side of the lake and took the first of two on that end. A super nice site, but a shallower and weedier side of the lake. We set up camp quick, gathered some firewood, made a cocktail (our typical vodka + crystal light), and headed out fishing. It was immediately obvious what most of the fishing would be like for us, as we caught an endless amount of little perch and very small walleye. We ate tacos for dinner (our tradition despite the amount of food we have to pack for it), and fished off shore as the sun set. We were ill-prepared with light up bobbers, but It wasn't long before Casey had a nice walleye hooked. He got it close to shore before the hook was spit out, but we both got a look at the guessing 20+ walleye. We fished for awhile longer, but just caught more small perch. After a nice fire and a sighting of Elon Musk's Starlink, we slept well.