21 - Caribou Falls and Duluth

It was nice to move on from Grand Marais. As much as we loved the place, it's always exciting moving on to new places. We'd picked up a brochure on hikes in the area so planned to stop at one on the way to Duluth, our next destination.
Caribou Falls was only a short 1.5 km walk from the main road, Highway 61. After driving for about 45 minutes, 60 km, we parked up just off the highway and followed the trail which followed the course of the Caribou River. The route ascended more steeply as we heard the roar of the rushing water ahead. Wooden steps led down to the base of the 25 metre high waterfall affording us a stunning view. We took some photos and marvelled at the volume of water shooting down from the rocks.
We returned to the RV and headed for Duluth, a port city, which sits on the farthest southwest tip of Lake Superior. With a population of around 85 000, it is the fourth largest city in Minnesota and shares a harbour with neighbouring city, Superior.
We particularly wanted to visit a famous store called Duluth Pack. The store was established in 1882 and specialises in canvas packs, mostly portage packs, amongst other outdoor gear. Canvas packs are known for their durability which was especially palpable in some of the old packs exhibited, including one which had survived a bear attack...just! Although the packs can last more than a century, they are not designed with comfort in mind so we didn't buy any. We did, however, find a great canvas paddle bag for our recently-purchased paddles.
After leaving Duluth Pack we visited a few other shops and a cafe before returning to our van to eat lunch. I always feel paranoid that someone will break in and steal Tala when we leave her alone so we're both always eager to return to the van.
Satiated from bacon butties made with onion rolls, we drove to a KOA Kampsite about 30kms west of the city and stayed for one night. There were a couple of other RVs there but the kampsite had just opened that weekend. We took Tala for a short bimble during which we saw a red fox and stumbled onto someone's property where Fred thought we'd get shot!
We did some laundry, freshened up and then watched a couple of episodes of Lost on the netbook before falling asleep.