Porcupine Mountains / DSCN2221

7/23/2005

Yeah, great. Thanks. This sign (which reads "Please verify you have the correct key before starting out. Thank You") was a direct result of our trip.

You see, you have to check in to get a parking pass but the rangers don't give you your keys. No, to make it easier they put them in a sealed envelope and post them to the board. They write your name and your cabin on the outside of the envelope. If you're like us, you're in a hurry to get out there and assume that if the person wrote the right cabin on the outside, they'd have double-checked it. If you're like us, you laugh outloud after hiking three miles to the cabin only to discover that they didn't double-check, and you've got a key for a cabin eighteen miles away on the coast of Lake Superior! Ha-ha! Ironic, isn't it?

It's even more fun if you have to run -- yes run -- back over those three miles in hiking boots so you can jump in the car and race to ranger station before it closes. And then of course once the situation is resolved, there's the whole hiking back again.

In fairness, the situation is really not so bad if you send the men to do this while you sip wine and play frisbee with your robotic dog outside a remote cabin on a lake.