Okay, like , who goes to Ely and doesn't delve into the boundary waters. Well, I guess that would be me. And the two friends I went with.

True, everything is centered around canoeing and kayaking and for good reason. I'm envious of those whose skills at boating are as common as brushing one's teeth. But there are other things to do as well. Such as the North American Bear Center and the International Wolf Center. I enjoyed both, and that's pretty much all that's covered in these photos. If you like bears, continue viewing. If you don't, you'll probably want to exit out and find something else to look at...or go pack your kayak.

Dorothy Molter definitely left her legacy in the Northwoods of Minnesota. She was born in 1903, gained a nursing degree and decided early on that she would marry only a man who "could portage heavier loads, chop more wood or catch more fish" that she. She owned three cabins in the boundary waters near Ely, using one during one season and renting out the others. She used her nursing skills to aid wilderness travelers as well as injured wildlife, which gained her the name as "the Nightingale of the Wilderness. " But the most well-known facet of her life started in the early 1950s when she began making her "Isle of Pines" homemade root beer. She made thousands of batches annually over the years and sold them to canoeists and travelers. In 1964 her property was condemned and purchased by the U.S. government. She was told she could no longer live on the isles and was ordered to leave. Nor could she operate her root beer business. Friends came to her aid, started a petition, and as a result she was given a temporary lease and later was granted a lifetime tenancy, She used her ingenuity to set out a donation jar for her root beer, abandoning it as a business, but giving her a modest income on which to live. She passed in December of 1986 and is buried in Arnold, Pennsylvania where she was born. Her cabins are located in a small forest near the Ely cemetery on the outskirts of town.