Day 25

Miles: 113

Mileage from start: 2,203

Last night at dusk, looking at the edge of the woods about 100 feet from our campsite, I saw a raccoon scamper excitedly into the campground. A few seconds later, another one followed. 

We had been told to put our food in the bear boxes, which we were doing right then, but no one mentioned the resident raccoon population. 

About ten minutes later, I was tucked into my sleeping bag when I looked in front of me and saw a raccoon head pop under the tent fly.

“Hey!” I yelled. And it ran off. Great, this will be an interesting night.

All our smellables were in the bear box, but we had eaten dinner in the tent to be out of the rain and they could tell.

Around 10:30 p.m. Richard said he heard the bear box bang. They were trying to get in there. Around 5 a.m. I heard them cackling and saw one run past our tent. 

After we got up and started packing, I came back from the bathroom to a pouty-faced Richard. 

“What?” I asked and he pointed to a food wrapper. The raccoons had eaten his Cosmic Brownies that had been in the bear box!

To top it off, it was all the food he had for breakfast other than a mint. 

Turns out the raccoons had figured out that if they pulled the doors forward, even while latched, enough of a crack opens at the bottom of the box that they can put an arm in and just start waving it around until something worth eating gets knocked out. 

In our case it was brownies and toothpaste. But they seem to have ignored the toothpaste. I don’t like mint, either.

Good thing it was only five miles to the nearest convenience store where we got breakfast and snacks.

The day was cloudy but not terribly windy. I wore long sleeves and leg covers all day as it never really got up to the 75 degrees that was forecasted. 

We had a late lunch at a warm restaurant in Walker, Minnesota then headed back out for another 40-some miles. 

Now we’re camped at a nicely kept campground on a lake. And we’re hoping for a night free of hungry visitors.