Editor’s Note: Britton’s Café in Ely and Trail Center on the Gunflint Trail are landmarks for many people who paddle or hike in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. A fresh omelet at Britton’s has comforted many spent paddlers who make it out early after a cold, rainy trip to the woods. And few can argue with a cold malt from Trail Center on a hot summer afternoon up the Gunflint Trail. In this photo essay, Duluth-based photographer Erica Dischino shares the story of these two Boundary Waters staples. Subscribe to Paddle and Portage to support Erica’s work and to see the photos. If you are already a subscriber, please consider this opportunity to make an additional contribution. Your financial support helps make this type of visual storytelling possible.

Server Denise Martinson works the bar at Trail Center Lodge along the Gunflint Trail, about 30 miles from Grand Marais on the edge of the BWCA.

ELY – I can still remember the meal I ate after my first visit to the Boundary Waters. My friends and I were coming out of the woods. We’d entered the BWCA a week earlier at the Moose Lake entry point. Our last morning of the trip, we woke up at the crack of dawn and paddled with great intensity and passion back toward the entry point, knowing that a hearty breakfast was waiting for us in Ely.