DULUTH – Abe Pergament and his friends left St. Louis Park on Monday morning for an epic last-summer-before-senior-year fishing trip on a remote Canadian lake. When they got to the international border they waited, and waited, and waited.

"We were supposed to go last year, and that didn't work, Pergament said. "We were supposed to go early this summer, that didn't work. We weren't going to get stopped again."

The first day Americans could again cross into Canada for recreation, to check on property or reconnect with loved ones caused a traffic jam in International Falls as a miles-long line of cars and trucks — many towing boats or other recreational vehicles — waited as long as eight hours to get across the border. That was the longest reported wait time at any port of entry on the entire Canadian border on Monday.

"The urgency to get there on Day One is real for a lot of people," said Tricia Heibel, president of the International Falls Area Chamber of Commerce. "With the call volume coming through our office, we knew this was going to be crazy, and I think it's going to be for a while."

Source consulted https://www.startribune.com