False Spring, Drought, Spruce Brown

We are seeing signs of the early ice out and the warm temperatures that we experiencee several weeks ago. No the trees have not yet leafed out! Instead of green-up we are seeing the Spruce trees that line the Gunflint Trail turning BROWN. The early warm temteratures were followed by last week by temperatures in the mid-teens. The spruce trees welcomed the early Spring and started to put on a growth streak. When it turned cold last week the spruce trees along the road started turning brown! According Canadian Public Radio the stress of the sudden cold spell and the extended drought is turning the trees brown. This is especially pronounced in areas where the trees are not protected by other conifer trees -- like along a roadway. The good news is that while some of the trees will die some of the less stressed trees will undoubted

ly bounce back.

Spring Break

Last night's snowfall has been a welcome relief for everyone living along the Gunflint Trail. The early ice out and several weeks of warm weather has allow us to get a lot of our pre-season work done. The propane line to the Lodge has been replaced and the trenches for the new waterline down the Cabin #2 driveway can be filled once it warms up enough to leak test the lines. Meanwhile, the snow makes a great excuse to take a "Spring Break" from working.

Actually, the snow is just what we needed. This winter's light snowfall has resulted in lower than normal water levels. It has also left us with less soil moisture than anyone who lives in an area prone to wildfires would like. In the last 24 hours we recorded had over 2 inches of water in our guage from a light steady rain and the wet snowfall. Because the ground is not frozen most of this moisture will soak into the ground instead of running off.

Moose Down, Digging Trenches and Water Treated

Last week between our Lodge and the snowmobile trail a murder of Ravens showed us the way to a nearby moose carcass. Ravens are noisily scavengers and had nearly completed the processing of the moose. Judging by the wolf tracks around the carcase the Ravens were only doing cleanup. We don't know how the moose died but it is especially sad to find one within a mile or our Lodge.

I spent two days this week digging trenches around the sewer tanks that we put in last Fall. The shortest trench was for the propane line from Cabin #2 to the Lodge. The long trench was for the main waterline that had to be routed away from tanks and sewer lines. We ended up with over a 100 foot run that had to crossing two sections of driveway. In the next couple of days we'll start plumbing shutoff valves and drain valves for the new waterlines.

Today we primed our lake water pump then filtered and chlorinated 1100 gallons of water. Hope to treat another 700 gallons tomorrow. We won't charge any of the waterlines outside the water treatment building for a couple of weeks -- until we are sure that the lines won't freeze. This sounds like an excuse for my not completing the waterline work between Cabin #2 and the Lodge for a "couple of weeks".

Poplar Lake is ice free and our first canoeing guests will be here in four weeks!

Rotten Ice & White Rabbits

Record warm March temperatures across the Northland have certainly affected the view from our living room windows. Instead of a snow covered lake with snow mobile tracks we are looking at black honeycombed rotten ice. By the early afternoon the north shoreline has stretches of open water!

We normally expect ice out to occur around the first of May. Last year the lake opened up on May 10th. which was the same day that it opened in 2008. Lin and I definitely remember the year that we had to cancel reservations for fishing opener because the lake was still frozen. This year it looks like we could have an early ice out and low lake levels. The earliest ice out we have experienced since moving up to the "Trail" occurred in 2010 -- April 4th.

About those "White Rabbits" -- the snowshoe hares are still in their white winter coats and really stand out against the bare ground.

Snow Departing

On Sunday I got a phone call from a neighbor who wanted me to find a snowmobile parked somewhere on the snowmobile trail near the Voyageur Point Road. On Saturday our neighbor had gotten struck on a small lake near the edge of the Boundary Waters and had to leave their snowmobile until Monday when they planned to retrieve it. Some winter campers who were inside the BWCAW fishing for Lake Trout over the weekend had been told that the sled belonged to someone living on Poplar Lake and decided to help. They managed to free the sled using ropes, brought it out to the Gunflint Trail and managed to contact the owners to tell them where it was parked. Sometimes it can pay to leave the keys in a stuck snowmobile.
I took the sled over the snowmobile trail back to its owner. We have had night temperatures above freezing for several days and the snow is going fast. Some spots on the snowmobile trail were bare and my guess is that unless we get some new snow that snowmobiling will be dropping off.
The snow melt is almost a month early this year. The best thing about the early melt is that I can store my repaired snow blower. I won't use a snow blower on our gravel driveway unless we have a packed snow base. What snow we still have is settling fast and the willows near our mailbox are starting to bud -- snow season can't last much longer!