Snowmobile Trails

The recent snow storms have all gone south of us and the warm weather that we had early in December melted much of the snow that we received earlier. While we definitely have snow on the ground it is nowhere near what we have came to expect by this time of the year. 

The main snowmobile trails have been rolled and grooming will undoubtedly follow the next snowfall. Smaller trails that branch off to individual lakes probably need a little more snow before they can stand up to much use. 

The photo on the left is the uphill grade on the main trail at the west end of Poplar Lake.  The photo below is of the main trail on the south side of Birch Lake. Both photos were taken today. You can see by the tracks that traffic on the trails is light.

However as I have been writing this update we have had two snowmobiles running across the lake in front of our house.  We get a little snow almost daily and probably have what most people would consider to be a lot of snow. I am never happy about the amount of snow we have until I get tired of removing the snow from our driveway. 

If you stop in to see us this winter be sure to use the second entrance off the Gunflint Trail. I do not open the driveway from the first entrance to the Lodge. 

Wishing everyone a great New Year,

Mike and Lin

Winter Roads and Writing Sessions

One of the questions that we are often asked about living at Rockwood Lodge is  " What is the Gunflint Trail road like in the wintertime?"  Our answer has been that the road is plowed and open just as soon as it stops snowing.  Yesterday while driving into town I finally realized that the answer actually depends on the type of car you are driving more that on the actual condition of the road. Since a picture is worth a thousand words I snapped a couple of shots that depict typical winter driving conditions. (The snow that most people has this past week missed us entirely.)

Since Lin had her stroke she has not been posting to the blog site or answering e-mails. Writing is difficult when you have trouble matching words to what you want to say. This week I started having her do a daily writing session. We are finally seeing some improvement in her writing. What do you think?  

"What shall I write about today? I could write about the wind going by the cabin, but it seems to have stopped now. I could write about the sunshine streaming into the room. ......

Christmas is coming. I wonder if he will come here? We're ready for him -- angels and all the trimmings are ready. On the wall there's a message to Christmas -- camels marching off towards Bethlehem......

I'm in a rut. All I can do is look out my window and write about what I see."

I guess that it is about time that she starts responding to e-mails.

info@rockwoodbwca.com

                                                                                

Evening Night Singer - Hesperiphona Vespertina

We usually have lots of activity at our bird feeder from the first snow fall until we get bare ground in the Spring.  By the first of January we can  identify some the the individual birds by their personality traits. Today for the first time ever, we had an flock of Evening Grosbeaks who decided to visit the feeder. Lots of excitement when a flock of large yellow birds with white wing patches decided to stop by.

The Latin name for this bird "Evening Night Singer" is actually a misnomer. They definitely are out feeding in numbers during the day.

                                                   





The Gichigami Express Sled Dog Race is coming the the mid-Trail area on Sunday January 6th! It is always fun to see the dogs and mushers arrive after of day of being on the trail. Lots of activity getting the dogs fed and rested before starting another day of racing on Monday. When on the "trail" the dogs always seem to be smiling. 

The winter season for the Lake Trout fishing opener is December 29th. Since we don't get many chances to fish during the summer we always look forward to the opening of the "hard water" fishing season.  



Black Friday

Black Friday was suppose to involve an early morning trip to the Clinic in Grand Marais for Lin and an afternoon of snacking on leftover turkey for me. Instead we started with 6 inches of new snow and an almost 40 degree drop in temperatures.  And then things went down hill!

I used our walk behind snow blower to open the driveway and started to get the 4x4 truck ready for our trip into town. By 8:30 the county snowplow had only managed to open one lane of the Gunflint Trail -- the lane coming from town.  The open lane was completely iced over the snow on the unplowed lane was more than I wanted to drive over in Lin's car.

The next surprise was to finding that the truck's thermostat was stuck closed and that the truck was overheating before we even reached the end of our driveway. We decided to reschedule the Clinic visit and to stay home. After a quick Internet search I discovered that unlike most vehicles the thermostat on the Dakota is on the bottom of the engine and that the shop rate for replacing this thermostat ( in a heated garage ) and bleeding the air out of the radiator is 1.5 HOURS!

Instead of snacking on turkey, I decided to open a path down to the lodging unit that we are keeping open this winter.  I am still a little nervous about having water turned this building and want to check often to make sure the heat is on and everything is OK.

Today I am sore from moving snow but I have been sharing turkey scraps with a pair of Canadian Jays. Wishing everyone a great holiday season filled with family and friends,
Lin and Mike

Whitefish



First Ice on Poplar Lake -- Nov. 16th




Lin and I have returned from our annual family visit/trip and have started to settle into another period of  "off-season" retirement. We came home to find that the smaller lakes like Swamp were glazed over while the larger lakes like Poplar were still open.

Earlier this week I decided to help a neighbor who was netting Whitefish clean his catch . On the first day seven whitefish were picked from his net. Five of the seven fish were headless and the net was holed in several spots. The next day there were six fish in the net and all of them were headless.

The otter family that entertained cabin guests over the summer seem to have acquired a fondness for fish heads! A few of the finished fillets were definitely shorter than they should of been. We put the fish heads that remained after cleaning the fish out for the otters -- believing that nothing should be wasted and wanting to share the fish with the otters.  OK, maybe we hoped that the otters would get full and not hit the net for a while.

This morning we had 3/4s of an inch of ice on Poplar.  After breaking ice for about an hour we agreed to call an end to netting for this year. There were six fish in the net and they were all whole! The otters gave up fishing through the ice about a day before we did. Smart Otters. 

The End Of Another Great Season



Today's Sunshine

 Today marked the "official"  closing of Rockwood Lodge & Outfitters for the 2012 season with the taking down of the US flag. The sun is shinning and the temperature is quite mild here in northern Minnesota. All of the nasty closing closing chores have been completed: waterlines drained and blown, canoes stored for the winter, rain gutters cleaned, septic tanks covered with straw, etc. We have now moved onto more enjoyable things like replacing some entry door lock sets, trimming trees and getting the snowmobile ready for winter.


Two Weeks Ago  -- Hesitation

 Looking back, it is had to believe that two weeks ago we snow, sleet and cold weather to contend with.  We want to thank everyone who visited with us this past season and look forward to seeing many of you again next year. We plan to spend most of the "off" season getting ready for next year. New canoes and packs have been ordered and we are already working on selecting new items for our outfitting food menus. Even though we are officially "closed" the Lakeside unit will be open throughout this winter.

THANKS,
Mike and Lin    

Winding Down

Things are starting to slow down here at the Lodge, finally! After almost two weeks of cold nasty weather we are experiencing a change to the better. Instead of lows in the low 30s and high 20s our lows are 10 degrees higher and our high temperatures are now 20 degrees warmer. 

The cold spell caused the grouse to move down the the lakeside and the trees are glowing in their fall colors. Hopefully we have seen the last of the "camp bear" and we can take our time closing down the resort for this winter. We drained the shower house and outfitting building this week and will start draining a couple of cabins on Monday.

All of our bunkrooms were full last night and six of our cabins are rented for tonight. However, as things move a little slower this Fall everyone is enjoying the change of seasons here in the northwoods. 

Hanging a Food Pack

This has been the year of the "Bears" here at the Lodge. We haven't had any reports of bear problems out in the Boundary Waters.  However it is still a good idea to hang food packs or hide bear barrels away from the campsites as a precautionary step towards avoiding accidentally feeding the bears.

One of our guests shared a few pictures that display how he was hanging his food pack while on a recent visit to the Boundary Waters.  Each year when he arrives I give him an extra 10 feet of bear rope and every year he manages to use all of the rope to hang his packs.  

Today, we heard about a group paddlers that were crossing a portage when a bear cub ran past them crying for his mom. They dropped their packs and quickly jumped into their canoes and didn't go back for their gears until some of our guests tested the portage to prove that it was safe to return. 

Summer Staff

Summer is upon and our summer staff has adjusted to their summer routine. They can plan on cleaning a few cabins, some bunk rooms, a few canoes and some dirty camping gear almost every day. Andrew and Rachel are working a little over 40 hours a week for us but still have lots of free time to fill. They both spend a lot of time on the Internet but they are slowly adjusting to life with slower and limited Internet access. It has been a struggle!

As soon as the growth of what passes for grass in the north country slowed down we found Andrew a job weed whipping at a neighbor's estate.  After weeks of training he now possesses a mean weed whip and his services are in demand. Tomorrow, he is helping a neighbor on a nearby island haul take-off shingles from an island cabin to a dumpster on the mainland and tonight he is working at the Trail Center restaurant.

Rachel has only been here a couple of weeks. Since she came late in the season she hasn't had much of a chance to meet our neighbors. Today Lin is taking her and two of the summer staff from another resort into Grand arais for grocery shopping. So far Rachel's main activity outside of working is to feed Andrew. She claims that he really likes bananas.

To fill their free time they are venturing into fields where no staff member as gone before. Andrew won't tell us what the project in this picture is suppose to end up being. However, it is obvious that Rachel know what it is suppose to be and has some serious doubts about it ever working.

Feasting in the Northland & Summer Staff

This is the time of the year when we really get to "pig out". Last week one of our guests from Iowa brought us some sweet corn and a neighbor returned from Alaska with some frozen Halibut for us. In another week we will have friends who will be bring homegrown tomatoes and garden fresh green peppers. Anyone who has shopped in Grand Marais knows that our produce sections often have an "end of the road" appearance. There is a local famer's market but somehow we alwways seem to be busy at the Lodge and never get away to shop for fresh produce.

We are going to Duluth tonight to pickup Rachel our a new summer staff member. Andrew has been a great help this summer but Lin and I have had to do a lot of the daily chores that are normally done by our second staff person. With Rachel around we will have more time to do the visit with our guests. It is especially nice to know that she will be here to help when Andrew leaves on Sept. 2nd. 

Pancake eating Bear





Stopped by a chair



Todays adventure started when a young black bear decided to explore the outfitting building. Once it broke into the side door, he was greated by one of his favorite sights -- a bright red GARBAGE CAN.  Instead of muching on some prime outfitting goodies he settled for some pancake mix that was past its "best by date". We were in the process of discarding a the pancake mix and had but it into a gargage can to be hauled away.  Dragging the pancake mix and the red GARBAGE CAN away became a problem for the bear when a chair became stuck in the doorway. 





This year we had an early thaw and the bears came out of hiberation early. The early warm spell was followed by cold weather that deprived the bears of an early food source.  They quickly adapted and discovered  GARBAGE CANS as a prime food source. This young bear had to settled on dragging individual packages of pankcake mix across our driveway to the bunkhous stairway.  We suspect that after eating about 60 servings of dry pankcake mix this young bear may loose his appetite when he takes a good long drink of water.





Who need a chair when you have comfortable steps

Young Bear and Twins

An recent guest was enjoying the lake view from the front porch of Cabin 5 when Sharon who was staying in cabin #4 took this picture. Guests willing to participate in our early morning Bear Patrol have been rewarded with encounters of the fleeting kind. Meanwhile, Andrey one of our summer employees now knows all of the hiding places that this bear likes to use to hide stolen garbage cans.  

Another guest sent us this picture of two calves closely following their mother. We're getting lots of young moose reports. Earlier this week Lin saw a moose down by Cabin #9. This morning I saw a moose cow, without a calf, in the pond near the Poplar Lake boat ramp.

Good News Comes In Threes

Many of the troubling issues affecting the Gunflint Trail area have shown signs of improvement this past week. As I mentioned earlier the spruce trees along the Trail and in open areas took a hit from the early warm up followed by freezing weather. Many of the trees that looked dead now have about three inches of new growth at the tips of their branches. 

The heavy rains that caused the cancellation of the Campfire ban late last month raised the Poplar Lake water levels to well above normal. Since May 26th the water level on Poplar Lake has dropped 8.4 inches. A few of the private docks on Poplar Lake washed out but our docks all survived! In another couple of days we should return to having a nice beach area to launch canoes.

Finally, after no reports of moose calf sighting we had sightings reported by groups in four different areas south of our Lodge. We were getting a little worried about the lack of young moose but the latest reports from visitors to the Boundary Waters have been encouraging. 

    

Update on Catching Up

The large cavity in the Lodge foundation has been filled! Our first time stonemasons, Mike and Carl, did a great job in nearly completing this repair. They instructed me to finish the tuck pointing before the end of the summer. Actually they strongly hinted that the tuck pointing should be completed by June 13th, but I have never been one one who could follow instructions.

Thursday I picked up Andrey, one of our summer staff, who is from the Ukraine at the Duluth airport. He has excellent English comprehension and is a very fast learner. Still a little shy about speaking English but as his confidence increases he is starting to open up and is becoming more comfortable speaking with us foreigners.  If you get a chance to come up to Rockwood this summer be sure to visit with him. We are expecting that Ting, our other staff member from China, will be here in a couple of weeks. 

We went from a campfire ban on Monday to flooding and road closures by Friday. The water level on Poplar Lake has raised over 10.5 inches in the past 5 days!    All of the feeder creeks are flowing and there is water seeping out of the ground is places that were bone dry last week. 

New Trail, Facelift for 87 Year Old Building

We are presently hosting a crew from the Border Route Trail Association who are working on the construction of a new hiking trail. The route for the new trail was flagged last Fall and trail clearing began earlier this Spring. Running from the South Lake Trail to the Caribou Rock Trail the new trail will follow the south shoreline of Moss Lake. It will have some great views overlooking this clear lake full of Lake Trout.




Meanwhile, here at home, work is progressing on filling a large hole recently discovered in the Lodge's foundation. With the next blog posting we should be able to show you the results of our first adventure in stonework.

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 undoubtedly 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!

Winter Carpet -- Not Just Snow

We leaned some important lessons about installing new carpets this week. When you live "up north" laying carpet during the winter has some unique challenges and rewards.

The first thing we had to do to get really to prepare for this job was to dig out cabin seven's porch and to blaze a path out to the main driveway. Then we had to get the driveway plowed out to the Gunflint Trail. Of course, after getting the snow cleared it turned around and snowed Monday night. Tuesday, we started heating the cabin for the first time all winter. We were told that carpet has to be warm before it can be stretched. Heating the cabin using a contractor's propane heater created a small problem with water condensing on the fireplace stones and window panes. However, the new carpet is installed and looks great.

A large roll of new carpet for some additional cabins was suppose to have been delivered last week. The trucking firm that was paid to deliver the carpet roll to the Gunflint Trail managed to get the carpet to Duluth then announced that it wouldn't delivery it any farther north. Snow storms, icy roads and our remote location are all being used as excuses for not making the delivery. The roll of material is to large carry in a van without doing multiple trips to Duluth. We hope to be laying some more carpet soon but may have to dig out and restart the insurance on the transport van in order to haul the carpet our self.

Carpet Delay and Snow Season

We are definitely experiencing "snow" season as opposed to the other 2 seasons: "soft water", and "hard water". ( "Bug" season is not an official northwoods season.) The more snow we get the less we have to worry about low lake levels and wildfires. While we are about a foot behind on snowfall we are finally starting to catch up! Here are 2000 words that describe our snow conditions.

Earlier this week I had moved a lot of snow to get access to a couple of our cabins in anticipation of a carpet delivery. We ended up getting some snow which delayed the carpet delivery. Then the drive gear on my snow blower decided to lose a couple of teeth making it inoperable. Last night we got another 4 inches of snow and tonight the forecast is for 6 more inches of snow. Now it comes down to a race to see if the snow blower drive gear will arrive before the carpet is delivered. We may end up storing some carpet in the shop and waiting for Mother Nature to take care of the snow removal.

Mid-Winter Snow Cover

The local Minneapolis newscasts have been carrying stories almost nightly about the lack of snow cover this winter. Last night the news story was on how to protect plants that have started to bud. Tonight's story was about how people with allergies are already suffering from high pollen counts.

Meanwhile, along the Gunflint Trail we have had and still have snow! Our transport van has been sitting behind the bunkhouse since October. Today I when up to start the van and to charge the battery. It wasn't cover with as much snow as usual but as you can see we still have snow!

I plan to hike into a nearby lake tomorrow to do some Lake Trout fishing. The fish are biting and snowmobiles have packed the snow down making it easy to walk over. Hope to have fresh fish for dinner tomorrow night.

White Wolf Howling

To us the sight of a Moose feeding or a fleeting glimpse of a Wolf are both images that help to define living with northwoods wildlife. While we are less likely to see a Moose today, that say five years ago, the chances seeing a wolf have definitely gone up. The DNR management plan established a minimum wolf popluation of 1,600 wolves. When the gray wolf was removed from the threatened species list this January the wolf population was estimated at 3000 wolves.

The wolf's range has had to expand as the balance between wolf and their prey has been lost. To reduce the possibility of conflicts between wolves and livestock or domestic animals a wolf harvest has been proposed. History tells us that this will be an emotinal issue that will crates a lot of controversy.

We had two wolf sighting yesterday when we went down to Duluth. Of course the camera was unable to document either sighting. We did manage to capture a photo of the rare northern White Wolf on our way home. Enjoy.

Aurora Borealis

This afternoon we received the following e-mail from The Geophsical Institute at the University of Alaska: "The solar events occurred on Jan. 18/19, 2012. The first two were small and of short duration. The last one was a coronal mass ejection associated with a long-duration solar flare from the northeast quadrant of the Sun. The location is such that the event is not facing Earth directly, but the intensity, duration and development are such that it will lead to increased auroral activity on this weekend.
The shock and the effects should reach Earth as early as 6 am GMT the 21st. This is approximately 10 hours from the time of this message." I quickly checked with the National Weather Service for a cloud forecast and found; "Tonight, mostly clear, with a low around -20. Wind Chill values between -25 and -30." Guess I will stay up till midnight to look for the Northern Lights. But at -20, I won't be looking for very long!

Yesterday was glorious here on the Gunflint Trail. We made a trip into town and were amazed at the number of vehicles we met coming up the Trail. The South Brule parking lot was full and vehicles and snowmobile trailers were parked along the roadway.

At first we thought that people were parking at the Brule River area and snowmobiling into the vegetable lakes (onion, bean, carrot, celery, etc.) for the winter trout opener. Then we observed that all of the parking areas between Poplar Lake and Grand Marais that were near a snowmobile trail were full of vehicles and trailers. We finally decided that having snow was the main reason for all of the snowmobile traffic.

We have had a mild winter. The cold portion of the winter is behind us and we are now moving into the period when we get heavier snowfalls. We came home with a truck full of groceries, ordered a refill for our propane tank and settled in to watch a playoff game with a renewed appreciation for our life here on the Gunflint Trail. If the weekend invasion leaves this evening maybe we can go to Trail Center for the rib night special.

A unique Boundary Waters fishing season opened with the start of the New Year. For a few hardy fishermen willing to hike, snowshoe or ski into the BWCAW the winter Late Trout season is open! This gives anglers an opportunity to experience the solitude of a secluded wilderness lake while enjoying a day surrounded by nothing by silence and a light winter's snow.

Many of the better Boundary Waters lakes for fishing Lake Trout are just a portage away from civilization. However, getting there is only part the adventure that comes from fishing these lakes. What makes ice fishing for Lake Trout so special is knowing that there is a really good chance of catching a big one.

The Lake Trout and Stream Trout season for lakes outside the BWCA runs from January 14th through March 31st. Some of the advantages of fishing these lakes include: they are very accessible, you can use power augers and on those really cold days there is a warm retreat nearby -- either a vehicle or a cozy cabin.

Ice fishing is an outdoor activity that is enjoyed by many who live in the Northland. When the fishing seasons for Walleye and Northern Pike are closed we still have a month before the Lake Trout season closes. You might want to give it a try!