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!