Moose Sightings

A pleasant surprise greeted Joe last Thursday when he came out of the outfitting building. A moose cow and two calfs walked down the road and proceeded acoss our canoe landing. He claims that they were only twenty feet from where he was standing when they entered the water and started swimming to a nearby island. It was a typical moose sighting here at the Lodge -- there is never a camera around when you need one.

Chance finally noticed a moose. He usually sleeps in front of the fireplace when he is in the Lodge. When he looked up today he went balistic when he saw the moose mount looking down at him. After about five minutes of barking and growling he settled down and went back to sleep.



First Encounter



We have been seeing more moose this spring than we have seen for several years. There have been several sighting of a cow and a calf between our Lodge and Nor'Wester Lodge. We have also seen a solo cow at the water hole near the Laurentian Divide scenic overlook. What we are not seeing this year is very many wolves. 

Our neighbor reports that there have been serveral sighting of a Lynx out on Voyaguer Point. The Lynx always move on after they reduce the local hare population. Maybe the wolves have moved on and the moose population will get a year to start a bounce back.

Lake Trout Fishing

For most of last week I had some help getting our cabins ready for the holiday weekend. We were doing great when Joe and Mike#2 decided to go fishing. Instead of finishing up on Cabin #5 the guys spent Thursday afternoon over on Moss Lake catching Lake Trout. They were so successful and had such a good time that they decided to repeat their fishing adventure again on Friday.

They never finished getting Cabin #5 ready for this weekend but Mike#2 took a limit of trout home with him when he left on Saturday. Joe's folks brought Maggie up for the weekend and his Dad is taking his limit of Lake Trout back to Iowa.  Joe did the wise move of giving Lin and I a fish for our dinner on Thursday. Cabin #5 should be ready by next weekend!

Lake Trout are really easy to catch in the early Spring for about 3 to 4 weeks after the ice go out. The boys reported that there were small patches of ice on Moss Lake when they went out last Thursday. Mike#1 (me) plans to do some serious Lake Trout fishing later this week.

Ice Moves, Cracking Up and Summer Staff

Finally! The past week have seen big changes taking place here at Rockwood Lodge. Most of the snow in gone as is over half of the ice that has been covering Poplar Lake. The Forest Service reports that many of the lakes to the west of us, like Seagull Lake, are ice free.

Two days ago the ice started to move off Poplar Lake. We were out making our lists of work that needed to be done here at the Lodge when we heard a loud cracking noise coming from down by the lake.  A strong west wind pushed a large section of ice up against the docks in front of the Lodge. The cracking sound that we heard was the when the boards used to brace the legs of the dock started breaking. Repairing the docks was added to our list of needed repair work.
 

Open Water and Docks To Repair   5/15/2014

Our summer staff spend opener weekend with us and gave us a good start on our spring cleaning. Joe plans to return full time next week.  Maggie will be here for the Memorial Day weekend and will be back with us full time in early June. Maggie is a school teacher and Joe has as a story about the Pagami Fire that will be coming out this summer in the Boundary Waters Journal. Lin and I are really looking forward to turning over the Lodge to them and getting a few hours of "personal leave" later this summer.    

Cleaning Cabin 9

Almost Done

Cracks on Winter's Hold

It has been a long winter. Our lakes are still ice covered and plans for the fishing opener this weekend have been cancelled. The "Opener" is a serious event for anglers and there is a small group who are pushing to have it recognized as an official State Holiday. The only thing that we will have going for "Opener" this year is that you can fish through the ice with two lines.


We are starting to get phone calls from people who want to know if they should cancel their canoe trips scheduled for the Memorial Day weekend. Our wholesaler called and jokingly asked if we needed to place an order for bait. One of our local groups is even planning an ice boat regatta for this June.    

Actually, we are starting to see some signs that winter is over. The ice along the north shore of Poplar Lake is no longer tight to the shore. The bark on the younger aspens is starting to turn green. The Robins are back and we have even had a Red-Winged Blackbird at our feeder.  We'll have the water on to the bunkhouse next Thursday when the Border Route Trail crew will be staying with us.

                              

May 7th -- Open water on Poplar Lake

May 9th. -- Ice and Fog on Poplar Lake

I have gone to bed thinking that the lake will not open of another week only to have awakened to the sound of waves. Lake ice conditions can change fast once it starts to turn black and warmer water starts to drain into the lake. Our best advice for people who are planning an early May canoe trip is to call before you start heading north.