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.