Where's "Waldo"?

What an incredible October we're having! Mike had to stay up one night to keep the pipes open, otherwise it's been beautiful, warm, sunny... perfect weather. One of our canoe groups this past weekend even went swimming! When you remember that this time last year we had snow - lots of snow - this is hard to believe. We aren't pressing our luck, today we're closing the cabins for the winter; the apartment suite we'll keep open a while longer as it doesn't depend on above ground water lines.

Hunting season has been good too - lots of grouse around. Saturday morning I watched a male grouse displaying himself to two bemused females - neither of them were especially interested and I don't blame them - it is October after all! There are two grouse in this photo, hard to see among the leaves, aren't they! They were waiting for me at the lodge Sunday morning, not wanting a handout, just poking around in the rocks along the front wall. We're also seeing quite a few moose, snowshoe hares, foxes, and wolves along the trail. The leaves are pretty well fallen, but it's sure nice to be outdoors enjoying the Gunflint Trail and BWCA!