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.