Nothing Fishy Goin' On Around Here

That title translates to "Yes, we still have ice." Each morning I wake up and hope that I will see open water out there. Before I actually get up to look, I listen (the window is open a crack), and really, I have my answer by the silence that greets my ears. But one of these days, it's bound to change. I remember one year when we returned from a road trip in late April. The ice was black that day, but it still looked solid--like it wasn't moving anywhere. Lo and behold, though, the next morning it was completely gone. It was the oddest ice-out I have ever seen, or in this case, slept through. Most years, we get to see the ice actively working, as it moves against the shore and breaks into large chunks. We've already seen a bit of that. Today the wind is blowing, so maybe it will start to push up on a shore somewhere...Truth be told, though, we did have snow showers this morning. It ain't warming up any too soon.

Because the ice didn't go out yesterday, we weren't putting our docks into the water. And also because the ice hasn't gone out, our fishing friends are waiting to come up. With no fishing activity, we decided to grab a rare opportunity. The Grand Marais Jazz Festival was happening in the county this weekend, and we realized that we were free to go to one of the concerts. We hopped into the car, and headed to town to hear the Erin Bode Group at the Arrowhead Center for the Arts. What an excellent concert! We have heard these very talented musicians before in Grand Marais, but not on the stage of the ACA. The venue was great for their music--vocals, stand-up bass, keyboard, guitar, and drums. Much of what they performed was original compositions. One song, in particular, hit close to home. I don't know the title for sure, but Erin sang the line, "I've seen a thousand mice," about the first home she and her husband shared. I really enjoy it when artists let the audience in on their steps through the creative process, which she shared on this, and some of the other songs. Afterward, we had a nice chance to visit with the band, and some members of Erin's family, who are longtime friends of the Heston clan. We appreciated the opportunity to get caught up on all of the happenings.

One of the best things about yesterday was the chance to make new memories on May 10th, for it was that day last year that we witnessed the Ham Lake Fire on the Canadian shores of Gunflint Lake. That scene will be forever etched into our memory bank, like a video waiting to replay. It is nice to have a good memory in the bank, waiting in line for its chance to hit the play button. After the concert, we went out to dinner at the Angry Trout, for a taste of the fish and chips we so enjoy. We had done that last year, too, when we first reached town after evacuating. Our friends John, Liz, and Lily were there for dinner, too, and we recalled that they also had been at the Trout that same smoky evening the year before. So a circle has been completed....one year since the fire, a wonderful concert and a relaxing time at the Angry Trout. Life is good.

And to all the moms who read my blog, I hope that you have a very Happy Mother's Day!

Yet Another Woodpecker: The Black Backed

On Saturday, while we were up at the end of the trail, we got to see a black-backed woodpecker, working on a pine tree in the burn area. I heard him before I saw him, and was delighted to see that it was a male. The little yellow spot on his head was the clue. Unfortunately, we didn't get a real good picture of him, but if you look closely here, you can see him just beyond the branches. It is not a commonly sighted bird, so we feel pretty lucky!

Our birdfeeders have been crazy lately with what Greg calls tweety birds. I've seen the usual chickadees and nuthatches, and we've been swarmed with juncoes and purple finches. The feeders and ground below them are a frenzy of activity most of the day.

Last week, we noticed a pair of sharp-shinned hawks flying frequently overhead outside the lodge. Our guess was that they were probably building a nest nearby, and in fact, Greg did see them make an attempt at mating. Today, someone stopped in to use the phone, and she said that she had just seen a hawk in the trees near the bird feeder, and it was pursuing one of the small birds. I don't know if it was successful in its meal, but it is a continuation of the type of events that I saw earlier this week with the wolf and the deer. Nature is so amazing....if I just keep my eyes and ears open.

Planting Trees--The Update

Despite a day that started with a few inches of snow, planting trees on Saturday (and participating in the other planned events) was a boatload of fun. We had an energetic team of nine people join us to plant a plot of land near the end of the trail. Armed with planting bars, bags to carry seedlings, and lunches, we ventured into the woods to work. The day involved lots of climbing, and lots of clanking when the planting bars hit rock. That was a common occurrence, but we did manage to find enough soil to put around a thousand red and white pines into our plot.
The planting went much better in the afternoon, because the day had warmed up and melted away most of the snow. We finished at about three-thirty, and took a quick group shot before heading back to Gunflint Lake.

Many thanks to John, Amanda, Gregg, Cathy, Amanda, Erik, Lisa, and Kari and Matt for all of your help. I'm looking forward to going back to that spot at the end of the trail, to keep an eye on all of our little trees.

The weekend events included dinner on both Friday and Saturday nights in a large tent set up at the Gunflint Northwoods Outfitters. The food was fantastic, and the setting was great. It rained all day Friday, but the tent was quite comfortable, thanks to large heaters. After dinner that evening, Layne Kennedy gave a talk and presented a slide show of his excellent images taken around Grand Marais, the Gunflint Trail, and in the Boundary Waters. We got to see some older photos taken on a ski-in yurt trip twenty-one years ago (I was pregnant with Robert), and some photos on the South Rim with Addie when she was just five years old--and though she was on the ground in this one, she was already quite a good skier back then.

After dinner on Saturday, the dance band The Splinters livened up the tent with zydeco, polka, and other fun tunes. Many folks, us included, seemed to tired to dance, but we did enjoy watching those who had some energy reserves.

Sunday brought the Ham Lake Half-Marathon and 5K Run to the upper end of the Gunflint Trail. I didn't attend any of this, as I needed to mind the store (and take photos of a wolf!). Greg participated by working on radio communications in conjunction with traffic control for the race. From all accounts, the races went very well, and folks had a great time. I've talked to a couple of runners, and we agreed that it is an excellent course, even though it does include the triple threat of three hills at the beginning of County Road 50. How well I remember those three hills back in my short running days! At least for these runners, those particular hills were done in the early part, as they started the race at Gunflint Pines and finished at Trail's End.

If you misssed the fun this past weekend, I hope that you'll consider joining us for future festivals here on the Trail. Like I mentioned earlier, it was a boatload....and the ice isn't even out yet!

We Interrupt Our Regularly Scheduled Blogging....

I was all set to write about our wonderful experience with the Gunflint Green Up activities, but that will have to wait a bit for some breaking news. Today, as some guests from Spruce cabin were checking out, they told me that they had just seen a wolf feeding on a deer, right out back of the workshop. I was so surprised--I'd been out just a couple of hours earlier to feed the donkeys, and hadn't seen anything then. They said, no, it had just happened, and that the wolf ran off when they came along. They added that the wolf had run just a short ways towards our back woods. As soon as they checked out, I went outside with them to scope it out, and to see if there was a good spot for me to camp out temporarily in order to try and get some photos. Luckily, the old Ford was parked about fifteen feet from the deer, with a clear view through the windshield.

I grabbed my camera, and climbed quietly into the truck. Past experience has indicated to me that a wolf will sometimes come back, and by golly, I didn't want to miss it. I fiddled with the camera, found a good spot for it on the dashboard, and then waited. And waited. I thought about all those excellent wildlife photographers out there, and had a hint of what it must be like for them much of the time. Still, I was going to wait. This was my chance.

About a half hour later, along came the wolf. I was so excited, but was able to get some steady shots, and to not alert the wolf to my presence.

I was hoping that the wolf had some buddies nearby, but they never showed up. This guy was in it alone, and he went for the meal. He started to pull on the hide, and sometimes had mouthfuls of skin and fur. Then he got into the meat of the hind quarter, and gobbled it up so fast I wondered if his mother ever taught him manners. Probably not in his world. He was quite intent on his catch, but he would pause and look around, keeping an ever-watchful eye and ear on his surroundings.

For a good hour or so, I alternated between watching him and waiting for him to return. He sometimes would grab chunks and haul them off. I don't know if he was eating elsewhere, or stashing food for when the moon is high. The crows were flying by some, but they didn't land. After they left the area, I heard and saw ravens. I thought for sure that they would land and get in on the meal, but they didn't either. In the winter, that is often a sure indication to us that something has been killed nearby. Occasionally we even see eagles land on deer carcasses. No eagles today, but this was an area that might not be so visible from the sky. When the deer first went down, it was right by the garden behind the workshop. The wolf dragged it a few yards down the hill, towards Spruce and White Pine cabins, but I still had a good view from the truck. But then it started to tug it to the other side of the roadway, and my view was blocked by some trees. In a bit of irony, it was the clump of birches that has a sign on it reading No Hunting. Hmm, I guess that doesn't mean wolves.

At that point, I got a little braver and decided to find a new post outside of the truck. While the wolf was in the woods away from the deer, I sneaked over to the stairs of the storage building that we refer to as the laundry building. I waited some more, and though it was windy and cold, the sun felt wonderful on my back. It took some more time, but the wolf rewarded me and came back to get some of his lunch. I got some more pictures. Then I decided that I wanted to get even closer, so I made a plan to get to the back of the laundry building. There is a porch on the back side that is higher up, and I figured that I could get a nice shot from right above the wolf...should he reward me and come back yet again.

So I quietly made my way to the porch, and took up a post at the corner of the railing, with my back against the door of the bunkhouse space. More waiting. This time it was in a dark, shady spot. I got colder and colder, and I tried not to move much, for fear of blowing my chance of seeing him again. This wait seemed like the longest of all. I kept thinking about statues, and stand-offs and staredowns, and how I didn't want to be the first one to give in. By then it was around two in the afternoon, and I had been watching and waiting on this wolf for about three hours. (Thank heavens that I didn't have anything pressing in my schedule today!)

Oh boy, did I get lucky....He did indeed come back in, and not only did I get some great photos, I was able to record a bit of video as well. A couple of cars pulled into the parking lot, and while he noticed them, he would only back off a bit, and then come back in. It was so exciting that I didn't want to stop the camera. But I knew that I needed to get back to the lodge, because I was supposed to be watching the front desk. So finally, I stopped the camera. Then I slapped my palm on the porch railing to indicate my presence. The wolf stopped, backed up a bit, but never looked up at me. He was going to eat some more, but I was so cold, I knew that I needed to go inside anyway, so I made a big production of noisily going down the stairway, and off he ran into the woods. Here is my best photo of the day:

It's a little gory watching something like this, but I felt a sense of privilege, too. It's rare to get an opportunity such as this, and I wanted to do my best with it. I have more photos, and so if you'd like to see some more shots of it, leave me a comment, and I will post some. And you know where I will be looking, first thing in the morning. I need to know the rest of the story.

Bright White for Green Up

In the summer, when I see a group of campers beginning their trip on a rainy day, I say to them, "It's not quite what you pictured when you were planning this trip last winter, is it?" They tend to agree, but then we look to the brighter side and say that it's still worth going out there and having a good time, making the best of it until the weather changes (which it will). And off they go with smiles on their faces. What's better than a day in the woods--weather aside?

So begins our day of tree-planting, as part of the Gunflint Green Up. When this festival weekend was in the planning stages, we weren't thinking snow. This morning when I got up, snow was about all I could see. Sometime during the night, probably about the time that the sounds of rain diminished on our metal roof, it started to snow. When I looked out the window, I couldn't see Canada. That's the benchmark.

Will it stop us? Of course not! It just means that we will wear a different set of outside clothes than originally planned. I thought that I would be pulling out the rain gear this morning. Instead, it will be the winter coveralls. That's for the morning, anyway. By afternoon, it will be partly cloudy (which I am choosing to view as partly sunny) and temps in the forties. So I'll bring another jacket along to switch into. (Maybe it's yet another arrival of spring!) We'll still be out in the woods, planting little white pines and red pines, making memories for another day.

Everyone is happy and excited to be here for this festival, so we're going to make the best of it. After all, when living in Minnesota, isn't it about perspective? Oh, and I'm bringing a batch of brownies, too. That should help.

Gearing Up for Green Up

On Tuesday, I joined some neighbors and friends to help unload trees for the Gunflint Green Up weekend. We met up at the Seagull Guard Station and waited for the truck to arrive and for the work to begin. It wasn't long before a large roll-off trailer opened up to reveal this view of tree seedlings. Thousands of little red pines, waiting to be unloaded, and soon to be planted into our neck of the woods.

We got to work, forming a line of workers, similar to a bucket brigade. While two fellows unloaded, we passed them down the line, and then they were placed on to the ground in a shady area.



Somewhere along the way of their journey from nursery to the Gunflint Trail, they encountered snow. That added a fair amount of weight to each styrofoam flat. Since we had temps near fifty today, I'm hoping that it melted the snow off of them, and warmed them up a bit for Saturday's planting.

Tomorrow I am going to town to pick up our own batch of trees, courtesy of Hedstrom's Lumber company. Next week, we'll be planting in our backyard, then chasing the deer away so they do not eat the tender little trees. I think that the deer consider them to be like baby lettuces, a feast just waiting for them. We try to make up for the deer activity by countering with sheer numbers. I don't know who is ahead, but we'll keep on trying.

The ice is still with us....If it hadn't gotten so cold and snowy last weekend, it might have been a better picture by now. Even the smaller lakes are hanging on tight. We will keep you posted here on the progress. It might not seem like it, but melting is occuring even when the temps are cool. I can hear sounds from the ice, especially where snowmelt is running off from the shore. That's warm water flowing into the lake, and that is helping. We're getting there.

Woodpeckers Everywhere!

Wood peckers are in abundance lately. While out feeding the donkeys one morning, Greg saw a pileated woodpecker up near the pasture. When I stepped out on the back porch, I saw one fly overhead, and then heard it call to another. Greg also saw a downy, one of the smallest woodpeckers, working on the wood of the bell tower. This little guy joins the big red-headed woodpecker that came home with us from Montana a few years ago. That large one lives year-round on the side of the tower. The fellow who makes him and all of his relatives has a woodshop in the small town of Ryegate . Greg read about this man in a book about the things one finds on the back roads, and he wanted to stop by to buy a woodpecker from him. His name is Earl, and his woodpecker cutouts are fairly distinct. After purchasing our first one, we traveled on and began to notice that several other folks had done the same. Those red-headed cutouts were spotted on homes, barns and fences within several miles of this small town.

On subsequent trips out west, we’ve stopped and purchased two other woodpeckers from Earl. These, too, have migrated back to Minnesota with us, and have found new homes. When Greg saw the downy woodpecker on the bell tower, he knew that Earl’s bird wouldn’t mind sharing the territory.

Another bird of the same family that I watch for each year is the yellow-bellied sapsucker. Just saying that name out loud is fun! For several years, one of these little guys would make his way back to Heston’s Lodge, and would start to peck on an old piece of plywood that was nailed to a tree. That plywood served as the back board for a thermometer that eventually broke and fell off the tree. The board remained, and that yellow-bellied sapsucker loved to tackle it as a personal project each spring. I would first notice it by the sound it makes when pecking….It starts off with a regular cadence, but then peters out with an irregular pattern. For that reason, it is easy for my mind to recognize it, even when I am not actively listening for it. Sometime in the last year, the board finally got pulled off of the tree. I think that I heard the bird the other day, but I have yet to see it. I guess we should have left that board in place for a while longer. If for no other reason, it served the purpose of letting me spot my annual sapsucker.

If At First You Don't Succeed....

...try and try again to have spring come. I've lost count as to which attempt at spring we are on. One friend on Saturday night said that he was trying to adjust to his third winter in six months. This one really does seem endless, but in true Minnesota fashion, we can always find someplace that had it worse. When I talked to Paul on Saturday, he said that they had received between six and twelve inches in western Minnesota. Makes our dusting look great. I think the most challenging part was to see it snowing so often over the weekend. The ground melted most of it through the day, but it was getting difficult to remain cheerful while seeing so many flakes in the air.


We did have some honest-to-goodness seasonal weather a week ago, enough so to prompt us to take a picnic up to the end of the trail. The snow didn't let us drive the full campground loop, but we were able to walk into a site and enjoy our favorite picnic foods. We will be there this coming weekend, too, as this is the area that we have been assigned for planting trees during the Gunflint Green-Up. Greg has been planting trees since I first met him, and our kids have grown up knowing that each year, they will have a quota of trees to plant on our property. It's been very satisfying to see these trees grow up. We look forward to planting in the forest, this time around, and then to watching these trees in years to come.

A trip to Trail's End wouldn't be complete without a hike in to check on the river. It was roaring! The recent snow and rains have brought lots of run-off water to the river, and it is a fun sight to see. We watched for walleyes swimming upstream to spawn, but didn't find any. A few ducks were swimming at the mouth of the river, where a large area was ice-free.

This is a shot of the river from April of 2007, when Greg and I went up there. I still had a walking cast on my foot, so I didn't do much hiking around. The water level was down last year, so Greg was able to do a lot of rock-hopping on the river.

And finally, a view from April of 2006.