Author: Ada

To Be The Snow Man

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The Snow Man 
One must have a mind of winter
To regard the frost and the boughs
Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;
And have been cold a long time
To behold the junipers shagged with ice,
The spruces rough in the distant glitter
Of the January sun; and not to think
Of any misery in the sound of the wind,
In the sound of a few leaves,
Which is the sound of the land
Full of the same wind
That is blowing in the same bare place
For the listener, who listens in the snow,
And, nothing himself, beholds
Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.
Wallace Stevens
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Worth the “Skate” – Winter Finds the Gunflint Trail

We all know the tired cliches – “Patience is a virtue,” or, “The good things in life are worth waiting for.” Even though we know in our heart of hearts that patience is the best policy, sometimes we give up on it before we should.

Last week, I glumly wrote off ice skating for this early winter of 2015-16. Round Lake certainly wasn’t freezing up in a way that was going to be conducive to ice skating and as we watched day after day of unseasonably mild weather go by, we started to have our doubts that the big lakes along the Gunflint Trail were ever going to freeze.

But then?

A Christmas miracle!

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Yesterday we received a call from our old stomping grounds up on Seagull Lake to let us know that Seagull had frozen over the night before and that the north bay was filled smooth “skating rink” ice thick enough to traverse. We threw skates, sticks, and pucks in the truck and in about 45 minutes, I was perched on a shoreline rock, lacing up my skates.

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Smoke the Black Lab turned into a puck retrieving machine.
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Is there anything better than the sound of skates cutting through the smooth ice?

IMG_7143Attempting to brush up my figure skating chops . . . .IMG_7145Ice’s been a bit of a fascination lately. Right now, Round Lake is steadily building ice and although the ice is rubbish for ice skating, it’s perfect for exploring and some early season ice fishing. You can check out our video of Andy testing the ice depth on the Tuscarora Facebook page.IMG_7110 IMG_7115

 

Please don’t venture out on the Gunflint Trail lakes without first checking with locals for the latest conditions. The lakes remain unsafe in many spots and the ice on the open sections of large lakes like Seagull Lake is still very new and needs a few more days to thicken up before we ask it to support our weight. In addition to the late ice-up, the Gunflint Trail received 12+ inches of snowfall last week (cross country skiers and snowshoers rejoice!), which creates slushy pockets on the lake that had already frozen.

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But we’ll tolerate a little slush if it means living in a real world snow globe. We’re so looking forward to another White Gunflint Trail Christmas. Welcome winter!

 

Skating Lessons

The Gunflint Trail hasn’t escaped the effects of El Nino this fall. There was snow and then there wasn’t. There was more snow and then that gently melted away too. Now we’re back to snow cover and it appears it’s here to stay. In fact, 14 + inches of snowfall is forecasted to fall between now and Christmas Day.

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But if I’m being honest, I don’t pay too much attention to the snow accumulation this time of year. Instead, I’m focused on the lake, trying to tell if this is the year it will freeze into a smooth, thick, mirror-like surface and if at long last, I’ll finally be able to test out the new blades I installed on my hockey skates back in spring 2014. I spend a lot of time staring out the window, trying to use mental telepathy to will it to freeze over perfectly.

As a child, much of my winters were spent on outdoor skating rinks, more often than not at hockey practice. I spent a fair amount of time at indoor arenas when we traveled for hockey tournaments. But it’s the rare, precious moment that’s been spent skating on frozen lakes.

It takes a lot for lake ice to freeze up just right for skating. We need a series of still, below freezing days and nights and under no circumstances can it snow significantly while the ice   forms.

It’s a tall order: no wind, no precipitation, and consistent freezing temps.

It happened once while we lived on Seagull Lake, back in December 2011. For a magical week, we swirled across the lake’s glossy surface, chasing hockey pucks, and putting real mileage on our skates as we skated the full mile from our dock to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness sign.

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Once when I was very little, probably back in January 1992, the harbor in Grand Marais froze over, just for one glorious weekend. I remember spending that Sunday skating from the Lake Superior Trading Post all the way across to the Angry Trout Cafe and back again. By the time I took the bus into school the next morning, the wind had broken up the ice and pushed it on top of itself on the harbor beach.

That’s how skating on lakes goes in these parts. You must seize the moment as soon as it presents itself because it just takes one slight shift in the wind, one snow squall to put the kibosh on the whole thing.

But because Round Lake doesn’t have a ton of surface area, it’s one of the first lakes to freeze over on the Gunflint Trail and it tends to have more skate-able days than the other larger lakes. I thought maybe we had a shot. But not this year.

This year we got a week of whitecaps on Round Lake before Round Lake finally froze over on the Thanksgiving night. Then we got some snow. Then the temperatures hovered above freezing day and in day out for a week straight. Even though it’s been frozen over for more than two weeks, no one except a brave otter and fox have ventured across the ice. It just seems too uncertain.

Skating lessons or waiting lessons?

Maybe next year.

Hiking from Warren’s Road to the Gunflint Trail, via Magnetic Rock

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With a plethora of hiking trails in Tuscarora Lodge and Canoe Outfitters’ Gunflint Trail backyard, it’s no surprise that we’re frequently asked for hiking recommendations. More often than not, hikers want to know which trail we prefer: Centennial or Magnetic Rock?

On paper, the two hikes appear pretty similar: Magnetic Rock is a 3 mile round trip easy hike, versus Centennial’s 3.3 mile moderate loop and their parking lots are kitty-corner from each other on the Gunflint Trail. I’ve made my preference for Centennial well known. While there’s nothing wrong with Magnetic Rock Trail (and the concept of a three-story tall rock that you can stick magnets to and that can spin around your compass is pretty impressive), I’ve just always found the Centennial Trail a more interesting and invigorating hike.

But sometimes, all you need to get re-excited about a destination is to completely flip around how you go about getting to that destination.

When my family was up earlier this month, we decided to get to Magnetic Rock . . . backwards. We left one vehicle at the Magnetic Rock parking lot and then all six of us piled into the truck to park at the Superior National Forest’s Border Route Trail pull-off on Warren’s Road (Gunflint Narrows Road, USFS 1347). To find the pull-off, drive down Warren’s Road about one mile, right past/through the gravel pit and then down the narrow, one-lane road a little ways. You should spy the Border Route sign just north of the small parking area which has room for two compact cars or one large pick-up truck.
IMG_6804IMG_6816IMG_6820IMG_6678The first mile of the hike cuts across a rock outcropping which offers beautiful panaramic views of Gunflint Lake to the southeast. You can spy the cliffs on Arrow and Rose Lakes at some spots on the trail in this section. Just beyond the trail on the north side lies a deep valley.

IMG_6683Of course, you can only walk on the rim of a valley for so long; eventually you’re going to have to go through it. We did the hike on the first sunny day after a week of drizzle and although there was only one significant wet section of about 30 feet, it was very mucky. If you do this hike in the spring or late fall, definitely wear waterproof footwear. You also might like to have a hiking stick for additional stability in this section.

Once you cross through the little slough, you’ll hike about another half mile, mostly through lower ground and then, if you’re looking carefully, you’ll be able to spy the tippy top of Magnetic Rock to the northwest.

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It’s a 1.8 mile hike from the parking area on Warren’s Rock to Magnetic Rock. From Magnetic Rock, it’s another 1.5 mile hike out to Magnetic Rock parking lot on the Gunflint Trail for a 3.3 mile hike total. Past Magnetic Rock, there are several more stunning overlooks to the north, as well as many groves of healthy jack pine saplings.
IMG_6690This is a great hike for a big groups because you really need two cars to pull off the hike (unless you just want to get to Magnetic Rock and turn around) and because the hike never crosses into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness so you don’t need to limit your group size to nine people to comply with U.S Forest Service regulations. When you reach the Magnetic Rock parking lot, you’ll have to send two people to fetch the vehicle on Warren’s Road, but the rest of the group can continue hiking towards Tuscarora by heading down the Gunflint Trail and then cutting down the snowmobile trail that connects the Gunflint Trail and the Round Lake Road.  If you hike all the way back to Tuscarora, it’s a perfect 5 mile hike.

A Northwoods Halloween

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It’s Halloween and as seems apt, this morning dawns dark and misty, with a mild threat of snow.

It doesn’t always snow up here on Halloween, but it’s a frequent enough occurrence that when we woke up to a good inch of wet snow on Thursday morning, I hummed “It’s beginning to look a lot like . . . Halloween” to myself and got on with my day.
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It’s little wonder that I associate Halloween with snow. When I was six years old, the Halloween blizzard of ’91 dumped two + feet of snow over Minnesota and completely shut down my trick-or-treating plans. Although the Halloween blizzard was definitely an anomaly, with an average temperature of 39 degrees in Grand Marais and along the Gunflint Trail on October 31st, there’s an omnipresent threat of “inclement weather” each Halloween in the Northwoods.

Much to my parents’ amusement (bemusement?), I spent much of my trick-or-treating years steadfastly refusing to believe that the weather would be cold for Halloween. Yet each year, it was down to the low 30s, if not upper 20s, by the time we were out masquerading for candy on the dark streets of west Grand Marais. This was a problem, since I insisted on such practical Northwoods costumes as . . . hulu dancer or . . . ballerina. In turn, my parents insisted we bundle up for trick-or-treating. (I guess they figured if they were going to end up with tired, cranky, sugar-high children by the end of trick-or-treating, they could at least avoid cold, frostbitten children.)

When you’re dressed as a ballerina, you can’t really pull your tights over your snow pants. A bulky jacket covers up all of your leotard and is long enough that it pretty well disguises the frilly tutu you’ve managed to squeeze up and over your snow pants. By the time I was dressed for trick-or-treating, my tutu just barely visible, I looked like the kid who couldn’t bother to get a costume together and is just looking for free candy. I met with many a raised eyebrow when I knocked on homeowners’ doors – a candy bag in one hand, an orange cardboard UNICEF box in the other – snowflakes settling softly on the top of my stocking cap. “So . . .,” they said. “What are you dressed up as?”

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By age 10, I’d given up. My Pierrot costume pictured above could easily accommodate a full snowsuit underneath. Unfortunately, in 1995, when you told your friends that you were going as Pierrot for Halloween, they expected me to arrive for trick-or-treating dressed as Ross Perot. So much for doing away with costume confusion!

But from those chilly, snowy Halloweens, come some of my warmest childhood memories. Even as I carved our pumpkin this Halloween, I can still feel the weight of my UNICEF box growing heavier as we collected spare change along with treats. I can feel the cold nip of the breeze against our cheeks as we trooped up and down the streets and cut across frosty lawns. I can definitely remember the excitement of dumping out our bags of fun-sized candy on the living room floor when we got home. And every once in a while, I still find my mind wandering to the topic of snowsuit appropriate costumes.

I doubt we’ll have any trick-or-treaters tonight, but if we do, there’re some full-sized Snickers and Milky Ways in the pantry, left over from this past summer’s outfitting food.

Happy Halloween!