Author: Sue Ahrendt

This little woods game entertains all ages….it works best in the spring when the balsams have lots of sap bubbles.

Shelby and her friends videoed it this summer…..I still love this trick.

I don’t know why it always surprises me so much. Woosh. Suddenly it’s Fall. It’s OK actually, Fall might be my favorite season, but I still drag my feet when everything switches up. (I know I’m not supposed to capitalize the seasons, but I happen to think that particular grammar rule is wrong. If Wednesday gets to be a proper noun, then I personally think Fall ought to be one too)

Anyhow, Labor Day weekend was lovely, now the kids are in school, the woods are oh-so-quiet. We send a few groups out every day—people who have discovered the secret, and are willing to bring their warm clothes for fall camping–for the chance at spectacular stars, sharp colors, silent woods.

We have a tradition that marks the last day of summer. We do a little hiking, a little swimming, a little playing, a little eating, and hang around the campfire –and I love it for a number of reasons.
1. It has always been fun.
2. These are really really nice families.
3. The woods are great, but sometimes in the summer I forget that Lake Superior and the North Shore are beautiful too.
4. The kids still swim—even when the water is freezing.
5. It’s really fun.
6. These are really nice people……………………………………………………………………………

In a life that seems to change so much, I sure do like traditions.

Wow, it’s great to be alive on morning like this.

The reason the people paddle out in the rain and the wind…is just for the chance to wake up to a morning like this.

Saganaga is a pleasure on a morning like this.

The first frost—the promise of winter can’t even compete with the promise of this sunny day.

I love the adolescent forest on the Sag Channel. It reminds me of the playdough haircutting station that the kids used to have. You’d put the little plastic bald guy with scalp holes on the stand.. Then you’d press the lever and the playdough hair strands would squeeze out, all the same length, just like all these little trees that squeezed out of the ground about 15 years ago.

A perfect day for a tow to Cache Bay, to start a Quetico canoe trip….even for cleaning tents, it’s just a perfect day.

Late in the afternoon I took Denali for a run on the access road, where yesterday’s northwind knocked down big poplars, and made piles of toothpicks out of little dead trees that had so effectively braced themselves against the south winds of the summer. Lots and lots of trees down. We had rain, and the weather has cooled off so much, I was really happy to be out in it.

My mind wandered to information about smells and memories, and the ways they’re using aromas to enhance learning and healing..and then…as if I had brought it on, I smelled the distant woodsy smell of a skunk. Must have stimulated memories first (just like they say) because I immediately remembered a story about my grandpa and his cousin, who as kids, believed that a skunk couldn’t spray if it didn’t have it’s feet on the ground. They had some elaborate noose snare…that didn’t work. I smiled before the smell made it’s way to the cognitive part of my brain and I shook my head and called Denali.

The first time I ever smelled a skunk, I was in a car driving by cornfields…and I remember thinking…what’s so bad about that? It doesn’t even make me gag… I’ve smelled LOTS of things worse that this smell, including most colognes and perfumes…

When Denali cheerfully came running to me, I was trying to be optimistic about it…because skunk smell was everywhere, and…..she couldn’t have had a skunk incident without barking could she? After all, we’ve met that skunk. They’re sort of friends. Aren’t they? And, poplars were down on the road… you know the smell when you cut a poplar tree down? It’s sort of a skunky stink. Maybe, maybe…that’s all I smell?

Then she got closer. Oh boy, no. She had been completely skunked.

During dinner,

instead of reading about olfactory lobes, I was googling de-skunking formulas. Bingo: hydrogen peroxide, baking soda, Dawn dishwashing liquid. This is how Denali and I spent the rest of our evening. Rub it in, wait 10 minutes, hose it off. It’s lucky to have an outfitting yard in a situation like this. And even though I was the torturer—we bonded. She doesn’t know what else to do but come to me when I whistle.

Then I went about de-skunking myself. The stink hovered around me like Pigpen in the Peanuts cartoons. I think I might be clear, but how can I tell? I can still sort of taste it.

This morning the Cabin 6 guests were watching the rules video, as Denali came in to do her greeting rounds. I quickly intercepted her into my office. She’s looking clean and sleek, but still I think she’s got the cloud around her head. I didn’t want to have to tell them she was contaminated. However, as those nice people filed out of the door by me—I could tell that she had visited their cabin earlier. Maybe they didn’t know it, or they were too polite to say, but they had the cloud around them too. Even if it was only by secondary exposure, they too had definitely been skunked.

We’ve had a couple of hot windy days. Days where the mornings start out windy and warm, and then it picks up and gets hotter during the day. I recognize them. They’re fire days.

Our friend Chel came out of the woods the other day, and said she loves the energy the wind brings. I say good for her. For me it’s slightly unsettling . It howls and makes me look at the trees and wonder which ones are going to fall. I worry about paddlers and towboats, and……….it’s fire weather.

Many happy guests blow in with a tail wind. Memories are being made. We swim every day. I’m currently on my deck because it’s such a beautiful night, such a gorgeous time of year. A gentle wind but even this late it still blows…. When we send people out with permits, we say there are no current fire restrictions imposed by the Forest Service. There aren’t. But then I add……on the hot windy afternoons, about 3pm…….feel free to impose your own fire restrictions on yourself. Can’t you feel it? Some people call them the dog days of summer, but I know….they’re fire days..

Last night I was driving the kids home…on the Gunflint Trail by Loon Lake, there was a strong smell of smoke, and my eyes started watering and Shelby said……….ooo, strong déjà vu!

We could see the smoke from a little fire south of the trail, the Lizard Lake Fire. It originated from a lightening strike, has been smoldering for 10 days or so, and finally started to feed on the wind. By some reports it’s 15 acres, by other reports it is now 45.

The USFS fire policy , as I understand it, is to let small natural fires like this one burn out. After all, this boreal forest needs fire to regenerate itself. Ideally, it’ll happen one little Lizard Lake fire at a time. And, just because this one happens to be close enough to smell on my trip to town doesn’t make it more threatening……… theoretically.

These last two afternoons, while carefully monitoring the progress of the fire, the wind direction, the weather reports– the Forest Service has had some huge orange water tanker airplanes….dropping water on the north border of the fire, as it creeps along, to keep it from the Gunflint Trail. These are such enormous planes, for a minute it seems like they’re in control.. But I know better, …… when a fire wants to burn in this wind, it burns where ever it wants. This one has swamp all around it, and it’s apparently a weak little Lizard, because it isn’t going very far.

This afternoon as the kids and I drove by, we couldn’t see much smoke. We could smell it, but our eyes didn’t sting. We’re due for some rain soon. The weather report says that we’ll return to cool mornings in the near future . The Lizard Lake Fire probably won’t even make much of a name for itself …a light to moderate fire…creating a seedbed for pines….exactly how it is supposed to be.

The wind is dying down now, the energy is subsiding, calming. I’m confident the Lizard has gone to sleep for the night and so will I……….

Note: it’s Monday morning now…. we’ve had some rain….that poor little Lizard just took a hit.