Category: Life at Tuscarora Lodge

We’re really grateful that we get to meet so many people in the summertime. They enrich our lives. This week, a couple of our guests certainly enhanced the skills and experiences of Shelby and Daniel.

Stuart Cowles (ClimbMax Climbing) from North Carolina spent some time sharing some of his climbing expertise today on Shovel Point. Each year he travels all the way from Asheville to train climbing instructors–and because he has a love for this area, for the BWCAW, for the Northshore, for Isle Royale.

Stuart is a gentle encouraging teacher and a great guy, and climbing is one of Shelby’s favorite things.
Lucky Shelby, lucky us.

Charlie Smith and Tim Ivy traveled from Georgia to fly fish in the Boundary Waters. We really LIKE having them next door in Cabin 3. We’re really HOPING that they come back again in August when it is warmer!
Maggie and Daniel learned a few fly fishing tips from the masters—
and Daniel is definitely hooked.

Those guys were catching bass like crazy. Can you tell that they are patient and generous with their flies? They’re great guys, and fishing is one of Daniel’s favorite things. Lucky Daniel.

Lucky us!

It’s turtle time. All of them at once. Finding sand, laying eggs.

This old Jurassic girl used the sand next to our house foundation. It seems like snapping turtles should have evolved right out of their shells. Why carry that big thing around if you can’t even hide yourself in it?

She was in a hurry to get back to the water, so we left her alone.

Almost time for the radishes.

Time for the summer buzz.

Time for Daniel to recruit helpers for his school project deadlines….here’s a Sculpty Party—recognize the princess and the pea?

It’s painting time.

Prime time for ducklings

Time for Denali’s nap—

Is it time to visit Tuscarora???

To start out with I’m going to have to say it…I’ve been trying not to jinx it…but we have no bugs!! It’s soooo eeeasy to be cheerful about that. I understand it might have to do with warmer waters, the July-type temperatures we’re having. I don’t really care why. Do you think we may have escaped them this year? Because the dragon flies have already landed. The lake trout however, still seem to be swarming, hungry…but deeper than usual —(thanks to Lee for the photo—taken on South Arm Knife).
The staff have arrived and are falling into step……meals are lively, delicious, I like them. Lots of busy preparation. Staff members stop by the window into my office, lean in to talk about mops and coffee filters, weddings and evolution. Just as it should be.

And Denali has returned to her ever-important role, as primary squirrel patrol. Note the enlargement of the squirrel….Denali is SURE she has to come down. The squirrel is SURE that the dog will go away—and so it goes, for looooong faithful hours.

Last weekend I was re-reminded what a lucky thing it is to hang around relaxed people on vacation. The regular Memorial day cabin guests slipped into their routines—great people..we couldn’t get enough of them….some fish early in the morning, others come in at 11:30am to borrow the pancake syrup, some take marathon day trips, some read on the deck. They were just so happy about it all.

I even took a little vacation last Saturday afternoon…cousins Danny and Joe who traditionally spend ALL of daylight hours (beginning before 5am) fishing on Round lake…needed a little change of scenery so I took them to the Seagull Lake ripple. I had big plans for my 2 hour vacation…I brought my book, my Skittles and my water bottle, I thought I might have time for a nap………..pure luxury.
It was a little nugget of treasure to be the duffer for these two lanky adolescents. Their voices are changing, but they still giggle. As longtime fishing buddies, they have their own jargon—like “leech me” or—“grab the net Sue, and you can have the assist”. They spend half the time snagged, or switching lures, or paddling to the next best spot, but still they were reeling them in.

After awhile, they told me some secrets, like when they were little kids and they used to have a fishing swear-word-of-the-day. They chatted about school, about girls. They make me proud of the young men they are becoming. Joe’s very curious about burned trees and camping people, and white water, and how things are. He gets to the point, and his questions disarm me. On Sunday afternoon, when one of our guests made a wrong turn on the hiking trail, and we were trying to organize to find him in the rain (another story–in short, he actually found his own way back out—because he never left a trail)—Joe re-focused me during a worried moment. “Wait Sue, you’re freaking me out, what are we talking about? Is this guy going to die?” I love his directness. He made me stop and clear my head,
then I had to say….”Well, no . I really don’t think so Joe.”

All in all we did get to participate in some vacation memories. Welcome summer! The pages on the calendar are starting to fly.

As summer quickly approaches, my ability to focus on school work declines. May 21^st cannot come soon enough.

I first began working at Tuscarora last summer. I discovered the job opportunity online and it became increasingly evident to me that spending another summer in a city simply would not do, so I took it. A three month long experience to fish, camp, canoe, and swim [and yes, Sue, work] in one of the most pristine areas of the U.S. could not passed up. Within the first few weeks as an employee, I had listened intently to the eerie sound of wolves howling to one another at dusk and had seen moose calves trot by the Dining Hall. When living in the woods 40-something miles from any town for a summer, these things are expected. After all, I took this job because in order to experience this on a daily basis.

Now, as I sit at my small desk attempting to study the “Strategic Planning for Wildlife Conservation”, my mind begins to wander: right onto highway 53 north, right onto highway 61 north, left onto the gunflint trail. Never has the Boundary Waters meant so much to me. As a twenty-year-old college student, I have had the wonderful pleasure of venturing into the Boundary Waters 25 times. 25 times. I cannot be thankful enough for these opportunities-most women will never get this chance and if they do, they will choose not to take it. In a world where makeup, parties, and gossip rule in the lives of young women, I have chosen fishing and camping, kayaking and hiking. Now, don’t get me wrong-as a sophomore at UW-Madison, I have experienced and actually enjoyed the makeup and parties. But, what truly makes me happy is being woken by the sound of a calling loon, or by a bright moon shining through the vent in my tent. This is something that cannot be explained to someone who has never experienced it. “Cool” they might say, but with very little recognition of the fact that this place I am describing to them is wild; it’s actually happening. The sound of the loon is not coming from a recording in a museum or a National Geographic special, and the light shining into my tent is not the product of a street lamp outside. And this is why I will be returning to Tuscarora for another summer: to experience all of these wonderful things yet again.

The Boundary Waters is a place of solitude and peace. It is where I have learned the most, grown the most, and seen things that not even National Geographic can capture. It is truly one of the most beautiful places on earth.

To all families: Children are never too young for canoeing, fishing, and camping, so start them off early in life!

Last weekend we participated in our 4th Gunflint Green Up event—where the friends, guests, and neighbors gather to celebrate the renewal of the forest after the Ham Lake Fire of May, 2007. We planted little pine trees during 2007, 2008, 2009. This year we were charged with releasing them—cutting away other vegetation, giving them room to grow.
I like it. We get together for meals in a big white tent in a parking lot at Gunflint Lodge. Those events feel sort of like casual wedding receptions. Our family doesn’t get to many wedding receptions together, so two in a row is a bit of a bonus. On Friday night, we were trying to to ditch out on the Owl Presentation. We couldn’t figure how to get all the lunches we were to transport for the next day, and politely sneak away so we shrugged and settled in. An unexpected pleasure! That guy was really entertaining and likable, so now we know a little more about owls.
On Saturday morning the kids and I went to the Kekakabic trail to join a gang releasing that bunch of trees.
Who knew? It turned out that releasing was possibly more fun than planting. Our friend Lily called it searching for buried treasure, only with an upside-down map. (you know–sort of inverted?). Hanging out with kids in the woods having a treasure hunt, and then cutting out the competing vegetation made for a great morning. In a world where our economic market almost freefalls when somebody accidentally types “billions” instead of “millions” –the task of tending to little trees with kids….being distracted by the chatter and the pinecones and the sunny day— all seemed very real and right and a good thing to do. Those kinds of simple tasks often become my favorite experiences of life.

Later in the afternoon, the kids were done, and I took my clippers to the back of Tuscarora property—where trees were planted just a couple weeks after the Ham Lake Fire. You know, the Green Up event is so (appropriately) focused on regrowth and renewal, and it is such a flurry of people and action that I appreciated that quiet moment alone to remember that there was also an element of tragedy in that Ham Lake fire. I had a little tinge of melancholy, thinking of the beginnings and the endings, of people and the passing of time, of events that change things.

The memories were flitting through my head (these are now 2007 photos)—mostly the people involved, Nancy the original green up elf, Kjersten, Mike, Megan/Mike/Brandon/Kaylee crew, my kids, Jake, Noah, a friendly tomboy named Summer whose dad drove up to help for the day….and also the details of that fire.

And the little trees (recent photo—3 years later) –the way they twisted around and grew anyway they could. The way these guys survived the nibbling of the deer the snows, the heavy rains, the drought. It was an honor to help them find the sun. They are feisty and strong, and hopeful. It was a good day.