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Day Trip Ice Fishing on Bat Lake

“People always catch fish on Bat.”

When Nathan, a family friend who happens to take a lake trout fishing focused winter camping trip each Martin Luther King weekend, told us that last fall, we knew we had to check it out. After all, Bat Lake is practically just a hop, skip, and jump from Tuscarora. So just four days into the Boundary Waters winter lake trout season, Andy and I headed across Round Lake to see if we could prove Nathan wrong.

Thanks to a bunch of ambitious winter campers who headed into the Boundary Waters just after Christmas, there are miles of very well packed trail from Round Lake through the Brant Lake entry point route. Since we weren’t pulling sleds and we also snowmobiled across Round Lake, we were able to reach Bat Lake in less than two hours.

Down the stairs on the portage from Gotter Lake into Flying Lake

Along the hike, I kept stopping to take photographs of the icicles on the shoreline cliff faces. This cliff face on Flying Lake is just past the portage into Green Lake.

When we reached Bat Lake, we set up speedily. With just six inches of pure blue ice, it doesn’t take long to drill enough holes for tip-ups and jigging, even with a hand auger!

Still, by the time we had lines in the water, it was after noon, so we weren’t exactly capitalizing on the “morning bite.” Although the action was a little slow for a lake the DNR says has abundant (but small) lake trout, we were able to prove correct Nathan’s theory that people always catch fish on Bat Lake. About an hour into our afternoon on Bat Lake, I reeled up this little guy. Andy unhooked him quickly and popped him back into the drink.

While we waited for more action on the lines, we took a timeout to make some coffee and cocoa as we watched the tip-up lines. With the shadows growing long, we knew it was time to start the trek home.

After a stop to chat up some winter campers, we walked home with a beautiful sunset at our backs. It’s amazing what a little snow and ice can do to transform a boggy lowland into a spectacular vista.

We’ll be back, Bat Lake.

Gunflint Trail Winter / Life at Tuscarora Lodge

To Be The Snow Man

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

Gunflint Trail Winter / Life at Tuscarora Lodge

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!

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.

Smoke the Black Lab turned into a puck retrieving machine.

Is there anything better than the sound of skates cutting through the smooth ice?

Attempting to brush up my figure skating chops . . . .Ice’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.

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.

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!

Gunflint Trail Winter / Life at Tuscarora Lodge

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.

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.

Skating_2

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.

Life at Tuscarora Lodge

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

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.
The 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.

Of 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.

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.
This 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.

Tuscarora Lodge & Canoe Outfitters

Day Trip Ice Fishing on Bat Lake

To Be The Snow Man

Worth the “Skate” – Winter Finds the Gunflint Trail

Skating Lessons

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

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