Tuscarora Lodge & Canoe Outfitters

Jerry Vandiver, a good friend of Tuscarora and canoe country in general, will once again be in concert at Tuscarora Lodge and Canoe Outfitters. Mark your calendars for Saturday, August 8 at 7:30 p.m. when Jerry and a few Tuscarora crew members will tune up their guitars and fiddles for a night of paddle tunes.

Here’s Jerry and some friends when they stopped by the Visit Cook County booth at Canoecopia 2014 in Madison, WI. Ada and Andy happened to be staffing the booth that year and Jerry was kind enough to swing by for an impromptu concert.

Jerry’s an award-winning singer/songwriter based in Nashville. He scored a Billboard Top 5 single on Gene Watson’s “Don’t Waste It On The Blues,” a Top 20 on Wild Rose’s “Go Down Swingin’,” and #2 on Tim McGraw’s “For A Little While.” Jerry has songs on over 15 million records, two of which are hanging on the walls of the Country Music Hall of Fame.

His collection of paddle inspired songs, True and Deep is a available in the Tuscarora trading post and we feel lucky that he’s made his August concert at Tuscarora a tradition. All are welcome to attend the August 8th concert. We hope to see you there!

We’re at that rare point in the summer; that point where all staff members for the season are here at Tuscarora.

In early May, the staff members started trickling in and now, with the arrival of our last housekeeper, Kenzie, in mid-July, all 11 staff members are finally together . . . at least for now. But in just a few days, the staff members will begin dispersing, heading back home to spend some time with family and friends before returning to college or their next adventure.

We knew it was now or never for getting the 2015 staff photo, so on Sunday afternoon, right after lunch, we trooped everyone out onto the outfitting office steps to sit in the midday sun on one of the hottest days in the last five years to smile pretty for the camera for a couple minutes.

2015 Tuscarora Staff
Front row (L-R): Sean, Liz, Dan, and Mack the Dog
2nd row (L-R): Jack, Kamille, Kenzie, and Mitch
3rd row (L-R): Frank, Shelby, Carter, and Emma
4th row (L-R): Ada and Andy

Special thanks to Andy Ahrendt for serving as this year’s staff photographer; we just wish he and Sue had hopped in the photo too.

We’re thankful for a lot of things this summer, but at the tippy top of the “things to be thankful” list is this year’s staff. Our hats go off to Andy and Sue for hiring such a smart, committed, and lovably goofy crew. We’ve so appreciated their willingness to tackle even the least glamorous of jobs and to step up when necessary to keep everything going swimmingly.

We hope if you’ve been up this summer that you’ve enjoyed their company as well. Maybe you had French toast served and/or prepared by Carter, Emma, Kamille, or Kenzie. Or you’ve been outfitted with paddles, lifejackets, and transported to your entry point by Dan, Frank, Jack, Mitch, or Sean. If you got camp food with us, your food pack was probably filled with smiley faces, compliments of Liz, the food packer. Behind the scenes, Shelby has kept the whole crew fed and happy in her role as crew cook/cheerleader.

It’s hard to imagine life at Tuscarora with this crew, but if we’re lucky, hopefully at least a few of them will return for a second season next year.

Sometimes I forget to look up.

It’s so easy to spend the days in a whirlwind of phone calls, orders, and emails that when the sun goes down, I forget that Mother Nature’s just getting ready for another light show. Sure, I feel a little pang when I see those brilliant northern lights photos on my Facebook wall the night after a particularly stellar show, but in general, even the most promising Aurora Borealis forecast isn’t enough to pull me from my warm, cozy bed at 3 in the morning. In fact, my dad’s fond of telling the story of when, back in 1995, he woke me up at 4 a.m. one winter morning to check out the Comet Hyukatake blazing brilliantly over our backyard. I stumbled downstairs after him, stood at the back door for a second or two to take in the comet, and with a grunt, I bolted back upstairs to reacquaint myself with the bed covers.

 But just because I keep my midnight star gazing to a minimum, that doesn’t mean I’m apathetic to the night sky. I love watching constellations like Orion march across the sky each winter and I’ve even been known to set my alarm for some ungodly hour to catch the Persieds meteorite showers. It’s just, like most people, I need a little prompting to look up. 

When a group of college friends came up this past weekend, the professional photographer in the group was excited by the Aurora Borealis forecast and headed out on the Tuscarora dock to see if she could spot any color on the northern horizon. Although there wasn’t much northern lights activity when she was out, the night time photos she did snap reminded me of all the wonderment that passes us by each night. It’s so special to make our home in a place where the darkness is thick and the stars aren’t muted by outdoor lights. Sometimes, on a winter evening, I just like to stare up into the Milky Way, remembering that our view of the night sky isn’t that dissimilar from the ancient Greeks who were out there naming the constellations all those thousands of years ago. There’s something both grounding and magical to be found in the stars.

If you find yourselves in our neck of the woods, don’t forget to take a moment to step outside the cabin or tent some night and look up. It’s one heck of a show.

Unless we have an unusually early spring, the moccasin flowers bloom right around Father’s Day each year along the Gunflint Trail. This year, the moccasin flowers bloomed right on schedule at Tuscarora Lodge. We spotted this beauty on the first stretch of the little trail across the creek from Cabin 2. The bunchberry grow thick beside this path and there’s plenty of other wildflower treasures tucked in if you look close enough – starflower, false lily of the valley, perhaps even some northern mountain cranberry plants and definitely, lots of little green blueberries.

Other things have been right on schedule at Tuscarora too. The outfitters keep busy getting groups of all sizes (including our annual group of 48 wonderful middle schoolers) ready for the woods, while the housekeepers whip up French toast breakfast most morning and keep the place looking great as the paddlers and cabin guests come and go.

It seems only natural that the days are at their longest while we get into the summer swing of things and there seems to be endless possibilities for activities and fun. On the Friday, most of the staff went into town to take part in some the solstice/wooden boat show festivities at North House Folk School, including the contra dance. There’s so much summer fun on the horizon: a 5th anniversary dinner celebration put on by the Gunflint Trail Historical Society and the annual Gunflint Lake Canoe Races on July 15, just to name a couple options. Perhaps we’ll see you in our neck of the woods sometime soon for your own summer fun.

It always seems like time moves so quickly after summer solstice. Dusk creeps in a little sooner each passing evening. Sometimes it seems as if we blink and suddenly it’s late August.

That’s why I like to keep my eyes to ground and watch for the wildflowers popping up right on schedule. It keeps the passage of time in perspective. Each bloom (big or small), along with everything else, has its place and season. It’s our job to notice those seasons and schedules as they pass us by and to take a moment to truly appreciate and enjoy each season’s nuances and beauty. Happy Summer!