Tuscarora Lodge & Canoe Outfitters

Round Lake from our beach this morning

To answer the question on everyone’s mind, yes we still have ice on Round Lake.  However, spring is happening in fast forward all along the Gunflint so we are getting closer!  Last weekend was pretty chilly again.  Nights were below freezing and grey skies shed a wintery mix on us during the day.  It felt like we spring had stalled for a while there.

We opened our gates for the outfitting season on May 1st, technically speaking, even though it didn’t feel like summer yet.  We have been juggling jobs based on what the weather is doing.  We are trying to get some raking in.  It is a little strange to be raking around the slow melting snow plow piles but at least we are outside.   We are doing some spring cleaning inside as well and getting the suburbans tuned up.  Summer staff is starting to arrive which gets everyone excited.  With more hands around, we started to pull out the Kevlar canoes from winter storage.  A sure sign of spring if ever there was one!

Taking the Kevlar canoes out of the dining hall

Shuffling the canoes from the dining hall to the canoe yard

We drove up to the End of Trail campground to check things out on Sunday afternoon.  The creeks and ditches along the side of the road which were full and overflowing two weeks before have slowed down some to a more normal spring level.  The smaller beaver pond ice is starting to turn black and break up into chunks which is a good sign.  The rapids into Gull Lake were flowing fast and strong.  Seagull Lake and Saganaga Lake are still frozen but there are some good sized holes and fissures showing up.  It is definitely at the point where it is a little sketchy to be walking on it.

Gull Lake rapids

On Monday, the staff couldn’t resist the urge to paddle on Cross River just down the drive way.  We put in along side the road right above the rapids and paddled towards the portage toward Ham Lake.  The portage was still covered in a layer of snow so we didn’t get to far, but at least it was a paddle!  The Cross River dock is still surrounded by ice flows, but the waterfowl are enjoying the open parts.

Paddling on Cross River

Skirting the edges of the ice

Just making sure you can’t paddle through the ice…

Cross River rapids by Round Lake Road

Yesterday we ran to Duluth to get some summer supplies.  All the small rivers were flowing fast and rock cuts along the road were covered in ephemeral water falls.  We couldn’t resist a stop at Gooseberry State Park to take a look at the falls!  Along the way back we spotted 137 deer, 3 fox, 1 bobcat and a wolf all on the side of the road!  For those of you planning on traveling up Highway 61, please be careful!

Gooseberry State Park

This week has been warm, sunny and just beautiful!  We still can’t tell you for certain when the ice will be out.  The larger lakes like Saganaga will take longer than Round Lake to clear.  We are still thinking we will have ice for fishing opener on May 11th.  The following week we have high hopes for however!  For those of you with early trips, keep checking in.  Don’t worry, when the ice goes out, we will be posting on everything from the blog to Facebook.  We are just as impatient and excited as all of you!

Round Lake this morning

Round Lake this morning

I pulled a puzzle out of our Christmas box this year, and I started piecing it together lately.  Hint:  those puzzles that the photo places make are a really cool idea.  But they have a uniform piece, and if you have a photo with….say….a lot of white legs, or green leaves, or rocky ground, you can mix up the pieces.  I mean, pieces actually fit where they don’t belong–as in knees on the wrong legs, and toes on the wrong feet.

Another thing though, is putting pieces together of these kids I knew so well…..I could recognize one crinkled eye, or the twisted way the kid held his foot, and I loved that part.  It was such a wash of nostalgia.  I don’t know if you can recognize Daniel on the far left end of the hammock, but he is holding up an apple speared with a knife.  Only I cropped the knife out, because—our kid was only 8 and…what could I have been thinking?  He never actually speared anyone by accident, and he was so proud of being the Sam Gribley woodsman, that…..he had a pocket knife at age eight and I didn’t want it recorded.

I remember …..3 moms, 6 kids, 2 for each mom—made a perfect 9p Seagull Lake  trip.  We promoted independence, which meant we hovered from afar.  I was casually swimming with  my hand practically at the scruff of one  particular swimmer’s neck -one who had no business swimming to the rock, but was too cool to be the only one in the lifejacket.  Because that is what we moms do, for anybody’s kid  There was a kids’ tent and a mom tent, but….when it got dark, I remember one little guy padding over to the moms’ tent with oversized feet in footy pajamas, and a little while later one Shelby wanted me to sleep out under the stars with her.  So I took my pillow and went of course.  We were making memories.

But the thing is, as nostalgic as I always am (honestly, I never missed a single chance…I even felt waves of nostalgia every time my kids switched to bigger diaper sizes. )    I believe all this sappy savoring that I do has helped me treasure every age.  Because I miss these kids in this puzzle.  A whole lot.  But not enough that I would  give up the kids I have today for the kids I had in that puzzle.

It’s hard to explain how much I like the kids I have now.  Back then, I was responsible for the field trips.  Now I’m responsible for the restful home.   I used to plan and hope that they would like adventures, that they would spend their time in the woods rather than in the computer room.   I used to wonder if they would learn to pitch in–be good team players.  Now I watch them lead their teams.  If I’m home, I get to meet their friends.  I get to visit colleges with Shelby…and anticipate how much she will like it there.

These days,  I get up before they get up–rather than the other way around.  I’ve traded those early mornings looking for a spare moment to myself for —struggling to keep my eyes open late enough to  hang around while Shelby completes an art assignment, or being available in case Daniel wants to play the riff on the guitar.   I don’t have to stay home to take care of them anymore, but I want to stay home just in case—.  Ironically you’d think,after all these years, I’d be something of an expert at it, but still I screw up.  I still fight with Shelby about her sleep habits.  I guess I don’t have to head/knee lock Daniel to get him to brush his teeth, but we do have some headlocks about other things….some too trivial to even mention.

Some parents with younger kids thank me for taking the carpool turns…when I’m thinking…are you kidding me?  I have about 2 months left in this stage in my life, and it’s the only time I get to listen to 15 year old boys banter.  I’ll take every chance.

And I still get to see the other kids once in awhile.  Guess what?  They all turned out to be pretty good campers, so far.  If you look closely at this video—as they planned and practiced their own Grand Marais parade flash dance, you’ll recognize them amid the crowd.

You know, I expected to feel more loss in all of this.  I really liked being a mom to those little kids, I liked planning birthday parties, reading the books aloud, taking them camping.  Sometimes they ask me to help them figure out their independent camping trips, once and awhile they let me plan the scavenger hunts, but I’m in the background.  They choreograph their own dances now.   Maybe later in life there will be a time when the growing up will make me sad, but for the moment now….it feels just about right.