Grand Marais Rains

Cook County Emergency and Road Crews have had a busy Friday…along with lots of people with lots of flooded basements. This would be the Coop Parking Lot in down town Grand Marais. (photo: wtip.org)

Allow some extra time if you are traveling to Tuscarora, in some places Hwy 61 and the Gunflint Trail are single lane only.

Here at Tuscarora, we just had another rainy day.

Round Lake Wolves

This is Stan, our Cabin 3 guest. As he headed out with two leashed dogs at 6am Saturday morning, I alerted him to the wolf pack in our area—I see them often in the early morning (you’d think I’d get used to them, but they still send my heart racing . )
Stan nodded, but the twinkle in his eye gave me the feeling that he thought I was being a little over dramatic. When he came back though, he chuckled as he told me that I must have those wolves on radio collar—to send them out on command, because he met a huge one.
Cary from Cabin 6, walking his dog a little later, also came on a pup. I’ve been told that the presence of a dog will increase the chances of a wolf encounters—seems to be so.
Twice in the last few weeks, a roly piglet wolf-pup with a big fluffy tail was seen. Seems like we’ve narrowed down where the den might be, so I feel a little protective of these guys. From the sightings this spring, I think I’ve figured out the pack. (I’m just filling in blanks really, I haven’t actually been close enough to determine gender, or see the pack together—consider the next part fiction, sort of).
Our Round Lake Pack
The big grey bushy husky leader has challenged Denali a couple of times. He must be the alpha; the way he looks me in the eye makes the back of my neck prickle, then his gaze makes me sort of angry. Three lankier whiter sleddog-like adults are more skittish. The other two adolescents must be last years pups. Early in May Denali came nose to nose with those two–they showed no aggression. When I whistled for her, they looked like they might come to me too. And then the new puppies—or the puppy? I haven’t personally confirmed a sighting of this one. So–I’m guessing this makes the pack or seven or eight whose territory intersects Tuscarora territory.
When we listen to them howl in the evenings, we can tell this is a fine time to be a wolf on the Gunflint Trail!

Check out the cool video clip that Barb Geccas (from Hestons on Gunflint Lake) took in April of a wolf on their property. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xAercsPcD0

Andy Ahrendt and Andy Arndt

Today, Tuscarora guest Andy Arndt returned from a canoe trip. Andy and Andy were good sports about posing for a photo (see Andy A on the left, and Andy on the right). I thought that they’d have a chance to chat about the name thing—but really they talked about the fishing on Little Sag, the weather, Andy’s trip….

None of spontaneous chatter/questions I expected ….Did you ever mind being so close to the first one in the alphabetical seating chart? Do people mistake your name for Art? Do you get jokes about aren’t=are not? Did you mind that your first and last names start with A? What do you think about the initials AA? They never even compared middle names!

I believe they were just humoring me anyhow, but I’m sure it will be a different scene when Andy sends his mother Sue up for a visit….no kidding.

Making Memorial Weekend Memories


Splendid weekend for paddling and fishing…….. added bonus–no bugs.

The Bowers family took the Snipe loop…..

Mike Mulligan gets a full soloshot, our goodwill gesture because he was cropped out of all of the Gunflint Green Up brochures, and we think he’s one of the good guys anyhow.

Hearty travelers.


Joe and Dan spent the weekend in the boat….

Lucky us! Les and Pauline took an impromptu trip up from Iowa and ended up in Cabin 6. (Note their optimistic sunglasses to match their optimistic attitudes—and sure enough the sun came out Sunday afternoon in time for them to swim.)

Longtime favorite staff member, Grand Marais youth soccer coach, outfitting expert Noah brought his Grandma for the weekend. Gladys cleaned up on cribbage in the crew cabin—taking on any willing opponent—-Noah pitched in and shared some outfitting wisdom with new staff members.
Wonderworkers Cass and Lindsay cleaned the trucks. It was a great weekend for just about anything!

Another Detour for Jim Colbert!

Jim Colbert from Iowa State wins the prize for canoe trip detours, 2 years in a row. Last year we set up a detour for him, and Jim Holz and their biology students. They put in on Poplar in May, because the Ham Lake fire kept them out of our neck of the woods. They camped on Omega—the fire was 12 miles away when they started out….and they wondered if it was still 12 miles away?????–but not—and they were escorted out through Brule Lake.

This year, Jim and two students were good Samaritans as they escorted a camper in trouble all the way from Little Sag. Then they had some soup, stocked up on fresh cookies and Mountain Dew (in the Nalgene bottles, of course, model BWCA campers that they are) and headed right back. We hope that they are back on Little Sag right now! We really like these guys—and bet that they’ll sleep well tonight!!