Tuscarora Lodge & Canoe Outfitters

Yesterday was a beautiful day on the Gunflint Trail—where organizers, volunteers, and mushers raised over 10,000 to benefit the National Breast Cancer foundation—participating in the Mush for a Cure fun run.
Some participants (Mark Black) were quite serious about competing for the “most outrageous pink costume” prize.

21 mushers began in a sour-dough start—from sleeping bags. After the gun, they had to pull on their boots, harness their teams, and head out onto Gunflint Lake.

Our favorite musher was Cook County 6th grader Jessica–she had a great run.

The dog teams are bred to pull—and it’s such a pleasure to witness how gleeful the dogs are about it—-it’s what they live for—the way Denali lives to chase the ball.

Bob Baker held his own on the hills.

Organizers Mary Black and Sue Prom, along with many volunteers and mushers pulled off a grand event.

Cook County Middleschoolers get to choose an activity to explore each season—about 25 of them made their way to Tuscarora yesterday to celebrate Exploratory Day here—skiing, broomballing, snowshoeing, enjoying the sun and the woods.

7th grade girls rock! Tyler wins the prize for the most grateful and enthusiastic …these are great kids!

Today it was so warm and sunny on the deck that this squirrel was purring at the feeder. If I could, I would have been purring too.

It’s a great time of the winter—we still have plenty of snow, something about the angle of the sun and the length of the days make for perfect cheerful outside activities. But to be honest, we are more than ready for spring. Even though the days always warm up to near 20, we’ve been having some snappy nights. On the way to the bus stop on Friday the car thermometer read -29 degrees. Enough already! Daniel took the camera out looking for evidence of spring.

Andy looks forward to the first weekend in March because some corporate buddies come. Mike, Mark, and Trent are into repeating their Tuscarora traditions. First they work, this year cutting and burning a WHOLE LOT of brush. We all play broomball, where they spend a fair amount of time flat on their backs. Then to Trail Center, listening to Small Change, the local WTIP Friday night quiz show radio entertainment here (they even have a favorite team from Moose Loop ). They muse over the local flavors—Moose Drool beer, the consistency of their favorite waitress, Amanda. On Saturday—they all trek into Tuscarora to catch lake trout for Saturday night dinner in the back house….returning to the city and their families on Sunday. They’re very charming guys—and it’s sort of fun to see our world through their eyes—the Lake Wobegon-ness of our daily lives.

Yesterday was cold, but the kids were off of school and it was time to go fishing. We bundled up and headed into Tuscarora Lake.

The trick in the winter is to stay warm but not too warm. So after the Missing Link Portage, we all had to strip off some layers.

The Tuscarora portage in the winter is just lovely. It’s pretty refreshing to hike/ski it without a canoe overhead.

When we got to Tuscarora we trekked across most of the lake–straight into the wind. At that time I was trying to remember what was so fun about this experience—thinking about the appeal of winter camping—why folks do it.? When I’m trudging across with my head into the wind, all I can do is recite The Cremation of Sam McGee over and over again…..”when our eyes we’d close, the lashes froze, until sometimes we couldn’t see…….or it’s the cursed cold, and it’s got right hold til I’m chilled clean through to the bone…” That Robert Service was really gifted with those descriptions, because we were living it in that wind.

Yesterday some guests came back to their warm cabin after camping in the subzero temperatures for a few nights—they had a great time under the full moon, but both of them had frozen their left thumbs. The thumbs were still black. I hope they will be OK, they suspected that the artificial hand warmers they had kept their fingers so warm that they didn’t even feel their thumbs. Still, they were beaming to tell their stories.

And our friend and seasoned winter camper—Jim spent some time in the Quetico this month—check out http://www.skunkriverpaddlers.org/images/QueticoFeb08/index.html to see the appeal.

After crossing Tuscarora, we found a sheltered spot to start a fire—and drill some holes. After 247 slow jigs, Daniel came up with a little lake trout. The cold didn’t bother him one bit! He caught another, and so did Andy–to supplement dinner last night—and we all slept HARD. We had a day!