North Shore Morning

CJ Heithoff talks with Mary Brislance about the "Remembering David Brislance" event at the Cross River Heritage Center on Saturday, July 21st. 

Hi. I’m Renee Frahm, Visitor Information Specialist, with this week’s edition of the National Forest Update - information on conditions affecting travel and recreation on the Tofte and Gunflint Districts of the Superior National Forest. We’ve had a lot of warm weather recently, and with that people are headed out to the water more than usual. Living on and visiting the North Shore, we are all familiar with life at the lake. So, it’s a good time of year to review the basics. We want your summer and your vacation to be stress-free.

The first basic rule for boating or canoeing is to wear your life jacket. Life jackets do you no good if they are just sitting in the boat. The best time to put on your life jacket is before you need it. I know a lot of us have had the experience of being in a canoe or boat in wind or waves thinking, “I probably should have my life jacket on.” And, you were right. You probably should have had it on. Whenever you have children around water, always make sure they have a life vest on that fits them properly. I saw a very small child fall off a dock last week and luckily he had a vest on and his family was close enough to fish him out of the water within a minute or so. It was scary. Dogs can also knock children into the water from a dock or from the shore if they get excited to see a duck or an otter swim by. At least I know my dog would. Always keep an eye on those little ones around water.

The second basic rule is if your canoe does tip over, stay with it. It will float even with water in it and it is your ticket home. Don’t worry about finding your gear. Packs will generally float, and you can search for them later along the shore. Your life is more valuable than what you had in that pack. Your main task is to get to shore so you can dry off. Even in midsummer, our lakes are cold enough to cause hypothermia after exposure. Find your paddles if they are visible, but you can actually hand paddle a partly submerged canoe. This is actually a pretty fun activity to try ahead of time – teaching your family how to swamp a canoe and how to get back in it or right it in the water. You can even make it a game and have ‘no paddle canoe races’ for learning how to deal with canoes that tip over.

Another part of life at the lake and boating is dealing with aquatic invasive species. The rule is ‘Clean, Drain, and Dry’. Following that rule should become as automatic as putting on the life jacket. The idea is to not spread harmful organisms from one lake to another, and we can do that by cleaning our boats and trailers after taking them from the lake, draining bilges, your bait buckets, and live wells, and drying off your boat and trailer. The recommendation is to let equipment dry for five days, or as best you can.
Many Minnesotans are familiar with this when fishing with a trailered motorboat, but don’t realize the rules apply equally to canoes and kayaks. Flip your canoe or kayak over when you exit the lake and dump all the water out of it. Dry it as best you can before putting it on your roof racks or heading down the portage trail. Dump leftover bait, except worms, where they will die – it is tempting to be nice to minnows and release them into the lake, but don’t do that unless you caught them in that lake. Worms are not an aquatic invasive, however, they are non-native and have been shown to have major negative effects on our forests. We are lucky that our forests don’t have a large worm population and we’d like to keep it that way. The state and counties take invasives very seriously with inspectors stationed at random boat landings through the summer to help educate boaters. There is also the possibility of fines for people who are not taking it seriously enough.

All this being said about being at the lake, you’ll have to drive to get to a boat landing. Forest roads are in pretty decent shape this week. Watch for trucks hauling on the Dumbell River Road, Trappers Lake Road, Carlton Pit Road, Greenwood and Old Greenwood, Shoe Lake, Firebox, and Ward Lake Roads, Cook County 39, Cook County 60, and the Springdale Road. Have fun at the lake, whichever lake that is, and until next week, this has been Renee Frahm with the National Forest Update.

A few days reprieve from summer misery was punctuated by another sticky one last Saturday. Then intense rain sent the last of Independence Day visitors scurrying out of the woods, back to metropolis on Sunday. So it’s damp and somewhat quiet as I begin this week’s Gunflint Scoop.                                                                                                                                                     
The frenzy of summer activities starts peaking next week. A good part of this report is about event reminders for both residents and listening visitors heading this way. A double feature kicks-off this next Wednesday, the 18th.                                                                                                                                                  
The 41st floating of the Gunflint Trail Canoe Races hits the waterfront at Gunflint Lodge beginning at 4:30 pm with food service. Paddling fun will run from 6:00 until about 8:30, concluding with the drawing for the grand prize, a kayak.  
                                                                                                            
Then during the same Canoe extravaganza, our North Shore air waves’ sensation will be embarking on their next 20 years of community radio, with the WTIP summer membership drive, direct from the shores of Gunflint Lake.
Back in broadcast studios on Thursday, this important event will conclude at noon on Tuesday, July 24.   
                                                                                                     
Proceeds from both of these fundraising endeavors go to support great community causes. Everyone’s participation is vital!      
                                                                                                                      
A week from this Saturday, on July 21, a week of regional invasive plant education, investigation and eradication begins up at the Chik-Wauk Nature Center. Collaborative efforts between the Gunflint Trail Scenic Byway Committee, the Chik-Wauk Museum & Nature Center and Cook County Invasive professionals, will start with classroom presentations at 10:00 a.m

This phase will be followed by outdoor investigative/ identification hikes around the Chik-Wauk campus extending through the afternoon. All are welcome, with no pre-registration necessary.                                                                                     
On Sunday, July 22, Chik-Wauk Nature Center programming continues with David Battistel presenting more research on The Man Behind the Mystery, John Paulson, and saga surrounding the rise and fall of the historic Paulson Iron Mine. The event starts at 2:00 p.m.    
      
Whether one is a first time Trail visitor or an age-old resident, there is nothing more exciting than getting to see a moose. In fact thousands come out his way just for such an experience, only to find the critters just don’t show up for humans on cue. This in mind, one has to be in the right place at the right time.  
                                                                                                             
As many moms, dads, grandmas and grandpas reside out this way, little does more to bond wilderness family memories than hitting the moose-sighting lottery.    This was the case at Wildersmith last weekend as our grandson and his gal friend happened upon a momma moose and her twin kids up toward end of the Trail.

In the excitement, digital confirmation shows the better part of the iconic threesome with my column on the web at WTIP.org.     
                                                                                                                         
In a startling, but amusing bear encounter, a Trail gal reports she recently bumped into a bear while June and blueberry picking. Surprised to say the least, the lady found the bear was also shocked at her sudden presence and not real happy with the blues picking interruption.   
                                                                                                                                              
Now everyone knows you’re not likely to out run a bear. In a state of panic however, she turned and took off running, as did the bear. During the escape mode madness, and falling down once, she eventually felt compelled to glance around to see if Bruno was nipping at her heels. Fate favored her, gasping from fear and near oxygen debt, it was discovered, she had easily out distanced the ebony critter.      
                                                                             
Hmmm… A miracle, yes! Come to find out, in a rather amusing conclusion to this bear tale, while she ran down the hill, the bear went in an opposite direction up a hill. One can never be assured a bear or for that matter, any wild predator will run the opposite direction. This was her lucky day!

Perhaps she should have headed in to Grand Marais and bought a Powerball ticket.                                                                                                                                                                 
For WTIP, this is Wildersmith, on the Gunflint Trail, where every day is great, with one Gunflint chapter after another, revealing unexpected mysteries of our natural world.
 

Magnetic North 7/1/18
Isle Royale Saga Part 2
 
Welcome back to Magnetic North and the follow-up to my sailing saga of forty years ago. As I said before, time spent tied up to the wall by the Coast Guard Station in Grand Marais was all too short. My husband, our daughter, Gretchen and our young medical intern and friend, Pam, were on a quest, not a looky-loo sightseeing excursion. We’d crossed Lake Superior from the Apostle Islands in a dense cloud of fog, motoring most of the way until we made land and slipped through the narrow slot into the town harbor. It was merely a pit stop - ice, grub, and shuteye - before the Big Push to Isle Royale’s Washington Harbor. And the July morning brought the clearest skies of the summer, a gift from a major high-pressure system tied in a bow with 30-plus mile per hour winds.

And that was just at 8 o’clock in the morning.

Landlubbers will look out at the big lake dancing to the music of winds like that and crow, “What a great day for a sail, eh?” 
But anyone who has ever hoisted a sail in such conditions might well differ. Sure, you wouldn’t have to touch the motor, but you also would have to seriously consider attaching your lifejacket to the rigging during the voyage. Sailboats keel to one side under much lesser wind power, and that day, we would be sailing parallel to the waves which were growing taller with every passing hour.

After a brief, too brief for this kid, conference with our sailing friends in a 33-footer, we opted to set out well before noon for the island, sticking as close together as possible. And so we did.

I am guessing that before we’d even passed Five Mile Rock, our friend, Pam, Gretchen and I had consumed the maximum dose of Dramamine, as much to settle our nerves as our stomachs.

That sideways wind was the kind we had that day going to Isle Royale; One side rail of the boat just about even with the water and stomach lurching drops from the top of wave thoughts to their bottoms... Up. Down. Up. Down. And never a letup in the wind.
Not that it was boring. Anything but.

At one point, I looked up at the cabin door to see Gretchen holding her knitting needles in one little hand -they were of course aimed at her eyeballs. Soon after that, I looked across at our sailing friends in their much bigger boat, only to see their mast disappear in the troughs of the waves separating our crafts.

I will say this. There were no biting flies that day.

Thanks to the ferocious wind, we made Isle Royale just a bit after noon, coming up alongside Rock of Ages Lighthouse, still in huge waves. I was instructed to keep my eye on the depth finder and report if we were about to see the wreck of the America closer than planned. 

“Ten feet,” I croaked as the famed lighthouse loomed off our bow. That’s ten feet from the tip of the keel, mind you.
“Eight feet....seven feet....five!” I squawked, “Will you for the love of Pete put he blasted sails DOWN?!” It was less a question than a command. I tend to get bossy when death nears.

“Well, cheated death again,” my husband cried over the roar of the motor, as we tied up to the dock. 

A gaggle of teenage campers stood ogling our two sailboats, oblivious to the conditions beyond the harbor mouth…“Wow, what a great day for a sail,” one yelled enthusiastically.  My reply was -mercifully - muffled by the shouts of my husband and our young physician friend who had just seen Gretchen and the pug fall off the bow into the lake.

Both dog and child wore life jackets. It was not the first - or last - time for such drama.

It was three more years before I refused to sail on Superior ever again and another 14 before I got my heart’s desire and moved to the North Shore, at long last, happily aground at the end of a gravel road. Aside from a few humbling experiences with goats and geese and assorted critters, I have not once since ended my days here with the phrase, “Well, cheated death again,”
As for the young woman who gamely made the trip with us to the Isle, her experience seemed to have forced her to question where her life was going, at least now that it was not ending on the rocks of Superior. Within months of returning to the cities, she quit medicine and became a Buddhist monk. I kid you not.

It is ironic that having endured forced marches into the BWCA and near death experiences on the big lake, I still felt drawn to this place. And over the years I’ve come to find enough to fill my cup in just being here. Not covering kilometers in the wilderness. Not circling the lake on the highway or crossing it on water. Just being in a place where I can look out the window and see a doe licking her newborn fawn clean, or ride a kicksled at midnight down my snowy driveway under Northern Lights, or know who is related to who and where to find help when a newcomer needs a plumber, electrician or even get a skunk out from under one’s porch.

It’s not high adventure - nothing Robert W. Service would have written poems about. But for me and for Paul, it was and is more, much, much, more than enough.

For WTIP this is Vicki Biggs-Anderson with Magnetic North.
 

Deane Morrison is a science writer at the University of Minnesota.

She authors the Minnesota Starwatch column, and in this feature she shares what there is to see in the night sky in our region.
Deane's column can be found on the University of Minnesota website at astro.umn.edu.

Wildersmith on the Gunflint     by    Fred Smith     July 6, 2018    

Remarkably, this weeks’ upper Trail scoop finds us filing away week one of July. It’s unconscionable how time escapes us so rapidly. In case you didn’t notice, we passed the half-way point of year ’18. Seems like just yesterday, we were embracing its’ arrival.  

                                                                                                         
The big hoopla of Independence Day has faded into obscurity as we set off into another week of invigorating summer time activities along the Trail. From the looks of things, based on the amount of traffic and clogged business parking facilities, hospitality operations, and area outfitters must be busy; busy; busy.                                                                                                                          
With miserably hot and humid weather conditions gripping most all places south, it’s no wonder this area is inundated with folks trying to escape to a cool spot up north. It has been obviously cooler than civilization south of Cook County, but real cool is somewhat questionable among those of us residents who were experiencing our own bit of tropical conditions for a few days.                                                                                                                                                                              
While in the high seventies to around eighty degrees in this neighborhood, and there’s been some minor whining from yours truly. Remember, I’m the one who has great admiration for warmth not to exceed fifty-five to sixty during any portion of the warm season.                                                                 
Looking back on my fifty-seven years in Iowa and those uncountable stifling summer days, I feel for all folks who’ve been sweating out the hundred degrees stuff. So I’m thankful, the conditions we Gunflinters’ have endured are not as bad as they might be.                                                                              
Speaking more about our version of northland hotness, I can only imagine how irritating the past several days have been for those in our “wild neighborhood” who wear a fur coat year around. From tiny rodents to massive moose, I could see they too might be a little ouchy when they cannot peel off a garment or find a little cool comfort.                                                                                                         
Meanwhile, the other character of weather in this territory found us better blessed as June faded into July. Although amounts of rain can be variable throughout the near sixty-mile Gunflint corridor, all got some much-needed moisture. While dodging a bullet from some violent storms in regions west and south, the upper Trail saw creeks and rivers gushing into area lakes and ponds with a vengeance during the big rain last Sunday. For the weekend past, the Wildersmith gauge collected nearly two inches of the “wet/cooling” stuff.

                                                                     
Being out of doors at various times in the past days, I find the biting bug situation to be increasingly annoying. The black flies are not too engaging now unless one is disturbing the earth, whereas mosquitoes have been fully committed to relieving me of a little blood. Last Sunday they were particularly nasty prior to the rainstorm. So it’s definitely time to be looking at this part of the world through a bug net and slathering other body parts with “deet.”  

                                      
Speaking of bugs, as opposed to the incorrigibles just mentioned, The Chik-Wauk Nature Center program for this week features, Pat Thomas who will be sharing her expertise on Pollinators and other “beneficial” insects in your yard. This should be an interesting topic of discussion with so many of the ecosystems arthropods in a state of decline and at risk of expiration. The presentation begins at 2:00 pm, Sunday afternoon.                                                                                                                 
The Gunflint Trail Canoe Races are but eleven days away from this weekend. If listeners haven’t bought into the event grand prize drawing yet, tickets are on sale in the Mid-Trail area at Trail Center Restaurant, and also at Gunflint Lodge, Cross River Lodge, Seagull Outfitters, Voyageur Canoe Outfitters and Chik-Wauk Museum. The prize is another fantastic kayak from the good folks at, Winona Canoe works.                                                                                                                           

In addition to this giveaway, there’ll be a silent raffle for many Trail crafted items and a live auction of other big prizes. Of particular note is a beautiful, locally stitched Gunflint T-shirt quilt, featuring representation from all contributing Trail businesses and organizations.                                                         
Don’t forget, on top of all the fun, this event is our way of supporting the fire and rescue men and women. Pitch in with your resources and volunteerism!                                                                       

In a correction from last week, activities commence on the 18^th with food service at 4:30 pm (not 4:00), and races at 6:00.                                                                                                                                            
A reminder is given to all Gunflint Trail Historical Society members of the meeting this coming Monday, the 9^th. The gathering will be held at the Schaap Community Center (mid-Trail) beginning at 1:30 pm. Our time will reflect on friends and neighbors who have passed from our midst in the past year, through “Gunflint Trail, Resident Remembrances.” Treats will be served following the recognitions.                                                                                                                                                               
For WTIP, where we’re “going for 20 more” years of quality radio, this is Wildersmith, on the Gunflint Trail, where every day of life in this wild land is special! 
 

National Forest Update – June 28, 2018.

Hi.  I’m Tom McCann, resource information specialist, with this week’s edition of the National Forest Update - information on conditions affecting travel and recreation on the Tofte and Gunflint Districts of the Superior National Forest.  It is midsummer here, though technically midsummer’s eve was June 24th.  Whoever came up with that date did not live in Minnesota – we know that midsummer is at least in July.  In any event, this is the time of year for swimming, picnicking, and camping – the perfect time to get out into the woods.

There are four different kinds of camping experiences on the Superior.  Our fee campgrounds provide a car camping experience that is a little more remote than some of the heavily used state parks.  On the Tofte and Gunflint Districts, fee campgrounds have no electrical or water hook ups, but they do have water available from a solar powered pump and dumpsters for garbage.  For people who just have to have electricity and bring a generator, remember that quiet hours are between 10 and 6, so motorized equipment should be powered down during that time.  Campsites provide a fire ring, a picnic table, and space for one vehicle.  There are outhouses, but no running water.  Additional non-towed vehicles will have to pay an additional half fee.  Our campgrounds are operated by concessionaires, so who the fee is paid to varies between campgrounds.  If you are making out a check, be sure to look at the information kiosk on who the fee is paid to.  The funds go to both the Forest Service and the concessionaire and without this public/private partnership, we would have difficulty maintaining campgrounds to our standards.  Comments and concerns about fee campgrounds should be sent to both the Forest Service and the concessionaire.  Contact information is usually located on the kiosk near the campground entrance.

Rustic campgrounds are a free alternative to fee campgrounds.  They also have picnic tables and fire rings at campsites, but have no water available and no garbage service.  Almost all of the rustic campgrounds were developed near boat launches, so they are excellent for people planning to spend a few days fishing.  With any campground, the Forest Service limits stays to 14 days or fewer, so no setting up a second summer home at the campground, and you have to occupy your site on the first day and not leave it unattended for more than 24 hours, so no “claiming” sites ahead of time, or ‘saving’ a campsite while you are gone.

We also have backcountry campsites.  These are individual campsites, usually accessed by water, which are similar to the sites in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.  They have fire rings and space for a tent, and in some cases a table.  There are no outhouses, but each site has an open air wilderness latrine.  These are great sites for people who want a wilderness like experience without the permitting required for the Boundary Waters, or that would like to use an outboard instead of a canoe.  Just like the BW though, there is a nine person limit at each campsite.  This is actually true of all our campsites and campgrounds, except at designated group sites.

Lastly, the general forest is open to dispersed camping.  You are allowed to set up camp anywhere on the Forest where it isn’t prohibited.  One prohibition is that you are not allowed to camp within 150 yards of a developed area.  That includes campgrounds, but also roads, trails, and boat accesses.  In other words, you can’t declare a boat access as your campsite.  The same rules which apply to campground camping apply to dispersed camping as well:  there is a nine person limit, 14 days or fewer at a site, and you can’t abandon your gear for more than 24 hours.

Our roads are in mostly decent shape, but recent rain storms have caused some rutting.  If you are driving after a storm, watch out for fallen trees and washouts.  Both are not uncommon in the forest.  Watch for trucks hauling on the Dumbell River Road, Trappers Lake Road, Carlton Pit Road, Greenwood and Old Greenwood Road, Shoe Lake Road, Firebox Road, Ward Lake Road, Cook County 39, Cook County 60, and the Springdale Road.

Enjoy midsummer, and we hope you get a chance to go out and camp!  Until next time, this has been Tom McCann with the National Forest Update.
 

In this edition of Superior Reviews, Lin Salisbury reviews Paula McLain's book, "Love and Ruin".

There has been a resurgence in the number of cases of syphilis nation-wide.
WTIP's CJ Heithoff talks with Krissie Guerard from the Minnesota Department of Health about the importance of getting tested.

More information is available at  www.health.state.mn.us.

Wildersmith on the Gunflint     by     Fred Smith       June 29, 2018 
  
June in wild country is fading into history as the full “Strawberry Moon” beams down on the north woods. Here come July and another American birthday celebration, number two hundred forty-two to be exact.                                                                                                                                     

As June gives way to month seven, July is “busting out all over.” It’s just a “bloomin’ paradise along the Byway. If it isn’t yellow, it’s white; if it isn’t white, it’s pink; if it isn’t pink, it’s orange; if it isn’t orange, it’s purple; it’s a Technicolor eruption. What’s more, this is just the beginning.  Summer is barely a week old.                                                                                                                  

A weekend shower ushered us into this last week of month six, with more good fortune for a wildland that can dry out unbelievably fast. The rain although spotty came with a good bit of pre-Independence day fireworks in this neighborhood. While the Mid-Trail area saw sprinkles to a trace, thunder boomers at the end of the Trail dropped over an inch in some locations. In between, the Gunflint/Loon Lake locale caught nearly a half inch.                                                                      
Connecting with the “wild neighborhood,” we’ve often heard the literary expression of “wolves at the door.” In fact a recent program at the Chik-Wauk Nature Center was even entitled the same.                                                                                                                                                                      
A recent encounter in the mid-Trail neighborhood has a similar resonance. In this case, however, I would call it, how about “moose at the window.”  Two of the iconic critters made a surprise visit to a residence and actually enabled a photo shoot through the glass. Don’t know if this was a just by chance passing through or a couple of peeping “toms.” Whatever the ungulate rationale for being there, a digital is shared for all to see on the WTIP website posting of Wildersmith under the Community Voices column.                                                                                      

After weeks of “hummer” activity at area nectar stations, take-offs and departures have come to a near standstill. It’s obviously nesting time and since the mommas are saddled with all phases of nesting/nurturing duties, they don’t get too far away from those thimble sized incubators. Question is what are all the papas doing during this time, don’t they need fueling refills?                                                                                                                                                                 

A wonder of nature in the backcountry is, why do potholes in the road continue to appear in the same location? Having lived nearly three-fourths of my life in suburbia, I have yet to fully adjust to driving on washboard roads with sometimes cavernous “chuck holes.”                                         

No matter how hard our County Road crews work to maintain them, the seemingly natural speed bumps continue to reappear without fail. Sometimes those jaw-jarring spots happen at the top of a hill, while other times at the bottom and sometimes in between on most every secondary path through the forest.                                                                                                                                                                                        
I suppose it could have to do with the type of vehicles, speed, and usage volume. Then again, weather conditions certainly play a role, especially with regard to precipitation. Knowing the intensity of falling, running and accumulating water can show no mercy, these no doubt takes a toll too.                                                                                                                                                                                          
All told, the rough ride scene is probably a combination of many factors. Regardless, the subject remains an un-curable fact of life in unorganized territory. In the final analysis, the annoying cavities, are what they are, be patient, be attentive, slow down and be good at playing “dodge hole,” as the maintainer will get here and there soon...                                                                                                                                      
With July in our sights, it’s that time when the Gunflint Community starts gearing up for the Canoe Races. Planning is full speed ahead as the big day is little more than two weeks away. Calendars should be marked for Wednesday, the 18^th with activities beginning at 4:00 pm and races at 6:00.                                                                                                                                                            
Volunteers are needed beginning next weekend (July 6/7) to help sell kayak raffle tickets during the days leading up to the event, please (call Sally Valentini @ 388-0900 to sign-up), and servers will be needed in the food tent on Race night(call Cindy Ceo @ 388-0305 to assist with this phase).                                                                                                                                                                              
This is the forty-first annual fundraiser in support of the Gunflint Trail Volunteer FD & Rescue crews. Plan to be there for food and fun as WTIP broadcasts the happenings, in concert with the stations’ kick-off of the summer membership drive.                                                                                     

This coming Sunday, July 1^st, the Gunflint Trail Historical Society is holding an open house on the Chik-Wauk Campus to officially un-vale its Water Craft Exhibit Building. The celebration of timber framing by 19 GTHS volunteers will run from 11:00 am until 4:00 pm. Visitors are invited up to inspect, hear stories of the crafting/raising adventure, and learn of what’s to come. Cake and lite beverages will be served.                                                                                                      

Closing for this week, the annual Northshore Health Care Foundation barbeque fundraiser was held last Sunday at Gunflint Lodge. Over seventy generous folks trekked out the Byway on a splendid day, to enjoy swell dining overlooking the ambiance of sparkling Gunflint waters. Thanks to Foundation organizers and the Lodge staff for a delightful event.                                                                                                                                                     
For WTIP, this is Wildersmith, on the Gunflint Trail, where every moment is great, under both bright days and dark sky nights!