North Shore Weekend

Wildersmith on the Gunflint     by     Fred Smith
May 1, 2020    

After April seemed like two or three months crammed into one, Gunflint territory has made it to May. We all welcome month five with hope for more lives saved and lessening complexities of overwhelming suffering and sadness.                                                                                               

May in the northland is when memories of the past six months fade, and verdant realities are within our sight.                                                                                                                                                    

A confirmation of warmth along the Mile O Pine and all around the area is displayed with about a 50/50 split between bare earth and dingy snow. The power of “Sol” has taken a big bite out of winter remains over the past few days. Although friends out hiking recently raved of bare Trails, they still had to navigate thigh deep snow a time or two during their trek along the border route.                                                                                                                                                                               
Simultaneously the sun has been gnawing at lake ice cover. I’m told the far west end is opening at the Cross River Bridge, but there’s about eighteen inches of frozen stuff at least from mid-lake near Wildersmith, and on to the east sand beach. There was even snowmobile traffic by the place as recent as last weekend.                                                                                                                                                                      

I’ve been thinking, ice-out on the Gunflint might not happen before the May 9 fishing opener. If the recent warmth hangs on, this idea might need re-consideration. I heard one local has predicted the 12th. We’ll see!  In 2019, ice departed Gunflint Lake the day walleye chasing commenced.               
                                                                                                                                                                   
Here in the yard, the gap between the house and the nearest snow bank has expanded to about three feet, allowing the green sprouts of Squill and Rhubarb to take advantage of soaking up warm rays. It’s May for sure and the month of the Ojibwe, “budding flowers” moon will shine down on us before we meet again!                                                                                                                                                                

In contrast, 20 feet away, nearly a foot of snow remains on my shaded woodshop roof. While in another direction, the woodshed has melted off the three foot mass of just three weeks ago. It just goes to show how much strength the gaseous solar ball emits.                                   

Happy days in the woods are here again as numerous moose sightings have been reported. Yours truly had not observed any for several months during the winter, but have observed three in the past weeks. Others have reported seeing a foursome in one location along with more single viewings.                                                                                                                                    

On the smaller side of our “wild animal kingdom”, chippies have emerged from winter quarters, making me wonder if the Bruno population and other hibernators have made any residential stops along the byway. If anyone has a sighting to report, I’d enjoy hearing such.                                                                                        

Another report came to me from a fellow down the road telling of a visit from one of those masked bandits. It’s not the first time a raccoon has been seen along the Trail, but is still somewhat unusual.                                                                                                                                                                   
The presence of one, ring-tail, likely means potential for an invasion over time. They are not the nicest critters to have around, for any number of reasons. While there’s a reason for every being of the forest, I kind of equate their popularity with the equivalence of a skunk, rattlesnake or alligator. How do they get up this far north, I wonder? I’ll bet they are hooking a ride on the trucks of those sweet corn peddlers from down south in the summer.                                                                                                                                                                                         

As the delayed opening of the Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature Center was announced last week, I mentioned planning is underway to create a virtual campus. Funding for developing, online programs, presentations and a virtual museum is needed. All of this programming falls outside of the yearly GTHS/CW budget, and is absent support revenue coming through the gates. The virtual Campus will assist in keeping staff employed and community members/far away visitors connected until Chik-Wauk is open again.                                                            

The COVID-19 battle continues eating away at America, both physically and emotionally. All are encouraged to work harder at being patient and prudent in the push to regain a degree of normalcy. Our behavior to stay safe and at the same time protect others remains critical.                                                                     

In the words of iconic actress, Julie Andrews, try just “standing still a moment” during a time of frustration or disgust, before jumping into endangering situations!  You know, “everybody matters”!                                                                                                                                                       
For WTIP, this is Wildersmith, on the Gunflint Trail, where every day is great, and each always counts, as special!
 

Wildersmith on the Gunflint by Fred Smith

May 1, 2020

After April seemed like two or three months crammed into one, Gunflint territory has made it to May. We all welcome month five with hope for more lives saved and lessening complexities of overwhelming suffering and sadness.

May in the northland is when memories of the past six months fade, and verdant realities are within our sight.

A confirmation of warmth along the Mile O Pine and all around the area is displayed with about a 50/50 split between bare earth and dingy snow. The power of “Sol” has taken a big bite out of winter remains over the past few days. Although friends out hiking recently raved of bare Trails, they still had to navigate thigh deep snow a time or two during their trek along the border route.

Simultaneously the sun has been gnawing at lake ice cover. I’m told the far west end is opening at the Cross River Bridge, but there’s about eighteen inches of frozen stuff at least from mid-lake near Wildersmith, and on to the east sand beach. There was even snowmobile traffic by the place as recent as last weekend.

I’ve been thinking, ice-out on the Gunflint might not happen before the May 9th fishing opener. If the recent warmth hangs on, this idea might need re-consideration. I heard one local has predicted the twelfth. We’ll see! In 2019, ice departed Gunflint Lake the day walleye chasing commenced.

Here in the yard, the gap between the house and the nearest snow bank has expanded to about three feet, allowing the green sprouts of Squill and Rhubarb to take advantage of soaking up warm rays. It’s May for sure and the month of the Ojibwe, “budding flowers” moon will shine down on us before we meet again!

In contrast, twenty feet away, nearly a foot of snow remains on my shaded woodshop roof. While in another direction, the woodshed has melted off the three foot mass of just three weeks ago. It just goes to show how much strength the gaseous solar ball emits.

Happy days in the woods are here again as numerous moose sightings have been reported. Yours truly had not observed any for several months during the winter, but have observed three in the past weeks. Others have reported seeing a foursome in one location along with more single viewings.

On the smaller side of our “wild animal kingdom”, chippies have emerged from winter quarters, making me wonder if the Bruno population and other hibernators have made any residential stops along the byway. If anyone has a sighting to report, I’d enjoy hearing such.

Another report came to me from a fellow down the road telling of a visit from one of those masked bandits. It’s not the first time a raccoon has been seen along the Trail, but is still somewhat unusual.

The presence of one, ring-tail, likely means potential for an invasion over time. They are not the nicest critters to have around, for any number of reasons. While there’s a reason for every being of the forest, I kind of equate their popularity with the equivalence of a skunk, rattlesnake or alligator. How do they get up this far north, I wonder? I’ll bet they are hooking a ride on the trucks of those sweet corn peddlers from down south in the summer.

As the delayed opening of the Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature Center was announced last week, I mentioned planning is underway to create a virtual Campus.

Funding for developing, on-line programs, presentations and a virtual museum is needed. All of this programming falls outside of the yearly GTHS/CW budget, and is absent support revenue coming through the gates. The virtual Campus will assist in keeping staff employed and community members/far away visitors connected until Chik-Wauk is open again. Any contributions to help would be greatly appreciated. To offer underwriting assistance, go to… gunflinttrailhistoricalsociety.org/join.php, or send a contribution to GTHS, 28 Moose Pond Drive, Grand Marais, MN 55604.

The COVID-19 battle continues eating away at America, both physically and emotionally. All are encouraged to work harder at being patient and prudent in the push to regain a degree of normalcy. Our behavior to stay safe and at the same time protect others remains critical.

In the words of iconic actress, Julie Andrews, try just “standing still a moment” during a time of frustration or disgust, before jumping into endangering situations! You know, “everybody matters”!

For WTIP, this is Wildersmith, on the Gunflint Trail, where every day is great, and each always counts, as special!

In this edition of North Woods Naturalist, Chel Anderson talks about the on and off again spring we've been experiencing over the past few weeks.

NORTHERN SKI – Deane Morrison
April 25-May 8 2020

In late April and early May, we get to watch Venus sink into the sun’s afterglow. To see our sister planet at its best and brightest, we have to wait for a dark sky, and this time of year the sun is going down later each night. And the longer we wait, the lower Venus gets. 

On Saturday, April 25, a waxing crescent moon appears below Venus and next to Aldebaran, the eye of Taurus, the bull. The next night, Sunday, April 26, a fatter moon appears at about the same level as Venus. Both these solar system objects will be between Betelgeuse, the gigantic red star in Orion, to the lower left, and Capella, the brightest star in Auriga, the charioteer, to the upper right. On the 27th and 28th, the moon moves through the stars of Gemini. On May 1st, the moon is just past first quarter, and it appears above Regulus, the brightest star in Leo, the lion. The moon will also be part of the backward question mark of stars known as the Sickle, which outlines Leo’s head. The moon may wash out the stars of the Sickle, but they’ll be easier to find in several days, after the moon has moved on. Between the 4th and 5th of May, the moon passes over Spica, the brightest star in Virgo, the maiden. 

May’s full moon arrives at 5:45 a.m. on the 7th. It’ll be big and bright, another supermoon. You might want to look for it the night before or the night after, even though it’ll be somewhere around half a day before or past full. If you go out the morning of the 7th to see it at its roundest, be advised that from Grand Marais the moon sets, in the west, at 5:59 a.m. 

The morning sky continues to brighten earlier and earlier, turning into some kind of insomniac’s wonderland. These days you really have to get out by 5 a.m. to see Jupiter, that’s the big bright light in the southeast, and especially Saturn and Mars, before sunlight starts extinguishing them. If you haven’t been following them, Saturn is not far to the left, that is, east, of Jupiter, and Mars is even farther away to the east, and lower. You may notice Mars getting higher from day to day, but the more noticeable change is Saturn and Jupiter moving westward. As the month progresses, the gap between Mars and Saturn gets really wide. 

The Summer Triangle of bright stars is also up in the predawn sky. Above Jupiter and Saturn is Altair, in Aquila, the eagle. Moving up from Altair, we have the brightest star in the Triangle, Vega, in the constellation Lyra, the lyre of Orpheus. And moving down from Vega and a bit east, there’s Deneb, in Cygnus the swan. Also, the Milky Way forms a ribbon stretching from south to northeast. 

The end of April and beginning of May have some good dates for spotting the International Space Station in the morning sky. The sightings run from April 26 to May 1. The most spectacular will probably be the last one, on May 1, when the ISS makes its appearance at 4:32 a.m.,18 degrees above the southwest horizon. It’ll be bright and visible for four minutes, and it gets as high as 60 degrees, or two-thirds of the way to overhead. For a list of the exact dates and times near Grand Marais, search for “spot the station,” click on “sighting opportunities,” go to the map of Minnesota and click on the Grand Portage National Monument icon. 

Superior National Forest Update with Steve Robertsen.
April 24, 2020

Chel Anderson is a botanist and plant ecologist and she joins us periodically to report on what she’s seeing in our woods and waters right now.

Superior National Forest Update with Information and Education Specialist, Steve Robertsen.
April 10, 2020

 Wildersmith on the Gunflint     by     Fred Smith
April 10, 2020   
 
The shoulder season for Trail businesses is in full swing as the super, Ojibwe, “maple sugar” moon passed over the Gunflint this past Tuesday evening. While the Gunflint winter has its special ambiance of natural calm, this time of year always reflects a void of human activity due to meltdown, but now is compounded with strategies of staying away from one another.                                                                             

The Territory did have a visitor last weekend, arriving in spite of the stay at home order. In a surprise appearance, “old man winter” stopped by for a couple days. It turns out our first shower of April was of the white variety. A couple inches decked out the forest in several places, and hung around as morning temps took on a February feel for about forty-eight hours.                                                               

The happening probably had a few folks growling, but the beauty of a fresh snow perks up border country anytime, regardless of the time of year. While snow has a way of covering the ugliness of winters’ retreat, conditions have since returned to the spring swing in the past few days.                                                                                                                                                                                 
I would guess maple syrup and sugaring processors are busier than beavers now, Daytime temps have been warming quickly to open up the sap run after below freezing nights with regularity both before and since the weekend winter spell.                                                                                                                                                                           
As I view the forest out my window, the winter carpet has diminished to about a foot where not drifted. Its luxurious ivory plush is now stained by trillions of windblown canopy droppings. Muddy foot print paths left by my red rodent pals are all that remains from trails of nighttime visitors. Such curious tracks have simply evaporated to oblivion.                                                           
Looking through the forest down toward the lake, the icy scene remains. Unpredictable as many things are right now, forecasting ice out is the least of our worries. In all likelihood, the crystal layer will be gone long before our lives can return to whatever is normal. I have observed some tannin spots on some of the wetland swamps along the Trail, so “hope springs eternal.”                                                                                                                                                 
From another window, familiar “wild neighborhood” faces streak up and down the food trough rail snitching a bite here and there just steps ahead of being a nutritional element themselves. For some un-explained reason, pine marten traffic has picked up considerably of late, keeping the squirrel population and blue jay flock on edge.                                                           
Speaking of those jay bird bullies, I find it interesting how each seems to have a unique style of shelling kernels from the cobs I provide. While intended for the squirrels, the jays are just too much for the little red critters. Their styles vary from pecking a layer around the cob; to stripping a row from top to bottom (like pecking down a row of letters on a key board); to snarfing morsels in a downward spiral pattern; and everything in between. Regardless of the pecking style, the cobs are generally cleaned in a matter of minutes.                                                                                     
Meanwhile, the foxy gal that was a frequent visitor for several months has turned up AWOL. It might be possible she could be in a motherly way by now and doesn’t venture too far from her kits. It sure would be cute if she would show up someday to let me see her family, if that’s her situation.                                                                                                                                                                             
I’m still not hearing of bear activity. Then again, with Gunflinter’s so focused on staying free of COVID, the “moccasin telegraph” just might not be ticking as usual. On the other hand, perhaps momma bears changed plans after looking out to see a good deal of snow still on the ground. This doesn’t account for pappas though. Guess the day of Ursus appearnces will come sooner than later.                                                                                                                                                                           
As predicted last week, the willows are popping their fuzzy buds in any number of sunny locales. Good thing they had their wooly coats on during the frigid weekend past.                                     
For WTIP, this is Wildersmith, on the Gunflint Trail, where every day is great! Keep those masks up, keep your distance and stay well. Family and friends are counting on you! 

Chel Anderson is a botanist and plant ecologist and she joins us periodically to report on what she’s seeing in our woods and waters right now.