Wildersmith on the Gunflint: January 2

Happy New Year everyone! We at Wildersmith hope your holiday season has been peaceful and rewarding.     

So we’re trekking off into 2015 with wishes for renewed efforts toward a more tranquil world and new dreams of prosperity, respect and equality for all. Let’s face it; the past year just hasn’t been a blue ribbon accomplishment for much of civilization, the good old USA included.                                                            

It’s great to be back in Gunflint territory after spending the Christmas week with kids and grandkids In Iowa. Where I was in Iowa, their holiday time was quite springlike with no snow cover, warm temps and off and on rain showers, definitely not winter or Christmassy.                                                                                                                                                 

Those southerly conditions got me a little worried as to whether our winter character might have taken another big meltdown hit while I was away. Needless to say, I was relieved to find the beautiful white landscape pretty much intact as I got to the top of the hill over Grand Marais when returning.                  

Although little precipitation was added during my absence, while keying this week’s scoop this past Monday morning a breath of Old Man Winter sent the mercury skidding to 25 below in this neighborhood.

Guess we are pretty lucky up this way, as the cold season ambience is a sham in many places throughout the northland, especially along the Superior shore. Perhaps Father Winte” will shake loose with some white enhancement as we plow into this New Year. We need more for sure!

Nevertheless, area folks dealing in snow business activities are finding that what we have is enabling visitors to enjoy their time of wafting wood smoke from a cabin stove, cracking sap in frozen trees, whispering air through the pines and screeches from shifting lake ice.                                                                                                                                          

Shortly before the Smith departure southward, our north woods holiday spirit was enriched with a second pre-Christmas concert. And, it occurred right here on the shore at Wildersmith. This serenading expose was not as elegant as the annual Borealis Chorale of early December presented in Grand Marais; nonetheless it favored an impromptu natural expression of border country magic for the season at hand.                                                                                                                                                                               

This choral group featured the Gunflint/Loon Lake wolf pack. Usual howling experiences last only a few precious moments, however this time the performance went on for better part of a half hour. Tenor and bass voices may not have been in perfect harmony, but the spirit of their “moody blues” was one to behold.                                                                                                                         

By coincidence, the timing of this howling experience (Dec. 17) came about on the same night as the Gunflint Lake took on its winter coat. On the breast of new fallen snow and temps well below zero, it almost made one wonder if there might have been a celebratory spiritual connection between ice-on and the canid lupus sing-along.   

Hearing this gathering was so filled with energizing adventure. In spite of not being on the same wave of communication as Brother Wolf, I felt in tune with their “Call of the Wild.”           

On a final note, it is with sadness that I report on the passing of another early Gunflint Trail resident. Lawrence “Woody” Wooding passed away Dec. 11 in Sarasota, Florida. He was 96.         
                                                   
Mr. Wooding was a property owner on East Pope Lake. He lived in what once was the former Gunflint Post Office along County Road #92 during the early 1950s, having purchased the place from then postmaster, George Stapleton, in 1953. Gunflint community condolences are extended to his surviving family.                            

This weekend finds us rejoicing in the Full Wolf/Great Spirit moon (Gichi Manidoo Giizis). It seems implausible we can be celebrating so many happenings all at once; the beginning of a New Year, a full moon, a two-week-old winter season and the topper, receiving the first 2015 seed/plant catalog. This is too much excitement for an old geezer!                                                     

Keep on hangin’ on, and savor this new beginning!