Wildersmith on the Gunflint: January 9

Whereas the last Segment of 2014 was pretty meek weather-wise, the first week of the New Year has seen winter step up on the Gunflint. Our first weekend of January brought out the best cold season character so far.     

In fact, the romance of a spectacular north woods night was never more eminent than this past Sunday. A dashing touch of new white, calm, biting cold air and a caress of “full” lunar luminance were just plain spell-binding.

About all that could have been added to the charisma of these semi-dark hours would have been a blessing from the Aurora Borealis. They could have possibly occurred, but the crystal heavens were so lit up that the usual “northern lights” were most likely not of their dazzling brilliance. This nocturnal segment was a poet's dream!  

From mid-trail on out, anywhere from six to about twelve inches of snow was deposited Friday night into Saturday. Here at Wildersmith the count was slightly over eight inches.    

As the snowfall ended, Sunday and Monday mornings saw the mercury follow suit, dropping to the coldest lows of the season. Depending upon one's location along the byway, temps dipped to anywhere from the low twenties to low thirties below the nothing mark. At the Smith place our Sunday low hit minus thirty-two (actual temperature) and then thirty-six below come Monday. 

In spite of the cold instances this past weekend, there is still some alarm about ice thickness on our Gunflint Gal. Insomuch as most area lakes have twelve inches and upwards, the ice on Gunflint has both safe ice of up to twelve inches and several unsafe thin areas that taper down to about two to four. Of course no one knows for sure exactly where and how far the unsafe areas extend. So it would be a good bet for those traversing the Gunflint to stay in close proximity to shore.  

The weekend weather turned out to be extraordinarily realistic for the running of the Gunflint Mail Run Dog Sled race. Bitter cold and fresh, deep snow harkened back to “earlier Gunflint times” adding modern day authenticity to the colorful event.   

Congratulations and thanks to organizers, sponsors, handlers and of course, to the stars of the show, those dogs and their brave mushers for this historical re-enactment of travel from our wilderness past.     
 
Although the hunting season for the two-legged stalkers of white tails has ended, the hunt goes on with wolves of the Gunflint Lake neighborhoods. A couple deer provided fast food opportunities for the local “pack” down around Gunflint Lodge recently. Further, about everyone I’ve talked to lately tells of some wolf howling experience during darkness hours.    

A neighbor down from me on the Mile O Pine took part in a howl-along from his deck with the iconic critters last Friday evening. Guess the pack was quite cordial in responding to his solo contributions. How about that for a wilderness experience!  

Speaking of white tails, we at Wildersmith were surprised recently with the return of an old “deer” friend. This wild pal had been hanging out around here each of the past few years, but was late on arrival this season.   

Thinking “Notch” might have succumbed to either of the two stalking groups mentioned above we were delighted when this big fellow showed. By the way, his given moniker is based on the feature of a large notch having been taken out of one ear. I can only suspect it occurred with the point of a combatant's antler while doing battle to show his manhood.

Keep on hangin’ on , and savor the pleasure of peace in the north country!