Wildersmith on the Gunflint: July 24

Gunflint area atmospheric conditions remain on the sticky side as I commence with this week's scoop. Rain has been on the scant side since my last scribing and back country roads not treated chemically swirl with vehicular dust storms at every passing.

Summer is now officially a month old as we pass this fourth of five Fridays in month seven. The many Gunflint Community events of the past month have kept a lot of folks so busy, July has slipped away, barely being noticed. Although a few more special Gunflint events are on tab in a couple weeks, the area gets a brief break to just slow down and enjoy the magic of tromping out in the green forest, canoeing or fishing sky blue waters, berry harvesting, catching a critter adventure or continuing the process of “getting ready for winter.”

Mosquitoes must be reloading somewhere because they have lessened their onslaught around here, at least for the time being. This has enabled me to stop procrastinating on a few summer projects from my pre-winter check list. With five structures to maintain, keeping up with preservation is ongoing. Thus I have begun staining one side of each building in the second year of a four year sequence. You just gotta love it!

Speaking of berry harvesting, those collecting gurus have rung the picking bell. Reports confirm the crop is less abundant than in the past few years. However, the first batch I saw in a serving bowl was deep blue and scrumptious as ever. Since the blue pearl crop is apparently not a bucket buster, a real battle could be shaping up between bear and mankind to get their fill. Pickers will want to be leery of “Brunos” who may not be so willing to share a sparse patch. This time of year usually finds Ursa confined to blues picking, but our meager fruit crop could have implications for increased traffic around areas of human inhabitance. All should beware of the necessity to be good housekeepers so as to not tempt the hungry critters into becoming troublesome.

I don’t know if recent bear looting up near the end of the Trail was caused by a lack of berry opportunities, but several repetitions of breaking and entering resulted in considerable damage to properties and scares to people. Eventually this annoying animal had to be dispatched to the “great hunting ground in the wild blue.” This is unfortunate, if in fact, we two-legged beings carelessly provided this four-legged animal with favorable circumstances for criminal activity.

Hummingbird traffic to area nectar stations is back on track. After probable nesting hiatus, the mini-drones are a blur both landing and taking off from our sweetness jar at Wildersmith. It’s obvious they must possess the most intricate global positioning system in the universe to be able to avoid mid-air collisions with not only each other and on occasion, yours truly, but also countless stationary obstacles is beyond wonder.

Speaking of more Gunflint wonders, The Gunflint Community and many others from around the county stepped up big time at last week's annual canoe races event. A final tally of proceeds in support of the Trail Volunteer Fire and Rescue crews counted a record net of slightly over $23,000. What a tremendous effort by all involved! Another congrats and thanks to everyone!

This is Fred Smith, at Wildersmith, on the Trail -- enjoy the peak of summer along the Gunflint!

(Photo by Cynthia Zullo on Flickr)