Wildersmith on the Gunflint: October 24

Pre-winter has been playing tag with autumn since our last meeting. The upper Trail has experienced samples of both, with snow and cold sandwiched in between a few great days. Yours truly actually made a winter declaration last Saturday.

My self-established criteria for declaring such is realized when the daytime temp at Wildersmith fails to rise above the freezing mark.                                                                                                                                                 

Although things turned for the better a day later, the first snow that stuck around here lasted throughout the day and into the next evening in spite of midday sunshine. And in shaded areas, ice on deck boards and in a bird watering shell told of the chill.  Thus, my pronouncement!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

The Friday night/Saturday morning wind-driven snow all but finished the leaf fall in most places with only tamarack needles still clinging to their summer perches. We’ve advanced to the haunting time of year when uncountable deciduous skeletons are lurking overhead.                              

Now we can see into the depths of the forest for the first time in a few months.  It looks as if those scraggy branches could reach out and whisk one off into this muted eerie thicket. How appropriate that Halloween time is sneaking into the shadows.                                                               

One of the many bears of the territory came back to Wildersmith in the past week. I don’t know whether or not it was the same one I ran off Sunday before last.                                                            

Whatever the case, this time Bruno snuck into the yard while we were away and apparently became belligerent at finding no munchies around. The grumpy one attempted an ascent into one of my apple trees and in so doing broke off a sizeable portion, probably for maybe no good reason other than to get even with me. There was not one apple produced this season to tempt its sweet tooth.                                                                                                                               

This episode is just one of countless other damaging encounters along our Gunflint south shore this fall. One gal tells of tossing a skillet at one of her brawny visitors, hitting it in the head, only to have it turn and hiss at her before ambling off. Other stories have been shared of doors and windows being torn open, refrigerators being overturned and several places ransacked.                                                                                                                                                                 

Guess we can consider ourselves fortunate as bear visitations have not turned into dangerous people confrontations. To encourage our marauding sloths to turn in for their long winter’s nap, we need some serious cold!                                                                                                                                                               

During my recent rambles around the territory, I’ve had occasion to see a number of snowshoe hares. All have been caught in early stages of seasonal re-dress. Most look as though they’ve pulled on white socks or in few cases, the more advanced have just slipped into their PJ bottoms. I don’t know if this wardrobe exchange is early or not, but this lagomorph transformation is intriguing.                                                                                                                                                                   
I recently read of another old wives tale in regard to winter weather prognosticating. The source gives notice that increased activity of spiders seeking indoor quarters is a sure sign of a bitter cold winter ahead.                                                                                                                                                                           

At Wildersmith, it seems as though we’ve had an inordinate number of spiders creeping around the place so far this fall. That being the case, we’ll see if the arachnids’ connection with forecasting has any substance. Since human forecasters are offering a much different prediction for this part of the country, we’ll assess the spinner projection come spring.                                                        

In the meantime, it would seem hard to match our previous season siege.  Remember we had nearly 100 days where the Wildersmith morning mercury registered below zero, brr!                                                                                                                        

Keep on hangin’ on, and savor the peace of a region gone quiet!