Wildersmith June 3

Gunflint welcomes the month of the strawberry moon.  For the moose and me, the greeting is with trepidation due to the recent hot humid days along the Trail. Further, the thought of sticky repetitions during weeks to come makes us break into a nervous sweat.

Week one of the sixth refrain in 2010 finds the territory still wanting for rain. A brief shower last Sunday did nothing more than make mud spots of the dusty accumulation on resident vehicles. At Wildersmith, the eight one-hundredths is the only wet blemish in three weeks.

Lake water temps have risen rapidly in the past 10 days while levels continue to quietly diminish in the arid conditions. At our mid-lake dock, the water is hanging in the mid 60s. This is already getting close to last year’s high of 76. I’ve had several reports of swimmers testing the waters during the long Memorial Day weekend.

June is certainly busting out all over. It’s a bloomin’ paradise as the first, wild roses of summer have popped to attention along backcountry roads. And, although not pleasing to some northern folks, the purple spires of lupine are beginning their summer takeover amongst patches of columbine and those diminutive forget-me-nots. So although there have been no rainbows in the heavens, there is plenty of heaven right here on earth.

The annual Memorial Day weekend fundraiser at YMCA Camp Menogyn seemed to be another huge success. When the Smiths arrived, the grand lodge was literally stuffed with people, pancakes and pork. It was a sparkling day cruising across the lake to the festivities at the camp. Everyone must have gotten their fill as the trip back found the pontoon seemingly sitting lower in the crystal water. Thanks to everyone who supported the event.
 
I don’t have numbers on another weekend event along the Trail, but there sure was a lot of activity up and down the byway with the big garage sale. It had to be like heaven to treasure hunters as almost every mile or turn in the road found a place to explore new/used belongings.

Recently, a gal down the road was in peaceful slumber. Unexpectedly, there rose such a clatter she sprang from her bed, to see what was the matter. She heard banging and bumping while heading downstairs, proceeding to close all the windows and batten down the hatches.

The sudden realization came to her that she had not taken in the bird feeder that was hanging off her second story deck. Turning on outside lights and looking about she found the feeder to be missing, and there was “Bruno” trying to climb down to fetch its treasure.

After three tries at coming down head first, it turned around and came partway backwards before finally falling onto the lower deck. This was a yearling, and it must be the same one that has made several bad decisions this spring, which resulted in at least two more deck-side tumbles.

Unhurt, the burly cub refused to depart in spite of any number of noisemaking attempts by the nervous human inside. After an hour and a half of scarfing up sunflower seeds and sitting for a rest on the cabin step, the unassuming bear left looking for another nutritional adventure.

The interesting part of this happening is that the bear actually scaled the side of the house to steal its treasure from the second story deck. We all know what good tree/pole climbers the ursus can be, but shinnying up the side of a house, this is a new one…must have had a good set of spikes!

Keep on hangin’ on, and savor a story from the forest!