Superior National Forest Update - July 13, 2018

Hi. I’m Renee Frahm, Visitor Information Specialist, with this week’s edition of the National Forest Update - information on conditions affecting travel and recreation on the Tofte and Gunflint Districts of the Superior National Forest. We’ve had a lot of warm weather recently, and with that people are headed out to the water more than usual. Living on and visiting the North Shore, we are all familiar with life at the lake. So, it’s a good time of year to review the basics. We want your summer and your vacation to be stress-free.

The first basic rule for boating or canoeing is to wear your life jacket. Life jackets do you no good if they are just sitting in the boat. The best time to put on your life jacket is before you need it. I know a lot of us have had the experience of being in a canoe or boat in wind or waves thinking, “I probably should have my life jacket on.” And, you were right. You probably should have had it on. Whenever you have children around water, always make sure they have a life vest on that fits them properly. I saw a very small child fall off a dock last week and luckily he had a vest on and his family was close enough to fish him out of the water within a minute or so. It was scary. Dogs can also knock children into the water from a dock or from the shore if they get excited to see a duck or an otter swim by. At least I know my dog would. Always keep an eye on those little ones around water.

The second basic rule is if your canoe does tip over, stay with it. It will float even with water in it and it is your ticket home. Don’t worry about finding your gear. Packs will generally float, and you can search for them later along the shore. Your life is more valuable than what you had in that pack. Your main task is to get to shore so you can dry off. Even in midsummer, our lakes are cold enough to cause hypothermia after exposure. Find your paddles if they are visible, but you can actually hand paddle a partly submerged canoe. This is actually a pretty fun activity to try ahead of time – teaching your family how to swamp a canoe and how to get back in it or right it in the water. You can even make it a game and have ‘no paddle canoe races’ for learning how to deal with canoes that tip over.

Another part of life at the lake and boating is dealing with aquatic invasive species. The rule is ‘Clean, Drain, and Dry’. Following that rule should become as automatic as putting on the life jacket. The idea is to not spread harmful organisms from one lake to another, and we can do that by cleaning our boats and trailers after taking them from the lake, draining bilges, your bait buckets, and live wells, and drying off your boat and trailer. The recommendation is to let equipment dry for five days, or as best you can.
Many Minnesotans are familiar with this when fishing with a trailered motorboat, but don’t realize the rules apply equally to canoes and kayaks. Flip your canoe or kayak over when you exit the lake and dump all the water out of it. Dry it as best you can before putting it on your roof racks or heading down the portage trail. Dump leftover bait, except worms, where they will die – it is tempting to be nice to minnows and release them into the lake, but don’t do that unless you caught them in that lake. Worms are not an aquatic invasive, however, they are non-native and have been shown to have major negative effects on our forests. We are lucky that our forests don’t have a large worm population and we’d like to keep it that way. The state and counties take invasives very seriously with inspectors stationed at random boat landings through the summer to help educate boaters. There is also the possibility of fines for people who are not taking it seriously enough.

All this being said about being at the lake, you’ll have to drive to get to a boat landing. Forest roads are in pretty decent shape this week. Watch for trucks hauling on the Dumbell River Road, Trappers Lake Road, Carlton Pit Road, Greenwood and Old Greenwood, Shoe Lake, Firebox, and Ward Lake Roads, Cook County 39, Cook County 60, and the Springdale Road. Have fun at the lake, whichever lake that is, and until next week, this has been Renee Frahm with the National Forest Update.