Wednesday Noonish

I see on the last blog I got my days switched around. It’s Wednesday morning now and I am going home. The car is packed. Noon is the magic time and I will probably be a little early. We’ll have to make another trip to get everything but that’s OK. I will try to write tomorrow, however, it may take a little time to get the computer up and running.

This morning I talked with Lee. He says that we will be up and running on Friday, May 18th. All the cabins will be ready and food will be served in the bistro.

So what will you see at Gunflint? On the way up the Trail there is one place where the fire crossed near Mayhew Lake. It will be black but probably not for too big an area. I haven’t seen it myself but that is what I have been told.

Once you get to Gunflint, it will be difficult to see any effects of the fire. All our hiking and horseback riding trails in the back basin are untouched. Nothing was burned around the buildings. We were very, very lucky.

If you look across the lake, it will be burned on the north shore from the narrows to the east. Right now that will be black but within a short time it will start to green up. We have an opportunity to watch a forest renew itself. It wasn’t something we picked but let’s make the most of it. I remember some years back when Yellowstone National Park had a huge fire. It was changed but people still love to visit it.

This year we will be out looking for morel mushrooms. Our variety come out after a fire and are delicious. At Byerley’s in the Twin Cities the dried ones sell for $20 an ounce. Bruce and I plan on eating high on these mushrooms. Next year there will be wild raspberries all over and the year after wild blueberries. Trust us, we will be making the most of these treasures.

One of our neighbors expressed how we all feel when he said, “The loons are still singing and the fish are in the lake.”