New additions of all sorts

Hello Again!
When I made the last post, I had not yet seen the Big Black Bear that has been leaving evidence of its midnight roams of the property. The other night, though, I got to see her. Sitting on the dock with a friend in the wee hours of the morning, she came out of the dock house… followed by two cubs. It was a really special thing to see! They walked over to the lodge, babies following their mother, and then all three of them climbed the cedar tree on the back patio. The mom then came down and started to forage for food, which was about the time that we snuck by the lodge and went to bed. I will admit that I was pretty scared—mothers with their cubs can be very aggressive. I wouldn’t suggest walking around alone at night, and if you see Big Momma Black Bear and her cubs, be sure to give them plenty of space- and remember that wild animals are always unpredictable.

There is also a couple other additions the the wildlife that hangs around the lodge-- two families of loons that live on our west end of the lake now have babies: two each. They are sooo cute; just little brown balls of fluff that follow their parents around. The mallards also have babies. One mother duck had nine ducklings that are hanging out on the beach next to the dock.

The other day we did our first run of a new craft activity—the Birch Bark Sampler. It consists of birch bark postcards (which actually go through the mail), birch bark picture frames, and birch bark bookmarks. Everyone who came got really creative. Everything they made was spectacular, and I think everyone had a really good time (as you can tell from the photo).

This second photo shows a group of women from Adventures in Good Company, an organization that gets together adventurous women and organizes vacations for them. I took them out to Magnetic Rock, where we found blueberries already (that was awesome). It is especially interesting to take that hike because it is one of the areas that recently burned in the Ham Lake Fire. You wouldn’t believe how green it is already. You can see that a little from the photo. One thing is for sure: the view of magnetic rock is now much less obstructed.

I’m going to continue taking photos from around the lodge and outfitters, so that everyone who’s not up on the trail can see what’s going on. I also just think that photos can add a lot to posts.

The lodge now has a new patio, and between family reunions and weddings, it’s getting a lot of use. It’s beautiful. While I don’t know what the previous deck/patio looked like, I know that this one is a great outdoor addition so people can sit and gaze at the lake.

It’s strange how living up here in the woods seems to get to you. I am getting more and more used to being surrounded by few buildings and a lot of trees, and having bears and moose as neighbors. While it is nice to spend time in town, Grand Marais is seeming more and more like a Duluth than a tiny tourist town. Slowly, I miss the woods more and more whenever I leave them for town. It’s like the woods are getting inside me and taking over. Even the bugs seem to be biting me less and less. Speaking of bugs--

The bug report: black flies and noseeums seem to be past their peak, but mosquitoes are getting just slightly worse than they were. Still, they’re not too bad. Sitting on the dock at sunset is still pleasant as ever.