Summer Starts

Yesterday, June 1st, must have been the start of summer. We held our first staff meeting at 6:30 a.m. on the patio in front of the lodge. Curtis and Don had been up early to prepare some meat, egg and cheese sandwiches for an early morning snack. Everyone was warmly dress. All the managers had a bit to say. The best part of the morning was just looking at it. The sky was pure blue. The lake was a mirror. Towards the end of the meeting a flock of geese in a perfect “V” flew overhead.


Everything about the meeting reminded me of a story that Lee told about his summer working in a large hotel on a fiord in Norway. They also had a beginning of the summer staff meeting. Lee said he could have run the meeting himself. He told us that they said the same things Bruce always said.

Fishing has been really good. Both Jon Schei and Adam Treeful have been out with guides on a daily basis. Walleyes and lake trout are coming in with them at the end of the day. There are also numerous bass and northern that are returned to the lake. The kitchen has been busy preparing many of these fish for a guest’s dinner. All of it goes to point out how important the word “fresh” is when talking about eating fish. Those fish coming out of the kitchen are wonderful beyond belief and fresh has a lot to do with it. Not that are cooks don’t do a great job. Fresh also has a lot to do the immensely popular shore lunch.

My garden is getting close to being finished. In the last two days I have planted basil, parsley and broccoli. These I buy in flats of the small plants. We use so much in the lodge kitchen that I can’t grow enough fast enough. The rhubarb and chives are now producing enough to supply the lodge. The asparagus is also producing but only enough for my kitchen table, sorry. Bruce spent quite a bit of time cleaning up this raspberry patch this spring. Although leaves are popping out all over, we don’t expect a bumper crop there until next summer.

As I said at the beginning, the sky is blue and the lake is calm. Our water level has stopped rising. One of the big feeders of Saganaga Lake is the Granite River which flows from Gunflint to Saganaga. Once our water stops rising it takes about one more week before Sag stops rising. Ralph Griffis who used to own Chik-Wauk Lodge would call and ask in his gracious voice, “Sue, has Gunflint stopped rising yet?”

Finally let me give you a view of Lonely Lake from the top of the canopy tour tower. Bruce, Don, Sheryl and I took a walk up there yesterday afternoon. John Silliman will also be able to use this tower for his naturalist activities when the canopy tour is not running. It will really be a multipurpose area.