Back to My Old Self

I know that you will all be shocked to see this but I am back to blog writing. Most of this comes with the fact that I feel good and am my own self again. Also the people down at Mayo said they don’t want to see me anymore which is a relief.


Summer has flown by and there have been lots of interesting parts to it. For me the reports of wildlife sightings are always unbelievable. It doesn’t seem like there were so many sightings years ago but here are now. My friend Marcia from the Mile O’ Pines Road had a small group of 4 pileated woodpeckers fly across her yard and land on the nearby tree. I love the way they glide up and down as they fly by.

Marcia also told me about seeing a mother loon and on water with 3 babies. I have never heard about one with that many. The mother just stretched out her wing so the babies could walk up onto her back. Again I never thought about how they got up there.

Cats have been sighted on this side of Gunflint. At the end of the Mile O’ Pine Road there was a lynx hanging around for a time. Then one of our sky guides at the canopy tour saw one cross the outfitters parking lot one morning ten days ago. It was so fast that he didn’t know if it was a lynx or an immature mountain lion. Don saw the paw print and said it was huge. I can attest to the fact that there are lots of rabbits around for them to eat. The rabbits ate all my broccoli this summer.

Fishing has been very good this year. One big help is that the guides have been able to get into North Lake this summer. The past couple years the water has been too low so all the fish have had two more years to grow. Lake trout from North Lake have been spectacular! Walleyes have been good too.

The canopy/zip line tour has been very successful. We open it on July 4th and people just keep on coming. Some of guests even ride it twice. Neighbors along the road are bringing their guests to join them on a ride. People from the North Shore and even Ely are calling for reservations. The nice part is that the zip line is located on the south end of our property so that you really don’t see it when you drive in or are down by the waterfront.

Of course, we got our share of the hot weather in July and August. It has cooled off now to warm fall temperatures. This is without a doubt my favorite time of year. The colors are starting to come out. The birch trees are turning down.

It really hasn’t been cool enough for a fire in the fireplace yet but you can be sure that I will have one the first night it cools down enough. There is nothing better than combining the rain coming down, the wind in the trees and a crackling fire.

I’ll report in again next week.