Tuesday, July 14
I don’t have a photo of the cherry walnut muffins we had for
breakfast. I had made the muffins at home and frozen them for the trip. This
was perhaps the first meal we had had where we didn’t overeat. We packed our
fishing gear, including the leeches, into the car to try our luck at some of
the fishing docks scattered through the National Forest. Dave recommended
Kimball Lake and Two Island Lake.
We went to Kimball Lake first. There was a boat landing, but
no fishing dock. The fishing dock was on the next lake over and was infested
with small children.
We unloaded the car back at the boat landing on Kimball
Lake, set up the chairs, and baited the hooks. Not a nibble. Far on the other
side of the lake, we watched a bald eagle soaring. (Disclaimer: all bird
identifications are speculative. It was a long way away. It seemed too dark for
an osprey, but it did behave like one. So it may have been an osprey.) Twice it
tucked its wings and headed for the water, only to pull up at the last minute.
“It can’t find any fish either,” I said.
On the third swoop, it hit the water. As far as we could
tell, however, it emerged empty-taloned.
It was getting to be 11:30. The only food we brought along
was trail mix. I’d eaten my pack before getting my hands leechy. Jane said she
would have to have more to eat than nuts and berries. We went to Grand Marais
and had lunch at Sydney’s. We both had chicken gyros. The pita was excellent.
The gyro was messy, with tomatoes, lettuce, and lots of tzatziki. I lost one
tomato slice to the pavers. It was a tragedy because it was a pretty good
tomato. We had our usual chocolate custard cones for dessert.
We drove to east side of Gunflint Trail winding around by
Devil Track Lake to Pine Tressel Road to get to Pine Lake. The tressel remnants
were still visible as a double row of piles sticking up out of the water from
one side of the lake to the other. The
fishing dock was a supposedly handicapped accessible deck that was 4” above the
road. The “ramp” to get to the deck was about 6” long. I would not have wanted
to pull anybody up that ramp onto the deck, and it would be worse going down.
The surface of the lake was several feet below the deck. If we had caught
anything, our net would have been far too short to do any good.
There were no fish at the fishing dock. Why would they build
a fishing dock where there were no fish? We saw one loon far away. I walked
down to another fishing area that was little more than a wide spot in the road and
sat down on the rocks to see if there were any fish there. A flutter of wings
drew my attention away from the water. I turned slowly around to see a pair of cedar
waxwings eating serviceberries from the bush behind me.
 |
| Cedar Waxwing eating serviceberries |
The last fishing dock we tried was at Two Island Lake. It
was by a very busy boat ramp and also had children running around. We headed
home, taking the backroad up and down Pine Mountain.
I bailed the rowboat when we got home, but as it was getting
to be time for happy hour, we didn’t take it out. It was hot in the sun anyway
and so very pleasant in the shade of the deck. We drank margaritas and enjoyed
the afternoon. The butterbutts tormented me by being visible not quite long
enough for me to get a picture. I finally got a good one after several that
were either out of focus or had no bird in them.
 |
| Yellow-rumped warbler |
A loon danced quite close to us. It had been hidden behind
the trees so that we didn’t see it until it started moving. It moved by pumping
its wings and legs. After it disappeared, loons called and called. “I wonder
what they are saying,” Jane said.
“Four days of rain,” I replied, repeating what Jane had
heard for the forecast before we left.
Jane spotted a loon and a baby far on the other side of the
lake. After a supper of Zupp’s brats on the grill, potato salad, and green
salad, we took our chairs down to the dock to watch the loon and baby.
We played one game of Farkel. I was ahead right up to the
end, when Jane rolled 5 of a kind. The 2000 points put her over 10,000. I was
able to beat her score with my last turn. Finally, I won something!
8:30 is not too early to go to bed.
Wednesday, July 15, 2015
It was one of those mornings when it was hard to tell what
the weather was going to do. The sky was partly cloudy. There was no wind. We
ate eggs with stuff, including one of the leftover bratwurst with bacon and
toast for breakfast and debated what to do. It began to sprinkle, then let up,
then sprinkled again. While Jane did the dishes I took a walk to our dock and
Dave and Nancy’s dock to get a better look at the weather. A good deal of the
sky was blue. The clouds were white and wispy.
“From the way the sky looks, it should not be raining,” I
reported to Jane. I also told her that I had seen the baby loon. I got my
camera and went back to the dock. The baby had both parents with it for a
while.
 |
| Parent loons feeding little fish to the baby. Loon on the right has a fish in its beak. |
The parents both fed the baby small fish. They worked their way around
the edge of the lake toward me. One parent popped up right in front of me and
then disappeared. The baby and the other parent were more wary.
 |
| One parent taking a photo op. |
The baby kept lifting one foot out of the water and waving it around. It was very cute.
 |
| Baby loon waving its foot |
When the loons were beyond my focal distance, I returned to
the cabin. The weather had gotten better. We loaded the fishing gear into the
boat and set out. There were no fish biting along the shore in the main part of
Hungry Jack Lake. We saw a big snapping turtle floating near the boat. Jane
estimated that its shell was at least a foot long. It was camera shy, however,
and dove before I could get a picture. Then we were worried that it would go
after our leeches. Hooking a turtle is not a pleasant experience. It seemed
best to leave the area.
We returned to our cove. Over in one corner, Jane caught a
good-sized (6 or 7”) small mouth bass, and then one that was a little smaller.
These fish were followed by small perch and bluegill. I didn’t mind baiting the
hooks when we caught something now and then.
 |
| The first small-mouth bass Jane caught |
 |
| Representative example of the fish I was catching |
The wind had come up, and we kept blowing away from the good
fishing. Jane put her hook just deep enough in the water to keep the leech wet
while she moved the boat to a better location. A relatively huge bass grabbed
her hook. Did I have the net ready? I did not. As I scrambled to get the net
out of its storage pouch and snap it in the open position, Jane exclaimed, “The
leeches!”
I looked down. I had kicked over the leech locker. Did I
have the lid on the leech locker? I did not. Other than turning the base of the
leech locker upright, I ignored the leeches for the moment and netted the fish,
which was maybe 12 to 14” long. Once the fish was in the boat, I handed Jane
the fish glove (to avoid fishy hands) and said, “You take care of the fish; I
will pick up the leeches.”
Most of the leeches were still in the leech locker. A half
dozen were squirming in the bottom of the boat. It is not easy to pick up
leeches. Just saying. They were either squirming quickly toward any dark area or
had their posterior suckers firmly attached to the bottom of the boat. I went
for the former first and then started prying the latter loose with my
thumbnail. And Jane needed the hemostat to get the hook out of the bass. I took
a break from the leech round-up to dig it out of the fishing bag. I made her
hold the fish until I had all the leeches contained and could get the camera.
 |
| Best fish caught (by Jane) |
What fun we had that morning! The fish were biting; the
flies weren’t. It was not too hot, not too cold, not too sunny, not raining.
Perfect. We ended up sitting in the boat at the end of our dock,
 |
| The cabin and dock with me returning from a bathroom break |
We got our gear into the cabin just as the rain started
again. Perfect timing.
We spent the afternoon driving up the Gunflint Trail. We did
not see any wildlife on our way to the Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature Center. I
noticed a sizeable cement slab near the parking lot and another smaller one up
by the museum. I asked what they were building. The lower building is going to
be a separate nature center and the upper building will be an administrative
office. This will allow them to expand their gift shop area and museum. We were
glad they were doing so well.
This year’s temporary display was called “The Paper Trail.”
It was devoted to everything that was written down along the Gunflint Trail in
the days before computers. The display explained that even telephones were not
used much. Outfitters and lodge owners printed brochures to distribute
information to potential customers. People made their reservations by writing letters. Can you imagine?
For supper, I warmed up the pulled pork barbecue that Jane
had made and frozen before we left. We had that on Abby’s buns with potato
salad and the last of the lettuce. I baked the scones that I had made and
frozen. The refrigerator was getting empty.
We played several games of Farkel. In one of them, Jane had
maintained a substantial lead throughout the game, but the great thing about
Farkel is that one good turn can change the tide. My hope vanished, however, when she rolled a
1-6 straight (1500 points and hot dice, which meant she had to roll all the
dice again), followed by three pairs (1500 points and hot dice), followed by
four of a kind plus a one (1100 points). And with that 4100 points in one turn,
she beat the pants off me. I lost by 7500 points.
My, we were up very late! It was after 9:00 and almost dark
when we went to bed.
No comments:
Post a Comment