Boundary Waters Day 6

Wednesday, July 20

I was just about to get up at 5:30 when I heard Jane walking around. “I thought I’d get up today instead of going back to sleep,” she declared. “It’s such a nice quiet time of day.”

Jane and I drank our coffee and tea, respectively, in companionable silence. She read, and I caught up my journal, as was my habit first thing in the morning while I usually waited for her to get up. The loons called frequently, which is sometimes a harbinger of rain. Rain was forecasted, but to all appearances it was another beautiful, calm day.

When I went to my room to get dressed, the sun was not only shining through my window but also reflecting off the car. The reflection made a pattern of leaves on the wall that reminded me of Japanese art.

The reflection of the sun off the car parked outside made a picture of leaves on my bedroom wall

We had blueberry pancakes again. When we were done eating, the loon family was in our end of the bay. I grabbed my camera and went to the dock to see how close they would come. 

Loon family

And another picture

The chicks took little practice dives occasionally and waved their itty wings to dry when they popped up. So cute!

Baby loon dries its wings

As they were waiting to be fed, they often stuck one foot out and fanned it back and forth, splashing the water. I don’t know what the purpose of that would be. It reminded me of how chicken chicks stretch one leg and one wing at the same time. Maybe it has something to do with growing pains. Maybe it just feels good to stretch.

Loon chick waving one foot

One parent repeatedly bobbed its head, open mouthed, into the water with its body jerking forward like it was about to dive, but it stayed at the surface. It looked like it was gagging. The chicks dove frequently, causing me to wonder if the adult was trying to teach them to dive. After a seemingly long time, I saw the yellow belly of a bluegill in the adult’s beak.

Adult wrestling with a bluegill

The loon had been working and working to get it positioned head-first, grabbing and dropping it below the surface of the water. Shortly after that it jerked its head up and swallowed the fish.

And down the hatch at last!

I stood on the dock as long as my legs could bear it and took approximately ten thousand loon pictures. After that, I went to the office to get more leeches. “It’s gonna be hot today,” Dave told me.

I could tell already that it was warmer than previous mornings had been.

The fish were not biting. At all. We tried two spots where we’d had lots of strikes before, but had nothing but a few nibbles. The loons must have eaten all the fish.

We rowed all around the bay and caught a total of two perch. It was getting to be lunch time, and we were baking in the sun. We went back to the cabin where the little bluegill by the dock obligingly cleaned the leech off my hook. Jane spotted a larger bluegill guarding a nest. It has swept the muck away to make a depression several inches deep, all the way down to bare rocks and sticks. I couldn't tell if the vegetation around the rim was from plants that were uprooted during the sweep out or decorative elements that the fish had brought back from elsewhere. Do fish do that?

Bluegill guarding its nest

There was one remaining WondeRoast chicken breast. I shredded it and put as much as I could in quesadilla for Jane’s lunch. I ate the rest with the leftover pasta. For being such a tiny chicken, it went a long way.

We had lunch on the deck because there was a breeze that made the heat somewhat less oppressive than in the stuffy cabin. I took the first shower after Jane finished the dishes and had a little nap while Jane took her shower and got dressed.

Our plan was to drive up the Gunflint to the Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature Center and then go to the Red Paddle Bistro for supper. There was a sign at the road to the restaurant that said, “CANOE RACES WEDNESDAY.” I hoped that they were in the morning or were not at the Gunflint Lodge and Resort, which was where the Bistro was.

We got to the Chik-Wauk at 3:00 and spent a half hour in the museum. The seasonal display was on birding. We found out that the nondescript brown bird that we had not been able to identify because of a near total lack of distinguishing features was probably a hermit thrush.

 Since our last visit, the Chik-Wauk has added a new building for a nature center designed for interaction. It was one room with many tables and shelves of activities for children. Backpacks with binoculars were available for check out. We picked up a bird list to keep track of what we’d seen this trip. Hermit thrush, check.

We drove around the Trail’s End campground, which was packed. I was glad to see that people were still camping. It is a good thing to do when you are young and haven’t yet noticed that sleeping on rocks is uncomfortable.

The CANOE RACES WEDNESDAY were going to be at 6:00 p.m., and Gunflint Lodge was the epicenter. Cars line both sides of the road, and the parking lot at the Red Paddle Bistro was filled with a party tent. We turned around and discussed our options. Neither of us wanted to drive to Grand Marais. It was too hot to cook.  I picked margaritas for happy hour because they came with a glass full of ice. Wine would warm up too quickly.

We had a cold dinner of curds, summer sausage, sliced bratwurst, crackers, and Snack-Ens. The only thing we had that resembled a vegetable was the lime juice in the margarita mix, if there was any. It was a new low in nutritional value. We ate on the deck as it was too hot to sit in the cabin.

A nutritionally deficient supper

Last year, we bought a package of clothes pins to use as chip clips. We'd been discovering many new uses for them this year, such as pinning the bottom of our towels around the deck railing to keep them from falling in the dirt as they dried. They also can be used to keep napkins from blowing away.

Clothes pin holding my napkin to my pocket

It was also too hot to sleep.