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Feb-March 2013 VOL 10, ISSUE 1 For Folks Who Love the North

+ Hike without Hunters+ Ski & Snowshoe Arctic GUIDE

AdventureIssue

AdventureIssue

2 2 NORTHERN WILDS FEBRUARY - MARCH 2013

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3 NORTHERN WILDS FEBRUARY - MARCH 2013 3

Choose Your Next Adventure 245 Tips to Start Planning Now

Shoot the Northern Lights 10Tips on shooting and predicting the aurora borealis

Trapped in Ice 12Local history as told by Art Fenstad

Into the Woods by Sled Dog 20

Mara’s Arctic Adventure 14

Take a Winter Hike 16

Silver Mountain Station 18

Skating on Lakes 17

When to use Fuel Additives 18

North Notes 5

Events 7

Events Calendar 8

Canadian Trails 13

Book Reviews 19

Product Reviews 19

Strange Tales 21

Through My Lens 22

The Accidental Gardener 23

Northern Sky 27

Dining Guide 26

Campfire Stories 25

DepArTMeNTS

FeATureS

www.NorthernWilds.compubLISHerS: Shawn Perich & Amber Pratt

eDITorS

ADverTISINg Amber Pratt, Advertising Manager, [email protected] Shinner, Sales Representative [email protected]

oFFICe Bev Wolke [email protected]

grApHIC DeSIgN Hayley BrendalenKatie Viren

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from the editors

April/May Advertising Deadline:March 15

CoNTrIbuTorS: Contributors: Elle Andra-Warner, Paul Blissenbach, Lee Boyt, Gord Ellis, Joan Farnam, Michael Furtman, Bryan Hansel, Mike Hillman, Stephan Hoglund, Breana Roy, Kate Watson

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About our cover:Five young women celebrating life beneath the midnight sun are the epitome of adventure. | MARA MACDONELL

Milan Huard has plans for August. The avid deer hunter from Duluth is going to build a wood-en bow at the North House Folk School in Grand Marais, courtesy of Northern Wilds. Huard won $500 in North House class credits as the first place prize in our 2012 Northern Wilds Adventure Awards contest. When contacted by phone, he was surprised, as in “I never win anything,” and very happy. He said he’d entered the contest shortly after visiting the North House last sum-mer and learning about the bow-building class.

Lori Young of Duluth is going on an adven-ture. She won our second place prize, a half-day winter or summer adventure from Stone Harbor Wilderness Supply in Grand Marais, which means she can try just about any outdoor activity from dog sledding to sea kayaking.

Taking our third place prize was Mary Brett of Eveleth, who will spend her $50 gift certificate at the outdoor store of her choice.

Our other winners were picked by you. Adventure Awards entries listed your favorite

places in the Northern Wilds. The top choices are shown here.

Your Favorite Northern Wilds AdventuresPark:• Tettegouche• Cascade• GooseberryScenic Overlook:• Palisade• Hawk Ridge• Mt JosephineHiking Trail:• Superior Hiking Trail• Oberg MountainWaterfall:• High Falls, Pigeon River• Gooseberry• Devil's KettleBeach: • Park Point• Paradise• BrightonRock Picking Spot:• Agate Bay, • Temperance River• Thomsonite BeachCampground:• Tettegouche• Split Rock• BWCAW

Ski Trail:• Banadad• Pincushion• KorkkiFall Color Drive:• Caribou Trail• Honeymoon Trail• Heartbreak HillFestival:• Grand Marais Fisherman's Picnic• Grand Portage Rendezvous Days• Ely Blueberry FestivalBike Trail:• Mesabi• Gitchi Gami• Munger Fishing Hole:• "I'll Never Tell!"Day Trip:• Grand Marais• Grand Portage• Gunflint TrailWild Food:• Blueberries• Raspberries• Wild Rice

We’d like to thank everyone who participated in the 2012 Adventure Awards. We plan to have another reader participation event this summer. But for now, pour a cup of coffee and sit down to enjoy this issue of Northern Wilds. You won’t have to leave your favorite armchair to find plenty of adventures.

—Shawn Perich & Amber Pratt

Milan Huard

Mary Brett

Lori Young


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Work began in January on Minnesota DNr’s latest effort to figure out why the herd is in decline in the arrowhead region.

researchers began collaring and tagging 100 adult moose, fitting them with GPS col-lars (and 27 with mortality sensors) that will track their movements and alert them via text message when an animal has died.

“There’s an app for that,” said Erika Butler, a wildlife veterinarian with the Minnesota DNr.

The goal is get to the animals within 24 hours of death, a timeline biologists hope will shed new light on the declining herd, which has dropped from 9,000 animals 10 years ago to 4,200 in last winter’s survey.

The cutting-edge technology is buying researchers time. With older equipment, it took up to two weeks after death before researchers could get to the animals, which decompose quickly because of their size.

In the spring, biologists will also collar 50 calves taken from the offspring of the adult moose in the study.

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What’s Killing Minnesota’s Moose?

Mont du Lac Trophy Lodge opening pushed back to 2013

Mont du Lac Ski area, in that sliver of Northwest Wisconsin surrounded by Minnesota, had originally planned to open its new lodge in 2012, but property damage from last spring’s floods caused a setback.

The ski hill opened for business when winter arrived, but it meant the new lodge would be opening in stages in 2013. The impressive, new lodge will be a regional landmark, serv-ing as a ski lodge with a bar, restaurant and great room.

The building’s main timbers are built of British columbia Douglas firs three feet in diameter and there’s extensive stonework, including a massive fire-place. huge windows offer stunning views of Jay cooke State Park and the St. Louis river to Fond du Lac Dam. When complete, the lodge will include two in-

door waterfalls more than 40 feet high. The staircase, window frames and doors are all made of black walnut.

Eventually, anglers will be able to en-joy Trophy Lodge, too. Mont du Lac owns frontage on the St. Louis river and is planning a docking facility. anglers sampling the river’s walleye fishing will be able to pull up at the dock and be shuttled to the lodge for lunch or din-ner. The lodge will open in stages dur-ing 2013, beginning with the bar and restaurant.

Jesse anderson pleaded guilty for hunting moose without a license and has been fined $1,000, accord-ing to the Ontario Ministry of Natural resources.

On Oct. 7, anderson was hunting moose with two others near camp river road in atikokan. he claimed to shoot a cow moose he thought was a calf and re-ported his mistake but when a conservation officer

asked to see his moose license, he was unable to pro-duce one.

Further investigation revealed that anderson hadn’t purchased a 2012 moose license, and while the other two members of the hunting party had purchased 2012 moose licenses, there were no adult moose vali-dation tags in the group.

atikokan man fined $1,000 for illegal moose hunting


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Time to Renew Outdoors CardsOntario’s Outdoors card

just expired. Everyone needs an Outdoors card, along with their hunting or fishing license tag, to hunt or fish in the province.

The card is valid for three years and all cards expire on the same date at the end of the three-year term — Dec. 31. Outdoors cards can be renewed online at ontario.ca/out-doorscard, by calling 800-288-1155 or in person at a ServiceOntario center or private issuer.

approximately 766,000 Outdoors cards were sold in Ontario in 2011. about 1.3 million anglers fish in Ontario each year and spend $2.5 billion in the province annually. an Outdoors card costs $9.68 for three years.

DNR issues ice warning for aerated lakesIce anglers, snowmobilers, ski-

ers and other outdoor enthusiasts should be careful when going onto any lake covered or partially cov-ered with ice, especially those with aeration systems.

aeration systems are generally operated from the time lakes freeze until ice break-up in the spring. They help prevent winterkill of fish, but they also create areas of open water and thin ice.

Two types of signs are used to post aerated lakes: “Thin Ice” and Warning” signs. The person who ap-

plies for the permit is to maintain “Warning” signs at all commonly used access points to the lake. The perimeter of these lakes must also be marked with “Thin Ice” signs. Some municipalities may have or-dinances that prohibit entering into the thin ice area and/or prohibit the night use of motorized vehicles on lakes with aeration systems in op-eration.

Farm Lake and Lake Superior (ma-rinas) in Lake county and colby Lake in St. Louis county have aeration systems.

Governor highlights school forestsGov. Mark Dayton included the

Minnesota DNr’s school forest pro-gram as one of 11 big accomplish-ments that helped students and teachers achieve the education and skills needed to succeed in a global economy.

The program’s goal is to get kids out-side and is designed to help schools establish and maintain school forests for education.

“The key is empowering teachers to provide outdoor experiences that are far more engaging and based in

real-world applications,” said amy Kay Kerber, DNr school forest manager.

There are 120 Minnesota schools that have designated a school forest and use them to teach a variety of lessons: poetry, drawing and art, math, geol-ogy and soil studies, geocaching, digi-tal photography, water quality studies, outdoor measurements, wildlife and habitat studies and american Indian and Minnesota history.

Ontario is implementing a new bio-diversity plan to improve protection of its forests, lakes, animals and plants.

The plan lists more than 100 activi-ties the province will undertake with industry, environmental and commu-nity partners over the next decade to protect biodiversity.

They include integrating biodiver-sity conservation in school curri-cula from kindergarten to Grade 12; Identifying new ways to enable Ontario’s carbon-intensive indus-tries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; and, getting aboriginal peoples involved in biodiversity monitoring, data collection and in-

formation sharing.Protecting Ontario’s biodiversity is

part of the McGuinty government’s plan to ensure a healthy environment for future generations.

“We all have a responsibility to pro-tect Ontario’s rich and abundant biodiversity,” said Michael Gravelle, Ontario’s Minister of Natural resources.

Ontario Releases Action Plan to Protect Biodiversity


20th Annual Ely Winter Festival

Feb. 1-10Formerly referred to as the Voyageur

Winter Festival, this is Ely’s 10-day win-ter party, celebrating the town’s history. There are still voyageur-themed events, but there’s also the Ely artWalk, an ama-teur snow carving contest, the Polar Bear Dance, an ice fishing contest and more. Visit www.elywinterfestival.com for more info.

Winter Tracks Festival Feb. 1-10

celebrate the winter season with this 10-day family festival throughout cook county. Festivities include the Lutsen Mountains Family Fun Fest, ridge riders Snowmobile Fun run, Winter Plein air art Exhibit, Easter Seals 10th annual Snowarama, luminary-lit ski trails, dog sled or horse drawn sleigh rides, guided snowshoe tours, live music, and more. For more info on the events, visit www.visitcookcounty.com/wintertracks.

Northern Fibers Retreat

Feb. 14-17The North house Folk School in co-

ordination with the Grand Marais art colony and the Northwoods art Fiber

Guild will be presenting the “art and craft of Fiber.” This four-day event offers classes focusing on all manners of fiber arts from beginning knitting classes, intro to felting, making mittens, scarfs, mukluks and more. a fibers class for kids will also be available. Visit www.north-house.org for more info.

Build-A-Boat Contest Feb. 22-24

The Thunder Bay chamber of commerce 9th annual central canada Outdoor Show is presenting the Build-a-Boat contest for kids. Students wish-ing to enter must be between 6-12 years of age and will be divided into catego-ries of 6-9 and 10-12. Boat entries must be no larger than a foot long, a foot wide and a foot high. Entries must be received no later than 2:30 p.m. on Feb. 24, with a registration form attached. registration forms can be downloaded at www.tbchamber.ca/buildaboat. The event is at the Wilderness Supply booth during the Outdoor Show in the Sports Dome. For more info, email [email protected] or call 807-624-2629.

Become a Master Naturalist

Feb. 23Sugarloaf cove is presenting the

Master Naturalist volunteer training pro-gram developed through the University

of Minnesota Extension Service. This program intends to educate adults on Minnesota’s natural resources and pro-vides opportunities to participate in conservation projects and field trips. The course will run from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. every other Saturday for six ses-sions beginning Feb. 23. The cost of the course is $200, which covers materials. Scholarships are available. Visit www.sugarloafnorthshore.org for more info.

John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon 2013

March 10-13The 29th running of this storied sled

dog race was postponed because of a lack of snow in early January. It was orig-inally scheduled to start on the Jan. 27. Last year's event was cancelled because of poor snow conditions. The marathon celebrates the life of a man who deliv-ered the mail along the North Shore via sled dogs during the 19th century. The 390-mile race from Duluth to the Gunflint Trail and back is the most chal-lenging race of its kind in the lower 48. For more information, visit www.beargrease.com.

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Governor highlights school forests

Ontario Releases Action Plan to Protect Biodiversity


For more event listings, log on to: www.NorthernWilds.comCALENDAR

Jan. 12-Feb. 24Carl beam exhibitThunder bay art GalleryThunder Bay, www.theag.ca

Jan. 12-Feb. 28Winning Photographs of the 2013 bluefin bay CalendarWaterfront Gallery, Two Harborswww.waterfront-gallery.com

Jan. 31-Feb. 3Superbowl bonspiel Port Arthur Curling ClubThunder Bay, 9 a.m.807-344-0111

Jan. 31-Feb.3Voyageur encampmentEly www.ely.org

Feb. 1-3Lutsen Mountains Family FestivalLutsen, www.lutsen.com

Feb. 1-10ely Winter FestivalEly www.ely.org

Winter arts FestivalGrand Marais Art Colonywww.grandmaraisartcolony.org

Winter Tracks FestivalThroughout Cook Countywww.visitcookcounty.com

Feb. 2, SaTurdayCook County ridge riders Snowmobile Fun runDevil Track ResortGrand Marais, 8:30 a.m.www.boreal.org/ridgeriders/

Ice bowlMont du Lac RecreationSuperior, WI, Noonwww.montdulacsports.com

Feb. 7 & 21 and MarCh 7 & 21Garden TalkFairlawn MansionSuperior, WI, 6 p.m.www.superiorpublicmuseums.org

Feb. 9, SaTurdaySnowshoe to PictographsHegman Lake, Ely www.ely.org

birds of the WetlandsSugarloaf Cove, Schroeder, 10 a.m. www.sugarloafnorthshore.org

bat symposiumSugarloaf Cove Nature CenterSchroeder

Feb. 9-10Midwest Masters regional Championship Ski raceSpirit Mountain, Duluthwww.spiritmt.com

Feb. 10, Sundayduluth’s big Jig Ice Fishing Contest & FestivalPike Lake, Noon, 788-2544

Feb. 13-15Great Lakes Mono-Ski Madness Spirit MountainDuluth, www.spiritmt.com

Feb. 13-17annual duluth boat, Sports, Travel, & rV ShowDECC, Duluth www.shamrockprod.com

Feb. 13-18northern Fibers retreatnorth house Folk SchoolGrand Marais, www.northhouse.org

Feb. 16, SaTurdayhungry Jack Lake Snowmobile drag raceHungry Jack Lake & LodgeGunflint Trail, 11 a.m.www.hungryjacklodge.com

Sawtooth International Ski racesPincushion Mountain TrailGrand Marais, 10 a.m.www.pincushiontrails.org

Feb. 17, SundayThe art of Seeing Photography Workshop with Klaus RosslerThunder Bay Art GalleryThunder Bay, 1 p.m. www.theag.ca

Feb. 22-24bonspiel Curling TournamentCommunity Center, Grand Marais387-2382

Feb. 23-24Wolf Track Classic dog Sled raceEly www.wolftrackclassic.com

Feb. 23 & MarCh 9Minnesota Master naturalist ProgramSugarloaf Cove, 9 a.m.www.sugarloafnorthshore.org

Feb. 24, SundayFree Family Skating PartyDECC, Duluth, 3 p.m.730-4300

MarCh 1-3Timber Frame Guild GatheringNorth House Folk SchoolGrand Maraiswww.northhouse.org

MarCh 2-3uSaSa rail Jam & SlopestyleSpirit Mountain, Duluthwww.spiritmt.com

MarCh 3, SundayTrout derbysponsored by Ridge RidersGunflint Lake, Gunflint Trailwww.boreal.org/ridgeriders/events.html

nJrS ChampionshipsSpirit Mountain, Duluthwww.spiritmt.com

MarCh 8-9Mush for a Cure dogsled FundraiserGunflint Trail, www.mushforacure.com

MarCh 8-10Chuck Futterer Senior Memorial Open bonspielCommunity Center, Grand Marais387-2382

MarCh 9-10uSSa Midwest Masters Spring Fling GS/SLSpirit Mountain, Duluthwww.spiritmt.com

MarCh 14-17uSSa Central region ChampionshipsLutsen Mountains, Lutsenwww.lutsen.com

MarCh 16, SaTurdaySnowmobile drag racing on Poplar LakeWindigo LodgeGunflint Trailwww.boreal.org/ridgeriders/

rail JamSuperior, WI, 10 a.m.www.montdulacsports.com

MarCh 23-24Lutsen Mountains Playground ThrowdownLutsen Mountains, 9:30 a.m.www.lutsen.com

MarCh 30, SaTurdaySpring CarnivalLutsen Mountainswww.lutsen.com


By Elle Andra-Warner

Back about 105 years ago, southwest of Thunder Bay, a small wilderness railway station called Silver Mountain Station along the Port Arthur, Duluth and Western “PeeDee” Railway line was a busy place. It was a transportation hub for silver mine owners and miners, First Nations people, politicians, lumberjacks, and the homesteaders who tapped into Canada’s offer of free land.

After the railway pulled its agent from the station, it became the home of Canada’s legendary “Lady Lumberjack’’ Dorothea Mitchell, who had worked at the nearby Silver Mountain Mine until it closed in 1910. Living alone at the station for six years, she ran the railway stop, post office, her own general store, sawmill and was the first unmarried woman in Ontario to be granted a homestead. When she moved to Port Arthur (now Thunder Bay) in 1921, she became Canada’s first female docu-mentary filmmaker and later, the author of Lady Lumberjack, a Canadian best seller about her experiences at Silver Mountain.

Today, the Silver Mountain building is the only station re-maining of the historic PeeDee Railway, which, during its peak, extended 92.5 miles from Port Arthur to Paulson Mine on the Minnesota side of Gunflint Lake. The PeeDee carried its first shipment from Port Arthur on Oct. 8, 1890; started its first of-ficial run into Minnesota on Jan. 1893; and ran its last train any-where on March 24, 1938.

Still on its original site, the century-old Silver Mountain Station these days is a historic restaurant with casual and fine dining. The original two-story building, including the winding staircase to the upper level, continues to be the core of the sta-tion, though additions have been made to the front and back of the building. Now in the 21st century, the station is once again owned and managed by a woman, Shelley Simon, who is as much a go-getter as the determined Dorothea.

I first heard about the station last summer when my daughter Tania asked if I had been to the restaurant called Silver Mountain Station somewhere past Nolalu. I had not, but the next weekend my husband and I went to find it, driving southwest 74 kilome-ters on Highway 588 to its junction with Highway 592.

After about a 40-minute drive from Thunder Bay, we found the station and were pleasantly surprised to find a country classy establishment, with spacious patio, wood-decorated in-terior, stone fireplace, comfy chairs and tables, and a welcom-ing atmosphere that says: “Come on in!” The food was delicious with most menu items bought locally, the sauces/dips/salad dressings fresh made, and meats fresh ground as well as smoked on the premises. Among the most popular items are her special Silver Mountain broasted chicken, smoked Reuben sandwich, prime rib, pickerel or perch dinners, smoked baby back ribs and gourmet burgers.

“For the new spring season, we’ll be adding caribou, elk and

buffalo items to the menu,’’ said Simon, adding that the all-you-can-eat soup and salad bar will be back in the summer.

The Station has become somewhat of a mini-muse-um in the wilds. Its walls are a gallery of historic photographs, paintings and news clippings of the sil-ver boom mining days on Silver Mountain, the Pee-Dee Railway, the station and the pioneers includ-ing Dorothea Mitchell and early professional hockey star, John “Jack” Walker, who is one of only 10 play-ers to win a Stanley Cup with three different teams. Scattered throughout the restaurant are copies of Lady Lumberjack for guests to browse as they dine.

Shelley and her brother-in-law, both from the Windsor area, purchased the Silver Mountain Station in May 2010. “The at-traction to purchase was the age, woodwork, just that it was an old building,” said Simon, who grew up on a farm near Windsor. “At the time I didn’t know about the history here, but I’ve been learning both from my customers at the Station and doing a lot of investigation on my own.”

Shelley’s research and lobbying has already got the ‘’Silver Mountain’’ road signs back on the highway. Last summer and fall, she launched the first of her “Historical Days,” bringing to-gether the Silver Mountain community with historians, authors and artists to talk about the area’s history; organized an all-ter-rain vehicle tour over the old wagon and mine trails on Silver Mountain; hosted a champagne breakfast to celebrate the 105th year anniversary of the Silver Mountain Station; and launched the Silver Mountain Historical Society (Ontario’s newest his-torical society) to bring alive the region’s history.

The Lights are Still on at Silver Mountain StationRestored historic train station now a tourist spot

Silver Mountain Station today. | ELLE aNDra-WarNErAbove: Silver Mountain Station in Dorthea's day. Right: Back country cuisine by Jeremy hutson

MarCh 9-10uSSa Midwest Masters Spring Fling GS/SLSpirit Mountain, Duluthwww.spiritmt.com

MarCh 14-17uSSa Central region ChampionshipsLutsen Mountains, Lutsenwww.lutsen.com

MarCh 16, SaTurdaySnowmobile drag racing on Poplar LakeWindigo LodgeGunflint Trailwww.boreal.org/ridgeriders/

rail JamSuperior, WI, 10 a.m.www.montdulacsports.com

MarCh 23-24Lutsen Mountains Playground ThrowdownLutsen Mountains, 9:30 a.m.www.lutsen.com

MarCh 30, SaTurdaySpring CarnivalLutsen Mountainswww.lutsen.com

Cozy rooms tucked in the woodsPets welcome • Sit around our campfi re

Across the road from Tettegouche State Park

218-226-4712 • 800-332-05315763 Hwy 61, Silver Bay, MN • www.WhisperingPinesMotel.com

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rentals Downhill & Cross County

Skis Snowboards Snowshoes

retail Hats Gloves Clothing

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Shelley Simon | ELLE aNDra-WarNEr


By Bryan Hansel

T he dark black skies of winter offer the ideal conditions for photographing the northern lights. This winter and spring could provide even better con-

ditions because NASA is predicting that a solar maximum will occur in early 2013. The solar maximum is the peak of solar activity in the sun’s natural cycle, and it occurs ap-proximately every 11 years. During a solar maximum the number of sunspots increases and the sun’s corona, its atmosphere, devel-ops active regions. These active regions could erupt and send a coronal mass ejection (CME) towards earth. When a CME hits, it often causes northern lights. To help you get ready to capture the event with your camera, here’s a quick and dirty guide to photographing the northern lights.

Although you can photograph the north-ern lights with any type of camera that al-lows manual camera settings, it’s best to use a DSLR or a mirrorless interchangeable lens camera; these higher-end cameras have larger sensors that deal with noise better than point-and-shoots (noise is that nasty, pixelated look). Some newer point-and-shoots, such as Sony’s RX100, also do well with night, but they’re an exception to the rule. You’ll also need a wide-angle lens, a sturdy tripod and a shutter release cord, which prevents the camera shake that causes blurry photos.

Before you can photograph the northern lights, you’ll need to find a location to shoot them—ideally a dark location away from the city lights. A good indication that you’re far enough away from city is when you can see the Milky Way in the sky. There are exceptions to this; if the northern lights are especially bright

(rare around Lake Superior), you might see them from inside city limits.

Once far enough away from the city, look for a location that has an open view to the north. Instead of just looking for a wide opening, find one with interesting trees or hills to in-clude at the bottom of the photo. By including a part of the scenery in your photo, you anchor the northern lights to the earth, and it helps your photo’s viewers appreciate the scale of the event. Even though you’re including the ground, devote the majority of the image to the northern lights. One of my favorite places for shooting the northern lights is where The Grade crosses the Cascade River near Grand Marais; I take my photography workshops to this location when the northern lights are out.

After you find a composition that you like, lock down your tripod and set your aperture

as wide as it will go, usually between f/1.4 and f/4. Then set your camera to ISO 800 or 1600 (higher means more noise) and your shutter speed to 30 seconds. Shoot a picture. When finished, look at the image on the LCD screen. If it looks too dark, increase the ISO. If it looks too bright, decrease the shutter speed or set your aperture to a higher number. Remember that in the dark, images on the LCD screen al-ways look brighter than on a home computer. If you know how to use the histogram, check it to see if it’s far enough to the right. I shoot most of my aurora images at ISO 1600 to 3200 (my camera has limited noise), f/2.8 or f/4 for 20 to 30 seconds.

Shoot the

NorthernLights

How to photograph the northern lights, which are predicted to peak this year.

Predicting the Northern Lights

Northern lights over the Brule river in northern Minnesota. | BrYaN haNSEL


Predicting the Northern Lights

Left: a rare red north-ern lights on the Pi-geon river appeared directly overhead in October 2011. Below: Posing for a self-portrait under the northern lights on Two Island Lake. | BrYaN haNSEL

With the right tools, it’s easy to predict the northern lights. The best place to start is at www.spaceweather.com. Once there, scroll down the page while watching the left-hand col-umn.

First find the Current Auroral Oval. It shows the northern lights over the northern hemisphere. If there’s white over your location, you might see a green glow on the horizon. Once you start seeing yellow or red over your location, it’s time to get outside. The second tool is the Planetary K-index. Click on the “more data” link. In northern Minnesota, a Kp equal

to 4 means northern lights and a Kp of 5 means that the au-rora will reach as far south as Duluth. At the bottom of the column, predictions of up to 48 hours away are available as a percentage.

If you have a smart phone, try Aurora Buddy for Android. When the northern lights are overhead, it triggers an alarm. On an iPhone, try Auroral Forecast.

Spaceweather.com also offers a subscription phone service for $4.95 a month. When you subscribe, it will call you with aurora predictions.


By Barbara Jean Meyers

A rt Fenstad is a third generation North Shore resident. His ances-tors emigrated here in the late 1800s from Scandinavia and established

a commercial fishing business on a lakeside homestead in Little Marais. Fenstad’s kind eyes and gentle manner add warmth to his stories, and his recollections of life on the North Shore stretch far back to another time on the big lake. The world that comes to life in Fenstad’s stories is markedly different from the North Shore life we know today. The Fenstad family maintained a detailed account of Lake Superior weather; after all, their livelihood as a fishing family depended entirely on the conditions outdoors. Winter on Superior used to be much more se-vere.

“We have quite a few pictures from the fam-ily, and 1912 was the coldest winter by far, right before the World War I,” says Fenstad.

Ice on Lake Superior that winter was thick. Fenstad recalled a story from the winter of 1912 about a family that operated a steamship out of Isle Royale called The Crescent. Each year they moved the ship down to Duluth from the island for winter.

“In 1912 they left too late and barely got in to Grand Marais. They left Grand Marais and got as far down as Two Island, called Taconite Harbor today, and they got stuck in the ice out there with The Crescent,” Fenstad said. “They spent the whole winter there. They finally had to walk to shore.”

At the time, there were lumber camps up over the hill on the shore. The men from The Crescent were able to arrange for coal to be brought down by horseback to the ship so they could keep the steamer going. They could not just leave the ship out in the ice for fear of

the hull being crushed as the ice cracked and moved. They hatched a plan to cut through the ice with a saw in an attempt to get the ship to safety.

“The ice was 36- inches deep that they were sawing through.” Fenstad said, “Cutting through the ice was a real challenge.” He de-scribed the process saying, “They would saw enough in front of The Crescent, a steel steam-er, and then they would rev up the engines and go up on top of it and the ice they had sawed would break down so they would go about a 100 yards at a time. It took them about a month to get into Taconite Harbor.”

Come March, a lead broke open in the lake and the crew headed down in the ship toward Duluth. Unfortunately, they were not out of trouble yet. They were just outside of Two Harbors when the vessel got trapped in ice again. This time, the crew called on the help of a tugboat stationed at the ore docks in Two Harbors.

“The captain there started up that tug and he broke enough of the harbor open so The Crescent could get in and that is where they spent the rest of April until the ice went out on the lake,” Fenstad said.

These days, the lake does not freeze for as long or as often as it used to. It is almost hard to imagine the time Fenstad talks about.

Stories, data, and pictures collected by the Fenstad family show just how harsh a winter could be on the North Shore. “We’ve got pic-tures in 1924 at Little Marais where we have 40 foot ice piles along the shore with people standing on top of it,” adds Fenstad.

An important part of winter business for commercial fishing families along the shore, according to Fenstad, was harvesting lake ice. Fenstad remarks, “All of the commercial fish-

ermen on Lake Superior used to put up ice” he said.

It was as essential as chop-ping wood for heat in the winter.

“They would go out on the lake, saw ice, take the saw-dust from their wood piles and put it in their icehouses so that in the summertime you would have ice,” he said.

This was before the time of electric refrigeration. “You would put a block of ice in an ice chest so you could keep your food cool.”

For commercial fisherman, putting away ice in the win-ter was an essential part of a successful operation.

“They would put it in their fish boxes. In the summer-time they would go out with a hose and wash the sawdust off the big ice chunks. Then you would chip it and put it in the fish boxes when the trucks would pick up the fish boxes.”

A lot has changed dur-ing Fenstad’s lifetime. These days it is much less common to see a thick blanket of ice on Lake Superior. In fact, ice cover has declined by 70 per-cent since the 1970s. But we can still access those bygone days through the stories that stretch back generations and have been passed down in families like the Fenstads.

Ice piled high on the shore of Lake Superior in the early 1900s near Tofte. | NOrTh ShOrE cOMMErcIaL FIShING MUSEUM.

Trapped in IceA conversation with Art Fenstad about the steamship The Crescent

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Although I’ve lived in Thunder Bay most of my life, and fished all over Northwestern Ontario, there’s one local spot that was always something of an an-gling black hole. Lake Superior’s Black Bay, located west of Thunder Bay about 40 miles, is the destination in question. Growing up, I heard about Black Bay yellow perch, and how they were of a great average size.

Unfortunately, the word was commercial fishing had all but done in the perch fishery. Outside of a few kids catching perch off the docks near Hurkett, sport fishing for perch was nonexistent. Then, about seven years ago, the commercial fishery for perch stopped. In 2010, reports about ice fishing for perch on Black Bay start-ed to trickle out. As a long-time fan of perch fishing, it seemed time to explore this massive Lake Superior bay. A friend and I gathered a little intel, checked out the depth map of the bay and then made plans to go. So two years ago, on a gray February day, we embarked on our first trip to Black Bay for perch.

We didn’t know exactly where to go, so did what any self respect-ing ice angler does and headed for obvious signs of angling. In this case, two shacks about four miles out on the bay. As we drove our sleds on the bay, it was clear there was lots to learn. Black Bay was huge, and its snowy expanse just kept on coming. We stopped within about 100 yards of the shacks and drilled our holes.

Despite our long drive out on the lake, the water was just

15 feet deep and somewhat murky. So dif-ferent than the Lake Superior I was used to. We set up two lines each, one with small jig and minnow, and one with a small spoon for jigging. Electronics allowed us to see what was going on beneath our feet. Things were slow at first, and we toyed with moving. But as the morning wore on, we start-ed to mark fish along the bottom. Then one of my set lines started to pull down. I ran over, gingerly lifted the whippy light action rod and started reeling. Sure enough, the rod tip bent over and the weight of a fairly heavy fish was evident. It was not a huge battle, but I’d never

felt a perch like this before. When it got to the hole, I was shocked to see a pale, very round yellow perch of about 13 inches. I lifted it out of the hole and showed my partner.

“Buddy, check this out!” I said.We fist bumped. Yet there was little time

to celebrate, as his rod was soon going down as well. These jumbo perch were voracious, sometimes nailing minnows the length of my pinky. By the time the early afternoon rolled around, we had nearly two dozen perch on the ice from 10 to 14 inches. Neither of us could believe it.

Since that trip, I’ve made a dozen or more trips on Black Bay; few have been less than decent. Several have been mind-boggling. Black Bay is a fascinating place to fish, but there a few things to keep in mind before head-ing out. For starters, it gets very windy. Windy equals cold, even on mild winter days. Shelter of some kind is a must.

There are a couple of outfitters who rent shacks on the lake, and they are a good idea if you’re not used to biting winds. Gary Hamilton

Canadian TrailsBY GORD ELLIS

The Black Bay Jumbo Perch Boom

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Wilderness Adventure Inspires High School Senior



By Shawn Perich

F olks who fret that kids aren’t spend-ing enough time outdoors ought to meet Mara MacDonell, a high school senior living in Grand Marais. She’s

not only enthusiastic about the outdoor life, but she is also planning a career in conserva-tion. So what gives?

“My parents are very outdoorsy,” Mara said. “They first brought me to the Boundary Waters when I was a year old. I saw wildlife and was exposed to wilderness from a young age. I’ve just begun to realize how lucky I am.”

Her luck includes an introduction to YMCA Camp Menogyn when she was in sixth grade. Located on West Bearskin Lake along the Gunflint Trail, Menogyn is a place that teaches young people outdoor skills. More than that, Menogyn gives kids the opportunity to build their skills—and their self-confidence—with repeated outdoor experiences.

Mara first went on a five-day canoe trip in the Bounday Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) through Menogyn. Over the years, she went on longer trips, which led up to the incredible experience she had last summer—a 40-day canoe trip across Canada’s Northwest Territories and Nunavut with four other

girls and a 24-year-old female guide. While Menogyn attracts campers from across the nation, all of the girls on this trip were from Minnesota.

“The trip was by invitation only,” she says. “You need to have demonstrated your outdoor skills on previous trips.”

The group flew out of Points North Landing, Saskatchewan to the Dubawnt River in the Northwest Territories, where they landed and unloaded in midstream. They spent the next 18 days going down the river, crossing into Nunavut and reaching Dubawnt Lake, the largest water body in the province. Two days

of paddling on the lake brought the girls to the Slow River, an ironic name, Mara adds. They paddled upstream and portaged over a divide to reach the Kunwak River, which led them to Thirty Mile Lake, where they ended the trip.

“Our original route ended at the community of Baker Lake,” she says. “But we got behind schedule and had to end at Thirty Mile Lake.”

They flew via bush plane from a sand beach on Thirty Mile lake to Baker Lake. Weather, primarily wind, was the reason the group was delayed. While Mara was disappointed they were unable to complete the journey as planned, she learned that in the wilderness,

On a welcome calm day, the Femmes du Nord paddle on a vast arctic Lake. Mara is on the far right. | PhOTOS cOUrTESY OF Mara MacDONELL


plans can change. She also learned a lot about herself.

“The trip really changed my perspective on my own abilities,” she says. “We went 40 days without contact with other people.”

She also discovered a personal passion—whitewater canoeing. The Dubawnt River has huge rapids, most of which the girls were able to run. Since getting through the rapids with-out swamping the canoe and losing gear is the primary objective of long-distance paddlers, she learned how to scout and choose the safest route. Now she’d like to try recreational white-water paddling, where thrills and occasional spills are part of the game. She got a taste of it on the Kunwak, which contains a lot of techni-cal whitewater.

The group learned a little about the landscape and the creatures inhabiting it. Their journey began in the taiga, the northernmost edge of the boreal forest, where stunted spruce trees and scrub brush give way to scattered patches of open tundra. Here they saw moose and wolves. Eventually they reached the northern treeline and entered the tundra, where caribou roam. Once, Mara thought she saw a distant tree, but actually it was a caribou. Along the Kunwak

River they saw golden eagles and a barren- ground grizzly bear. One day they watched a wolverine chase a caribou calf, which escaped by going into the water. They also discovered the beauty of wide-open spaces.

“Every night we saw the most beautiful sun-sets we’d ever seen,” Mara says.

While they were in the middle of nowhere, they did see evidence of people. Throughout the trip they passed by rock cairns left as mark-ers by native people. In one area, they saw nu-merous jets flying overhead. In the last days of their trip they began seeing large inukshuks, stone landmarks left by Inuit people, as well as their tent rings and meat caches. They had an opportunity to learn more about the Inuit when they eventually arrived, via float plane, at Baker Lake.

“We finished our trip in an Inuit community where they speak their native language,” Mara says. “I now have friends from Baker Lake on Facebook.”

She made other friends along the way as well—with the girls who accompanied her on the journey.

“The girls on the trip became my best

friends,” she says. “We shared a lot of laughs, and we met our challenges.”

While Mara may not have another chance to take a 40-day canoe trip, her experience fueled new enthusiasm for the outdoors and the con-servation of wild places. She will be attending Carleton College and wrote about the trip in a college application. Planning to pursue envi-ronmental studies in college, she hopes to one day become a lawyer specializing in environ-mental concerns. Along the way, she plans to continue spending time outdoors.

“I loved the whitewater paddling and just be-ing out there,” she says. “I hope the outdoors will remain part of my life.”

Mara also points out that she worked for a year in order to pay for the trip and received some welcome financial assistance from Menogyn, too. Stone Harbor Wilderness Supply in Grand Marais supplied some of the gear for the trip. But she says any kid who really wants to see the wilderness can find a way to make it hap-pen through Menogyn’s programs. It’s good to know there are still kids like Mara who want to get outside and places like Menogyn to help them make their wildest dreams come true.

atop a rock in the middle of nowhere, Mara demonstrates just what if feels like to go on the canoe trip of a lifetime.

The Femmes du Nord (Mara is third from left) got their first taste of whitewater on the massive Dubawnt river, which they followed for 18 days, taking care to scout the rapids before descending them.

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By Ada Igoe

The North Country is notoriously hard to traverse. Thick undergrowth often keeps even the most intrepid hiker from straying far from the beaten path. Happily, during the winter months, wide hiking expanses open up when area lakes freeze over. Suddenly, hikers (es-pecially those equipped with snowshoes) can head just about anywhere they can imagine.

The beauty of winter hikes and snowshoe treks is the woods’ open invitation to break your own path through the snow. Because the North Country is such a big place, we’ve compiled a list of some of our favorite winter tromps. A word of caution, some of the sug-gested hikes require traversing frozen lakes and rivers. Safe ice conditions can’t be guaran-teed; please be a vigilant hiker.

Moss to Duncan to PartridgeDuring the winter, it’s easy to transform your

favorite day-trip canoe route into a favorite day hike; just substitute snowshoes for canoes. You can put this method into practice when you snowshoe across Moss, Duncan, and Partridge Lakes, located approximately 30 miles up the

Gunflint Trail outside of Grand Marais.

You’ll hike through groves of centuries-old cedar trees and towering white pines and pass a rippling brook along the Partridge Lake portage. There is a small parking area off Hungry Jack Lake Road, kitty-cor-ner from the canoe put-in on Hungry Jack Lake. Hike the Hungry Jack/Moss portage into Moss Lake, then portage into Duncan Lake, and head west into Partridge Lake. Round trip is approximately five miles long and adventurous hik-ers (with two cars) can make this a loop by hiking out on the South Lake Trail.

LeVeaux Mountain Oberg Mountain is a well-known hiking

destination on the North Shore, located be-tween Tofte and Lutsen. Oberg’s twin, LeVeaux Mountain—which shares a parking lot on Forest Road 336, the Onion River Road—gets a little less love. LeVeaux Mountains is a moder-ate 3.2-mile loop that connects to the Superior Hiking Trail. The trail features high cliffs, deep woods, and views of Lake Superior.

South Kawishiwi River The South Kawishiwi River is another ca-

noe route easily transformed into a winter snowshoe trail. To access, park at the South Kawishiwi canoe put-in, approximately 10 miles southeast of Ely off of Hwy. 1 on Forest Road 181. A 140-rod portage takes you from parking lot to the river. From there you’ll step into a winter wonderland. Hike up the river through the snow-covered forest into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

Tettegouche State Park With ongoing construction of a new visitor

center, the park may appear to be in bit of disar-ray, but hikers are still welcome at Tettegouche this winter. Parking is available in a temporary parking lot located southwest of the Baptism River Bridge on Hwy 61.

Many trails offer spectacular views of Lake Superior and winter storms can turn the shore-line rocks and trees into an ice sculpture ex-hibit. A favorite destination is Shovel Point, a rock cliff that juts out into Lake Superior.

Mountain Portage Trail Follow in the footsteps of the Voyageurs

at Kakabeka Falls Provincial Park. The Voyageurs used this easy 1.3-kilometer path to skirt around the waterfall called the “Niagara of the North.” The trails offer benches, viewing platforms and interpretative displays. While not exactly off the beaten path, the trails at Kakabeka are well suited for young hikers with short legs. The park is approximately 30 kilo-meters west of Thunder Bay.

Hartley Nature Center At Hartley Nature Center, beautiful hikes

are hidden right in middle of Duluth. Located at 3001 Woodland Avenue, Hartley has more than 10 miles of well-marked hiking trails. The trails’ difficulty varies drastically and the Superior Hiking Trail runs through t,he park, allowing you to hike for miles and miles, if you wish. Snowshoes are available to rent at the Nature Center.

Kabeyun Trail Part of the Sleeping Giant Provincial Park

hiking network, located east of Thunder Bay near Pass Lake, the 40-kilometer Kabeyun Trail can be accessed from the Thunder Bay Lookout or Highway 587. The trail takes you by Lake Superior and around the Sleeping Giant. A favorite destination located off a spur trail of the Kabeyun Trail is the Sea Lion, a rock arch in Lake Superior that once resembled a sea lion. (The formation’s “head” fell off years ago.) The Sea Lion trail is located just past Lake Mary Louise Campground off of Hwy 587.

Above: a faithful pair of snowshoes are an important piece of winter equipment for the Northern Wilds hiker. Left: hikers find stark beauty in the Northern Wilds during the winter. | aDa IGOE

Winter Hikes and Snowshoe Wanders in the North Country

With a pair of snowshoes, the North country’s numberless lakes offer endless hiking opportunities. | aDa IGOE


By Kate Watson

It’s not often that a PFD serves as a four-sea-son piece of gear, but something about zipping up this fair weather friend in freezing tempera-tures makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. I’m going to need it. The temperature is touching 15 degrees.

Today we’re on the same waters we ply with canoe paddles during the warmer months, and at the boat launch there’s the familiar anticipa-tion of heading out onto the lake, but this time it’s different. It’s dark and we’re in for a win-ter-only treat: gliding on the water rather than through it.

As we lace up our ice skates, swearing un-der our breath at the biting cold, the air swells with a deep whale-like thrum, followed by a sharp pinging sound. The ice is expanding and freezing hard as the temperature falls. Skates securely tied, I struggle to pull my mittens over my numb fingers. Why are we subject-ing ourselves to this? We must resemble portly little penguins bundled up in layer upon layer of wool, Capilene, fleece, and down. But it’s an opportunity we can’t miss: flying across the ice,

speedy and almost limitless in our exploration of the lake.

The lakes froze smooth and thick this year as cold temperatures showed up well before meaningful snow. With calm winds and freez-ing nights, the water was transformed into solid glass. A quick scrape of the skate blade sweeps powdery snow aside, revealing smooth, black ice. We shouldn’t need the lengths of rope we’re carrying, but you can never be too prepared.

Before we head onto the ice we drop a head-lamp into a Nalgene bottle, twist it clumsily closed with mittened fingers, and set it in the snow. Its light will guide us back after the boat launch disappears in the dark.

The long, smooth strokes of our skates pro-pel us away from shore as we follow the beams of our headlamps onto the lake. Swish, swish, swish, the snow sprays aside leaving slashing tracks as we speed past hillocks of shaved ice left by fishermen’s augers.

I burrow my face deep into my neck gaiter, and wince as my nose touches the layer of frost collected from my breath. But we’re lucky to have a clear night. As we near the center of the lake I stop, click off my headlamp, and tip my

head back. The dark sky completely fills my vision, and as my eyes adjust, the stars shine brighter and brighter. It’s always a joy to see the sky like this, stretching huge and unchallenged by manmade light. It makes me feel small and very alive.

Before long our legs begin to ache, the win-ter muscles atrophied from neglect. We have months of skate skiing, telemarking and snow-boarding ahead of us, but these quiet nights on the water are the perfect start to the season. Chilled but content, we turn and skate for shore as the lake looses one more soaring groan.

Winter Hikes and Snowshoe Wanders in the North Country

On the water in winter: Skating inland lakes

Ice skating is a great way to explore a lake . without expending a lot of effort. Just make sure the ice is thick, and avoid spots where ice fishermen have punched holes. | KaTE WaTSON

Deep cracks form as the ice contracts and ex-pands. | KaTE WaTSON

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By Lee Boyt

Gasoline internal combustion engines need a regimen of regular maintenance and a steady diet of clean, fresh fuel to stay healthy. Sounds

simple enough, but a surprising number of no-start and/or hard-start, rough-running sce-narios are directly related to fuel system issues.

Frequently, these elusive fuel system woes aren’t mechanical failures (fuel lines, fuel

pumps, etc.); more often than not, the engine gets ill because either the gas is contaminat-ed or of such poor quality it doesn’t deliver sufficient energy to feed the engine.

The trouble with ethanol

Most of the gas on the market is an iffy blend of petroleum products and ethanol – a com-bo that must make sense on pa-per; however, in the real world, ethanol brings an incredible amount of baggage to the table.

Ethanol-diluted gasoline typ-ically has an extremely short shelf life. In as little as a month or so, that $20 worth of regular unleaded is unsuitable to use in an old lawn mower, much less in a high-dollar snowmobile, ATV, or outboard. Some gas gets so bad, you’ll be lucky to start a bonfire with it.

Why does the ethanol/gas sour so fast? Ethanol has an affinity for water, absorbing moisture from the atmosphere (the air we breathe contains water, remember?), particu-larly in damp environments. Simple changes in the weather

can cause condensation in a vehicle’s fuel tank, introducing water into the fuel.

Once the water in the fuel reaches a concen-tration of just one-half of one percent – (0.50%) – the fuel/water mix settles to the bottom of the gas tank, creating a condition called “phase separation”. The engine’s fuel system draws gasoline from the lower part of the tank, so this nasty fluid flows into the engine, wreaking all kinds of pain and suffering in the process.

In addition, ethanol is a marvelous solvent, cleansing your vehicle’s fuel system and send-ing displaced debris downstream. If you’re prudent, the fuel filter catches this crud before it reaches the engine; if you’ve neglected regu-lar maintenance these tiny bits of solids and goo skate around the already-full fuel filter (you do have a fuel filter, right? Better change it.) into the intake tract to do dirty deeds to the innocent powertrain.

Tonics and treatmentsSo what to do? Since we can’t eliminate the

ethanol, we must take other steps to keep the fuel well preserved until the engine uses it.

Every engine manufacturer provides an own-er’s manual detailing recommended mainte-nance intervals, as well as what lubricants and additives work best with a given engine.

Follow the maintenance schedule religiously to prevent any problems down the road. This includes springing a few bucks for the best fuel filters available – don’t go cheap here.

Use the manufacturer recommended stabi-lizers and fuel treatments, pouring in the prop-er amount of each at every fill-up. Proactively using stabilizers and treatments keeps things in tip-top shape – but no additive can restore

contaminated/diluted fuel. Again, don’t whine about the money; a shot of fuel treatment is significantly more cost-effective than an ex-tended stay in the shop.

Avoid bargain-basement brands. Stick to what the engine designers have proven works in your engine.

Buy only as much gasoline as you can use in a reasonable amount of time. If you find your-self stuck with a tank full of gas when you’re putting the machine away for the season, buy a long-term fuel stabilizer additive to increase the odds that your pride and joy will light up the next time you go to start it.

The bright sidePaying attention to the little things – fresh

gas, regular maintenance and using the best fuel additives – isn’t necessarily difficult or ex-pensive. Consider it a minor lifestyle change.

Your machines will start and perform as they should, thus eliminating the stressors of diagnosing no-start conditions and trips to the shop. You save money in the long run … and the fun-factor stays high as you enjoy the out-doors with your sled, ATV, or boat.

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Canoeing with the Cree

By Eric Sevareid

MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCI-ETY PRESS, $24.95

This is a reprint of the classic tale of the 1930 canoe expedi-tion from Minneapolis to hud-son Bay, written by Eric Sevareid, who was joined by Walter c. Port on the summer-long voyage. The two men relied on cree In-dians, traders and locals when they needed food, shelter and guidance. Sevareid corresponded with newspapers on this trip, which helped launch his career in journalism. The book was first published in 1935. here, it’s been repackaged in pa-perback with a commemorative tin and a fold-out map of the 2,250-mile journey. — Javier Serna

Lure Lightning Charge LightFor those of you

that use glow lures when ice fishing, the Lure Lightning charge light will come in handy. The com-pact light actually replaces one of the nobs on your flasher unit, keep-ing it at hand. The push of a rubber-insulated button illuminates five 3-watt ultraviolet SMD lights, giving any jig or lure a long-lasting charge. It comes equipped with positive and negative leads, allowing it to run right off a flasher battery pack. The light retails for $33.95. www.lure-lightning.com — Javier Serna

GSI Outdoors Pinnacle Backpacker Cookset

an amazing amount of cook-wear and tableware fits inside this compact cookset, which is designed for backpackers, but would be welcome in any camping pack. a 2-liter pot and 8-inch frypan made of hard anodized aluminum stood up to the high-output flames of a cast iron burner inside a Lake of the Woods sleeper house. It also comes with a strainer lid, a pair of in-sulated mugs with sip tops, a pair of 14-ounce bowls, and a folding pot gripper which all fits compactly into a black sack that doubles as a wash sink. It retails for $89.95. www.gsioutdoors.com — Javier Serna

Stormy Kromer

The iconic Stormy Kromer hat is proudly made in the USa—Michigan, in fact. Made of wool and lined with cotton, they are custom-sized to fit any head. I love the look of this sassy, plaid Northwoods cap. It has ear flaps to block the cold and a brim to keep the glare from my eyes. Stormy Kromer hats come in a variety of colors and styles, in-cluding waxed cotton and sun-block versions. The hats retail for $34.99. www.stormykromer.com — Amber Pratt

Ever since I got the aussie Dogs alpine boots, my other winter footwear has been gathering dust. The alpine boots feature 100 percent sheepskin lining that feels luxurious—I’m tempted to wear them barefoot—and, more importantly, keeps my feet toasty no matter the temp. I sported the al-pine boots on a lengthy hike the other day, and my feet stayed warm and dry, thanks

to the sturdy, water-resistant rubber, wool and cordura con-struction. The soles grip like gecko feet. a sheepskin “collar” covers part of the outside of the boot shaft, which reaches almost to mid-calf. My vanity appreciates the rugged-chic styling, while my patriotic side appreciates that aussie Dogs footwear is based and manufactured in the USa. all in all, a smart, stylish choice for any woman dwelling in the north country. The boots retails for $130. www.aussie-dogs.com — Shelby Gonzalez

Got Cold Feet?Thermacell heated Insoles foot warmers take

the chill out of ice fishing. Place heated Insoles in your boots and activate with the remote, then adjust heat (medium or high). The insoles maintain a steady temperature inside your shoes or boots, keeping your feet around normal body tem-perature. Powered by rechargeable, built-in lithium-ion polymer batter-ies, the insoles can run continuously up to 5 hours or longer if used in intervals. The battery recharges fully in 3 hours. The insoles come in a range of sizes and can be trimmed to fit. MSrP $129.99. www. thermacell.com — Shawn Perich

Ruffwear K-9 Overcoat

On a pair of canoe trips this past fall, it was clear that my dog was uncomfort-ably cold. I ended up wrapping her in my rain jacket as we floated one river in October, but that was still far from ideal. I wish I had ruffwear’s K-9 overcoat, an insu-lated dog coat that handles cold weather well, as it has done this winter. It keeps her warm without restricting her move-ments. She hasn’t tried to take it off. The shell is made of 100 percent recycled fabric and is abrasion- and snag-resistant. It is lined with fleece, though the fleece showing here is actually ruffwear’s climate changer fleece sweater (not included). The coat retails for $64.95. www.ruffwear.com — Javier Serna

See Your Dog After Dark

NiteIze has really great lights for dog owners who take their pets out after dark. This winter, my dogs are wearing the SpotLit LED collar Light and the Nite Dawg collar cover. My rangy yellow Lab has the surprisingly bright,

red collar Light, making him easy to see as he roams around our expansive backyard. attached to his collar with a strong carabiner clip, the collar Light has survived frequent runs in the woods. My older, less energetic husky-shepherd is wear-ing the collar cover, an illuminated strip that is somewhat ob-scured by her heavy fur. It easily attached to her collar with Velcro and would be fully visible on a flat-furred dog. Both lights have glow and flash modes. MSrP on the SpotLit is $7.19 and the Nite Dawg LED collar cover is $11.99. www.Niteize.com — Shawn Perich

The Last Keeper at Split Rock

By Mike roberts

NORTH STAR PRESS OF ST. CLOUD, $14.95

The author was the final keeper at Split rock Lighthouse, which was decommissioned in 1969. The 175-page paperback focuses on, but is not limited to, roberts’ coast Guard career, from 1966 to 1969, when he was stationed at Split rock. The book also follows his transfer to the North Shore Lifeboat Station in Grand Marais, where his enlistment ended in 1970. roberts doesn’t focus so much on the background and history of the now-popular tourist attraction. Instead his book is a series of anecdotes and vignettes about life at the lighthouse in the 60s. In that sense, it not only serves as a historical account of life as a coast Guardsman but also life on the North Shore in that era. — Javier Serna

reviews

Aussie Dogs Women’s Alpine Boots


We cannonballed down the last stretch of the snow-covered portage, Possum leading the charge, and no matter how hard I stomped on the brakes the sled kept accelerating. The snow just wasn’t deep enough. Trees whizzed by on both sides. Everyone else was ahead of me on the lake already and Possum cut hard left be-fore we reached the ice, sending me and the sled airborne and sideways off a jagged rock-face, into a fantastic rollover crash landing.

I didn’t let go and I didn’t snap any limbs, so I righted the sled and yelled “Giddyup” at the team. It was mid-day and the temperature was already dropping. By midnight the air would measure well below freezing, and like the hus-kies, I would be sleeping on the frozen lake ice. No tent, no igloo. Suspended on a sliver be-tween water and stars.

Possum—a seasoned lead dog—turned her head back at me from the front of our rig, giv-ing me a laughing look, like, “Don’t give me this ‘Giddyup’ business, Mister... And where’d you learn to drive, anyways?”

“Where’d you learn to drive?!” I yelled back at her into the wind.

At the back of the team the yearling Proby strained against his harness, leaping wildly and pleading with Possum to get a move on. “Let’s go! Let’s go! Let’s go!!!” he screamed.

The harsh wilderness of winter camping had been luring me for years, but I could never put a trip together ... there was always excited talk and eventually, an excuse. Finally my good friends Erik and Tori invited me on a two-night trip into the remote border waters and every-thing fell into place. Erik runs dogs in the win-ter and he had an opening in his guiding sched-ule at the end of January. It was Erik who first

told me about frozen- lake sleeping, and as I’m gener-ally anti-tent anyways, the odd idea had gotten stuck in my head.

A few days before the trip was scheduled to begin I took a peek at the weather forecast and the ridiculous lows lining up against us. Cold weather doesn’t bother me much, but this was gonna be the worst winter would offer all year. I remember shivering in my slippers and think-ing something unprintable, but I was commit-ted. No more excuses. I was going no matter what. Extra layers and rations were packed.

If you’ve never tried it, winter camping is pretty much just like summer camping but ev-erything takes five times the effort and time. You need five times as much wood and it is five times more difficult dragging it back to camp. You will think about things like: How will I keep my contacts from freezing in the case at night? And: Did Proby really finish that huge chunk of frozen mink already? And: So that’s the Milky Way! In trade for your efforts, you will see five times fewer people, probably less. So, I think it’s a good deal.

The effort factor of five I outlined above should also be applied to your gear, if that makes any sense. You’ll want at least a two-sleeping-bag system. Use the coldest-rated bag available and if possible, overdo it. Good sleep-ing bags are top priority, but good friends and food are also important considerations.

The weather radio was predicting clear skies, filthy winds and lows around negative

30 for our second night in camp, so I was happy with a 15-degree synthetic bag stuffed inside a negative-60-degree bag, with all of that on top of a thick foam sleeping pad. Find dry, wind-protected ice for base camp. If you have deep snow, make like a huskie and dig in. A tarp between your sleeping pad and the ice will also help keep your nest dry. Sleeping bags and people and conditions will always differ, so it’s not an exact science, but you get the idea.

This need for extra gear certainly adds to the challenge, but with dogsleds we had plenty of capacity. That’s something to think about if you’re going by human power, though aim for a warmer night. And I should also mention that other members of our camping party had a wall tent with a woodstove, so I also had a de-cent fallback option. Essentially, be careful and aware of conditions, but also, know that this can be done, comfortably, both close to home base for one night or into the quiet sections of the park for multiple nights.

Even with the double sleeping bags and sleep-ing mat and long underwear and additional layers, I still got a little chilly our second night in camp, but it was worth the effort and I’m

glad I stuck it out. The clouds and flurries of the day broke around midnight, and as the stars began twinkling with that crisp north country brightness, the lake ice really started rumbling, singing like a great whale.

Winter was making ice at a rapid pace as we settled down for the night, our beds a seismic membrane between arctic air and Minnesota water. When a new pressure crack formed nearby, or ran right through camp, the ex-panding ice would jump suddenly, shaking the Milky Way from its enormous stillness over-head.

And as liquid water slows to ice, my mind melted into sleep, thinking, what a strange and

Finding comfort

on a bed of frozen

waterBy Adam Mella

No tent, no igloo. The author recommends a double-sleeping bag system on a thick foam pad for ample comfort and a genuine winter-camping experience, ice for a bed and crisp stars overhead. | aDaM MELLa

The author pictured with the enthusiastic yearling huskie, Proby, who loved just one thing more than frozen mink: running through the north country. | TOrI DOaNE

Frozen Water continued on page 25 »


More than one billion people in over 70 countries now observe daylight-saving time (DST) by re-setting their clocks to ‘’Spring Forward, Fall Back”. To get an ex-tra hour of evening light, we put our clocks forward one hour in the spring and then we turn them back an hour in the fall.

While Benjamin Franklin was the first to write about wasted daylight while in Paris France in 1784 (he proposed everyone rise earlier to make use of morning sunlight and therefore, save on the use of candles for lighting), and Sir Winston Churchill and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle supported British efforts to adopt daylight-saving time in Britain, it was the small Northwestern Ontario town of Port Arthur (now Thunder Bay) on Lake Superior that was the first place in the world to implement a time shift to gain an extra hour of daylight, thanks to the advocacy of John Hewitson.

Toronto-born Hewitson had moved to Port Arthur around 1904, after working as a Zenith Mine clerk and teacher at the small village of Rossport on Lake Superior. He was such a well-liked young man in Rossport that years later a river was named after him, the Hewitson River, which begins in Whitesand Lake, goes over Rainbow Falls before flowing into Lake Superior about five miles east of Rossport.

In Port Arthur, Hewitson was an accountant, then partner in the contracting firm Stewart & Hewitson (they built the city’s historic Lyceum Theatre), and a few years later, owner of his own construction company, Hewitson Construction.

Hewitson, an outdoor sports enthusiast, felt the summer eve-nings were too short and looked at ways to gain an extra hour in the evening to enjoy his passion for sports and exercise. At the time Port Arthur was on Central time (same as Minnesota is now) and his proposal was to gain the extra hour of daylight in the evening by switching to Eastern time. The town council agreed, implementing a two-month time switch in the summer of 1908.

The extended summer evening daylight was so popular that the following year, the residents passed a referendum to per-manently change year-round from Central to Eastern time. A year later, in 1910, the neighboring town of Fort William also switched to Eastern time. At the time, the Canadian parliament had rejected national DST.

History credits Franklin with first writing about the economi-cal benefit of using morning sunlight instead of candles while he was the American envoy to France. He didn’t propose DST but rather measures such as taxing window shutters, rationing can-dles and waking Parisians up earlier by firing cannons at sun-rise or ringing church bells. He published an essay—some say it was satire — titled “An Economical Project of Diminishing the Cost of Light”, and estimated Parisians could save $200 million by using sun instead of candles. The idea never went anywhere.

About 100 years later, in 1895, a New Zealand entomologist, George Vernon Hudson, invented the modern DST when he pre-sented a paper at the Wellington Philosophical Society that pro-posed a two-hour shift forward in October and two-hour shift

back in March. There was much interest in the idea, but nothing came of it, even after he presented a second paper in 1898.

In 1905, an English builder William Willett, independently conceived of DST dur-ing his early morn-ing horseback riding and noticing no one else was around. For the next two years, he worked out the details of his DST ‘’clock-shifting’’ proposal: moving the clocks 20 minutes forward each four Sundays in April and move them back 20 minutes on four Sundays in September. At his own expense, he published and distributed a pamphlet, The Waste of Daylight, promoting Summer DST in the United Kingdom. The proposal made it to the British parliament in 1907, but it was rejected as were sub-sequent attempts. Then came World War I and suddenly, DST became popular as a wartime energy savings measure.

On April 30, 1916, Germany and its allies became the first country to implement DST (German Sommerzeif) as a way to conserve fuel. Less than a month later, Britain adopted Summer Time (DST) and other European countries followed, while the U.S. waited until 1918. After the war, most countries abandoned DST and went back to standard time until World War II, when DST was again implemented.

During World War II, the US implemented year-round DST (‘’War Time’’ as it was then known) from Feb. 9, 1942 to Sept. 30, 1945, expiring six months after war's end. As a result, from 1945 to 1966, each American state, county and municipality was free to choose if, and how, they wanted to observe DST, and that created confusion, like the St. Paul-Minneapolis DST fiasco of May 1965. That’s when St. Paul voted to start their DST two weeks earlier than neighboring Minneapolis, which had opted to kick in their DST on the date set by state law. For two weeks there was chaos, a free-for-all where businesses, police and fire services, schools, suburbs, etc. were working under different times. In 1966, Congress passed the Uniform Time Act of 1966, nationally standardizing the DST period.

Starting in 2007 and continuing to the present, North American DST is standardized to start at 2 a.m. on the second Sunday in March and end on first Sunday in November, though there are some Canadian and American areas that do not ob-serve DST. Since 1996, the European Summer Time is observed from the last Sunday in March to the last Sunday in October.

Strange Tales BY ELLE ANDRA-WARNER

Thunder Bay was first in world to implement daylight-saving time

Shifting TimeShifting Time

George Vernon hudson, inventor of Daylight Savings Time, later in life. c 1920

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The author pictured with the enthusiastic yearling huskie, Proby, who loved just one thing more than frozen mink: running through the north country. | TOrI DOaNE


T hey descended on my bird feeders like a blizzard, flut-tering from perch to branch,

from feeder to ground. As if driven by hunger, some fluttered violently over occupied perches, trying to drive off those that were already feeding. On the ground below, oth-ers scratched through the snow with their tiny feet, searching for wayward seeds.

I watched in amazement as they fed, for it was a constant stream of birds to and from the nearby bush-es and trees to the feeders. Never was there a second when the scene was still. And it would not be a stretch of the truth to say you could actually see the tube feeders get progressively emp-tied, watch the thistle socks transform from plump to drained. Redpolls. Hundreds of common redpolls.

When you are inundated with tiny birds feeding at such a frenzy, it is difficult to keep an eye on just one bird, or to scan the constantly moving flock for anything out of the ordinary. But that was exactly what I was trying to do, because when a flock of common redpolls are this large, it isn’t unheard of to find a stranger in their midst.

That stranger is the hoary redpoll, the arctic cousin of the common redpoll.

The differences between the two species are subtle, but not in-distinguishable, especially when one has the chance to see them side by side. Overall, the hoary is much paler than the common. The adult male hoary has buffy white on its back, and a very pale face. Like the common, he has a red patch on top of the head, but more limited black at the base of the beak and on his throat. His chest and belly will be virtually white with only the faintest of streaks on the side. As winter progresses toward spring and the mating season, male common redpolls get very flush with pink on the chest. The hoary undergoes a similar change in plumage color, but the pink color is much paler. Both the adult female and juvenile hoary will show slightly more streaking on their flanks, making them a bit more difficult to tell apart from the common redpoll.

Since the hoary is pretty uncommon, if you are viewing a large flock of redpolls and you think that many of them look pale enough to be hoary redpolls, you need to “readjust” your mental picture of them, for it is very unlikely that there would be more than just a couple. When a true hoary appears in your flock, you’ll almost certainly be suddenly confident of the ID, because it will look so much paler than the others. One last clue to iden-tification is the bill, which appears much stubbier on the hoary.

While you may run into a hoary redpoll at your backyard feeder almost anywhere in Northern Wilds country, unless you live in true boreal forest, you’re not likely to see this next un-common variation of an otherwise common bird – the boreal chickadee.

Black-capped chickadees are surely the best friend of every winter bird watcher in our region. When few if any other birds

Through My Lens BY MICHAEL FuRTMAN

Unfamiliar Neighbors — Rare but NearHoary redpolls and boreal chickadees can sometimes be spotted among their more common cousins

Could Cook County Grow its own?

are around, you can always count on some chickadees to help brighten your day with their antics at the feeder. Their cousin, though, is a much rarer bird to see, and you’ll most likely have to venture out to where the black spruce and tamaracks grow to see one.

But it will be worth the cold visit! Although black-capped chickadees can be found in habitats ranging from boreal to deciduous forest, or even in grassy and brush regions, boggy northern forests are the home to the boreal chickadee. Often described as a “black-capped chickadee dipped in chocolate powder,” the boreal chickadee is impossible to confuse with its relative.

Both species have a snowy white belly and black beneath the chin, but where the black-capped is, well, “capped in black,” the boreal’s head is a beautiful milk chocolate brown. The white patch beneath and to the rear of the black-capped’s eye is slate

gray on the boreal, and the boreal also shows much less white on its wings. And while both species show some rusty coloration on the flanks, the color is much deeper and more extensive on the boreal chickadee.

It might come as a surprise to many northern wild readers that these two species even exist in our region. Most casual bird-ers can easily identify the friendly black-capped chickadee, and soon learn the identification of the common redpoll because they have the distinctive red cap on their heads. But to find and see the hoary redpoll or the boreal chickadee, you must work at it.

So if you want a delightful winter challenge this year, take it upon yourself to see if you can find these two little birds. These unfamiliar neighbors are out there, just waiting for you to enjoy them.

Upper Left: Black-capped chickadee, Lower Left: Boreal chickadee, Upper Right: common redpoll, Lower Right: hoary redpoll, |MIchaEL FUrTMaN


I have been totally charmed and energized by Tim Stark’s “Heirloom: Notes from an Accidental Tomato Farmer.”

I don’t say this because we are both “accidentals,” although I must admit I feel a certain kinship with the author because he was pretty unorganized about his gardening when he first got started.

The amazing thing is that Stark planted 2,000 tomato plants and hundreds of hot pepper plants on a farm in Pennsylvania where he had grown up and planned to sell them at the Union Square Greenmarket in New York City. He’d never done this before, and reading how he scrambled to get those 100 varieties of tomatoes and 70-odd variet-ies of chili grown, picked and to market those first few years is pretty funny.

There are lots of other chuckling moments in this book for those of us who garden, and I highly recommend it for winter reading.

It’s turned my head about growing heirloom tomatoes as well as educated me about habaneros, the Amish and the Mennonites and the difficulties and rewards of truck farming.

But what really struck a chord was Stark’s description of the changes in the New York food scene because of that farmer’s market that opened more than 30 years ago.

Greenmarket was overrun by customers on the first day it opened, and within hours, everything was gone. It was like a herd of locusts descended on them, one farmer recalled.

Soon, some of the most famous chefs in the city began drop-ping in to see what kind of locally grown fresh vegetables were available that week. Then new restaurants began popping up within walking distance of the Union Square Greenmarket so their staff could drop in for fresh, locally grown food for their customers.

The farmers thrived, the restaurants thrived, and New Yorkers could eat healthy food.

The Greenmarkets are a win/win, he writes. They save farm-land, provide nutritious food to urbanites, fuel a culinary renais-sance and restore vigor and dignity to scores of farm families.

Both Duluth and Thinder Bay already have thriving farm communitees. Maybe we can do that in Cook County, albeit on a much smaller scale.

Kristin DeArruda Wharton, the coordinator of the Statewide Health Improvement (SHIP) program in Cook County, sees the possibilities.

“Currently, there are very few commercial-scale producers in Cook County,” she says. “Most of the local produce that we do see here is coming from people’s home gardens.”

But restaurants, schools and the hospital are spending hun-dreds of thousands of dollars outside the county to buy food every year.

“If the food was grown here, I see it as an economic oppor-tunity for people to make a living and support their families,” harton said.

Wharton is a nurse at Sawtooth Mountain Clinic and is co-ordinating a new program that aims to begin doing just that. Funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Community Transformation grant seeks to enhance the health

the Accidental GardenerBY JOAN FARNAM

Could Cook County Grow its own?

Left: Tim Stark’s book, “heirloom: Notes from an accidental Tomato Farmer” has just been released in paperback. Right: Tim Stark, the tomato guy, sells thousands of heirloom tomatoes in New York city every year.

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of Minnesota communities. In Cook County, the focus is on increasing the community’s access to healthy, locally grown food.

“The goal of the whole thing is to have more fresh, local and regionally produced foods avail-able to all people through restaurants, schools and hospitals,” she says.

Two restaurants, for example, the Angry Trout and Lutsen Resort, have already pledged to spend 20 percent of their food budgets on local or re-gional products by 2020, she says. And other local institutions are considering being involved. Some schools, like Great Expectations, already have a greenhouse and gardens and they use some of their produce for school lunches, and Grand

Portage is working on a farm-to-school project, she said.But setting up commercial farms in Cook County will not be

easy.“I feel like we know what the barriers are,” Wharton said.

“Access to agricultural land is tough. It’s either not available or the cost is very prohibitive for people just starting out. The county hasn’t stepped up and said this is a priority. If they de-cided to do that, I think there could be conversation about tax incentives for ag land or a way to pass on agricultural land to the next generation with less cost.”

There are definitely fields around the county that are currently not in production.

“Part of what we need to do is find out is who has an old farm and are they interested in leasing that land or allowing someone to use it,” Wharton said. “There are people who want to do it, but they don’t have the land.

growing continued on page 27 »


D on’t let the doldrums of winter get you down! Now is the time to plan your warm-weather adven-ture. Northern Wilds writers have come up with five destination expeditions, including hiking, cycling, canoeing, kayaking and

fly-in fishing. These all require more planning than the typical weekend excursion, but they’re all worth the effort.

Overnight cycling

A n afternoon bike ride is nice, but what about taking it to the next level and doing an overnight trip? The folks at Superior

North Outdoor Center in Grand Marais have done many overnight trips in the area and recommend the two- or three-day (depending on your pace) road ride from Grand Marais to Thunder Bay.

“Traveling by bike is such a great opportu-nity to meet people--bikes are a big draw, and folks like to visit,” said Melinda Spinler, SNOC owner. “You have that do-it-under-your-own-power feeling, and it’s easier to stop and view sites than stopping a car and getting out, yet you’re still able to cover a lot of ground.”

Over the course of the trip you’ll see many sights, including waterfalls, rivers, and of course Lake Superior, which will be at your side for much of the ride. The Spinlers recom-mend staying at Grand Portage Lodge, B&Bs or camping along the way.

Essential are a well-prepped bike to eliminate possible roadside problems (SNOC can help with this), padded bike shorts, a helmet, and lots of water-bottles. Don’t forget a patchkit and pump for flats, your camera and passport for getting across the border!

For more information about this trip (either to do-it-yourself or a guided ride) contact SNOC at www.velomarais.com or 218-387-2186.

–Kate Watson

Canoe Country

I t used to be easier to predict and plan for trips to canoe country (Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and Quetico

Provincial Park), but climate change has added an element of uncertainty. “There is no such thing as normal anymore,” said Sarah Lynch, owner of Sawtooth Outfitters in Tofte. “No matter when you go, you could almost get any-thing. It could be 90 degrees or it could be 40 degrees.”

Lynch stressed that canoe trippers should come prepared for anything.

If fishing is the focal point of the trip, then there’s not a better time of the year than spring, with May and June being prime months for a number of game species, including walleye and lake trout. But if it’s warm weather, go in July and August. If you want to avoid people, go in September and October, once kids have returned to the classroom.

The focus of the trip will dictate the gear you’ll bring. If you plan on putting lots of miles on the canoe, then light, Kevlar canoes are ad-visable.

But if you’re going to base camp on an entry point lake, a heavier canoe will do.

Don’t be overwhelmed by the decisions. There’s a wealth of information avail-able through the Internet and via outfitters such as Lynch, who are best posi-tioned to share local knowl-edge.

Those outfitters can also save a trip when something as simple as a sleeping pad or life jacket is left at home. “We have all the pieces and

parts to make it happen,” Lynch said.For more information, go to www.saw-

toothoutfitters.com or call 218-663-7643.

Hike the Kekekabic Trail

M any who’ve travelled in the BWCAW have heard of this 42-mile long hiking trail that crosses the park. While it may lack

the elevation of the mountain west, or even the Appalachian Trail, it’s no cakewalk. It’s a destination, and one that requires some serious planning.

Some sections of the trail are overgrown and it can be a challenge to avoid losing the trail, said Martin Kubik, who founded the Kekekabic Trail Club back in 1990.

Kubik, of Vandnais Heights, recommends hikers start from the Gunflint Trail side and head west towards Ely because the eastern third is most difficult. “If you can make it through that, the rest of the trail will seem like

a breeze,” said Kubik, who suggests hikers plan to go either in spring or fall, avoiding the hu-midity of summer.

And that brings up one of the logistical chal-lenges to through-hiking the trail. It may only be 42-miles long, but it’s a four-hour drive from one end to the other.

Kubik recommends hiring an outfitter to provide a shuttle (that can cost several hundred bucks).

Kubik said groups of three or four are best because they can spread out, which helps stay on the trail. He recommends planning for at least four days to complete the trail, and he stressed minimalist packing principles. It’s why he cuts down his maps into strips, cover-ing three miles around the trail but ditching the rest of the map. “It’s an emotional decision because they cost $8 a piece, but you can save ounces there,” he said.

For more information, go to www.kek.org.–Javier Serna

Fly-in Fishing Adventures

T he excitement begins at take-off, because you know you are on the way to adven-ture. The float plane will land on a remote

lake and drop you off at a rustic camp. Then, for a few days, it’s just you and the fish. Sometimes the walleye fishing is so fast and furious you can hardly make a cast without catching one. Occasionally, a pike as long as your leg will ap-pear behind a walleye struggling on your line and attempt to steal it. That’s fishing.

The vast wilderness north of Thunder Bay has hundreds of fly-in camps located on lightly fished lakes. Usually, the outfitter provides you with a small cabin and adequate boats and mo-tors for your party. Food and fishing essentials are up to you. Fly-in trips range from a few days to a week or more. Very often, you won’t see anyone else on the lake during your stay.

Plot yournextadventure

Five ideas to start planning

Above Left: cycle farther and see more on an overnight cycling trip. | KaTE WaTSON, Above Right: Wyatt Lynnes of Maple Plain, takes a break on the Kekekabic Trail at a spot overlooking agamok Lake on the eastern side of the 42-mile trail. | MarTIN KUBIK, Above: an aluminum canoe sits at a portage. | JaVIEr SErNa


The snow began falling by the time George Harder finished his six-mile hike and arrived at the outskirts of town. It was a long walk to town from the lake, and at 71 years old, he was fear-ful of walking back home. He was afraid, because even if there were a few inches of snow on the ground, it made for difficult walking.

George looked in on his wife that morning, and Daisy didn’t look good. The stroke that struck her a few weeks before had nearly killed her. Three weeks later, she was still hang-ing on, but George had never seen her so tired and listless.

He had come to town to get more of Doc Sutherland’s sweet elixir that was supposed to help Daisy get better. George Harder had been a pretty good boxer and had been in the ring with some pretty tough opponents, but he had never fought anything like a stroke before, and this time it was his Daisy doing the fighting.

He wasn’t afraid of much, but he was afraid of being alone.

Doc Sutherland and George Harder were old friends. The two old friends talked about what strokes were. After all the hopeful talk, it didn’t seem like there was much anyone could do about a stroke. It all depended on the person’s will to come back, the Doc told George Harder. Doc Sutherland smiled and patted George on the back while he handed over another bottle of the sticky red liquid in the dark brown bottle.

In a short time he was clumping down the wooden steps and heading out into the reality of winter. The snow was coming down heavy. George was a block away from the depot and he still hadn’t decided which way he was go-

ing to go home. The decision was made for him when the man in the dark green truck offered him a ride home.

“We’ll save you quite a bit of walking, George,” the young man said.

George still had two miles of walking left when the truck pulled over to the side of the as-phalt highway where a thin dirt road ran off into the darkening woods.

There was five inches of new fallen snow.

George was starting to drift off when he caught himself. He had walked a long time be-fore he realized he was lost. The snow was re-ally coming down now.

He could feel the fear growing in him as he walked faster. He was afraid of being lost, but he was also exhausted. He spotted a large pine stump and cleared himself a place to sit down and think about his situation.

There is no telling how long he sat there try-ing to think. All he remembered was feeling warm, safe, and comfortable. He was almost asleep when a voice out of the past woke him up. It was the voice of his old ring manager Clarence Duffy and the familiar sound of the ring’s bell telling him it was time to wake up and get back into the fight.

He was standing alone in a small clearing of new fallen snow, wondering where he was and why he was standing out in the cold on such a night. He reached down into the deep pocket of his coat and felt the cold glass medicine bottle, and he remembered where he was and what he was doing.

He walked for a long time, before he came to

something familiar, but the initial elation soon faded when he realized he was at the same spot he was when he first realized he was lost. The panic that gripped him earlier was replaced by a sense of warm comfort. All he wanted to do was just to sit here and die, but then George thought of Daisy back home in bed.

It was dark now and once or twice George thought he caught the welcoming scent of a wood fire, but each time he tried to follow the aroma of wood smoke, he lost it in the wind.

He heard Daisy’s voice. “You don’t have to get up anymore George. It isn’t your fault that you’re lost. You gave it a good try, and no one can ask anymore of you. You always answered the bell George, and you did it again twice tonight, but you don’t have to get up again.” Daisy was telling him it was OK to quit, and when George Harder started to complain about not wanting to quit, Daisy’s voice told him it would be alright. She told him that she wasn’t going to make it back this time, and the medi-cine he was carrying wasn’t doing her any good. All of a sudden a peaceful feeling of warmth and security washed over him like a summer wave, and he was at peace with the world. He and Daisy were sitting in the kitchen in front of a cheery blaze. They were young again, and very much in love. It was the last thing George Harder thought of before he drifted of into one last sweet sleep. He was sure that he and Daisy would be together again.

George Harder was wearing a smile when they found him, and several younger mem-bers of the rescue party wondered what he was smiling about. Daisy Redfield died a week later from complications from her stroke. She nev-er regained enough consciousness to learn of George Harder’s death. They were buried side by side later that spring in the town’s cemetery; together in life and inseparable by death.

Campfire StoriesIRON MIKE HILLMAN

Frozen in the Snow

Brett Nelson of Mchenry, Ill., unhooks a small-mouth bass on alpine Lake in the Boundary Waters canoe area Wilderness. | JaVIEr SErNa

When planning a fly-in trip, decide first on what fish species you want to catch. Walleyes and pike are most common, but some camps offer fishing for lake trout or trophy-sized brook trout. Adventurous souls can even work with outfitters to arrange wilderness river trips. A couple of excellent websites listing nu-merous outfitters are Ontario’s Sunset Country www.ontariossunsetcountry.ca and North of Superior Tourism www.nosta.on.ca.

Seeking Caribou—The Slate Islands

A Lake Superior archipelago is home to Ontario’s southernmost population of woodland caribou. Created when a meteor

slammed into the earth over a billion years ago, the Slate Islands, located off Terrace Bay, sup-port a few hundred head of the far northern deer and boast sheltered waters, great scenery and excellent lake trout fishing to boot. Due to meteoric origins, the islands have unique ge-ology, namely super-heated, glass-like rocks and a rare formation known as a shatter cone. While caribou are numerous, sighting one is a matter of luck, as is always the case when look-ing for wildlife.

The Slate Islands aren’t a secret, yet few folks make the journey to this out-of-the-way place. Why? Because you’re on your own out there. The archipelago is protected as Slate Islands Provincial Park. There are no facilities other than campsites. Most folks set up camp and then use a boat or kayak to tour the islands. You can arrange for a charter service from Terrace Bay to get here and back again. For in-formation and a list of charter services, go to www.terracebay.ca.

–Shawn Perich

of Hurkett, has a number of rental shacks located over some fine perch grounds. Hamilton was one of a hand-ful of people to start ice fish-ing perch on Black Bay after the commercial fishery sus-pended operations a few years back. He says it took a while for the fish to rebound, but over the last few years, the perch fishery has exploded.

You don’t need a lot of fancy gear. I’d recommend medium light jigging rods and spin-ning reels matched with 2 to 4 pound test line. Have a selection of light panfish or

small walleye jigs, in orange, yellow or gold. Small crappie tubes and tiny spoons work as well. Minnows are the top bait. It pays to have a good selection of sizes and no less than two dozen minnows per angler. Perch are known to steal minnows. Some form of electronics will also greatly aid in finding perch schools on this huge expanse.

If quality perch fishing ap-peals to you, look no further than Lake Superior’s Black Bay. Contact Gary Hamilton at hamiltonbaits.webs.com or 807-857-1462.

caNaDIaN TraILS continued from page 13

comfortable bed.We all rose quickly, eager to wiggle

our toes and get the fire going again. Coffee and some breakfast stoked our own belly fires, and we prepared the teams for departure. The wind was in our faces the entire run back, with visions of cheeseburgers and cedar saunas on the long horizon, out there somewhere. My beard was frozen into a glorious icy shell. Finally, cross-ing the last section of lake before the landing, I turned around and rode backwards on the sled, watching the park disappear behind us. Despite the wind on my hood, it was somehow too quiet. I got lost in that familiar feel-

ing, another adventure ending.Possum wasn’t having any of it. She

brought the team to a dead stop a mile from the truck, giving me a sharp look with frozen whiskers of her own. The dogs were at home here, beautiful on the crystalized crunching snow. Proby started jump-yipping. Below us the ice lurched and whistled, “Back on land you all must go.”

We sat there suspended for a few moments longer, I took a deep clean breath, then gave the team a crisp, “Giddyup!”

FrOzEN WaTEr continued from page 20


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With Venus and Mars dropping out of the morning and evening skies, respec-tively, Jupiter and Saturn are the only bright planets visible for all of February and March.

Saturn, a morning planet, starts rising before midnight in February and ends March coming up in the east a couple of hours after sunset. It keeps appearing earlier be-cause Earth is catching up to it in the orbital race. Bracketing the ringed planet are bright Spica, in Virgo, to the west and giant red Antares, the heart of Scorpius, to the east.

February evenings belong to the knot of bright winter constellations with Orion at the center. Jupiter continues to pump out the wattage near Aldebaran, the eye of Taurus. And this is the best time to see Sirius, the brightest star, fol-lowing at Orion’s heels in the

constellation Canis Major. A new comet, Pan-

STARRS, will swoop closest to Earth and the sun early in March. If it brightens enough, it could become visible above the sunset horizon.

February’s full moon shines on the 25th. March’s reaches perfect fullness at 4:27 a.m. on the 27th and is probably best seen the previous evening.

If you’re under dark skies an hour or two after sunset in late February, you may notice a faint oval glow extending from the horizon along the sun’s path. This is the zodia-

cal light, the result of sunlight glinting off dust in the plane of the solar system.

Groundhog Day began as a Celtic holiday marking the halfway point be-tween the winter sol-stice and the spring equinox. It was held that if the day was cloudy, that portend-

ed rains to soften the earth and hasten planting, hence the tradition that not seeing shadows means spring is right around the corner.

The equinox arrives at 6:02 a.m. March 20, when the sun, heading north, crosses the equator and lights the Earth from pole to pole.

The University of Minnesota Duluth offers pub-lic viewings of the night sky at the Marshall W. Alworth Planetarium. For more infor-mation and viewing sched-ules, see www.d.umn.edu/planet

By Deane Morrison UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA STARWATCH

February - March

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“Another idea is to develop a county/commu-nity agricultural incubator farm like they have started near Ashland, Wis. Beginning farmers are able to lease an acre of land and get a start that way.

I think that would be a real economic oppor-tunity for the county.”

Wharton has organized a meeting between local and regional agricultural producers in Cook and Lake counties as well as Thunder Bay and the restaurants and wholesale buyers who will use their produce in hopes to directly connect the people who are producing with the people who are buying.

It could be the start of a completely new di-rection for gardeners who want to just grow food for others.

Want more information? Call Wharton at the Sawtooth Mountain Clinic at 218-387-2330.

» continued from page 23


Welcome to Golden Eagle Lodge, a family oriented, year-round resort located on

the historic Gunfl int Trail of Northeastern Minnesota. We are on the north shore of Flour Lake surrounded by the Superior National Forest. We are the only residents on the lake, so you can look forward to the quiet and solitude offered only from a true wilderness setting.

Golden Eagle Lodge Nordic Ski Center is world-class, nationally-known, and silent-sports-only. It is located on the Central Gunfl int Ski Trail System. A well-marked network of more than 70 km of groomed trails begin right from your cabin’s doorsteps. Our

trail system is tracked for traditional skiing, and much of it is tracked for skate skiing.

We offer complete skiing and snowshoe rentals for all ages, a ski waxing room, a trail lit 7 days a week, a sauna, and an emphasis on silent-sports only (no snowmobiles). All our modern, housekeeping cabins have a fi replace.

We know much time, effort, and expense is invested in a vacation.We would be honored if you considered us as your vacation destination. We go out of our way to ensure every aspect of your visit will convince you to come back and see us again. You won’t be disappointed!

800-346-2203 • 218-388-2203 · www.Golden-Eagle.comwww.Gun� intCamping.com · www.FlourLake.com

www.MinnesotaXCSkiing.com

Unspoiled. Serene. Spectacular. Unforgettable.

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