Get thee to the Gunflint

This weekend is the Gunflint Green-Up. Head on up into the canoe country from Grand Marais and help this scenic and wild area recover from the Ham Lake fire of May, 2007. 

The Gunflint Green-up started as a large-scale tree planting program after the wildfire, but has turned into a full-scale celebration of spring and renewal on the Gunflint Trail.

Events this year include an interpretive walk, a presentation on the history of the PADW railroad and the Paulson Mine, music and dancing under the Big Top, and of course tree planting.

Preregistration is requested. While tree planting is free, you'll want to join the food and festivities and even get a t-shirt for the full package cost of $35. The wonderful lodges and resorts on the Gunflint Trail have great overnight packages as well. 

Spring thaw on the Gunflint Trail

There is a lovely post on the Gunflint Trail blog about "subtle changes" in the woods and on the lakes this time of year. The chickadees are singing "fee-bee" and the lakes are crusty enough to walk on.

The meteorologists say that it's spring. All the snow in the woods and below-zero temps at night say it's winter. You can pick how you want to experience it, but it's definitely a time of gradual transition in the woods. 

Each day starts cold and warms up. Each day feels like the transition from winter to spring is happening anew.This is a great time to strap on your no-wax skis or your mukluks and get out into the woods.  When the sun comes out on a March day on the North Shore or the Gunflint Trail, you can ski or hike outside all day and never feel a chill. The sun sets around 6:00, so you can have a full afternoon on the trail. Then it's back to a warm cabin and the cycle starts over again the next day.

Best time for the trees

"The best time to plant trees was twenty years ago.
The second best time is now."

That's wisdom from the Minnesota Tree Planting Handbook. It's especially true the next two weeks on the North Shore. Community groups and resorts are all ready for a busy tree planting season, and they really want your help. Earn a very cheap stay at a Gunflint lodge, or just help out the neighbors in Hovland.



The Gunflint GreenUp has become a huge event. After the 2007 Ham Lake fire,Gunflint residents and businesses turned crisis into opportunity. It's not just a tree-planting event, it's also a half-marathon and live music with dancing. It's May 7-8. They've had so much success planting trees that they aren't planting anymore, instead doing the VERY important work of clearing grass away from the trees that were already planted. That's called "releasing," and there's lots of work to do.

If you really want to plant trees on the Gunflint, get in touch with Boundary Country Trekking. They're planting trees along the Banadad Trail. Stay at Poplar Creek Guesthouse for cheap and help out. Their dates are April 30-May 2, May 7-9, and May 14-16. Volunteers eat well and stay two nights double occupancy for $89. Call Barb or Ted at (800) 322-8327 or write bct@boundarycountry.com.



On the North Shore proper, head for Hovland on May 1 or May 8. The good folks of the Flute Reed Partnership are planting 1300 white pine, black spruce and white spruce. Meet at 9:00 AM at the Hovland Town Hall...free box lunches will be provided! Contact Rick Schubert if you have any questions, rschub@centurytel.net.

Plant trees...good for you, and good for the North Shore.

Trail's End Camping: Dine and Dash

One of the hardest parts of the day when you're camping on the North Shore can be dinner time. I love company at meals, but I don't relish being the meal. Whether it's mosquitoes or blackflies, the bloodsuckers come out right about the time you want to be calmly preparing your campfire delicacies.

So I've come to really appreciate a nice campground restaurant. You can dine at your leisure, even into the evening hours when just the hum of mosquitoes gets unbearable. Then you can dash back to your tent. Dine and dash, except in this case you pay the bill before you go.

"What?," I hear you ask. "Campground restaurant? What is this, a KOA?" No, it's some mighty fine and wild North Shore-area campgrounds.

The lovely and wild Trail's End Campground sits at the very end of the Gunflint Trail, almost 60 miles from Grand Marais. It's in the middle of the big Ham Lake Fire:



It's right on the river connecting Seagull Lake and Saganaga Lake. There's even a portage running right through the campground:



But wonder of wonders, there is a cafe right next to the campground. The Trail's End Cafe is run by Way of the Wilderness Outfitters and has a funky groove. The food is very basic and tasty. Mark Darling's burgers are just fine. According to their website, they serve "what some people say 'The best burgers in Minnesota.'" That has to do as much with the setting and the work it took to get there as with the quality of the food. Perfect food, perfect location...what else do you really need?



Oh, and the beer is cold. Best Coors I ever had. Really.

If the far end of the Gunflint Trail is too far for you, you can "dine and dash" at Cascade River State Park (eat at Cascade Lodge), Lambs Resort (eat at Schroeder Baking Company), and of course Grand Marais Municipal Campground (eat anywhere in town).

Eat, and do not be eaten.

Thinking North Shore summer

The mighty Lake Superior weather clouds just dropped 6-10 inches of snow around Grand Marais. Above is today's webcam from Golden Eagle Lodge, up the Gunflint Trail. Perfect time to think about summer camping, right?

You won't be the first to be thinking ahead. Now that you can reserve state park campsites a year in advance, a lot of the prime campsites are already reserved for the summer.

I'll be on WTIP, Grand Marais' fine public radio station, Friday evening around 5-6, talking about North Shore camping with host Ann Possis. Then Saturday I'll be down in the Twin Cities at the Midwest Mountaineering Outdoor Expo. My program on "5 best North Shore camping weekends" will be at 1:00 at the Expedition Stage (downstairs from the camping department). Listen in to WTIP (they're streaming via their website) or drop by the Expo!

Volks Ski Fest, Part III: Family dynamics on the Gunflint Trail

When my father turned sixty, the whole Slade family met at a Colorado ski town for a luxury weekend of skiing and gourmet meals (ever paid $25 for a drop of grappa?): two sons, one with a wife and me with a serious partner (Sally was the only one to enjoy the outdoor hot tub, a fact she reminds me of to this day); and two daughters, in from urban grungy Seattle. It was fast and furious, and the dynamics of the Slade family, for good and for ill, made the rest of the experience -- of mountains, snow, outdoor fun -- really just scenic background, nearly irrelevant to the family drama that had been playing out for decades.



This weekend, as part of Volks Ski Fest, I stepped right into the middle of another family's Dad-is-60 celebration. Instead of luxurious Snowmass, this was the luxurious Bearskin Lodge. But it was the same phenomenon.

Conditions were excellent, as the map showed. Bob, the Bearskin owner, knew we were coming and had groomed the Oxcart Trail for us just that morning.



For my guided trip, the participants were seven members of a very nice Twin Cities family. The birthday Dad was a corporate executive, and happy to talk about his childhood in Duluth and his work making envelopes. His wife was really fast on the trail, partially because she wanted to get back in time for her 12:00 dogsledding appointment. The boys were goofy and had a lot of fun together, racing, showing off their moves. One daughter (in-law?) was pregnant and dressed for downhill skiing, complete with a matching white outfit and a fur ruff around the hood.

I tried, tried to keep them all together so they could be part of my naturalist interpretation. Lake-effect snow? Whitetail deer ecology? What's not to love about that?

But they were on their own schedule, and split up along the trail according to their abilities and speed. One brother coaxed his partner down the fun and curvy hills of the Oxcart Trail.



So I gave up on nature stuff and worried instead about safety. The pregnant daughter (in law?) and her husband were slower, the wife and one son (there's some step- action in there somewhere) were fast and gone. I asked the mid-speed folks if I should worry or wait. They said, "Nah." I tried not to worry, but I still did.

Everyone made it back fine...I think. Each one scattered to their next activity as soon as they got back to the Lodge. It turns out that the fastest of the sons, the one without a partner, skied the loop twice and caught up with the slow, pregnant couple. I got a nice fist-bump thank you from one of the sons. And then they were all gone, off to dogsledding or nap time or whatever.

Family is great. I love being out with my boys. But the more it's about family and family dynamics, the less it is about the place you are, or the activity you are doing.

Getting ready for Volks Ski Fest

I am all about the skiing. This weekend is the start of Volks Ski Fest in Cook County. Does it get any better than that?

If,like me, you can hardly wait, here are some teasers. Enjoy it all from the comfort of your computer, but come out this weekend too and enjoy it in person!

On Saturday, January 31, I'll be doing an interpretive ski of 3-4 km up the Onion River Road. Meet me at Lutsen Resort at 10:00, earlier if you need to rent skis. Check out the terrain in this YouTube video from Greg Fangel of the Sugarbush Trail Association.



Later on Saturday the 31st, at 1:30, I'll do another guided ski at Cascade Lodge. For a look back at my recent experience on the Cascade Trails, check out this blog posting from earlier this season. I especially like the comments that got going.

In case that's not enough, I'm headed up the Gunflint Trail Sunday morning for another guided ski at Bearskin Lodge, Here's some photos of the Bearskin trails from Flickr.

Skiers, bookmark this site

Skinny Ski is the go-to website for the cross-country skiers I know. It's got nearly real-time reports from actual skiers out on the trails.

In Duluth, you get really fresh reports on city trails, especially Piedmont, Hartley and Lester. Also the private trails at Snowflake get frequent reports.

Reporting is a little spottier up the North Shore. The folks at Sugarbush report frequently, as do their skiers. Pincushion ski trails are updated about twice a week. And the folks up the Gunflint Trail provide detailed reports at least weekly.

For the North Shore state parks, sometimes the best info comes from their weekly reports, filed by the park managers every Thursday.

The skiing is pretty good everywhere right now...get out and enjoy!

Where the lost hikers were found

Last week, two hikers from Duluth were lost on the Kekekabic Trail. The "Kek" is a wilderness giant that connects the Ely area with the Gunflint Trail through the heart of the BWCA. It's a rough and rugged trail, hard to find anytime but especially difficult after the blowdown and fires that have rearranged the whole region.

The two hikers that had been missing this weekend were found yesterday just north of Bingshik Lake. This spring I hiked in to Bingshik Lake (picture below) on the Kekekabic Trail. It was just a day hike, but I was still struck by how rugged and unforgiving the terrain is. The trailbed itself was basically fine, but the "woods" were a jumble of blown-down and burned-down tree trunks (picture above).


I am not at all surprised that they got off the trail. I was there before the grass grew in; with full grass cover, it could have made the trail impossible to find or follow.

This first (or last) section of the Kek receives, I imagine, better maintenance than the rest of the trail. What a challenge those two hikers had! I am so glad they were found and are okay. The Kek is deserving of all the press it gets for being over-the-top challenging.

Exploring the Gunflint Trail

I spent the last two days up the Gunflint Trail, that slice of civilization reaching deep into the Bounday Waters. Accustomed to the North Shore, I get excited about the wildness and ruggedness of the Gunflint. Just off Highway 61 on the North Shore you find wide pleasant trails and lots of housing developments; just off the Gunflint Trail, you find wolf scat and a few campgrounds.

The Gunflint does not have a huge reputation for hiking; it's more of a canoeing and resort destination in the summer. The hiking trails off the Gunflint are either super long (the Kekekabic Trail or the Border Route Trail) or super short (Northern Lights Lake, Honeymoon Bluff). Where are the sweet 5-8 mile day hikes?

On the way up, I checked out a couple of the well-known shorter walks. Honeymoon Bluff is gorgeous but so short (0.4 miles) it's not a hike at all. I camped at site #18 at Trails End campground, one that's featured and pictured in our book Camping the North Shore.

Following hunches, I did two day hikes in one day. First I hiked the Kekekabic Trail from its eastern trailhead 3.5 miles into Bingschick Lake. This was fascinating, especially with the combination of the 1999 blowdown and last spring's Ham Lake fire. The trail was rough, just a wilderness trail with far less maintenance than a state park trail. Over half the route was in open areas of burned down trees.

Bingshick Lake, apparently known for its brook trout, had been burned all the way around and seemed pretty desolate. But the campsite had a few standing trees and made for a nice break.

I finished the first hike early in the day and headed for a delicious lunch of a walleye quesadilla at Gunflint Lodge in their new Red Paddle Bistro. After lunch I was totally stuffed but was able to roll over to the Loon Lake boat landing. Some maps had shown a trail running along Loon Lake and up to the Gunflint ski trail system. This was the Bryce-Breon trail.

As devastated as the forest along the Kek was, this forest was old, vibrant and luxurious. Ancient cedar trees along the shore of the lake, scampering over roots, an osprey swooping in to its nest high in a standing dead tree made it feel like the Land of the Lost, the land that time forgot.


So, two nice mid-length day hikes on the Gunflint Trail. Plus an ungodly number of ticks and black flies.