Micro climate on the South Shore

The weather was perfect at our camp on Reefer Creek this weekend. The temps were in the high 50's, there was a low hanging fog and a north breeze off the lake that kept the temperature down. The fog made the fall colors vibrant and intense.....and I forgot my camera. In my haste to load up Rookie the dog and escape the retail garage sale mania, I forgot both camera bag and wine bag. Not to worry, there was beer in the cooler but it was agonizing to see the fog, the colors and the myriad of mushrooms that had popped out after the rains, just begging to be photographed. I threw on a 'shroom shot from last year but I can only hope that this recent crop is still there next weekend. Recent heavy rains, including the one Friday night, had the river raging. The soil in this area is heavy clay which means aspen, balsam, black spruce, and some oak and maple. We also have some majestic white pine that survived the loggers at the turn of the last century. Reefer Creek is one of the numerous streams and rivers that flows north into Lake Superior. When it rains the river comes up fast and goes down equally fast. The spring floods are legendary since it can be 70F a couple miles inland and 35F at the lake. This means big ice jams at the mouth of these streams acting just like a cork in the bottle. That time of year if you get to cool just head downstream, north to the lake.



Reports from the VOR, who was manning the retail garage, had it in the high 80's and humid in Minneapolis on Saturday. That is most definitely not my kind of weather. I've stated many times that I'll take zero farenheit over 90F any day of the week. I was invigoratingly chilly when I climbed down from my tree stand at dusk on Saturday. When I left the camp Sunday afternoon I drove the two miles up to the lake to check out conditions and there were surfable rollers coming in from the north and the temp was 54F at the mouth of the Iron River. Duluth harbor got up to 60F, the top of the hill in Duluth (one of author Jim Harrison's favorite drives in the country) was 70F, and by the time I reached Minnneapolis 2 hours later at 4pm, it was 84F. Its October for god's sake, this is just plain wrong! In any event we will be heading north again next Friday to enjoy the fall. I'm hoping for a bit of frost

Off to camp

The kayaks will languish in the garage this weekend while I pursue the wily whitetail deer. They will have plenty of visitors however since the VOR is determined to reduce inventory by conducting a hated garage sale ("Would you take a quarter for that??"). One of my fondest childhood memories is the Old Man throwing a couple guys out of our garage as they argued over who got to buy a set of bowls. I come by my garage sale antipathy honestly!

It should be a glorious weekend in the northwoods. The color was peaking up in Voyageurs last weekend and should be the same at Reefer Creek. We are only 2 miles from the south shore of Lake Superior and kind of have our own mini climate. There should also be tons of migrating birds. We are at the point on the west end of the lake where a lot of bird species think, "Hmmm....this looks like a pretty good place to cross; distance looks manageable". The bucks should be making their ground scrapes in anticipation of the rut and the bears will be fattening up for their hibernation. Its amazing what you can see while sitting quietly, 15' up in a tree. As I mentioned yesterday, I will have a companion in the tree for the first time. The eldest grandson of the GurneyGranny (she comes by her nom de guerre honestly also) will be taking advantage of the two day youth hunt. It will be interesting to attempt to impart some deer hunting knowledge and also to see how a member of the computer generation can adapt their attention (deficit) span to sitting quietly and observantly in a tree. Knowing this lad for a number of years gives me a certain amount of confidence that he will do just fine. It should be a quality hunt and I hope he can begin to develop a good hunting ethic. No one is watching you when you hunt so you need to develop your own code of behavior. There is some interesting discussion on this topic from the Orion Institute. I look forward to good friends, good food, and a blazing hot wood fired sauna. Oh, and perhaps an adult beverage or two once the bow is safely stowed away.

Ore boat stabbing

You can't make it up. Two guys on the Mesaba Miner got into a knife fight at 3am as she was upbound, about 10 miles north of our beloved Apostle Islands. Apparently they were in their early 20's and drunk. They made port in Duluth at around 6am and the stabee, who turned out to be OK, was taken to the hospital and the stabber was grilled by the Coast Guard and the FBI for 10 hours. Other than wondering why it took 10 hours for two Federal agencies to get to the bottom of what appears to be an altercation between two acquaintances, I wonder about that age old relationship between alcohol and young men. One of PJ O'Rourke's greatest quotes is, "Giving money and power to Congress is like giving alcohol and car keys to teen age boys". Other than the more than deserved rip on our legislative bodies, it underscores that volatile mix that has been a problem for a couple of millenniums. On a related drunken youth note, the Ely6, subject of a couple posts on this site, had their preliminary hearing for their 79 counts of harassing BWCAW campers. The disturbing thing about that was that these teen and early 20's types had a 37 year old yahoo acting as their 'mentor'.

What to do? I sure as hell don't know and am as guilty as anyone regarding stupid youthful drinking escapades. I guess, like parenthood, its one of those things that everyone gets to do but some people are much more adept at than others. Freshman level course, Drinking 101 perhaps? The homework would be fun but its not the answer. Like most things parents need to take the lead. My dad took me downstairs when I was about 15 or so, popped a beer, handed it to me and proceeded to fill me in on the possible scenarios should I decide to go out and drink 6 or 8 of them on my own. It certainly didn't prevent that from happening but made me think, which I guess is about all you can ask for. No solutions, no monumental revelations, but certainly something that people have puzzled about since the 6th century BC when people discovered that their barley had 'gone bad' and made you feel funny when you ingested it.

Good gear

For me last weekends Voyageur trip was likely my last weekend in my tent until next season. Bowhunting begins in earnest this weekend and I've volunteered to mentor a soon to be 14 year old who just got his Hunter Safety Certificate and is as pumped as humanly possible. I recall that feeling like it was yesterday. We'll see how long he lasts up in the tree. Some good gear made its debut this year in my boat. First and foremost is the Cooke Custom Sewing Lean 3 Plus tarp, affectionately christened The Bat Cave. It has dozens of sturdy tie points, is strong, light, and quick drying, and has the much needed bug netting to keep you sane on Lake Superior when those offshore winds bring the biblical style plague of stable flies. I bring lots of line and stakes in a small mesh bag and a 1/4' climbing style rope for a ridgeline. You can configure it in dozens of ways and rig it high enough so even 6'4" guys like me can wander in and out without getting garroted by the support lines.



Another fine piece of gear is the Kelly Kettle or volcano kettle as its sometimes known.This rig boils a liter of water in under 5 minutes. Normally I like gear that does more than one thing but this unit reduces the amount of fuel you need to carry significantly, can burn dang near anything, and is just plain fun for us pyromaniac types to play with. Coffee water, dish water, luxurious washing or sun shower water all are easy with the Kelly. I've glued some D rings under my deck and just bungee the kettle in there, out of the way. Another little piece of gear for the Kelly or your campfire is the small piece of plastic tubing with a brass reduction nozzle on the end. You can get your fire roaring with just a couple breaths as the ManFromSnowyLegs discovered. This is also great sport for the pyro types among us.



The Sagebrush dry bag is another outstanding piece of gear. I use it on my deck to keep my digital SLR and its spare lenses safe and dry. I don't like a deck bag since the tend to interfere with my Greenland paddle stroke but this one can be pushed forward and then slid back when needed. This also gives you room for your map case. Since I'm not naturally a trusting soul I stuffed the thing full of paper toweling and rolled the boat 3 or 4 times. Dry as a bone. It has a dry suit style zipper, is made of Hypalon (the same material as the deck of my Feathercraft), and comes with a simple back pack attachment so it can be used in the woods also.



The stylish bandanna around my neck is to dry my hands before grabbing the camera and is in no way to be construed as a fashion statement.



The Kelsyus beach chair is the item for which I've been most maligned but once people sit in it they change their tune. Its small, light, comfy (note my 'resting' shot at the top of my blog) and has a mesh bottom so it dries quickly. I bungee it on my back deck which seems to work just fine. It also serves the added purpose of being a de facto breathalyzer test. If you have to lurch forward on to your knees to stand up rather than rising straight up from the chair, its likely that you have been overserved and should leave the fire for your tent.

Last but not least the simple dish dryer. Get some plastic screen mesh and clothes pins at the hardware store. Hang em on a line and and air dry em. It gets them out of the way and saves you the onerous task of drying dishes. You still need to wash em however.

Any camping hints from blog readers will be greatly appreciated. Enjoy the upcoming season.

Fifteen hats

As I watched the changing headgear on our trip to Voyageurs National Park, I had to ask how many hats everyone had brought. The total was fifteen. Plus the Irish Pirate purchased another one at the Kettle Falls Hotel bar (the famous 'Tiltin' Hilton'). When you're up on the Canadian border at the end of September you have to be prepared for everything from 80F heat to snow. Rain hats, wide brimmed sun hats, stocking caps, baseball caps......I think people went a bit overboard myself. As I mentioned in a previous post, my Filson duck hunters hat is perfect for all those conditions. Granted, no one would touch it due to its rugged, weatherbeaten, 'broken in' patina but its great nonetheless.




The park itself is a gem. You can go from big water to sheltered bays in less than a mile. We did have some wind but were able to hop from lee shore to lee shore and not have to simply put our heads down and paddle for a couple hours as often is the case with a windy day on Gitchee Gumee. Our route often looked like the course of the steel ball in the pinball machine but that was part of the fun. As I mentioned this is a multiple use park but most of the outlying visitors centers closed for the season Sunday. We only saw one houseboat underway and probably a handful of fishermen. You usually got a wave and most boats would slow down when they saw us. As we all know, this is not necessarily good because when the boat comes down off plane you get the giant bow wave but its nice to share the water with courteous fellow boaters.

If you want to avoid the power boats there are plenty of nooks and crannies to slide into and there are rocks the size of Volkswagons that most prudent power boaters want no part of. There are a number of designated campsites, many of which have bear boxes and picnic tables as well as open air pit toilets. This is true boreal forest with lots of conifers interspersed with some maple and aspen. The fall colors were peaking and the weather was unseasonably warm, although we did get some rain including a thunderstorm that seemed to last all night. I'd like to hit this park in the spring before fishing opener or maybe even mid October. It was pretty much deserted this weekend and I would imagine you would have the park to yourself if you did the early spring or late fall trip. Its been five years since I've been there but it won't be another five until I get back.