A Visit from Hessie

Happy New Year to everyone! What a whirlwind the holidays were up here in the woods. While many folks were expecting a visit from St. Nick, we were most fortunate to have a visit from Hessie. She appeared on the ice in front of the lodge one day......thanks to the hard work of Sarah, Charley, Judith, Nic, Luc and probably a few others, too. Sorry if I missed your names. Hessie has been keeping watch on the ice, cautioning us all to use care when walking or skiing on it. The weather still hasn't been cold enough to make us all feel totally confident in the ice. As a result, we are sticking close to the shores. A number of people have been travelling near shore, going about three miles or so down the lake. I even saw some fellows ski-joring right by. I wonder what their dogs thought about Hessie?

The temperatures have been hanging lately in the high twenties and even the low thirties. We have been most fortunate to hold on to our snow, and so the winter activities continue. Yesterday, Gerrie and I took a snowshoe hike to the Brice Breon trail. The snow was a bit "cakey" . This meant that every so often I had to stop and knock the balls of hard-packed snow off of the claws under the ball of my foot. But the temp was great for going along at a steady pace, and the scenery was gorgeous. The moisture in the air had frosted up the treetops, and there was a bit of fog off on the Canadian side of the lake. A section of the trail goes through some rock outcroppings, and here and there we saw some wonderful ice formations where water had been dripping and freezing like a waterfall. Very nice adventure.

On New Year's Eve, we fired up the oven at eight in the morning, and then stoked it heavily throughout the day. By five p.m. it was hot and ready. First we baked the usual four loaves of ciabatta, then four loaves of bread, and roasted up several pans of vegetables. The last to go in to the oven was the marinated lamb. What a delectable array of foods to add to the spread already in the kitchen. It was a Moroccan feast, shared by friends and neighbors. Then we had a wonderful concert in Spruce cabin, with harp, bass, guitars and electric basses, saxophone and flute---a delightul mix of classical, contemporary, jazz and rock. It is such a gift that these musicians give to us each year. We are most grateful for it. After the concert, some folks brought out the cantankerous movie projector and coaxed it into working long enough to watch some old silent movies. Finally, we rang in the new year with a campfire, out in the cold. It was our traditional New Year's eve celebration and we all had a great time.

One group of cabin guests arrived on Monday night, for their first-ever winter stay at Heston's. They have been coming up in August for about fifteen years, and they wanted to see Gunflint Lake when it is frozen. On the way, they saw many deer on Highway 61. Then on the Gunflint Trail, they saw two moose. As if that weren't enough, as they turned on to the little road that leads to Cedar Point and Diamond Willow cabins, they saw a timber wolf running right in front of the car. He stayed his course, trotting ahead of them on the road until they came to the fork, where he went right and they went left. Amazing! I can't say that I have ever seen that much wildlife myself in such a short time.

If you have tried to leave us a comment in the past, and found that it was not possible without first registering, please know that I have fixed that requirement. It always takes me a long time to become computer-program saavy. Thanks for bearing with me, and feel free to comment away! We hope that everyone is off to a good start this January, and that the New Year is a kind and hopeful one for us all.

The Skiing is Fabulous

This afternoon, Judith and I skied the Lonely Lake trail. We started at Gunflint Lodge, as it was already after three o'clock. We had just enough daylight to make it all the way back, stopping only to catch our breath and to admire the beautiful day. A bit of powder had covered the trail, and made for perfect skiing. Near the bottom of the hill, we stopped at the fence to the donkey yard, and coaxed Moses and Jethro to come over for some scratching. We didn't have treats, though, so they didn't hang out for long.

We've had a few fresh flakes falling here and there, and the trails are really in great shape. I noticed only a couple of thin spots, and with any luck, those will fill in and cover over soon. The weather forecast is calling for a warm-up. I am keeping all of my fingers crossed that this doesn't happen quite like they are predicting. Last week when we had the big snow, the temps were also warm---30 to 34 degrees. But it was all snow falling then. Hopefully this warm up will send the same (white) stuff to us.

While I was firing up the sauna on Monday, the winds were blowing across the lake, clearing away snow from the ice in some spots. None of us has ventured out there yet, but it must be getting thicker. I heard the booming noises that mean that it is making ice---something I hadn't heard since last March. A good sign.

Just one moose on the trail, coming home from Grand Marais last evening. The newest spot that I have been seeing them is in the Lullaby creek area. This is an S-curve, lots of good salt, I'm sure. Be sure to go slowly through that stretch.

A new layer of snow is blanketing everything, thanks to the recent snowfalls. Although we didn't fare as well as some parts of the county and the North Shore, we did collect about four to five inches or so. That brings us up somewhere around a foot of snow on the ground. It is beautiful outside. The trees are heavily laden, and the sun is shining from a bright blue sky. It looks like a perfect December postcard scene.

Two nights ago we were delighted to be awoken at 3:00 a.m. to the tune of three wolves howling in the near vicinity. I had recently read that folks were hearing them howl, but I hadn't been so lucky. During the snowstorm, the temps were up in the high twenties, so Greg had been leaving his window open a crack overnight. When we heard the wolves, he bolted over to the window to see if he could spot them. Despite the thin cloud cover, the moon was shining so brightly through it, it almost seemed like dusk out there. No wolves were right there, but the closeness of the sound sure fooled us. I do wonder, though, How loud would they be if they were just down in front? Their voices carry such a long way that it makes it hard to determine the distance in relation to their volume. Sharlene and Jim had visitors from Alaska that night, Nick and Jean. They, too, heard the wolves, and their two dogs were quite agitated and concerned over this. Several families in Eagle, where Jim is from, have sled dogs. But there must be some difference in the howling of dogs and wolves.

The Geminid meteor showers were to have been visible during the week. We were not given the chance to see them, as the sky was always clouded over. Jean mentioned that she and Nick had seen quite a few shooting stars as they made their way south through Canada.

Our errand runs to town are still filled with moose sightings, though not as many as the night of seventeen. We have seen a couple more bulls, too. One time the UPS man saw forty moose in one trip up and back down. We can't stress enough the importance of keeping a sharp eye on the lookout when driving up the trail at night right now.

We've fired up the bread oven a couple of times this week. It is sure different using it in the winter than in the warmer times of the year. I have had bread burn on the bottom lately, due to uneven heat. But the pizza has been turning out fabulous. Dare I try some Christmas cookies in there?

Ice and snow

Yesss! Gunflint Lake froze, over the course of yesterday and today. Before we left for church Sunday morning, we could see several bands of ice in front of Heston's, with just a bit of open water left. However, as we drove down the road towards the trail, we saw that the west end of the lake was still open and steaming. The kids and I spent most of the day in town, and it was dark when we got home. I opened my bedroom window about ten, and didn't hear anything. That was a good sign. If the wind is blowing, the lake is less likely to freeze over. This morning, it was completely iced over, at least in front of us. Good news!

It has been snowing lightly again. About two new inches of snow is resting on all of the cars and trucks this morning. The ski groomer came down last night, and was packing the snow on the trail. I may have to get out there and test the trails again this afternoon.....on the job research, I guess you could call it! There is a scheduled power outage at that time, so I can't be running my vacuum cleaner----may as well be out skiing.

Greg took this photo recently of the natural flocking on the shore of the lake. The water temperature was warmer than the air. As it cooled down, it produced steam, which in turn frosted the trees. We won't see this sight again for almost a year now.