Gunflint Trail Association

Here on the Gunflint Trail, we’re celebrating fresh dumping of snow.  But just because it currently looks like this on the Gunflint Trail, don’t think you’re limited to planning a winter camping trip.

Believe it or not, it’s time to start thinking about this summer’s camping trip on the Gunflint Trail. You can begin reserving your Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness permits for the 2012 season (May 1 – September 30) starting today, January 25.

Any overnight trip into the Boundary Waters from May 1 – September 30, be it canoeing, motoring, or hiking, requires an overnight permit. Permits are issued for individual entry points into the Boundary Waters and each entry point has its own quota for how many groups (each group is limited to nine people and/or four watercraft) are allowed to enter the Boundary Waters through that entry point daily.You can reserve your entrypoint for your entry date through recreation.gov.  A $6 reservation fee applies, in addition to the user fees associated with the permit: $16 per adult and $8 for children under 18.

If all this information seems a little overwhelming, you can learn more about Boundary Waters rules and regulations here.

However, the easiest thing to do in the early planning stages of your Boundary Waters trip is to call up any Gunflint Trail outfitter. They’re  happy to assist in any step of the trip planning process, whether this is your first or one hundredth trip into the Boundary Waters. They can recommend routes for your group and will handle the permit reservation for you, if you like.

Remember, no Gunflint Trail entry points are affected by the Pagami Fire closures and all Gunflint Trail entry points are open at full capacity for the 2012 season.

Where will you go this summer in the Boundary Waters?

2011 Beargrease dog team. Photo by Ramona Abrego.

While the Gunflint Trail’s been getting healthy doses of snow all winter long (there’s a good foot+ back in our woods), much of Minnesota has been suffering a largely snow-less winter.  That lack of snow along Minnesota’s North Shore lead to the cancellation of  this year’s John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon, which runs from Duluth to Gunflint Trail and back annually*. This marks only the second cancellation of the race in its 29 year history. (The race was also cancelled in 2007 due to lack of snow.)

But just because there isn’t enough snow on the entire Beargrease course to host the marathon doesn’t mean there isn’t enough snow on the Gunflint Trail for a sled dog race.  So to celebrate snow and dogs, two local businesses – Trail Center Lodge and Devil Track Lodge – decided to host the Mail Run Dog Sled Race on January 30 and 31. The race will go up the Gunflint Trail from Devil Track Lodge to Trail Center where racers will turn around and head back to Devil Track Lodge to finish.  Details are just emerging about this race, but it promises to be spectator friendly. We’ll post more details as we get them.

This upcoming race is a nod to one of the Beargrease Marathon’s inspirations. Back in the late 70s,  the Gunflint Trail used to host an annual Gunflint Trail Mail Run Dog Sled Race. That race would eventually become the Beargrease Marathon, but in times of little snow elsewhere in Minnesota, the Gunflint Trail community likes to keep the annual tradition alive.

Can’t get enough puppy dog action? The ever popular Mush for a Cure sled dog “FUN”draiser will return this March 9-11 to raise money for breast cancer research.

*It should be noted that while the actual running of the Beargrease was cancelled, two associated events will go forward as planned in Duluth. The Beargrease Gala and Silent Auction will be held Friday, January 27^th, 6:00 p.m at the Greysolon Ballroom in the Moorish Room.  The “Cutest Puppy Contest” will be held Saturday, January 28th at 11 a.m. at Fitger’s Brewery Complex.

At the writing of this post, it’s currently sunny and -6 degrees F at the end of the Gunflint Trail. We’ve hit a string of subzero days – quite typical for mid-January. Cold weather often means clear skies, so we’re lucky to have these chilly days coming at a time when there’s so much to see in the night sky.

Northern lights: An earth-directed solar flare was reported by NASA around 9 a.m. on the morning of January 19 which could mean great Aurora Borealis activity on the night of January 21. It’s worth a peek outside on Saturday night to see if there’s any northern light activity.

Moon stage: After the full moon on January 9, currently the moon is waning. If you look out just before sunrise these days, you might glimpse a sliver of moon.  According to Deane Morrison of the University of Minnesota: “January’s full moon was known to many Algonquin tribes as the wolf moon, for the hungry howling of wolves outside their villages as winter tightened its grip.”  If you head out for stargazing on Gunflint Trail soon, listen carefully to see if you hear some howling yourself.  The new moon will come on January 23.

Planets: Mars can be seen in the east beginning around 10 p.m. these days. The red planet is gaining brightness and is also rising earlier and earlier each evening.  Venus and Jupiter, who are moving closer and closer, are also visible in the west.

Stars:  In the dark Gunflint Trail skies, you’ll be able to get a good view of all of the winter constellations: Orion, Canis Major, Canis Minor, Gemini, Auriga, and Taurus.   You may want to pay Auriga, the charioteer, special attention. Capella, the bright star in Auriga, is quite bright these days. Because Capella is not one star, but actually a multi-star system, this star is especially colorful.  You can find Auriga hanging out in the sky over Orion

Enjoy the night’s spectacles: just make sure you’re bundled up before you venture out and maybe throw in a Thermos of hot cocoa to keep yourself warm during your stargazing!

If you’ve ever seen a gray wolf (canis lupus)out in the wild, you’re completely forgiven if a comment such as, “My, what a big tail you have,” thoughtlessly slipped out.  Although we’re conditioned from childhood stories to view wolves with awe and respect, nothing quite prepares us for the sight of these impressive creatures – who weigh in between 60 – 135 lbs – running across a frozen lake  or staring down at us from the roadside.

Wolf sighting have been common on the Gunflint Trail this winter.  Even if you don’t spy a wolf during your time on the Trail, you might spy their tracks or hear them howling at night. Wolves who are excellent communicators who use yelps, barks, snarls, even urine in addition to howling to let wolves around them know what’s going on.

Currently, it’s mating season for gray wolves. After a 62-75 day gestation, the female will give birth to a litter of approximately 5-6 pups who will each weigh a single pound at birth. A pack is usually made up of a male and female and their young.  Wolves, who have a 6-8 year lifespan, are generally, monogamous. The mates will stick together until death separates them.

There’s always a bit of controversy surrounding any conversation about wolves. On December 21, 2011, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife approved the delisting of wolves from the endangered species list in the western Great Lakes region (Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan).  Management of the Minnesota wolf herd of 3000 – the largest wolf herd in the contiguous United States – will be returned to the Minnesota Department of Nature Resources on January 27, 2012. You can learn more about the DNR’s wolf management plan here.

Have you ever seen a wolf on the Gunflint Trail?

Since opening in July 2010, Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature Center has striven not only to be a quality history museum, but also to provide both Gunflint Trail residents and visitors with interesting, in-depth, and timely presentations, talks, and demonstrations centered on the Gunflint Trail’s nature world.  Chik-Wauk began hosting the U.S. Forest Service ranger presentations of the “Becoming A Boundary Waters Family” program in summer 2010. Last year, Chik-Wauk developed its own naturalist series, the well-attended Sunday Nature Walks and Talks presented by local naturalists. These programs are offered at no additional cost to Chik-Wauk visitors.

In 2012, we’d love to further expand programming to include more kids activities, history talks, and more.  But to ensure that a sustainable program is developed,  we need to make sure we’re meeting our visitors’ needs. We’d so appreciate it if you’d take this short 10 question survey regarding further developments of Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature Center public programming. Your feedback will directly help shape the future of Chik-Wauk’s naturalist and history programming offerings. We’d love to hear your thoughts!

On a related note:

Are you a naturalist? Are you a history buff with extensive knowledge of  a topic pertinent to northeastern Minnesota? If you’d be interested in presenting at Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature Center during the 2012 season  please drop us a line at info at chikwauk dot com for more details. We’d also love to hear from you if you’re interested in assisting with or coordinating kids activities during the summer months.
Thank you all for your feedback!

Wolf Tracks on Seagull Lake 1/4/2012

All winter long, you’re bound to run across a crisscross of animal tracks in the snow on the Gunflint Trail. Maybe it’s little squirrel and bird tracks near a feeder area. Or moose tracks meandering alongside the Gunflint Trail.  Or fox or wolf tracks headed down a frozen lake. Tracks offer us glimpses into the happenings of the winter world and every winter, you’re invited to leave your own set of tracks – boot, snowshoe, ski, sled, etc – in the Gunflint Trail wilderness.

The annual Winter Tracks festival started out as a Gunflint Trail event years ago. Last year, the festival went county-wide and this year, the festival will again features activities and events all throughout Cook County. This year’s festival begins Friday, February 3rd and runs through Sunday, February 12th.

One thing you’ll want to grab before participating in Winter Tracks (other than boots, long underwear, skates, skis, etc.) is your Winter Tracks passport. Whenever you participate in a Winter Tracks activity, you qualify for a passport stamp.  At the end of your Winter Tracks experience, turn in your passport with your host resort or the area visitor centers in Grand Marais and Tofte to be entered into a drawing for a free Cook County vacation.  Each stamp = an entry into the drawing, so the more stamps you have, the more chance you have to win!

Every day during Winter Tracks, you can take part in all sorts of winter activities, all of which will earn you a stamp in your Winter Tracks passport:

• Viewing ice sculptures at various locations along the Gunflint Trail (Get passport stamp at Bearskin Lodge and Gunflint Lodge front desks.)
• Ice skating at Bearskin Lodge and Golden Eagle Lodge. (Get passport stamp at Bearskin or Golden Eagle front desk.)
• Cross country skiing (Passport stamp available at Grand Marais Visitor Center)
• Snowmobiling (Passport stamp available at Grand Marais Visitor Center)
• Ice Fishing (Passport stamp available at Grand Marais Visitor Center)

Along with the daily activities, several special events are planned as part of the festival as well.

Special events during Winter Tracks 2012:

Friday, February 3 – Sunday, February 12, Winter Plein Air Art Exhibit Starting January 30, artists will be out creating plein air paintings of Gunflint Trail and other Cook County landscapes. You can view an exhibit of the artists’ work at the Grand Marais Art Colony all through Winter Tracks.

Saturday, February 4, Ridge Riders Snowmobile Fun Run Snowmobilers will leave Devil Track Resort for a fun ride up the Gunflint Trail with stops at Trail Center, Windigo, and Gunflint Lodge.

Saturday, February 11, Volks Ski 400 Cross country skiers team up in an attempt to ski all of Cook County’s 400+ km of groomed cross country ski trails  in one single day.

Come celebrate winter and leave your own snowy tracks in style!

Ice fishing shelters are popping up on Gunflint Trail lakes. With the new year comes a new fishing season in Minnesota: the winter lake trout season.  The season opened for lakes completely inside the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness on New Year’s Eve.

Ice fishing is a favorite Minnesota pastime and the early lake trout season in the BWCAW offers a wonderful opportunity to ski, hike, or snowshoe back into a secluded lake that you’ll likely have all to yourself. Before you head off, you’ll want to don a bit of patience and plenty of warm layers and pack a sled with fishing rods, tip-ups, some minnows, an auger, and maybe a bite for you to eat during a slow time when the fish aren’t biting. Remember, you’ll need to have purchased a trout stamp for your MN fishing license and you’ll also need to fill out a free day use permit for the BWCAW – available at the landing where you park your car.

There’s no guarantee that you’ll catch a fish. But whether you’re landing your limit or just “catching” nibbles, chances are you’ll discover something spectacular during your ice fishing adventure: maybe a perfect wolf track, an encounter with a fox, or a beautiful sunset as you pack up your sleds for the night.

Prefer to snowmobile to your fishing hole? Lake trout season for lakes outside the BWCAW opens on Saturday, January 14.

While you’re thinking fish, here’s a date to get on your calendar: 2/15 – 2/17 is Take-a-Kid ice fishing weekend in Minnesota. What a great excuse to get out in the woods and teach a kid the ropes of ice fishing!

A couple recent posts about wildlife on the Gunflint Trail from Steve Ramberg and Sue Prom got us thinking about the role wildlife’s played throughout Gunflint Trail history. The Gunflint Trail has always been a wild place where humans and wildlife often cross paths.  Historically, wildlife have provided Gunflint Trail residents with a livelihood, food, and many, many good stories.  In Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature Center’s own short history, we’ve had several encounters with moose, foxes, loons, turtles, and more.  One of our favorite run-ins with wildlife came this past June when Mama Moose and her two calves decided to take an after lunch stroll on Chik-Wauk’s nature trails. (See above photo.)

Here are some of our favorite wildlife stories from the Gunflint Trail historical archives:

In Janna Webster’s Ki-osh-kons: people, places and stories of Seagull Lake, Webster described how Gunflint Trail doyenne and owner of several Gunflint Trail businesses, Eve Blankenburg could predict bear trouble, much to the dismay of her husband, Russell: “[Eve] was able to accurately predict when they would have bear trouble at the resort. She would occasionally announce, ‘We are going to have a bear tonight.’ It just about did Russell in that Eve could do this. Eve never did tell him that her clairvoyance was due to the fact that, without fail, they would get a visiting bear anytime she cooked a ham.”

Sue Kerfoot remembered in The Gunflint Lodge Cookbook, a hair-raising experience with wolves one winter during her early days on Gunflint Lake: “I was home alone with only our dog, Itzy, for companionship. My city fears of being alone at night were coming to the surface. Itzy was really restless. She kept getting up to look out the window. The fur would stand up on her neck. I let her out. Then she wanted in. Five minutes later it was out again. The outside flood light was on. I couldn’t see anything except deep shadows. Finally I stepped outside to see if I could hear anything. There was a pack of wolves very close to the house. Their howling sounded like it was right next to me. A chill went down my spine. I stepped back into the house and called Itzy in. For the next few minutes I sat inside and tried to convince myself that it was silly to be afraid. What could the wolves do to me? I was inside; they were outside.”

Wildlife of any size can create quite the impression. Paula Beattie remembers one incident while operating Moosehorn Lodge (now Cross River Lodge) in A Taste of the Gunflint Trail:  “I was painting the kitchen when I heard a noise. I peeked around the corner into the dining room and saw nothing. I inched my way toward the living room. The noise of something wildly moving around was getting louder, and then I saw it: a DUCK! It was flying around the room crashing into windows, which is pretty much the whole front of the lodge. I was relieved, but then I had to get him out. “ Eventually, Beattie would get the duck out of the building, but it proved to be just the beginning of many wildlife encounters during her time on the Trail.

You can read more personal tales of wildlife encounters in the local resident book located in Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature Center’s reading corner.

What are some of your favorite Gunflint Trail wildlife stories?

Didn’t get a chance to sign up for the North Shore Ski and Run Club’s Sawtooth Races scheduled for New Year’s Eve?

There’s no reason to fret or pout. The Sawtooth ski races, now in their 29th year, have been rescheduled for Saturday, February 18.

The delay gives the snow a chance to keep stacking up on Pincushion Mountain and you the perfect opportunity to test your New Year’s fitness resolutions.

Although the course utilized for both races is classified as “intermediate,” according to the NSSCR,  “The Sawtooth Races will provide opportunities for both classical and freestyle skiers and skiers of all ages and ability levels.”  The races begin with a 10K classical race at 10 a.m. which junior skiers are encouraged to participate in, followed by a 20 K freestyle race at 11 a.m. While the timing is tight, skiers who so desire should be able to ski both races.

Revised Race Schedule
Friday, February 17:

5 p.m. Race course closes for race prep
6 – 8 p.m. Pasta feed at the Cook County Community Center

Saturday, February 18:
8-9 a.m. Last minute registration at Pincushion warming chalet
10 a.m. 10K classical race; mass, self-seeded start
11 a.m. 20 K freestyle race; mass, self-seeded start
Awards following each race in the Pincushion warming building

More information about the races and registration forms are available at the NSSRC and Pincushion Mountain website.

Pincushion Mountain is located approximately two miles outside of Grand Marais, on the right hand side, about halfway up the large hill at the start of the Gunflint Trail.

Each January, a new year stretches out before all of us: blank and untouched as a fresh blanket of snow. It’s a time when many people pause to chart out the year to come.

So what will you do on the Gunflint Trail in 2012?

Maybe it’ll be the year you try ice fishing or winter camping or snowmobile the entire network of Gunflint Trail snowmobile trails.

Maybe you’ll catch the spring wildflowers, plant a tree or two, or run a few miles as part of the Ham Run.

Or you’ll finally take that family canoe trip into the Boundary Waters.

Maybe you’ll make it to the end of the Trail to visit Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature Center.

Whatever you resolve, we’ll see you next year!