Whose Grouse?

Andy and Daniel went hunting last week---Andy shot it---

Daniel was very proud, and he cooked it.

But it was clearly Denali's grouse.

The Best Advice

Do not burn yourself out. Be as I am-a reluctant enthusiast...a part time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it is still there. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, encounter the grizz, climb the mountains. Run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, that lovely, mysterious and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much: I promise you one sweet victory over our enemies, over those deskbound people with their hearts in a safe deposit box and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this: you will outlive the bastards.

---Edward Abbey

Ice

As of Friday, November 15th, Round Lake is officially frozen.
Daniel hopes we can skate before too much snow---it looks like we're going to have to wait until it is thick and shovel it this year.....

Can’t Get Enough Of Quetico Park

Andy spends all summer hearing of other folks’ adventures----Fall’s biggest allure is to create his own. Andy and his friend Dave had to take one more Quetico trip in late October.

He spends weeks rearranging the colored Post It arrows on his office map---this time they hit Northeast Quetico---French Lake, Baptism Lake, Cache Lake, Cache River into north Kawnipi, Poet Chain, Pickerel etc. They can’t quite get enough---even paddling through much rain and wind once again. They started the trip in the rain, against the current up the Baptism River---moving logs out of the way.

Late fall canoe trips mean constant movement---to stay warm, to get to all the places you want to see while you have light. They portaged over multiple waterfalls up there---a continuation of the falls chain beyond Kawnipi. (below---the Cache river flows into North Kawnipi.)




















Kawnipi rocks.



The Baptism River
Morning on Pickerel (below)

They apparently will remember this Sauvage Portage---Dave went first, in mud to his hips. If I had to choose ONE photo to define Andy, this might be it. When I first met him, one of his jobs was to drive the pontoon to Fishook Island on Seagull Lake where he schlepped loads of gear and food and tools and materials and campers’ gear and….EVERYTHING up the hill at Wilderness Canoe Base. (He says this is a before shot in an advertisement for Hairclub For Men. I’ll admit that he’s showing a little more skin on the forehead than he did 20 years ago)

One byproduct of fall canoe trips---we didn’t take the dock out until November this year-it was actually very pleasant in the snowy calmness of Round Lake.

Winter

We've been scrambling around sweeping roofs and emptying gutters and taking docks out because we knew it would be coming.... The kids (and some friends), on a workshop day off from school were not disappointed AT ALL!

The wolves

To start with, I love the wolves. Ever since 5th grade when I read the fictional glory stories, then I followed David Mech’s research, just because I was interested. I worried about the wolf population on Isle Royale, I hated that people would fly low in airplanes in Alaska and shoot them up, I even used to visit the MN Zoo to watch them (although the pacing in captivity bothered me more than anything else).
Up here, the howling gives me happy shivers, especially when it echoes over the ice. I’ve liked sharing Round Lake with the covert pack of 6 including 2 pups last season (we listened to them learn to howl). Last winter in the middle of the night one howled so close to that I checked on the kids—my first thought was that one of them was weirdly crying in terrible pain. This summer our guests spotted them more often than ever. Once a lanky pup approached my car and sniffed all the tires.
This fall, the sightings have become even more common. My dad saw one by the showerhouse---and it didn’t startle and run away fast enough. Denali gets her dander up and runs around in circles more often on our road.
Last week, I drove into the dumpster site and snuck up on two of them. I watched quietly, wished for my camera, then I decided that it was time to unload my trash into the dumpster. So I honked. No response. I rolled down my window and yelled. Nothing. They were less than 10 feet away. I opened my door and stamped my foot and growled. Then one of them looked at me long and hard enough to illicit prickles on the back of my neck. I could detect no aggression, no submission in the look, just a stare. I banged the dumpster around. I finally had to unload my trash and they still weren’t fazed by me. I was trying not to look scared, trying to be the Alpha. They just weren’t so charming nosing around the dumpster sight.
A couple of days ago Denali and I were running where they leave scat in the middle of MY road, which is starting to annoy me. Denali turned a corner and hollered. Differently than her raven bark, or her treed squirrel frustrated yelp. So I whistled. As she came around the corner to me, the wolf that was following her bit her on the tail. I thought that was bad form. She turned on the wolf, and my first thought was that I was going to have to kick them apart (still thinking domesticated dog fight, not wild wolf vs. lab) but as I ran forward instinctively waving my arms and yelling “no”, the wolf slunk off to the river. Denali wasn’t really hurt, and I think she was secretly relieved that I wouldn’t let her chase it. A minute later when it crossed the road ahead of us to sneak off into the woods, she wasn’t even serious about the chase. Obviously she’d rather stick with me, Alpha that I had just proven myself to be.
Now I’m trying to figure out how to claim my territory back. I’ve ordered an airhorn—like the boats have. This I figure will cause them some pain (in the ears) at the same time that it might startle them. Several people in town recommend firing a gun to scare them off. First of all, if I carry a gun around I’ll probably shoot myself in the foot. Secondly, I don’t really want to hurt these guys, even if they’re not behaving as respectfully and regally as Amaroq, the hero from Julie of the Wolves. I just want them to find their OWN territory. I think Denali will be OK as long as she sticks by me, but I’m not really willing to put my joyfully bounding dog on a leash either.. She leads a very happy life, and that is worth it. I’ll just have to wait for the airhorn.

Sad Sad News

Ken Peterson, Seagull Lake neighbor, longtime friend and supporter of Wilderness Canoe Base, Alaskan Dr, partner of Rob (Horton) of last year's Chrismas play, really good guy---was hit and killed on the Gunflint Trail on October 31st. He was on his way home from choir practice on that windy night, and stopped to clear a tree out of the road when a truck hit him.

Shoot