Cook County Law Enforcement Briefs

A few of our current favorites from the recent  Cook County News-Herald....part of what makes Cook County unique...

MONDAY APRIL 23
 2:22pm   The Forest Service reported a skunk out on the front grass area with a cup over its head and heading toward the highway.  State Patrol was notified.
TUESDAY APRIL 24
10:20 Caller said he found a 16 foot aluminum canoe last fall, asked around, but no one knew about it.
THURSDAY APRIL 26:
8:38am  Caller said at about 6:40 this morning she saw a wolf running in the ditch carrying in its mouth what looked like a small poodle-ish type dog with a red collar.
SUNDAY MAY 6
A deputy was requested to contact the caller's son who was camping in the area.  They needed to tell him that his basement was flooding and the dad was not sure what to do.
THURSDAY MAY 10
8:56am  A husky-looking dog was seen in a chicken coop on Creechville road, and took a dead chicken out.  The other five chickens are gone as of sometime last night, only feathers left, but the caller did not see what took them.
SUNDAY MAY 13
2:46am  Caller said he may have left a bass leaning up against a car in the parking lot near DQ when he left for Ely.

Wandering Dock

Our little platform made a break for it a couple weeks ago.  There she goes, heading out to sea.

She lives in the Sag channel, tied up and anchored down all winter long, locked in the ice at the landing.  In the summertime, she's locked to the ramp, with the towboats tied to each side of her.   Many people tromp on her while they  load and unload for their shuttles....most are getting as close to Canada as they can to be dropped off on Hook Island.

I like to think she is fairly happy in her job as the platform, it's quite lovely and calm on our little slice of the river.  I think really, it's the fault of the towboats.   She has had to listen to their stories about Saganaga for many years, and started to wonder what it was like out there.  After all, she's never seen the spot where the narrows opens up into the big lake.
  She's never seen the young forests recover after wild weather and wild fires.
She's never compared the old growth forests with newer one (recovered after the 1976 Roy Lake fire)   the toddler trees from the 1995 Sag Corridor fire...and the youngest ones from the Ham Lake fire.  The towboats are very familiar with the forest ecology so evident on Saganaga.

She's never seen the walleye spawn in the channel, the eagles, where the boats slow to a crawl to accomodate the rocks, and any canoers or other boats in the tighter spaces.  She's never witnessed the crazy feeling of crossing Sag in the thick fog, or the early morning mist, or the wild waves of a storm.   She just sits at the end of the ramp, and faithfully does her job, year after year after year.

So, early this spring, when the ice went out in March, she made a break for it.  Somehow she wrangled out of her harness...and she dragged her anchors with her.  If you've ever been with Andy when he secures the dock, you know that this was no small feat.  The ice must have helped her...

She was actually heading out of the bay and down the channel.   The flow of the water would have helped to dump her into the big Sag of her dreams..on those beautiful balmy march days she was free!

A friend from a Canadian resort on Sag foiled her plan.   He recognized her, called us up---and he towed her back in.   Surely the narrows might have been the death of her, but obviously she was ready to take her chances with the promise of the adventure.

We tied her to the ramp in early April---earliest yet.  At that time there was talk of an earlier MN fishing opener...but not to be so.   Since then, she's been snowed on several times, and thankfully the water has come up instead of steadily going down.   She's at the end of the ramp, ready to hold up the people once again. Maybe she appreciated her brief view of the great beyond, maybe it just increased the yearning to head out to the sea...perhaps she has dreams of making it to Hudson Bay this year....

But we're hoping that she's glad to be back, and ready to host the visitors heading out soon.

Cross River Bridge

 Sometimes if you stand on the bottom rail of a bridge and lean over to watch the river slipping slowly beneath you, you will know everything there is to be known.

--AA Milne, Pooh's Little Instruction Book

And away they go...

Paul and Chase headed into Brant today. First ones out.   Doesn't this photo tug you like crazy?


Photo credit:  staffer Andrew.

Ready

Ice is out....

Gates are open.
Believe it or not, paddling season has begun!

Raising Women

When I was a new teacher, years and years and years and years ago, I made some really good friends.  Meet Kadee, Polly, and Brenda, and their daughters.  These are the kinds of people that hold the world together.

They collectively gave birth to 14 kids--including these.  It's a trick to raise girls, as they navigate through the images of strong independent career women with high-heeled vulnerability---to help them envision exactly where they fit, what choices they'll make, who they're going to be.

These friends visited Tuscarora last summer--for a canoe trip.  They had a blast, which is why they came.  But there are some other things we say to our daughters when we take them into the woods.

We can do it.

A little inconvenience can be worth the view.

.

Live it up.

The world is worth preserving.

We are funny.

We should take care of each other.

The simple things in life can be really fun.

This is what it feels like to be strong and capable

This is what it feels like to have a body that works for you

This what it feels like to belong and be cherished. Don’t ever settle for anything less.

Sawtooth Ski Race

It has been a couple weeks now, since Daniel and I helped with the Sawtooth 29th annual international ski races at Pincushion mountain. (see video below)

Pincushion ski trails are about 2 miles up the Gunflint Trail overlooking Grand Marais.   They've been maintained as ski, running, and bike trails for about 30 years by a volunteer organization called the North Superior Ski and Run Club (NSSR).   I am especially fond of this great group of volunteers because of all that they have done for the kids of the community--including Shelby.

Dick Swanson  has been the Incident Commander of the Race since I've been helping---I suspect maybe he's run all 29 races, but I don't know for sure.  I like to call him IC Dick, but he hasn't actually had the training, or he would know that an Incident Commander supposed to be in charge of 5-7 people, instead of the whole show.  His commanding is  impressive, and my favorite spot is standing right next to him in the timing window, so that I am free to heckle.   This year he was also doing the announcing AND the start, which is tricky.  But he's up for it.  (I took the photo off the internet, because I liked it better than mine, so you'll just have to imagine him without the beard).



I hold him and the others of the NSSR club responsible for Shelby's joyful leap --with a bunch of girls that went to the State Tournament Nordic Ski race.  NSSR Club efforts to support the kids of Cook County, with gear and groomed trails,  races and volunteers have enabled her to participate in this life long sport.  To say we're grateful is an understatement.

The trails that Saturday were a  most beautiful system of white snow, of blue sky, pines and  birches.  The conditions were perfect--as they have been  for most of the season.   The video below is mostly taken at  the beginning of the 20K skate race, and I suspect Ben Seaton would like to point out that it isn't nearly representing the order in which they finished--but you can see that there was some fairly impressive skate skiing going on.  (I also borrowed a couple of photos from the NSSR homepage, just for the sake of rounding out the story).

I tried skate skiing (freestyle) last winter when my friend Carrie lent me some skis and some free instruction.  It's tricky, but thought I had the rhythm....I did have the rhythm, and was getting a dandy aerobic workout, and feeling the pride that comes from learning something new---when I looked next to me at the classic tracks where a little girl was learning how to ski classic (straight on) style, and her dad was cheering her on.  She must have been all of 3 years old, and she trudged straight up the hill while I had my rhythm going---apparently I had really good lateral progress.   Anyway, she left me in the dust, and for now, I just stick to my trusty classic skis.

My time to enjoy the trails comes after the racers have gone home.  It was a magical day.