Kind of like the Witness Protection Program the Voyageur Crew has been re-locating pesky pine marten this spring.  While they sometimes look cute and harmless they all have their Jekyl and Hyde personalities.   Check out this video Scott taped.

 Is that how that saying goes?  I don’t know but I do know that Mary Black from Black Magic Kennels stole my topic and title for today’s Blog so I had to come up with a different title.  You’ll want to read Mary’s blog entry before mine to get a better understanding of the situation.   

 The situation was this.  Last weekend Mary and Mark hosted a birthday/anniversary party celebrating their May birthdays and wedding anniversary.  They say they live off of the beaten path.  Well folks, in some places there is no path and where there is a path it isn’t very beaten; unless you mean beaten up?  The saying, "getting there is half of the fun" held true that evening because we had an excellent time once we finally arrived.  I’d like to say we at least made it in one piece, which is true, but one of those pieces happened to be flat.   

  Assumptions are made when you see a yard full of 4-wheelers and men that look like the Marlboro Man.  Knock-off Carhart jackets, leather boots, mud and dirt everywhere; you would think this would be the perfect place to get a flat tire.  With all of that testosterone around who would have thought they would even need a jack to change the tire?

  Well, they needed a jack and I recommended a Jack Daniels to lighten them up a little bit.  Frustration levels were running high when they couldn’t figure out how to get the spare tire out.  Needless to say, joking about getting an owner’s manual didn’t go over so well and I was dismissed. 

     They say a picture tells a thousand words so I think you’ll get the gist of it here.  The story ended happily and we eventually made it home with the spare tire on the Suburban.  And to end with another cliche, "All’s well that ends well" and as Paul Harvey would say, "That’s the end of the story."

     Let’s just get this straight right off the bat, I never said I was smart.  I may have graduated from college summa sue something but in the real world that doesn’t really matter.  In the real world at the end of the Gunflint Trail there isn’t a classroom of high school students begging to learn Spanish.  Then again, there probably isn’t a classroom of high school students anywhere begging to learn Spanish, but I could be wrong. I have been wrong once before. 

   It never ceases to amaze me how much I learn when I accompany my children on their school field trips.  Whoever says field trips are a waste of time or money needs to come and have a talk with me.  I wrote about how much I learned going to the North House Folk School last week with Abby’s class and yesterday I got to go to Hedstrom’s Lumber Mill with her class.

     Hedstrom’s Lumber Mill offers tours during the summer and it’s something I’ve always wanted to do so I was excited to tag along on the field trip.  We had a great tour guide to walk us through and explain the whole lumber mill process to us.  It’s an amazing place with huge noisy machines and sawdust flying everywhere. There’s different buildings for different parts of the lumber making process from de-barking, cutting, planing, bundling and more.

     It was kind of sad to see how big of a tree it takes to make a little bit of usable lumber.  Since boards used for building are suppose to be uniform, flat and square there’s alot of waste from a round tree.  Luckily the waste isn’t wasted and it’s used to make other paper products like cardboard boxes, paper and more.  Even the saw dust and wood chips are sold or used to heat the buildings in the winter.

     It wasn’t until the tour was over and we were in a conference room discussing what we had observed that I had my Eureka moment.  We were learning about types of trees used and how different woods look when the presenter asked a question about the knot found on one of his boards.  "What do you think this knot is from kids?"  While I did pretty good answering his other questions this one had me "stumped."  

   The knots on boards of wood come from the limbs of the tree.  If you are saying, "Duh, cumma sue." right now, then just have a laugh and quit reading, if not then continue on.  The limbs grow out of the main tree trunk but are trimmed off prior to reaching the mill.  But the limbs didn’t just grow off of the bark of the tree they grew from within the trunk.  Those round dark spots with their own rings are made from the limbs growing from within the trunk.  Since they are a different pattern you can push them out of the wood to create a hole quite easily.  The main trunk of the tree had to grow around the limb because it couldn’t grow through it.  To me this is amazing.

  I always wondered why some of our paneling had the exact same pattern of knots on it and now I know.  If you think about it then it makes perfect sense but who takes the time to think about things like this?  Some people just know these things and I’m not one of those people.  I’m continually surprised by what I can learn both on my children’s field trips and by experiencing nature.

     There is so much to learn if you just think about it.  From knots on trees, to why animals behave certain ways and even facts about the weather.  This morning there was fog hanging over the river.  Big deal, right?  But what that fog could tell me about the weather is quite the big deal.  It told me the air temperature was warmer than the water temperature, there was high humidity and no wind.  There’s just so much to learn if you just take the time to go on your kid’s field trips or just experience the world around you and stop for a moment to think about it.

Celebrate 100 Years of wilderness as we welcome the paddlers of the 20-foot Voyageur Canoe on their 350 mile journey.

 Chik-Wauk Lodge on

Monday, July 13, 2009

11:00-2:00PM

Presentations, Slide Show, Children’s Activities, Canoe Rides and a Lunch to benefit the Gunflint Trail Historical Society     

Canoe the Heart of the Continent – Centennial Canoe Voyage from the website

The Canoe the Heart Expedition will commemorate the centennial of Quetico Provincial Park in Ontario, Canada and the centennial of the Superior National Forest in Minnesota, USA.  It also exemplifies and highlights the ongoing collaboration promoted by the Heart of the Continent Partnership that is part of the heritage of the “Border Lakes Region”. 

Participants in the expedition will crew a 24-foot voyageur canoe along a +350 - mile (+563 - kilometer) route that begins in Atikokan, Ontario and continues on to Fort Frances then follows the border through Voyageurs National Park, Minnesota into Superior National Forest at Crane Lake, through Ely, and onwards to Grand Marais, then along the Lake Superior shore to Grand Portage, ending at Fort Williams in Thunder Bay, Ontario.  Unlike the early voyageurs, participants will not have to carry 100-pound stacks of furs, but they will carry educational messages regarding Leave No Trace principles and non-native invasive species to deliver to those they meet along the way.                                                                                                                                               

The expedition is being sponsored by the Heart of the Continent Partnership - a Canadian/ American coalition of land managers and local stakeholders working together on cross-border projects that promote the economic, cultural and natural health of the lakes, forests and communities in the Ontario/Minnesota border region.  

 It is the expectation of the Partnership that this centennial voyage will bring together new and existing partners in such a way as to expand and deepen relations to benefit public lands.  To further this end, public events are being planned in local communities at points along the route, including Atikokan, International Falls, Crane Lake, Ely, Gunflint Trail, Grand Marais, Grand Portage, Fort Williams, and Thunder Bay.      

Individuals representing groups and organizations from the Heart of the Continent area, who are interested in joining the expedition, need to submit an application.  A participant fee will help to cover basic supplies and expenses. Individuals or organizations willing to help out as support crew or at one of the community events are welcomed. 

Additional information about the Heart of the Continent Partnership and about the Canoe the Heart Expedition is available on-line at:  www.heartofthecontinent.org.                   

     We’ve had all sorts of people stay with us at Voyageur over the years.  Some of our guests are a bit odd but this weekend brought a group of 8 like none we have ever seen at Voyageur.

     It’s official.  Summer has started when Memorial Day is here and here it is.  Don’t tell the kids since they have school until June 11th, actually they think it’s summer too.  It’s a travel day for many folks so travel safely and enjoy some memories on this Memorial Day.

     Everyone has heard of a shore lunch but how many of you have heard of a dock breakfast?  That’s what Josh and I had this morning.

     I had a choice this morning, sleep in or go fishing.  Since the sun was up at 4:45 AM making the birds and loons sing their fool heads off I decided sleep was not an option.  Josh was of course game to go fishing with me.

     We decided to paddle the canoe around the Seagull River to see what we could catch.  We trolled and got a huge Northern Pike on the lure.  Unfortunately I don’t like to touch Northerns and I wasn’t quick enough with my pink needle nose pliers to successfully remove the two treble hooks from the Northern before he bit the line and swam away, lure and all.  Bummer.

     Josh wasn’t too disappointed and we had an extra rod and reel all rigged up so it didn’t delay our fishing.  We paddled back towards Voyageur and decided to stop for breakfast on our dock across the river.  Casting lures and munching pop-tarts while the sun is rising, it just doesn’t get any better than that.

     Memorial Weekend is here.  People are off to cabins and lakes to see family and friends.  None of our family or friends are coming to visit this weekend as we are always too busy working to visit or entertain.  This year we have such a great staff Mike and I may just have to go have some weekend fun of our own.

     Mark and Mary Black are having their annual May birthday bash.  They have both celebrated birthdays as well as their wedding anniversary and are having a big party on Sunday.  Mike also celebrated his birthday this May without much fanfare.  We’ve never been able to go, but are hoping to make it this year.  It’s a long drive, a bumpy one at that.

     They live off of the beaten path.  From Grand Marais you have to drive East/North up Highway 61 for 20-30 minutes, then turn off and head into the woods.  The road is blacktopped inititally but then turns to dirt, round another corner and it becomes two tire tracks, finally the last leg of the trip is little more than a moose path.  From our house it’s a couple of hours of travel time but from what I’ve heard its worth it. 

     Our kids would love to go to Mark and Mary’s.  They enjoy all of the sled dogs . We may just have to determine if it’s worth it ourselves.  Do a little fishing today and maybe having a little weekend fun for ourselves tomorrow.

     Time sure flies when you’re having fun and that’s what the Walleye Wranglers have been doing for quite some time.  They’ve been guests of Voyageur since way before Mike and I owned it and have been catching Saganaga walleyes for just as long.

     Paging through old photo albums of Don Enzenauer’s, the previous owner of Voyageur, I found some familiar faces the other day.  Well, they weren’t that familiar but there were some distinguishing features that I could recognize, mainly the walleyes in their hands.  Dave and Al along with the other wranglers whose names must remain a secret for their safety, have caught and released their share of fish over the years.

     This year was especially good for big walleyes.  One of their group members, we’ll call him Mike, caught and released a gorgeous walleye, his biggest ever just under 30".  It was a big looking 30" too.  He’s having a graphite replica made after making sure the real one swam away so he can try to catch it again next year.

     I don’t have any photos of the Walleye Wranglers to share since they prefer to remain anonymous due to the overwhelming demand that would be placed on them if people knew how they could catch fish on Saganaga.  We’ll miss them until they ride again next year.

      I do have photos of some other smaller Saganaga beauties caught by Pat Taylor and crew.  The Northern Pike was around 40", caught on 4 pound test and a jig! Come try your luck on Sag! 

Paddling for Empowerment An Opportunity Like No Other~ You’ve heard of our Women Only Canoe Trips but one session this year will be very special. The July 19-23rd session will be a journey you won’t want to miss. It will not only be a wilderness journey but also a journey within. A Journey Within to Women’s Empowerment with Linda Vandenbrook, a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Life Coach in Grand Marais.

Linda is a phenomenal speaker who has incredible insight into struggles women face today. Stress, trying to do too much and over scheduling to the point of exhaustion is all too commonplace for today’s women. This trip will help women to relax and focus on what’s important, themselves.

Through special readings, discussions, meditations and exercises individuals will have the opportunity to learn and grow while experiencing the wilderness of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area. As with all of our Women’s Trips everything will be provided for this 4 night 5 day canoe camping experience. The last night of the trip will be spent being pampered at Voyageur.

This trip is limited to only 5 participants. Reservations must be accompanied by a deposit of $300.00 with full payment by June 30th. This life changing experience is offered for an investment of $1195.00. Call today to reserve your place on this one of a kind journey to women’s empowerment.