On the Road with Jan and George

It rained continuously a couple of nights ago, the next morning the sky and horizon still blended to one grey mass and I got to bail some 15-20 gallons from the small boat. The Bayliner’s not so much work, I just turn on the bilge pump for five or ten minutes. Jan discovers that you actually DO need an umbrella in the outhouse due to the unfortunate location of a hole in its roof.

Yesterday was still dreary and gray with strong wet gusts coming from the east northeast, bad news for the forecast and very poor visibility…another day cabin-bound. Fortunately I have plenty of computer work to do, Jan has untried recipes (an apple cake) and crocheting, and we both have a pile of good books…all is good.

But by evening we were quite weary of the damp and grey….when lo and behold, a glimpse of light was reflected off the dock and we raced down in time to see not only the sun but the amber/purple/gold/orange reflections of the first good sunset in a while.

Finally, a sunset...

And to the east of us us a rainbow!  All bodes well for tomorrow.

...and a rainbow!

And sure enough, this morning the sun rises over a beautiful, bright sunny day. Bonnie and Dick Sibert join us for lunch, which involves a lot of laughs and an extended review of the history of the various neighbors in the neighborhood.

Dick & Bonnie come for lunch.

Pine Island has been their permanent residence since they built their home here 20 years ago, although they winter in Texas.  So far as I know there are no year-round residents on the island.  There are several weeks every fall and spring when it’s impossible to cross the lake either by boat or over the ice, and in any emergency during those times you’d be cooked.

And while we’re having lunch, Brian & Co. begin delivering the materials they’ll need to start putting up our new siding on Monday.

Matt with siding, boss Brian & young Trevor are at the boat.

When Brian redid the interior of the cabin a year ago we thought we were done renovating for a while, I figured the 1915 ship-lapped exterior boards could be calked and painted to hold up for some more years.  But it was not to happen, the boards were too misshapen to make it possible to properly seal the the outside and protect the beautiful tamarack paneling Brian had installed on the inside.  So we bit the bullet and asked him to go ahead with the siding.

We spot a Blackburnian Warbler in the back yard, bright and gorgeous!

Summer Solstice, the longest day turns out to be another rainy day!  We see white caps once again due to the strong ENE wind, very unusual for our quiet side of the island.  We’re happy we’re not on Big Bay (on the south side) where they’ve been having six-foot swells.  We brave the waves in the trusty Bayliner and are off to Ely for a visit to the library, hardware, laundry, groceries, liquor store, and we stop for a walleye sandwich at The Chocolate Moose.  Across the street is a sign advertising a big event this week-end, a “Snowmobile Watercross” in Winton, a town a few miles east of here.  Snowmobiles on water!?  Just wait a doggone minute!

My sole experience on a snowmobile was this past February when I came up here for a week and stayed with Steve Keibler.  I loved being here in the winter for the first time, and really liked the snowmobile, not for the speed or noise, but because it made it easy to explore places that would be much more difficult to get to by boat or on foot.  And yes, it seems you can indeed take snowmobiles across water, so long as you maintain a high enough speed, you kind of skim across the surface.  The machines have buoys attached so you can find them easily when they go to the bottom.

By the time we get back to Glenwood the lake’s not quite so choppy.  And as Jan checks in with Billie, one of the visitors in the bar tells her of a recent conversation with his (as he described)“slightly dementia” Mom.  It seems they were sitting on the lawn at Glenwood and the resort dog, Sheba, settled down next to Mom…she turned to her son and said very calmly and sweetly, “Please, son, tell me that is not a bear sitting next to me”.

Sheba the Black Bear.

Sheba is a very large, very black German Shepherd.

The rain forces us indoors for our late night cocktail tonight, clouds completely hide the western horizon.  When Jan wished Billie a happy Summer Solstice back at Glenwood, he looked out the window and said, “If this is summer, we’re all screwed”.  Spoken like a true resort owner.

Still gray and chilly. a good day to do some catching up on this blog.

I happened to be up early one day last week and enjoyed a rare sunrise.  (No, the sunrise isn’t rare, only my being there to see it.)

Sunrise over Lake Vermilion

And I’ve already mentioned how badly Jan missed her garden during the years we were in New York, she had almost no opportunity to get some dirt under her fingernails.  Well, here on Pine Island there’s plenty of dirt, and Jan has been taking advantage of it.  We took a walk through the woods last week to a former neighbor’s property, now more or less abandoned.  There are some structures on it which make our original rickety cabin look like the Hilton.

Jan's a happy camper with a clod of dirt.

Jan collects some irises and a clump of Lily of the Valley to plant in our back yard, she’ll come back when the Columbines have set seed to collect them.

On a gray day like today our Ruby Throated Hummingbirds are especially busy at our two feeders, almost all of them females for some reason.  One of the two feeders can actually accommodate six hummers at a time, but that never happens.  They’re very territorial and aggressive, and it’s rare to see even two of them feeding at the same time, one of them will always drive another one away.

Ruby Throated Hummingbird

These gray, wet days have been blowing in from the east,  in marked contrast to the westerly winds which normal dominate our weather.  In addition to rotten weather, they bring rotten fishing.  Bette Rouleau, our friend on the other side of the island tells us: “Wind from the East, fish bite the least”…not that we would know, having hardly dropped a line in the water so far.

Bread baking & blogging occupy most of today, I take the little boat over to Bill and Lynn Overland’s to say goodbye.  They’re leaving tomorrow, they have a wedding to attend on N. Carolina’s Outer Banks (Kitty Hawk), and Bill will be attending his HS reunion on the 13th in “The Cities” (that’s Minneapolis-St. Paul) on their way back here.  We already have a dinner date with them at their place on July 14.  Elizabeth will be coming up with her friend Mac to stay with us, and Bill and Lynn would love to have a chance to meet her.

We’re up at the crack of dawn to join a birdwatching walk at Bearhead State Park, it’s just a few miles off Mud Creek Road, but we’ve never been there. We’re in the Bayliner at 6:10 and we get to the park office in plenty of time for the announced 7:00 AM start.  We meet the Master Naturalist Gloria who is leading the group, also Rita and David the Campground Hosts and expert birders…add the two of us (amateur birders) and it’s a small group! It’s rainy and chilly, and the mosquitoes are nasty – by the time we make it to the lakeshore toward the end of our walk they’re hovering around our heads in huge, dense clouds!   Even Gloria finally admits it’s too much, and she has a jacket with mosquito net over its hood (Jan covets that jacket!). However, we do get to see quite an array of warblers (we learn that 26 of North America’s 52 warbler species breed in NE Minnesota!), also woodpeckers, ravens, and ducks. But it’s so gray and dismal that George never even takes his camera out of the bag.

Then we head off to Cook at the western end of the lake.  We had read in the local paper that they’re having their annual Timber Festival this weekend and some of us were eager to see “Miss Timber Festival” crowned.   But we learn that the festival was last weekend…we didn’t notice it was last week’s paper.  Not to worry, we stop at the Montana Cafe and have a nice breakfast.  We ask why it’s so crowded and are told “resort change out day”, the weekly rentals end on Saturday, checkout time is 9 AM and there’s no breakfast at the resorts, so the Montana Cafe is really packed. We’re served at the counter by mom, daughter is waiting tables, son is washing dishes. The taciturn young man sitting next to us orders his breakfast in two words: ”Six eggs.” We’re kind of curious to see him actually eat them, but we end up leaving before he gets served.

We visit the town’s Farmer’s Market and score some leeks, radishes and beeswax soap. Then we walk down the street to one of Cook’s main attractions, the old Comet Theatre which now houses a chic shop offering theater memorabilia, antiques, clothing, snacks, espresso and gifts.

Comet Coffee & Antiques...nice old building.

But the building is also Minnesota’s oldest continuously operating cinema, the theater is still intact and doubles as a display area for some of the shop’s merchandise.

...and the theater.

Turn out the lights,  be careful not to trip over the clothes racks, and the movie’s on.  Today’s matinee is “X-Men”, but we give it a pass because we want to find Homestead Mills.

Homestead Mills is an amazing place, a huge barn housing a shop with every kind of grain, flour, spice, seed, feed, coffee, knives, baby chicks and ducks….and a log cabin that’s used as an office. Some years ago the owner was tearing down an old shack on his family’s property, and when he took off the board siding he found that it was covering this ancient log cabin that had been built by his grandfather, with all hand-hewn logs. He took it apart and moved it inside the Homestead Mills building, log by log, and it continues to serve after all these years.

On the way home we take a detour onto the road to Moccasin Point to visit a permanent flea market that we had stopped at a couple of years ago. We’d seen a rocking chair we regretted not having bought at that time – unfortunately it’s long gone. But we do luck out and find a small anchor. The one at our cabin seems to have disappeared off the face of the earth, and we’ve been looking for a replacement since we’ve been up here.

Our new $10 anchor.

In case you’ve never seen an anchor before…

Lynn and Bill Overland are coming to dinner tonight – we had joined them for dinner at their cabin a couple of days ago and we want to get together again before they have to leave.

At Bill & Lynn' cabin on Wednesday - much more luxurious than ours!

We have plenty of time before they arrive, so we head into Tower to check out the Farmer’s Market at the old railroad depot and to do some more of our inevitable hardware shopping.   We begin at the market, which is small, just four or five stalls offering hydroponic lettuces (they’re really nice and we get one), bread (Jan’s been baking so we’re not buying much bread), a maple syrup stand complete with maple syrup caramel corn (YUM!), and a raffle to support the local food pantry. It’ll be a few more weeks before the farmers’ markets will be selling local corn, fruit and berries.

Since it’s right next door we check out the Tower History and Train Museum, lots of photographs and artifacts related to the fascinating history of the area. We pick some interesting trivia, like that the name “doughboys” originated during the civil war because the Union Army’s brass buttons resembled popular dumplings known as “doughboys”.  The displays include ones describing or donated by many of the old-time residents of the area, including miners, farmers, trappers, merchants, doctors and veterinarians.

Some old veterinary instruments..........................and a request for help.

The museum tells some tragic stories too, like those of the local Chippewa children who were forcibly removed from their families in an effort  to assimilate them into American society, but given little by way of education to make it possible.

After our hardware errands we stop at “Sulu’s”, a small coffee place (there are no Starbucks here). In addition to the usual variety of lattes and cappucinos, their list of brewed coffees includes “regular” and “Lutheran”. “What’s ‘Lutheran’?”, we ask the barista.  She explains that when they first opened a nice lady tasted the coffee and said, “That’s awfully strong, can you make me one like they serve at church?”  Despite Jan’s Lutheran upbringing we ordered the “regular”, which was really quite good.

We make it home across the lake in time for Lynn and Bill’s arrival for dinner, we offer them brats, kraut and potato salad, a great time was had by all.

Heavy cloud cover, no sunset…

We spend today with old and new friends as well as more communing with Momma Nature.  We’ve been invited for breakfast to Steve and June Keibler’s who have a beautiful log house a couple of miles east of us along the north shore of Pine Island.  They’ve also invited a couple of other neighbors, Dick and Bonnie Sibert, whom I’ve wanted to meet.  Dick and Bonnie have lived here for over twenty years and knew Jan’s dad quite well, and Steve knows I’ve been interested in collecting Rozzie stories from anyone up here on the lake.

Steve and June are both devoted naturalists and very knowledgeable with regard to the area’s native orchids, a particular love of Jan’s.  So they offer to take us all on a walk in the hope of finding some.  Dick can’t join us, but after a short boat and car trip the remaining five of us end up being introduced to a large number of Pink Lady’s Slippers (also known as the Stemless Orchid).  We must have seen over a hundred of these beauties, and it wasn’t that long of a walk!

Pink Lady's Slipper (Cypripedium acaule)

Steve (aka “Old Eagle-Eyes”) also spots a solitary example of a far rarer specimen, the small Calypso Orchid, which doesn’t even get a mention in one of the several orchid books that Steve and June own.

Calypso Orchid (Calypso bulbosa)...........and June homing in on it - the plant's not very large!

Steve, Jan, Bonnie and June in the boggy woods.

We get back in the car and the boat and bring Bonnie back to her cabin, and get a tour of their property and her extensive flower and vegetable garden.

Columbines (Aquilegia canadensis) in Bonnie's garden.

Dick and Bonnie Jo.

Bonnie sends us home with some of her lemon thyme, oregano and chives, and a bunch of rhubarb which Jan will be happy to let me eat alone (she’s never liked it).

Back home on our own dock with our Manhattans, the weather is much more pleasant tonight…

A warmer evening...

...on Vermilion Lake. The sunsets gave it its name.

…and it’s a pretty nice sunset.

Our initial trip back to Ely was on Monday, and our first stop was at the public library to use their free wifi and for Jan to pick up her week’s worth of reading.  But our library card has gone missing, so Jan springs for $20 for a new one, we figure it’s a good investment and supports a good cause. After a round of shopping at the hardware, marine supply, camping outfitters and Zup’s (that’s the grocery store) we recover with a cold beer and snack at a new restaurant, the Rockwood. Definitely more attractive than the fast-food joint that had been there earlier. Then we indulge ourselves and have a frozen custard at the stand down the street.

Today, Wednesday, we’re in Ely again to run some more errands, and we also do a favor for Billy at the lodge by taking in an overnight letter to mail for him (he’ll do just about anything to avoid coming in to civilization).

The old burn barrel has seen better days...

We’d been looking for a used 55-gallon to replace our rusted-out burn barrel, and we luck out when we find one at the recycling center, the guy is happy to let us take it.

But our charm runs out at the landfill, they won’t let us take a single tire from their huge pile, we want to use it as a bumper on our dock. They’re prohibited from letting anyone take their tires, apparently because of liability issues, they’re afraid someone’s going to put them on their car. We’ll try some tire shops.

Back in our cabin with Manhattan & Martini in hand, it’s windy, cold & cloudy outside. How do you spell cozy on a 34 degree night?   “Volgelzang” – our new cast iron wood-burning stove which keeps us toasty and warm on a windy night. There’s the promise of seeing the northern lights if the sky clears tonight, but will either of us be awake to see if it does clear????

Hmmm, looks pretty harmless.

Spicing up a 15-bean soup, we find a small jar of hot powder that we had bought for Rozzie at least twenty years ago.

The writing on the label has long faded away, but it’s called “I Am On Fire And Fixin’ to Die” sold by “Mo Hotta Mo Betta”, I’m guessing it’s straight powdered habaneros.  The company still exists, but the product doesn’t.  And it’s still frighteningly hot after all these years.

But the clouds remain solid through the night, no sunset and no northern lights.

Today we begin reconnecting with Mother Nature.  Jan is planning on spending a lot of time while we’re up here with dirt under her fingernails, she’s a happy camper even just getting the front yard under control.

That's the boathouse, by the way, not the cabin.

A Yellow Bellied Sapsucker decides that the chimney on our discarded stove in the front yard might be a good place to store acorns…he’s hammering away at it and sounding like a demented drummer.  Hasn’t yet made a dent in the chimney, I hope he hasn’t seriously damaged his beak (or brain).  And, of course, we both renew our acquaintance with the “official” state bird of Minnesota…yes, that would be the mosquito.  Jan’s considering what to do with the one she’s just captured.

Ringo Starr wannabe.................................................and a stunned victim awaiting waterboarding.

Yellow Bellied Sapsucker Audio

There are other old friends waiting to welcome us, including a visitor on the wall of the showerhouse.

Some spider or other...anyone recognize it??

At the end of the day we head down to our dock as usual to watch the sunset, but it’s a bit colder than we would like.

How do you turn up the heat??

And it’s not really much of a sunset.

Not quite at the crack of dawn we’re heading north again.  Our two-hour trip to the cabin takes us through Virginia, the county seat of St. Louis County, which includes Lake Vermilion.  The region’s economic foundation for many years has been iron mining, and the world’s largest open pit iron ore mine is nearby.  We stop at the turnoff to the “Mineview” and check out some mining equipment.  The reason this truck is obsolete and relegated to a museum, by the way, is that it’s so small.

And we thought our Subaru was roomy...

Part of the open pit mine...that's BIG equipment out there!

We both feel the pull of Pine Island and rush through our grocery and liquor shopping in Virginia, but we make one more quick stop just before the Rte. 169 turnoff to Ely to visit a geological marker indicating that we’re crossing the Laurentian Divide.

Crossing the Laurentian Divide

A drop of rainwater falling on one side of this line will end up in the Arctic Ocean, on the other side it will flow south to the Atlantic Ocean or the Gulf of Mexico.  Rozzie never failed to remark on our crossing this Divide when we drove up with him, and we’re keeping up the tradition.

Pushing on to Mud Creek Road, the final 9-mile dirt track which ends at Glenwood Lodge where we store our boat.  It’s a beautiful day and the Bayliner is waiting for us at the dock, we load up and head out to the island.

Bayliner loaded up.

Craig at Moccasin Point Marine had picked up the boat a couple of weeks ago to track down a nasty noise the engine had been making.  We were prepared for a major repair, but it turned out it just needed the valves and lifters worked on.  It sounds great!

Of course once we’re on the way we realize we’re low on gas, and that we didn’t have our 5 gallon bottles to fill with drinking water.  A quick unload at the cabin and then we return to Glenwood Lodge for gas and water.  Oh, we forgot the 5 gallon jugs!  No worries, Dandy (Billie’s hired all ‘round guy) graciously empties the last cup out of a gallon milk jug so we can have water for coffee in the morning.

Moving into the cabin since we had it rehabbed is absolutely painless, no vermin to sweep out, no need to disinfect dishes.  It’s practically civilized.  We did have one surprise when we went out back – a forty foot dead birch tree had fallen right next to the outhouse, missing it by a quarter of an inch.  It demolished a five-gallon pail, but there was not a mark on the structure, a very near miss!  Losing the outhouse would not have been good…

Couldn't get any closer!

So we enjoyed our first modest Vermilion sunset of the season with Manhattans in hand.

First sunset.

And the evening and the morning were the first day…

We’ve left Evergreen Park and gotten on the road to LakeVermilion, but it’s a ten-hour drive and we decided to break it and spend the night in Duluth.  One of the Subaru’s cool features is that it continuously reports cumulative gas mileage since the last time you reset one of the trip meters.  They promised us only 27 mpg on the highway (it’s 4-wheel drive, after all), but we’ve been getting well over 30 actual mpg on long stretches.  At one point when we had been slowed for a while to around 50 mph for construction, the gas mileage displayed on the dash was…well, have a look:

Thirty three point nine what??

We didn’t stop for gas to confirm the actual mileage at this point.

We spent the night at the Inn on Lake Superior, it’s right on the lake, as the name suggests, just next door to Duluth’s scenic Aerial Lift Bridge.  The waves and white caps on the lake were beautiful, but the bitter wind finally chased us into the nearest pub for a drink.

This is a "lake"???................................................The Aerial Lift Bridge - notice the waves.

As a result we missed watching four huge cargo ships (650 ft long, carrying over 340,000 tons of ore pellets and wheat to England and Italy via the St. Lawrence Seaway) steam under the raised bridge…but we stayed warm!  Dinner at the Lake Avenue Cafe was delicious, especially the bacon wrapped dates stuffed with chorizo, yum!   Gourmet food in Duluth…who knew?