Tamarack trees are ablaze in golden yellows now. After a summer innocuously blending in with spruce and fir trees, they are bursting with color. They are particularly striking against a backdrop of evergreens. The photos show Ely-area Tamarack trees this week. Once the dogsledding season arrives, the tamaracks will be totally barren. Tamaracks are the…
As soon as October 1 rolls around, I’m ready for snowflakes that don’t stick to the ground. Once the dogsledding season starts on December 1, I’ll be ready to wake up to several inches of snow. However, it is just plain premature for two inches of snow to be weighting down the tents of late-season…
Western poison ivy leaves are not a celebrated fall color, but they can be as crimson as a red maple leaf. The above photo shows poison ivy recently at the sand beach campsite on the west end of Mile Island on Fall Lake. Some Northwoods guidebooks gloss over or fail to mention western poison ivy.…
Today we paddled back in time and harvested wild rice by canoe in the BWCAW. Mirroring the traditional ways of the Sioux and Chippewa in this region, we paddled and portaged our canoe to a wild rice stand. The above video shows us using smooth wooden poles, called flails, to tap off the ripe grains…
It is unusual to bring a guitar into the BWCAW. Everything must by portaged and paddled, after all. And you don’t want to disturb the wilderness experience of other travelers. But, it can be done, and we did this week. We paddled into the wilderness with some friends from Alaska and decided a relaxing song…
Forest Service personnel paddled to our BWCAW campsite yesterday and notified us that we were required to leave our lake due to a prescribed burn of the Four Mile Portage. As we left the lake today, we saw these fire hoses and pumping equipment at the portage. They had also posted the below portage closure…
When we’re lucky, we see wildlife. When we’re really lucky, we see wildlife in action. The few times I have seen a loon eating fish, I have just caught a quick glimpse of silver as the loon swallows down its small meal after resurfacing. Today, my crew and I came upon a loon with a…
The wild blueberries are peaking about now. We cooked up these pancakes loaded with freshly picked blueberries on Lake One this morning.
A nice family from the Chicago area stayed at Fenske Lake Cabins near Ely this week and joined Boundary Waters Guide Service for a couple days of guided fun on the lakes. The whole family traveled by canoe to see some historic pictographs and pick wild blueberries yesterday. Today Keith took his two sons on…
You never know what surprises you might get from the wild animals of the north. Early Monday morning out at the Girl Scout Canoe Base near Ely, two staff members awoke to the sound of the pet dog Lexee’s loud woofing. Lexee was terribly agitated about something happening, so they followed her as she ran…