Strong winds left many canoeists windbound over the past few days all over this area of the BWCA. As the winds subsided this morning and paddlers began to make it back to the lodge, many adventurous tales were shared.
Our 2 year anniversary of buying Bearskin Lodge came and went on July 20th. As usual, we were way too busy running a resort to celebrate the day. But surprise, surprise, 2 years have gone by and Bearskin has survived us. We know of many resorts that are having a tough summer so we’re endlessly thankful for our loyal guests who return year after year after year.
It’s been a summer of good fishing. Of all the surprising fish this season, this fish is probably the biggest and best. The 31 inch walleye was caught by Harley Handegard (who does take his fishing pretty seriously) in a “not-to-be-disclosed” location.
Bearskin's Rent-A-Moose
Almost everyone who visits the Gunflint Trail shares one goal: they want to see a moose. A bear or wolf sighting merits a mention, but a moose sighting makes an exciting story, especially if the moose is relatively close.
Moose on the loose at Bearskin Lodge. Photo by John Finnegan.
Visit our Flickr photo page at http://www.flickr.com/photos/bearskinlodge/ and click on the icion for “A Moose Story” for a photo story of the frenzy a visiting moose created at Bearskin on Monday.
Nobody spends more time on the Central Gunflint Trail System than our son Quinn. Between his constant obsessive grooming trips with the pisten bully or G2 and his daily long ski excursions, he often spends 6 – 8 hours a day on the trails.
After all that time out in the woods you’d think he would have some good animal sighting stories to retell. But no, most of his interesting animal observations have been made out by our dumpster, not up on the ski trails. He makes so much noise in the pisten bully or on the grooming snowmobile that all he ever sees are the tracks of animals that used to be on the trail.
Everybody loves to see a moose. The most well-read blog entry we’ve ever published continues to be Moose – vs – Andy McDonnell (http://bearskin.wordpress.com/2007/10/28/moose-vs-andy-mcdonnell/) For some reason, people are very taken with Andy’s story. Numerous guests have told us that they would greatly enjoy being chased by that same bull moose. It is undoubtedly more fun to retell a story about a charging moose than to actually live the story.
Guests visit Bearskin Lodge for widely divergent reasons. Some come in hopes of catching trophy fish, some come to ski our trails, and others come with a goal of spending quality time with their family. The one common denominator among all Bearskin guests is this: almost everyone hopes to see a moose.
A good moose encounter story is worth a lot. Years ago when Bob, my dad and I were canoeing the Kawishiwi, we rounded a bend and came upon a moose cow and her calf standing at the mouth of a small stream. We stealthily (and foolishly) paddled forward to get a closer look. As we edged nearer, the cow took a step towards us, lowered her head and gave us her best mother moose glare. We quickly paddled away. That is the total extent of what occurred that afternoon, yet over the years my dad has probably retold that story 7,000 times. The moose has grown larger, fiercer and noisier. Our situation has become increasingly treacherous — now it sounds like we were lucky to escape with our lives. He’s gotten a lot of mileage out of our little moose tale.
