Kayaking on Saganaga

I’ve always been one to rack up new experiences with my kids. As long as it is fun, safe, affordable, and there is time—I’m usually up for anything. While I happen to think that fun is a worthy goal, I don’t often take the time to consider the value behind these experiences.

Last weekend Shelby, Daniel and I overnighted on Saganaga by kayak. I worried about the high winds, but we braved it anyway–with the option to turn back. While I prefer traveling through the BWCA by canoe (haven’t found an efficient system for portaging the kayaks)—- I do prefer traveling a windy Saganaga by kayak. As we paddled, I came up with a few benefits of this adventure. The trip enhanced our:
· Strength and fitness (definitely a work out for all of us)
· Confidence–that comes with learning a new skill.
· Perseverance (no other option in the middle of the white caps)—especially Daniel had some very frustrating and difficult moments. Creativity—from a game of “stand behind and catch the bug net as it blows unpredictably off your sibling’s head” to building little boats with bark, moss, birch bark—and sailing them off to sea.
· Relationships.
· Interests—Shelby thinks she wants to try whitewater kayaking—she absolutely loved fighting the high rollers, and struggling up the rapids.

· Camping skills—reading the maps (they each had one), setting up camp, cooking, leaving no trace.
· Experiencing Green Spaces—I’ve read about the incidence of ADHD in children and the benefits from spending time outside in green spaces. The benefits are hard to quantify, and I haven’t seen convincing evidence to show that experiencing the outdoors increases IQ or decreases behavioral disorders, but I see solid evidence in my own children that the time they spend in the woods greatly increases their sense of well being.
· Wildlife viewing—we had never seen such a young baby moose swim from our campsite.
· When I spend that kind of time with my kids I learn more and more about the things that they are thinking, the things they think are funny, the games they like to play.

I’d recommend camping with kids even if FUN were the only benefit I could come up with—we had a great time.

Normal

Yesterday on the way to school Daniel looked at the thermometer and wondered if it was normal to have 41 degrees in June. The kids are so keyed into global warming issues that they often worry (more that I did at age 10) about average temperatures. Shelby doesn’t like to see the aspens becasue she thinks that they are threatening our boreal forest (which she worries about changing too fast). She also wants the pines to support the blueberries!

We talked about the ways that extremes that sometimes create the “average” number mathematically. It feels good to have a cold sunny morning. It feels good to see the lush forest–and to see the way that the burned areas are steadily recovering with a carpet of green plants.

It feels good to see the Cross River (on our driveway) run at a more normal spring rush–the water has come up a good 4 inches. Shelby is anxious to try tubing on the Cross River—fire fighters last summer had time to clear the deadfalls from here to Gunflint Lake, and as the weather warms up we’d like to see if that is a safe trip.

It feels good to have the staff ramping up and doing normal things—Kyle and Noah and Anna (4th and 5th year Gunflint Trail staffers) are helping to train in and welcome the newer ones. Also, the Tuscarora staff hosted a Gunflint Trail staff potluck last week—about 65 summer staffers attended–and planned for other ways to connect throughout the summer.

It feels good to see the woods so green. The fire ban has been completely lifted in the BWCA. We’re getting plenty of rain. There are some spots on the Gunflint Trail that have blueberry bushes that are thigh-high (maybe these were some domestic plants, Nancy Seaton thinks?) At any rate, it looks to be shaping up to be a bumper berry crop this year.

It feels good to have the campers coming out of the woods unconcerned with fire—the Frost River is coming back up and may actually be a pleasant option—the walleyes are hitting like crazy on Saganagons, the most experienced lake trout fishing people are catching them in Tuscarora, Long, Island, and Gillis.

It’s great to be alive in the north woods!

Thousands of Trees

This weekend many volunteers came to the Gunflint Trail to plant thousands of white pines, red pines, jack pines in the private property that burned. We are grateful for the crews that came to Tuscarora!


Kjersten collected the bags of trees.
Nancy Seaton organized the entire tree planting extravaganza. (and still she had the energy to plant a few!)


Our new friend Summer came with her dad and brother from Minneapolis to help us plant–and clean up glass from a window that blew out.

Change

We’re back in full swing here at Tuscarora. It feels great to have the time fly by again as we are back to welcoming staff and guests, stocking the store, preparing equipment, shuttling folks across Saganaga. It has been a rainy cool week, and our energies are focused less on survival and more on summer.

People have been asking how things have changed. For some folks–everything has changed. For Tuscarora, not so much.
The kids were surprised to find a little white school house right next to the Gunflint Trail–revealed near Iron Lake where the fire burned near the road. They’ve driven by it every day and never seen it.
We’re surprised by the conveneince that temporary cell towers have brought to us at Tuscarora–and those traveling in the woods close to us. We’re sensitive to the issues that changes in accessible technology bring to all of the stake holders here in this place—currently for necessary safety reasons for the buisinesses and private residences at the end of the Gunflint Trail. After the land lines are restored, cell phones could still provide convenience, safety, illusions of safety, noise pollution, solitude, wilderness experiences.

I went for my regular run this morning— first time back to flat scenic Warren’s Road–near the kids’ bus stop. We don’t see much human traffic, but Denali and I have seen lots of moose, a bear, and much wolf scat on that road (and have heard rumor of a mountain lion, but we doubt that). We love it there, and I was worried about the cabins on that route–it runs to the end of the narrows between Gunflint Lake and Magnetic Lake. Especially I worried about about some folks that are selling their cabin (would it become a fire sale?). I’m fond of these anonymous people because their crib dock is right at the half-way point in my run, and Denali and I respectfully borrow a corner of their dock to witness the changes and moods of the seasons on Gunflint Lake, and we ponder the universes. I consider it to be one of my alltime most peaceful places in this world.
The north side of the road was burned for the 1st mile of my run, the south side was still green. Nothing appears to have burned at the end of the road by the cabins. Instead of being dissappointed, I was simply curious at the way my daily routine has also changed.

I got to thinking about change, and about my urge to keep everything the same. I’ve always wanted to stall my kids as they’ve been growing up, I want my favorite campsites to stay the same, I want to repeat experiences. Is this a bad thing? I hate it when summer ends, I don’t want to say goodbye to staff and guests, I don’t want anyone or anything to die.
I suppose it is a natural phenomenon to want to preserve things, and certainly I’m glad that the BWCA has been so faithfully preserved. But there is a time when that urge to keep things the same becomes a way to stall things, when I think I’m overdoing it. Seagull Lake has been hit by fire for 3 years in a row. It’s definitely different. But when I visit, it still has the Seagull Lake magic. This is why the BWCA isn’t going to lose its charm. This is why I don’t have to worry about my unknown friend’s cabin selling. Still, it’s magic.

We had a guest call and request a trip with no burned area in it. Of course we’re glad to accomodate him with his vacation wishes, but I also thought to myself “well you’re missing out—you should see it, and feel the refreshing newness of it.”

I’m grateful to witness this circle of life first hand. .