Goodbye Warm November!
Beautiful November Sunset
The roller coaster weather ride happening on the North Shore continues. December has gotten off to chilly start and we are even starting to see some snow flying too! It finally feels like winter up here after November set a record for warmest average high temps. Area residents were able to get their last minute fix of hiking, fishing, hunting and even a few rounds of golf in during that mild month. Because of that it’s looking like the ski season will be delayed for a few weeks this year. To the snow lover’s delight, December rolled in and with cold temps and snow in the air. The snow machines over at Lutsen Mountains have been working day and night to make up for lost time. These are perfect snowmaking conditions with daytime temps in the low 20’s and nighttime temps in the low teens. Lutsen Mountains will open for the season this weekend. Cross country skiers are hoping for the real thing and lots of it sometime before Christmas so we can get some trails opened up and hear the swooshing of skinny skis real soon!
In staff news we welcome two new front desk people to our service team. They are Jim and Nancy. Jim is from Lutsen and Nancy is from Grand Marais. They are two very nice, friendly individuals who bring their different skill sets to Cascade Lodge. After a little more training they will surely do a fine job. Our maintenance guy Dale had an interesting encounter a few weeks ago when he had an adult Ruffed Grouse come crashing through his kitchen window and almost landed on the dining room table which is where this crazy game bird eventually ended up. He mentioned that it sounded like somebody blew out the window with a shotgun and added that it’s a good thing the lady of the house wasn’t at home cooking at the time or she might have had a heart attack! Matt was down in the cities to visit family and friends over Thanksgiving weekend and attended a Timberwolves game at the Target Center and a Vikings game at the Dome too! Typically the T-wolves were beaten up pretty badly by the Suns and the Vikings had no problem dismantling the Bears. Go Vikes! Michael, Maureen and Sarah O’Phelan are currently in Las Vegas getting to know UNLV where Sarah plans on going to school. I’m sure they are missing this cold weather quite a bit out in the desert!
WINDS OF CHANGE
After six years of life in Southeast Asia, where the difference between a summer and winter day is about 45 more minutes of sunlight and a few more toasty degrees, it has been absolutely wonderful to experience distinct seasons again. Since Minnesota winters tend to stretch long, Lek and I have gotten to experience all four of them here at Cascade Lodge.
It was a very white world when we arrived last April, and a couple of heavy duty snowfalls were still in store before mid May’s bolder sun swelled rivers with snowmelt and coaxed new life up from the soggy forest floor.
Poplar buds simultaneously burst into leaves in the course of a single afternoon just before June, and then summer set in with its jungle-lush green, wildflowers, butterflies and tasty berries…and also hatch upon hatch of mosquitoes, gnats, deer flies and ticks. Days were long and lazy.
By mid August change was again in the air. The wind rustling the forest canopy carried whiffs of Canadian taiga and had a crisp edge. Suddenly the forest community seemed to have a new sense of urgency. Scampering squirrels got busy building bank accounts of winter food caches. The beavers went to work refurbishing their lodge. Berry patches were trampled by bears intent on fattening themselves before their long winter sleep. Frost glazed a few mornings.
October debuted not only with blazing autumn color, but also with a sprinkle of snow on the forest like powdered sugar on scrumptuous Cascade Restaurant french toast.
Now the forest lies naked, waiting patiently to be decked out again in another white coat, and it’s already dark by the time kids get home from school. Firewood’s been cut. Boots, parkas, and choppers have emerged from storage, and snow shovels and skis stand at the ready as we await the season that truly gives Minnesota a reputation: its “uffda-she’s-a-cold-one-today” winter.
It’s a season as powerful as it is beautiful. It demands respect even as it beckons us out to play. Days of howling winds and drifting snow are followed by days of incredible stillness when sometimes the only sounds are the soft, methodical crunch of snow beneath snowshoes and the beating of one’s own heart…and maybe a moonlit concert of wolves.
My favorite season is, well, all of them! But winter, sadly, is the one I’m gonna hafta miss.
Winds of change are blowing within me. Soon Lek and I will be leaving Cascade, and then on 747 wings we will be lifted from US soil for the last time this year. Our path back to Thailand is well-worn and familiar by now. We’ll pass over the Alaskan fiords, skirt Anchorage, see the Aleutian Islands and then head down the east Siberian coast enroute to Bangkok and a completely different climate, culture, and existence.
Our thank yous come wrapped in gratitude. Thank you, Cascade Forest, for having us in your many moods. Thank you non-human forest friends for making so many hikes so memorable.
Thank you to our lodge guests for your many warm smiles and pleasant conversations.
Thank you owners Michael and Maureen, and thank you my co-workers, for all of you have become unforgettable and forever friends and, really, extended family to Lek and me. We are a happy crew that works well together; we discuss personal issues and the deeper meaning of life even more than we talk shop, weather, fishing and football. (And thank you Maureen and Shane for pushing my laugh-till-I’m-in-tears button!)
Thanks to the lodge itself, whose walls have given us a cozy physical home and the privacy that Lek and I sometimes need.
Winds of change are taking us away. Winds of change will one day bring us back.
For all these things, and for all of you, we overflow with gratitude.
Until our forest paths cross again,
Sawasdee-krup!
David and Lek
davidthomaseklof@yahoo.com
North Star Ski Club Weekend
This last weekend in October marks the end to the really busy fall time period. As an annual tradition since 1982, Halloween weekend is when the North Star Ski Club sends about 20-30 of its members up the North Shore to help the various resorts work on ski trails. The 800-member North Star Ski Touring Club is the largest ski touring club in the lower 48. Formed in 1967, the club sponsors a year-round schedule of activities including day, weekend, and week-long trips to many locations in North America and Europe. Their motto: We bike, canoe, kayak, hike, dance, socialize, develop and maintain trails. But our PASSION is CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING!
Our 400 km North Shore Ski Trail System is so expansive and so long that without the help of groups such as the North Star’s (NS), volunteers and non-profits, we would have a very hard time putting in the necessary hours needed to maintain a world-class trail system. Here’s a glimpse into how this weekend operates… In exchange for their time and effort, area resorts give the (NS) a free room for two nights with a late checkout granted Sunday. They receive free breakfast, trail lunch and a potluck dinner Saturday night. The potluck dinner is held at Cascade’s sister resort, Solbakken, just down the road. Everyone from the resorts and (NS) gathers together to reminisce about the days experiences out on the trails, enjoy a great meal and look forward to this season’s skinny skiing. On Sunday the group gets a free breakfast and lunch.
The work schedule starts at 9am on Saturday when resort heads lead the whole group out to problematic trail sections. Main objectives: 1.) Removing windfall and deadfall trees and branches. 2.) Cutting and snipping back creeping vegetation both high and low. Tools of the trade: Chainsaw, Loppers, Handsaw and Polesaw. There is a short break for our trail lunches and then back on the trail until 4:30pm when we return to the lodge. Potluck starts at 6:00pm. Sunday is a shorter day with work starting again at 9am and ending around 12:30 or 1pm. Just in time for the Vikings game! Leftovers from the potluck at Solbakken are Sunday’s lunch. The work is hard no doubt, but very gratifying indeed. You see the work come to fruition mid-winter when gliding along an expertly groomed trail that’s completely free of those pesky face slappers! Thank you North Stars for your continued support!
Peak Color
Cascade Lodge said goodbye to our last foreign students on Sunday. Mina was a very nice boy from Egypt who worked in housekeeping and at the restaurant in the kitchen. Johanna and Diana were two lovely girls from Colombia. They shared a room and worked in housekeeping and as servers at the restaurant. Both Mina and Johanna are pre-med and will be doctors in their countries in a few years. All were great kids to have at the resort and excellent workers right up until a few hours before they had to leave.
The leaves along the shoreline and hill sides are at their peak right now and we are completely surrounded in a sea of gold. The fall color season this year happened much later than normal by about two weeks. Many are saying the record warmth northern Minnesota experienced in September had something to with it. Typically by the time everyone comes up for MEA this weekend most of the color is gone, but folks will be delighted to find we still have a lot of great colors left on the trees and vegetation. Matt took this great photo of the Split Rock Lighthouse on his way back from Duluth the other day. Temperatures have dropped quite a bit in October here after our warm September. We even woke up to a couple inches of snow on 10/11. Hopefully things warm up a little soon because there is still good fishing to be had and golf to be played!
The Big Blowdown II
Straight-line winds gusting up to 65 mph and 45° temperatures greeted staff and guests on Monday, September 28th. What was predicted as very strong westerly winds was all that and a bunch more. Massive pine trees were being whipped around like rage dolls and snapped like twigs all across the resort and state park. As many as twenty or more trees, some over 80 years old were blown over in what felt like hurricane strength wind gusts. Rental units, bridges, hiking/ski trails, power lines and even a few cars were damaged in this storm. Luckily nobody was injured, but some of the chainsaw clearing crew narrowing avoided getting hit by tree tops. The power went out on 8:30 am on 9/28 and was not restored at Cascade until 11:00am on 9/29. We were without telephone service to 2 days.
Guests staying in the main lodge made the most of the situation by gathering around the fireplace sharing stories and conversing by the fire and candle light. Cabin guests stoked up their fireplaces and reported they were nice and toasty after they threw that extra blanket on. Up until a few days ago the North Shore was basking in summer-like 60 and 70 degree sunny skies for the whole month of September. I think this is Mother Nature’s way of telling us that she’s still in full control. Cleanup will be a long, tedious process especially along the hiking and ski trails. We like to try and find a silver lining in any bad situation. Here there are two: 1). Cabin 7 now has an excellent lake view thanks to the toppling of a very mature, 80-year-old pine tree. 2). We now have like a two year supply of firewood!
COUGAR!!! Phantom of Cascade Forest
Cascade River
A quiet morning fog blankets Cascade Forest, adding a mysterious, eerie touch to my hike. In a muddy stretch of trail I notice the footprints of something large, probably a timberwolf. The prints are filling with water as I stoop for a better read of them. These tracks were just made. I am not alone. Suddenly I catch movement in a small grassy lea in front of me. I stand upright just in time to glimpse a tawny, furry back slinking silently through the thigh-high grass before disappearing in the foggy spruces.
My heart is pounding. I run after it, hoping against hope for another, clearer glimpse, but alas the fog is too much, and I’m left standing in a silence broken only by my heavy breathing.
Cougar? Yes! Cougar!!! What a thrill!!! I can’t wait to walk into Cascade Restaurant later today and announce in my perfect Minnesota English, “Yah, I seen me a cougar dismornen.”
And why couldn’t I have? Reports of cougar sightings in these parts have been multiplying in recent years. Everyone knows someone here who’s seen a cougar, and the list of those who’ve actually had the thrill of a cougar encounter is growing. Why can’t I, who spends so much time in the forest, be on that elite list too?
It’s certainly within the realm of probability that a cougar or two exist in Cook County. There’s enough wilderness and more than enough deer to sustain a cougar population here, and Minnesota does abut two other states–North and South Dakota–that have established cougar populations (albeit very small ones). Stan Tekiela’s Mammals of Minnesota Field Guide lists cougars among our resident mammals, and a cougar was caught in a deer hunter’s camera trap near Floodwood a couple years ago, although whether it was a wild specimen or an escaped pet is up for speculation. We can certainly say at the very least that cougars could exist here.
�
As the morning sun rises, my wild imagination dissipates with the fog. Those fresh tracks I found surely had the telltale clawmarks of a canine; I would have noticed if they hadn’t. And the tawny, furry back I saw in the grass was probably more motley than tawny, with flecks of black. I know that if I were to stand before an all-knowing God and recount my experience this foggy morning, I would tell God that it was in all likelihood a coyote, not a cougar, that I saw.
The problem with all these cougar sightings is lack of hard evidence to lend credibility. For all the exotic mammals seen in the forest, there is a wealth of evidence that precedes and procedes seeing them: tracks, scat, hair, etc. For every bear, wolf, moose, marten, fisher and fox I’ve seen, I’ve seen the evidence of their existence many times over.
Why should cougars be different? Why can’t anybody find their tracks, their scat, a cougar-killed deer or bit of cougar hair?
I want to believe that cougars exist here. I want to believe it so much that a glimpse of a coyote on a foggy morning can so easily morph into a cougar sighting. But I need to build my beliefs on evidence, and in the case of Cook County cougars, I’m sorry to say evidence is sorely lacking.
A quiet autumn hike through Cascade forest , especially around sunup or sundown, is full of mammal sighting possibilities. Red squirrels and white tailed deer are almost guaranteed. Wolves are surprisingly abundant here, sometimes seen, occasionally heard singing their mournful songs. You might see a black bear…or step in one of their soft black “calling cards” if you’re not careful. Martens, fishers, and fox show up on our trails now and then. You can watch beavers refurbishing their lodge on a nearby pond which is frequented by moose. We’ve seen otter tracks on the upper reaches of Cascade River, and watched otters themselves swimming in Lake Superior, in front of the lodge. Lek and I have seen all of these mammals on our hikes through Cascade Forest, and we’ve found their tracks, scat, and other evidence of their presence many more times. With enough time, patience, and a bit of luck, any hiker in Cascade Forest will have the same inevitable mammal encounters.
But a cougar?
Maybe someday, cougar tracks will show up on a muddy trail. Maybe some foggy morning somewhere in Cascade Forest, you or I will catch a glimpse of this magnificent mammal slinking away through the grass. Until then, the cougar will remain the phantom of Cascade Forest.
Sawasdee-krup!
David Eklof
Summer’s Twilight
Matt's Big Fish
A long string of gorgeous summer weather has everyone on the North Shore in high spirits. After a couple weeks of cool damp weather, the sun, blue skies and 70 degree weather has returned. According to the weatherman it is supposed to stick around all the way through next week! All the visitors coming for the big holiday weekend will no doubt be thrilled. Speaking of the last big summer weekend, we are all very busy in preparation. A massive food order for the restaurant will arrive tomorrow, rooms and cabins cleaned, grounds mowed and cleaned up and firewood stocked. It is a lot of work for sure, but well worth it in the end when you see people of all ages enjoying our resort. The state park has recently cleared and mowed the Pioneer Ski Trail so the hiking and mountain biking conditions are fantastic.
In staff news I would like to thank Chef Dave for stepping in and contributing a great article comparing and contrasting life on the North Shore and Thailand. Matt recently visited Isle Royale with a few friends that came up to visit last weekend. I guess the scenery out there was awesome and the fishing was world-class as evidenced by the massive 13 lb Laker he pulled in. His party also boated 2-10 pounders and three 6ers! We have recently added a new member to our team of front desk associates. We are happy to welcome John Mianowski of Grand Marais to Cascade Lodge. He is a very nice gentleman and very familiar with the area having grown up in Cook County. We think he will do a fine job for us. He replaces Mary Hay, daughter of previous owner Gene Glader. Mary worked at the front desk and as gift shop manager for many years and grew up at the lodge, but has decided to move onto a new adventure. Many of you probably knew her or had spoken with her. She will be sorely missed. Good luck to her and her future endeavors and welcome John!
COMPARISONS: The Best of Two Worlds
My wife Lek and I are fortunate. We live in a beautiful, remote corner of Thailand during the winter and in a beautiful, remote corner of Minnesota–Cascade Lodge!–during the summer. These two places are as different as coconut palms and white pines are, or elephants and moose, or Buddhist temples and Lutheran churches.
As Lek and I hike throughout Cascade State Park and the adjacent Superior National Forest, we often make comparisons of our two homes.
The king of the forest here (in my opinion, anyway) is the timber wolf. It’s impossible to walk for long in Cascade Park without finding fresh coffee-cup-saucer-sized wolf tracks in muddy areas. We’ve happened upon the remains of their deer kills at least a dozen times this summer, and once, early last month, we encountered a wolf itself, loping nonchalantly down the trail in front of us.
The king of the Thai forest is the tiger. I’ve never seen one in the wild, though I’ve certainly tried. Unlike wolves, tigers are rare, their numbers ever decreasing under the tragic woes of habitat loss and poaching.
The most majestic mammal in Minnesota has gotta be the moose. Every time I see one, I am impressed anew at their awesome size. At present, there aren’t any moose in Cascade Park west of Cascade River, but a short hike beyond the park’s boundaries puts us in prime moose stompin’ grounds. Lek and I have encountered several, and we note their tracks and droppings on every hike.
Thailand’s most majestic mammal, hands down, is the elephant. Wild elephants roam the more remote Thai jungles. While camping in a national park in Thailand once, I saw a cow elephant and her calf strolling across a field at sunset, unaware of my hidden presence. Another time, while driving through the jungle at night, we had to break for a herd of elephants crossing the road. Most wild elephants, like moose, aren’t comfortable with human contact. Occasionally, a wild elephant encounter turns deadly for people in Thailand, while moose in Minnesota, although sometimes impressively aggressive, don’t actually ravage people. Seeing a wild elephant or a wild moose is exciting, but there’s an element of justifiable fear with an elephant encounter in Thailand that simply doesn’t exist with a moose encounter in Minnesota.
Minnesota has one bear species, the black bear. There are two bears currently living in Cascade Park west of the river, a large male and a juvenile or small female. Lek and I have observed their tracks, their “calling cards”, and many signs of their activity in the park. And we’ve had three bear encounters this summer, two with the large male and one with the juvenile/small female.
Thailand has two bear species, the Asiatic black bear, similar in size to Minnesota’s black bear, and the smaller sun bear. Thailand’s bears, unlike Minnesota’s, are secretive and avoid human contact at all costs. Indeed, their survival depends on living unnoticed by humans. It’s no surprise, then, that I have never encountered a wild bear in Thailand, but I have seen their tracks while hiking in remote jungles, and I’ll probably have to be satisfied with that.
We see black ant mounds throughout Cascade Park, and lately we’ve noted where bears have gone digging in them for tasty morsals of larvae. Place your hand on an ant mound here and it will immediately be covered with excitedly scurrying ants, yet nary a one will even consider biting you.
Not so in Thailand! Red ants and black ants, both tree-nesters there, are programmed to inflict nasty and slightly toxic bites upon contact with human skin. Ant encounters in Thailand are not pleasant experiences, let me tell ya! I’ve had plenty of painful first-hand experience!
If any of the several species of Cascade Park snakes one may spy slithering across a trail on a warm afternoon strikes fear, it is irrational fear, for snakes here are 100% harmless. This is definitely not the case in Thailand, where a large percentage of the serpentine population consists of pit vipers, kraits, and cobras, all capable of causing death with a bite. And let’s not forget pythons big enought to devour deer! We see pit vipers occasionally in our garden or on jungle walks, and have even had them inside our house on several uneasy occasions. Once, I was thrilled to catch a glimpse of a fleeing king cobra! Cascade’s snakes certaily don’t inspire the cautious alarm that many Thai snakes do. Yet snake bites in Thailand are as rare as wild tiger encounters, so we don’t really worry ourselves to death about them.
Both Minnesota and Thailand have mosquitos. Minnesota’s relentlessly assault us on our evening hikes in the park. Thai skeeters are few and far in between, but they do carry the risk of malaria or denge fever.
Both Minnesota and Thailand have have ticks, but our deer tick bites can mean Lyme’s disease or some other serious illness, while Thailand’s ticks are only annoying at worst.
Both Minnesota and Thailand have leeches, but those here live in still water while those in Thailand thrive on the jungle floor.
These are but the tip of the tip of the ice berg of comparisons Lek and I have made of life in northeastern Minnesota and life in northeastern Thailand. We live in two completely different worlds, no doubt about it. But there is one comparison that equals out between Minnesota and Thailand: the kindness of people. I am showered with kindness wherever I go in Thailand. Lek and I are equally surrounded by kindness here at Cascade Lodge and wherever we go in Cook County. We have experienced the very best of the human soul in both beautiful, remote Thailand and beautiful, remote Minnesota, and for that we are eternally grateful.
How ’bout one more comparison? A very warm summer day at Cascade Park equals a very cold winter day in Thailand.
Sawasdee!
David Eklof and Lek Thongchan-Eklof
Festive Time of Year!
Lovely Little Bluet Wildflowers next to Cabin 9
With the Dragon Boat and Ely Blueberry Festivals in the rear-view we now turn our attention to this weekend’s annual and ever more popular Fisherman’s Picnic. This is Cook County’s version of Stillwater’s Lumber Jack Days or Bayfield’s Apple Festival. There is a $10,000 Grand Prize Raffle (keeping my fingers crossed), Log Sawing, Rolling, Big Fish, Fish Toss contests. Tennis, Basketball, Softball and Snowmobile Skipping round out the athletic events. There are parades, vendors, live music and lots of great times. Fisherman’s Picnic time memories are some of the fondest I have experienced in my time spent up north here.
We have finally been getting the much needed rain in this last week. And this weeks forecast calls for a about a 20-50% chance of showers all week. This is great to get and hopefully it will green things back up a bit and the increasing lake and river levels will only help continue the excellent fishing we have been experiencing this summer. Plus nobody likes not being able use their grill or cook their hotdogs and s’mores over the campfire in the summertime because of a fire ban or restrictions!
Summertime is here!
Site of the six annual Dragon Boat Festival
With the big 4th of July celebration in the rear view, we look forward to the Dragon Boat Festival next weekend (July 23rd-26th). This will be the sixth annual such festival and races take place in the harbor of Grand Marais. The popularity of this sport is soaring in recent years. Paddler magazine recently ranked DB racing as the fastest growing water sport in the world. 22-person teams really get into this thing and it’s fun to watch everyone give everything they’ve got to win. The boats are vividly colored and there is even a parade, vendors, live music and opening/closing ceremonies to go along with it. Even teams from Canada come down to race!
Finally the weather up here has turned warmer and more summer-like. The last three weekends have been soaked in sun, blue sky, and very little rainfall with temperatures in the 70’s! Everyone has been having a great time out and about Cascade Lodge and Grand Marais enjoying this gorgeous weather. Today we are supposed to get some much needed rain as lawns are starting to dry up fast and fire danger is on the rise. We’ll pray for a nice soak and no big thunderstorms!