A couple of things I’ve read sound strange to my ears.  The forecast for one is different than it has been in a long while and jellyfish in the Boundary Waters? WOW. I have never heard that before. I can’t imagine how shocked I would be to see that.

Fromboreal website RAIN WITH A FEW THUNDERSTORMS WILL TRACK OVER THE MINNESOTA
ARROWHEAD THIS MORNING. ALTHOUGH THESE STORMS ARE NOT EXPECTED TO
BECOME SEVERE…WIND GUSTS AROUND 40 MPH WILL BE POSSIBLE.
ADDITIONAL RAIN SHOWERS WITH EMBEDDED THUNDERSTORMS WILL BE COMMON
THROUGH THE DAY.

Northland jellyfish reappear, this time in Namakan Lake

Tiny freshwater jellyfish, seldom seen in Northland waters, were spotted in recent days in Namakan Lake along the Ontario border.

By: John Myers, Duluth News Tribune Tiny freshwater jellyfish, seldom seen in Northland waters, were spotted in recent days in Namakan Lake along the Ontario border.

Thousands of the small jellyfish were spotted Saturday by Steve Geving, a Lake Superior area fisheries

specialist for the Minnesota Department of Natural

Resources who was kayaking on Namakan Lake in Voyageurs National Park with his wife, Glenita.

“We were sitting in our kayaks off North Mitchell Island. You could see 10 or more in some spots, then do a few strokes and see nothing. Some were dime- to nickel-size,” Geving, of Duluth, told the News Tribune. “They were whitish, opaque.”

Gary Montz, a research scientist for the DNR, said biologists have speculated that water temperature and abundance of zooplankton, jellyfish food, may play a role in the jellyfish developing to a noticeable size that floats to the surface.

In 2006, another warm summer, Chad Polecheck of Esko, a former Minnesota conservation officer, told the News Tribune that he saw “thousands and thousands” of the jellyfish while fishing on Little Sturgeon Lake north of Hibbing in late July. At first he thought it was pollen in the water, but he captured

several of them in a jar and watched them “pulse” through the water. Another 2006 report came from Dodo Lake near Duluth.

Those jellyfish were on display for a time at Fisherman’s Corner bait shop outside Duluth.

Geving said they snorkeled Saturday among the whitish, opaque jellyfish for some time.

“Pretty neat little critters,” he noted.

While they have been around for years, most people have never seen a freshwater jellyfish because they spend most of their lives as underwater polyps that live on or near lake bottoms.

Only occasionally, and scientists aren’t sure why, do the polyps develop into dime- to quarter-sized jellyfish that can be seen floating and pulsing near the surface.

Most sightings are in August and September, experts say. The “blooms” last only a few days.

”It’s really exciting for us. We’re trying to get more information on it,” said Mike Ward, Voyageurs superintendent, who said park staff would attempt to find more of the critters.

DNR biologists in past years said there is little information on freshwater jellyfish in Minnesota. They often go unreported for years and then several reports come in at about the same time.

Montz said there have been reports this summer of jellyfish in Crab and Banadad lakes in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, Long Lake near Cotton and Airport Lake in Winona County in southern Minnesota.

“This year seems to be a bumper crop,” Montz said, adding, however, that seeing a jellyfish is still a rarity. “If people are not out at the right time and looking at the water, you could miss a bloom on a lake.”

It’s still safe to go into the water, officials say. While freshwater jellyfish have tiny tentacles to sting and capture zooplankton, they are too small to sting people like their larger saltwater cousins can.

Freshwater jellyfish — Craspedacusta sowerbii — have been in Minnesota lakes for decades. They are naturally occurring now, but they probably are an invasive species, possibly from Europe. So far, however, there’s no sign of any ecological disruption or damage from their presence.

Some scientists have said there could be more jellyfish now as northern lakes get warmer earlier in the year and stay warmer later. Northland lakes on average now have two weeks less ice cover than they did 50 years ago. Some speculate that, as warmer water reaches the polyps attached to the bottom of lakes, more of the polyps mature into jellyfish “blooms.” The jellyfish-stage critters then reproduced asexually and tiny eggs attached to the bottom of the lake and became polyps, restarting the cycle.

Usually, when in the jellyfish form, the creatures are white or green and nearly gelatinous — 99 percent of their bodies consist of water. The jellyfish lacks a head, has no skeleton and contains no organs for respiration or excretion.

Freshwater jellyfish are found throughout the world but were first reported in 1880 in England. They were first reported in the U.S. in 1908, according to the University of Michigan’s Museum of Zoology.

     It’s always nice to hear positive comments from our guests and it’s even better to see them in writing.  If you have some kind words about your experience with Voyageur then we’d love to have you write them down for us and others to see.

I just want to send a follow-up thank you to the Voyageur crew.  We just got back from our annual BWCA trip and it was amazing…the trip itself and also going through Voyageur and using you for our outfitting needs.  Your staff was super friendly, helpful, prepared and just all around nice.  We weren’t just another number waiting in long line to get on the water…felt that way using another outfitter last year but won’t be making that mistake again. 

Thanks again,  Arlen Stark

We had a wonderful first time in the BWCA thanks to you. Your staff was terrific, helpful and friendly at all times. We fell in love with the area and plan to come back at least once, and perhaps more, each year.

Many thanks,

Gerry Hopklins

     Fishing in the Boundary Waters and Quetico Park has been excellent this year.  Big northern pike have been caught on Saganaga with a couple of 15 pounders reported this past week.  Another group caught several lake trout over 10 pounds and some nice walleye.   Just thought I would share a couple of photos some of our guests have sent us.  If you have photos from your canoe trip you’d like to share then please send them our way.

  Rick Bantz caught a beauty of a smallmouth bass measuring 23" in length.

     James Dorangrichia caught a lunker of a northern pike measuring over 41 inches.

     Wade Brown caught a 28 1/2 inch walleye.

     It’s like the last few days of cross-country skiing in the spring when you know any day could be the last day the snow will be good enough to ski on.  I look at the forecast for temperatures in the 80’s for the next couple of days and I don’t want to miss it.  I love the sun and warmth and swimming in the river.

     But outside of my bubble a real world exists.  One where a State Fair is happening and the newest rage is the new Twin’s Stadium.  I knew when I was asked a month or so ago if I wanted to go to a ball game I would rather stay home and go on a canoe trip if I had an opportunity to be away from Voyageur.  But in our family my vote only counts for 2 and I was outvoted 3 to 2.  Mike, Josh and Abby only get 1 vote each. 

     That’s why this morning I will be heading south to the concrete jungle.  Not just Duluth or St. Cloud where there are a few people around but the State Fair and a Twins game where thousands of people will surround me.  Talk about scary stuff.  I’d rather face bears, wolves and swarming mosquitoes in the middle of the woods than be surrounded by people.

     It’s not that I don’t like people it’s just that I really don’t want to leave the Gunflint Trail.  I know there will be plenty of warm days ahead in September and October but then the kids will be in school.  I’m just trying to hang onto summer vacation as long as I can and there’s no place I’d rather spend it then at the end of the Gunflint Trail. 

     It’s that change thing again.  Things are always changing and I don’t like change.  I don’t like it when my summer staff leaves at the end of the season either.  I really dislike saying good-bye to these people who were such a big part of our lives for so many weeks.

     I apologize for being negative.  I know I will enjoy spending time with my family and friends in the cities.  I also know I am in need of some cotton candy and State Fair french fries.  Heck, I may even need to milk a cow at the Fair or buy some infommercial product I don’t need from a vendor at the fair.  Maybe I’ll catch a foul ball at the Twins Game or figure out who George Mauer is, or is it Joe?  I don’t know, I’m in my own world here at the end of the Trail and I just happen to love it and I don’t want to miss it.

     The weather has been hot on the Gunflint Trail with yesterday’s high a whopping 88 degrees.  It doesn’t show signs of cooling off anytime soon either.  It’s unseasonably hot for this time of the year but I guess I’ll take it since it’s keeping the lake water nice for swimming.
     Today the temperature is expected to be in the high 80’s again and on Monday too.  Tuesday through Friday the forecast calls for a little bit cooler weather with temperatures down into the 70’s and by the weekend it may only get up into the high 60’s.  There’s a slight chance of precipitation on Saturday but my guess is the forecast will change by then.

     The Lizard Lake Fire was a little bit more active yesterday than it was the day before.  It’s still very small but with the wind conditions yesterday and predicted wind for the next couple of days the USFS decided to drop some water on the fire yesterday.  They’ll continue to monitor it to make sure it doesn’t go anywhere.  It’s not on a BWCA route, there aren’t any campsites in the vicinity and it’s still a couple of miles from any structures on the Gunflint Trail.  Let’s hope it stays that way. (Find photos and more at my Examiner site.)

     Wildlife sightings and fishing reports have been terrific.  Lots of big fishing being caught including a 34 inch northern pike, a few 10 pound plus lake trouts and lots of walleye and smallmouth bass.  A group camped on Saganaga saw 10 bears this week but none of them bothered them.  Another group saw a young bull moose and a cow and a calf.  Lots of loons and eagles have been seen as well as chipmunks and rabbits.

     The forecast for the week looks good to me and any long weekend is a perfect weekend for a canoe trip in the Quetico Park or Boundary Waters.  Make some plans to come see us at Voyageur this weekend, we’d love to see you on the Gunflint Trail.

     Until Thursday I had never heard of Lizard Lake and I hope I don’t hear about it for very long.  Lizard Lake Fire is what the most recent fire in the Gunflint District has been named. It’s currently in the middle of nowhere but that isn’t comforting to me.

     I’m thankful we only have black bears to deal with in Northeastern Minnesota.  Black bears are more of a nuisance than anything and rarely attack humans unlike their relatives the polar bear and grizzly bear.  According to the North Central Research Center black bear attacks are rare. "Nevertheless, chances of being attacked around campsites by any black bear are small. During a 19-year study of bear/camper encounters in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Minnesota, only two injuries were reported in 19 million visitor-days. The study included the year 1985 when bear nuisance activity was at a record high. The two injuries were by one bear on September 14 and 15, 1987. The bear was killed the next day."

     Some years we see lots of bears while other years we hardly see any.  The berries have been so plentiful this year the bears haven’t had to come to our place in search of garbage since this spring.  I have seen lots of bear poop while I’ve been hiking and out picking berries but I haven’t seen any bears.  Our guests on the other hand have reported some bear sightings.

     While one of our guests was out in the BWCA she was surprised to find she was not alone in her blueberry patch.  Two cubs were a short distance away picking berries themselves so she decided she would let them continue picking while she found another place to pick.

     Another one of our guests saw a bear eating in the ditch along the Gunflint Trail on their way up to Voyageur.  Yesterday a group on Saganaga reported seeing a sow with triplets swimming across the channel.  It’s pretty exciting to see black bears out in the wild especially when they aren’t in your campsite.

     We haven’t heard of any bear problems out in the woods this year.  Some years a bear will be attracted to a particular campsite due to having found food there in the past.  If you see bear droppings at a campsite it’s a good idea to pick a different site.  If a bear does come into your campsite then you need to scare it off before it gets a taste of your food or it will most likely keep coming back for more.  Bears are pretty easy to scare off just by yelling at them or throwing things at them.

     Like any other wild animal it is best to keep your distance from a black bear.  Don’t crowd them or get between them and their cubs and you should be fine.  Keep your eyes open and maybe you’ll be treated to a bear sighting in the wild.

     Whenever I’m out hiking and encounter a steep cliff I urge my kids to stay away from the edge.  They look at me with their "whatever" eyes and stay rooted in their spot.  I proceed to tell them the danger of part of the cliff tumbling away while they are standing there but again I get the "whatever" eyes.  Sometimes they will even say, "Like the cliff is going to give way right now after being here for thousands of years?" 

     The odds are probably similar to being struck by lightning but the cliff crumbling away could happen, even when someone is standing there.  I was thinking about this last month as I walked the path to Shovel Point at Tettegouche State Park. I saw the arch above Lake Superior from the beach and thought how cool it would be to swim or paddle beneath it.  I wondered what it looked like years ago and if it was ever something more than just an arch.

     We once visited Silver Islet in Sleeping Giant Provincial Park in Ontario.  We hiked out to see the Sea Lion and I couldn’t figure out why it was called that.  It didn’t look anything like a Sea Lion to me but later found out it was a "lion" turned to stone in the "sea".  This lion’s head was no longer a part of the rock structure as erosion had caused it to drop into Lake Superior.

     Just as the Sea Lion no longer resembles a lion the arch at Tettegouche is no longer an arch.  After a section fell to the Lake sometime last week it is now a lone column of rock next to the shore in Lake Superior.  No one was there to see it, no one fell from the edge as the rock gave way, but it did fall and someone could have been standing there. Don’t give me those "whatever" eyes either!

     The wind has been blowing like crazy the past few days.  Wind speeds have been consistently in the 10-20 mph range with gusts up to 30 mph.  It can’t seem to make up its mind what direction it wants to blow from.  From North to South to East to West and everything in between it has come from almost every direction. 

     Paddling in the wind is not my favorite time to paddle. But since I paddle whenever I get the chance I took my kids and two nieces out for an overnight in the Boundary Waters in spite of the never-ending wind.  It was a bit more challenging then I expected and it bothered me that I couldn’t control the canoe as well as I would have liked.

     We got a tow to the portage into Red Rock and only had to make it to a campsite.  With four kids ranging in age from 9-16 I decided to take both a Minnesota 4 and the Canak made by Wenonah.  The Minnesota 4 is 23 feet long and has 4 seats with the middle seat capable of seating two smaller kids side by side.  I figured we all could have fit into the MN 4 with our gear but thought it would be more fun to have the Canak(a solo canoe kayak hybrid) for use at camp.  

     The water level in the BWCA is crazy low right now and that made taking off into Red Rock Lake difficult.  There were rocks all over and with a 23 foot long canoe it was hard to find a place to float that wasn’t touching rocks.  Eventually we made it out of the bay and into the big wind only to realize I couldn’t get the canoe to steer the direction I wanted it to go.  I figured I had too much weight in the front of the canoe and had to head over to a campsite to reposition the paddlers.  Josh, the only boy in the group besides Rugby and the youngest was paddling the Canak.  He did a terrific job by himself in the waves and after we switched places in the canoe we were able to get to our campsite. 

     My nieces hadn’t been on a Boundary Waters trip before and they did an awesome job.  Everyone helped to put the tent and hammocks up and then we took a refreshing swim.  Josh and I wanted to go fishing since we had heard there was some fish to be caught in the bay.  My niece Chelsea decided to come along with us and thank goodness she did.  Who knows where Josh and I would have ended up without her help paddling us back to the campsite.  Needless to say, we didn’t catch any fish and didn’t venture back out onto the lake until the next day.

     The wind hardly let up during the night and when it was time to paddle back to the portage it was blowing forcefully.  This time the canoe was tracking very nicely but I had loaded the Canak too heavily in the front and Josh was struggling to steer it.  We had to paddle backwards into the waves to retrieve him in the Canak and tow him along with us because he couldn’t keep the nose of the Canak headed in the right direction.  With all of the messing around in the waves I was amazed we didn’t flip the canoe or the Canak. 

     My nieces and children were forced to listen to me cuss and yell about the wind and the waves.  I was quite cranky a couple of times when I didn’t think people were paddling hard enough or when the wind was making carrying the 64 pound canoe difficult.  I threatened both my dog and my daughter but amazingly my nieces both said they had fun.  I thinik by that time they were afraid of me so what else could they say?

     I hope they had a good Boundary Waters experience in spite of my ranting and raving.  I guess I was nervous to be responsible for everyone’s safety.  With the wind blowing like it was it would have been a struggle to make any rescue attempts and although everyone was wearing lifevests it was stressful for me. I think I need to be more like a bottle of wine, chill and mellow with age and then hopefully they’ll agree to go camp with me again.  After it quits blowing in the BWCA.

     The other morning I had the opportunity to transport a group to an entry point into the Boundary Waters.  While they unloaded one of their own canoes I noticed there were not any portage pads on their canoe and jokingly said, "I hope you have some portage pads along unless you’re into torture."  He then informed me he didn’t have any along but it would be OK.

     There are people who can portage a canoe without portage pads but why?  One word comes to mind when I think about doing it, "OUCH!"  I’ve asked people who have experienced a canoe trip without them and I’ve been told it isn’t too bad.  I don’t know what too bad is, but I know I don’t want to find out.

     I mentioned to him I could try to find something for him when I drove the women back to leave their vehicles at our place.  He didn’t want me to worry about it and of course I forgot all about it until I had left the landing the last time.  Back at Voyageur I figured I would try to bring something out to him so I grabbed some duct tape and portage pads and took off for the landing.

     Of course they had already left the canoe landing but I could see them so I decided to take one of our canoes and head out after them.  It took awhile for me to get their attention and eventually catch up to them but it was a beautiful morning for a paddle. 

     I have no doubt he could have done the trip without portage pads but again I ask the question, "Why?" If you ever find yourself at the end of the Gunflint Trail without portage pads then please stop by and we’ll see what we can find. Portaging can be painful enough with portage pads so don’t be stubborn and go without.  If not for yourself then at least for me.  I’ll feel much better knowing there’s some paddling while you’re portaging.