ENTRANCE TO THE GOLD MINE ON RAINY LAKE’S BUSHYHEAD ISLAND. Active 125 years ago in the days of the Rainy Lake Gold Rush, and boomtown Rainy Lake City, now completely vanished. Yes, gold was found here, but never in sufficient quantities to make anybody rich.
HERE AT THE GRAND ESTATE FONDLY KNOWN AS THE CHURCH O’ THE PINES, home to Old Turtle and other literary figures, it is a misty, moisty Sunday. The temperature has swung wildly between about 48 and 52 degrees, the sky varying between gray and very gray.
CANOE AT LAST LIGHT. Fawn Island, Rainy Lake, Minnesota…
HERE AT THE CHURCH O’ THE PINES, the Father of Waters is gone. It is hidden by a morning fog of Sherlockian dimensions. The river, gone. The far shore, gone. The silhouetted pines stand and lean against a soft, gray wall, as pictures in an art gallery. From far away, the highway sounds moan and grumble, but softly, most of
FOUND THIS OLD TURTLE ON MN HIGHWAY 23 near Oak Park. A Snapper about 15” long, she was flipped on her back on the asphalt, spinning around with the wind blasts of every car and truck that passed over her—none of whom stopped or slowed down. Managed—with her enthusiastic opposition—to move her to safety in the marshy ditch. Aside from
THIS LITTLE FELLOW trills and squeaks and scolds every time I go in or out of the Fawn Island Cabin, all but announcing his intentions of breaking and entering and homesteading this fall/winter once we depart. If so we will return to find a mess in the spring and little Sciurus Hudsonicus and I shall have a problem. But thus
HERE AT PINE POINT ON THE MIGHTY MISSISSIPPI, the river is less mighty than usual, as the draw-down continues. Implemented to cleanse the riverbed, and primarily the Little Rock Lake flowage, of pollutants and nutrients that have built up for decades due to farm and septic run-off, it is an exercise in letting the river be a river once more.
THIS FISH WAS CAUGHT AFTER A TREMENDOUS BATTLE. It breathed fire and belched smoke, covering the entire northwest end of Lake Kabetogama in a dense haze. It towed our boat from Tom Cod Bay to Sugarbush Island. In the Grassy Islands, the water steamed and boiled up onto the rocks. The paint was peeled from the boat sides. The iPhones
IT IS A BEAUTIFUL SUMMER MORNING at the Church O’ The Pines. Things are blooming in Kathy’s Gardens. All kinds of things. I don’t know all of their names because I specialize more in the flowers of field and forest. But I know a bunch of them are lilies–all kinds and colors. The hummingbirds are busy, and although we enjoy
THIS TIME OF YEAR–MID TO LATE SUMMER, is the season when many folks find their thoughts turning to campsites, campfires, and canoe trips, the calling of loons, the easy comfort of the trail. As an old canoe guide, I find my paddling muscles getting itchy, and as the memories come flooding back, I recall many great trips, from the Fond