We moved to Las Vegas from Chicago last year. As lifelong Chicago people, it was an adjustment. People told us it would be hot in the summer. However, since 1972 I have been coming to Grand Marais, Minnesota. Back when I was a kid and when I was trading, it was for a week at most. It was a challenge because there was no electricity, internet, cell service, and we got our water from a spring on a hill my grandfather built. For the past few years, my wife and I have spent a lot of the summer there. I like to joke that we really come for the donuts, but it’s the forest we like.
My grandfather was in the US Forest Service. This is where he would spend the summer. It’s a wilderness lake. No water skis. No jet skis. Most fishing boats have a 9.9 horse motor. My pontoon has a 25 horse and most pontoons on the lake are similar. You just don’t hear the whine of a boat motor all day like you do on recreational lakes.
I hated coming here as a kid. There were no basketball hoops around.
Our lake is small. There are 14 cabins on our end. Our road is impassable in the winter unless you are on snowshoes. I know people that have gotten snowmobiles stuck. There are 20 cabins on the other end. Olympic hockey player Mark Pavlich used to live there until he died. It’s really a wildlife lake and a fishing lake.
There are two cabins that we live in. We own one and rehabbed it starting three years ago. My parents own the other one, which my grandfather built, and we rehabbed it last summer. It’s been a lot of work.'
When we rehabbed, we did things so we would never have to do them again. We put metal roofs on. We got rid of water heaters and put in instant hot water heaters. New cabinets, new floors and new baths.
They aren’t fancy. Mine is 650 square feet. The other one is 700 square feet. We don’t have a dishwasher. We grill a lot, and have a two-burner induction cooktop.
With Covid, this has been the best place to be. Everything was virtual anyway. I have heard that it is good for your soul to do “forest bathing”. I guess we get quite a bit of that but our bathing is usually done after a day of manual labor. This year, we came in May. Just after Mother’s Day.
This summer has been especially unique for a variety of reasons.
We built the floating dock last year. It’s really sweet. This summer, we built a smaller floating dock for the other cabin.
When we rehabbed, we put in electricity and I have one gig fiber to my door. We dug a well so we have reliable water. We put out bird feeders and we have a lot of action all summer.
One night in May, we went out to fish. I saw a little something struggling in the water. I thought it was a baby duck. I got my boat close to it, and it made eye contact with me. It struggled over to the boat and I cupped my hands and brought it in. It was a female downy woodpecker that a hawk had probably dropped in the lake. We kept it warm overnight and it flew away in the morning.
For heat when it is cold, we burn wood. We have to find downed trees, cut them up, and split them. Fortunately, the woods are full of birch and maple that get trashed by the ice in the winter. Here is some wood we split this year.
It’s always nice to have an evening fire on the deck too.
This place is pretty deep in the woods. You never know what the day will bring. Several times this year, I was driving down the road and saw bears. One night recently, one decided to pay us a visit. You really do have to be wary of bears and we don’t leave food or garbage outside.
You never know when something might show up. A couple of years ago, a mountain lion migrated through. In the middle of the night, he was on our deck. I saw him, smelled him but didn’t get a photo of him. I was driving down our private road and a Cooper’s Hawk flew right in front of me. They had a nest nearby last year.
My friend down the way has a fisher that shows up every now and then. He calls him “Big Boy”. Fishers are viscious despite how cute Big Boy is!
The other day, I walked out on my deck and saw a bull moose emerging from the water. His antlers, head, and neck were out. I didn’t have my phone so I couldn’t snap a photo. I grabbed my phone and walked carefully out to our road. Here he is.
In the Spring, we get to see the ducklings. They look like little hockey pucks skidding across the water. We have a duck house that wood ducks, golden eyes, or mergansers will nest in. They need to pay attention to the eagle who is always watching them. One day, while fishing this eagle jumped out of that white pine and took the fish off my lure. He dropped the fish, and then promptly flew across the lake and killed a duckling much to the protestation of the duckling’s mother.
The eagle has been busy of late. He got this huge walleye the other day.
We also think he killed this migrating Canada goose. My wife found it while she was kayaking. No head or neck on this one.
Last summer, our youngest daughter was married here.
This summer, our eldest daughter brought her boyfriend up. He’d never been fishing or in the woods before. On his first trip out, he caught a fish! My daughter looked across the lake, and we saw a wolf pup padding along the shore. Amazing. I hadn’t seen a wolf in years. The last one I saw was along Highway 61.
Our house in Vegas is torn up. It’s our fourth rehab in about five years. Last one I swear. It’s our seventh or eighth all told. We are closing up here and beginning the trek to Las Vegas tomorrow. Summer is spectacular up here. But, fall is breathtaking. Plus, no bugs.
It’s time to close up. All good things must come to an end. Archie our dog will have to wait until next year to keep the squirrels and chipmunks in line.
Hope you had a great summer and have a fantastic fall.
Beautiful post, what touches you as a human is amazing. You didn't even mention race or gender. WTF! May your spirit do some good on LV.
Pure joy. Forward blessings 🙌