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Saturday, September 26, 2015
Sometimes I Get a Chance to Go Fishing
I don't like to leave too often during our season because invariably, somebody needs something or something breaks when I'm gone - at least it feels that way. But, I do like to sneak away to Wood Lake every now and then. Here I am with my friend Paul from about 10 days ago.
It was a good day of fishing.
Visit our website for Northwind Lodge
Visit our website for Northwind Lodge
Put down your iPhone and Drive Straight Ahead
Well, it's been a moderate summer but there is an endless supply of things to keep one really busy at a resort. When something doesn't need a repair, someone has a question, or needs help or is lost. The "lost" ones always fascinate me.
In today's world, so many are completely addicted to their iPhones and the like that they can't do even the simplest task without them. In my opinion, that is a really compromised way to be, but nobody's listening to me as they line up for blocks to buy a new iPhone when their old iPhone (which was new last month) was perfectly good from an operational standpoint. I live in the woods. I can't figure out the obsession/addiction. However, I can see what it does to people's ability to think and navigate and it ain't good.
Since iPhones really made their way into the America psyche, we experience at least 20 lost souls per year who, despite having the ability to read our instructions to find us, toss those to the wind and wing it with their smart phones. This inevitably takes them to Winton MN which is just three miles out of Ely on the way to us and their phone then tells them that they have landed at Red Rock/Northwind Lodge. They usually end up at Brandau Plumbing in Winton or the driveway of Veteran's on the Lake which is a veteran's retreat. Then they call us up (because they still have cell coverage) with mild panic and irritation in their voices. It says right in our website how to literally drive your car pebble by pebble in the road to Northwind Lodge/Red Rock but that holds no meaning for many. Knowing this, I instruct them on the phone how to get to us from Winton, Minnesota.
It goes like this:
Me: Are you ready?
The Lost: Yes
Me: Take your phone and go outside the car.
The Lost: OK
Me: With your left hand, place your phone on the ground, approximately 1 foot in front of the driver's side tire on your car.
The Lost: Errr..OK
Me: Now get in your car and drive ahead one foot. Go get a real paper map.
At this point, there is usually laughter from giggles to guffaws OR the occasional snort of derision on the other end. I then assure them that they are to continue forward on that same road for 12.1 miles and they'll hit our driveway RIGHT across from the Ojibway Lake Public Access. At times, even this doesn't work and they shoot right past ending up at Lake One, the "default" end of the road. They then turn around and find us on the way back.
Many times, they walk in TOTALLY confused as to the fact that our location is wrong in Google or on their Tom-Tom and tell me all about it. I know. I've tried for years to change it and I've just given up. Computers and the internet are not as smart as everyone gives them credit. In fact, your smart phone is dumber than a bag of hammers, so don't rely on it so heavily. We're living proof that it can be completely wrong and very unreliable.
Now, I, too, have been lost in big cities and had to re-trace my steps but that was back in the day when we took notes and looked at a map. Well, actually I still use maps. Being lost is aggravating and unnerving when you end up in a bad neighborhood, so I understand it well. The part I don't understand is that the Fernberg road is a dead-end road that terminates at Lake One which is a Boundary Waters Canoe Area entry point. You can't get lost looking for businesses which are right on this road, right? There is no where else to go, right?
Sigh...
Here's our website's instructions on how to get to find us: Click Here It has worked well this summer with many positive comments. I prefer "blunt".
In today's world, so many are completely addicted to their iPhones and the like that they can't do even the simplest task without them. In my opinion, that is a really compromised way to be, but nobody's listening to me as they line up for blocks to buy a new iPhone when their old iPhone (which was new last month) was perfectly good from an operational standpoint. I live in the woods. I can't figure out the obsession/addiction. However, I can see what it does to people's ability to think and navigate and it ain't good.
Since iPhones really made their way into the America psyche, we experience at least 20 lost souls per year who, despite having the ability to read our instructions to find us, toss those to the wind and wing it with their smart phones. This inevitably takes them to Winton MN which is just three miles out of Ely on the way to us and their phone then tells them that they have landed at Red Rock/Northwind Lodge. They usually end up at Brandau Plumbing in Winton or the driveway of Veteran's on the Lake which is a veteran's retreat. Then they call us up (because they still have cell coverage) with mild panic and irritation in their voices. It says right in our website how to literally drive your car pebble by pebble in the road to Northwind Lodge/Red Rock but that holds no meaning for many. Knowing this, I instruct them on the phone how to get to us from Winton, Minnesota.
It goes like this:
Me: Are you ready?
The Lost: Yes
Me: Take your phone and go outside the car.
The Lost: OK
Me: With your left hand, place your phone on the ground, approximately 1 foot in front of the driver's side tire on your car.
The Lost: Errr..OK
Me: Now get in your car and drive ahead one foot. Go get a real paper map.
At this point, there is usually laughter from giggles to guffaws OR the occasional snort of derision on the other end. I then assure them that they are to continue forward on that same road for 12.1 miles and they'll hit our driveway RIGHT across from the Ojibway Lake Public Access. At times, even this doesn't work and they shoot right past ending up at Lake One, the "default" end of the road. They then turn around and find us on the way back.
Many times, they walk in TOTALLY confused as to the fact that our location is wrong in Google or on their Tom-Tom and tell me all about it. I know. I've tried for years to change it and I've just given up. Computers and the internet are not as smart as everyone gives them credit. In fact, your smart phone is dumber than a bag of hammers, so don't rely on it so heavily. We're living proof that it can be completely wrong and very unreliable.
Now, I, too, have been lost in big cities and had to re-trace my steps but that was back in the day when we took notes and looked at a map. Well, actually I still use maps. Being lost is aggravating and unnerving when you end up in a bad neighborhood, so I understand it well. The part I don't understand is that the Fernberg road is a dead-end road that terminates at Lake One which is a Boundary Waters Canoe Area entry point. You can't get lost looking for businesses which are right on this road, right? There is no where else to go, right?
Sigh...
Here's our website's instructions on how to get to find us: Click Here It has worked well this summer with many positive comments. I prefer "blunt".
Friday, August 21, 2015
Bears and Guns
This morning, one of our guests, prior to his heading out to Wood Lake for a day of fishing, asked me if he should bring along his .45 caliber pistol for bears on the portage. I said, "nah" because I haven't carried any sort of pistol out there since I was a kid.
When I was 14, I started guiding on Wood Lake, and my dad made me carry an old military .45 semi-auto with me in a leather holster. I used to put it in my pack and upon setting up in the boat at Wood, I would take it out and clip the belt around a gunwale stay on the seat. Every time I did that, there would be the sucking of wind and sputtering by my new clients as to the realness of the gun. "Yup - it's real" I would respond. Upon their questioning as to why I would bring such a gun along in my pack, I would always tell them it was for bears on the portage. That response would elicit "Ooooohhhs" of understanding and then the day would progress like any other day of wilderness fishing in northern Minnesota.
As it turns out, the real reason I carried such firepower was not so much for bears as it was for people. Yes, as shocking as it sounds, my dad wanted me to be scarier to the strangers I was guiding. With no way to know who they really are and locked in a confined space like a small boat with a 14-18 year old kid, nothing says, "Easy there big fella" like a .45 strapped to the seat within the immediate grip of the kid guiding the boat. Sounds cynical perhaps, but a healthy dose of cynicism and pistol makes for a consistently peaceful, fun-filled trip all the time. And, again, the other reason for carrying that 5 extra pounds of weight was bears on the portage. Ironically, I had no idea that my dad had a two-fold reason for bringing and displaying that pistol until I was about 40 years old when he told it to me. I always simply thought it was for bears. I don't believe I ever unholstered it even once in all those times I carried it.
Once I got bigger and stronger as is what happens to kids, plus having seen but never been bothered by a bear ever on the portage, I decided to lighten my load a bit and I began leaving the pistol home. Spending as much time as we did in the woods growing up, if bears and wolves were ever going to be a problem, we should no longer be of this earth any more. Don't get me wrong, all of our family members have had some pretty wild times with black bears here around the resort, but under much different circumstances. I respect bears, but I'm not afraid of them. Give them space, let them pass. Don't smear bacon grease on your chest and run around like an idiot and you should do fine. It's simple common sense and it seems to work since I know of nobody with any bite marks or the more obvious signs of being disemboweled by a bear. Being in the resort business, that is a good thing, I figure. I still get the sense that bears would much rather not be interacting with us and that's just fine with me.
I more or less explained this to my guest about going to Wood Lake. He's from out of state in a large urban area, and I've noted people sometimes are a little on the jumpy side while here in the woods. I always felt it was a bit more than required because we really don't have animals that attack people as a rule. There are no grizzlies and the wolves (so far) have attacked very few people world wide. Now that is not to say that these parameters will never change, but they have been the status quo for the last 50 years that I have been hanging out in the woods. Plus, sending countless numbers of people on canoe trips has only resulted in about a half dozen bear attacks of their food packs only and that is from 1976!
So, bears are not really a problem in my opinion. I suggested he leave his gun at home as it was just extra weight. He hesitantly agreed and quoted "safe than sorry" and I suggested he'd be fine without it.
He drove off to Wood Lake. In 10 minutes I saw his car coming back down the driveway. Did I forget the boat key?...the oars?...nope. He came into the store and said when they got within 150 feet of the Wood Lake parking lot driveway and he was signaling to turn, a large bear crossed the Fernberg road going north right in front of his car and headed right down the Wood Lake portage.
He decided to come back and get his gun. I hope he doesn't shoot his foot off or his wife in that panicky, jacked-up, shaky hands adrenaline rush that one gets when being charged by a large bear.
My money is on him never again seeing that bear. I'll know more tonight.
Free Advice for what it is worth: Unless you have extensive training and experience in shooting charging bears/animals with a pistol, I STILL say, leave the pistol home. Shooting targets at the range and shooting a charging bear are not even closely related. Plus, if you shoot a bear that is not on top of you trying to end you, you may find yourself in a world of hurt legally in Minnesota. I just think its a problem waiting to happen. I don't carry a pistol and have spent a lot of time in the woods. It's never been a problem.
Come get the crap scared out of you by bears at Northwind Lodge (kidding) Click Here
When I was 14, I started guiding on Wood Lake, and my dad made me carry an old military .45 semi-auto with me in a leather holster. I used to put it in my pack and upon setting up in the boat at Wood, I would take it out and clip the belt around a gunwale stay on the seat. Every time I did that, there would be the sucking of wind and sputtering by my new clients as to the realness of the gun. "Yup - it's real" I would respond. Upon their questioning as to why I would bring such a gun along in my pack, I would always tell them it was for bears on the portage. That response would elicit "Ooooohhhs" of understanding and then the day would progress like any other day of wilderness fishing in northern Minnesota.
As it turns out, the real reason I carried such firepower was not so much for bears as it was for people. Yes, as shocking as it sounds, my dad wanted me to be scarier to the strangers I was guiding. With no way to know who they really are and locked in a confined space like a small boat with a 14-18 year old kid, nothing says, "Easy there big fella" like a .45 strapped to the seat within the immediate grip of the kid guiding the boat. Sounds cynical perhaps, but a healthy dose of cynicism and pistol makes for a consistently peaceful, fun-filled trip all the time. And, again, the other reason for carrying that 5 extra pounds of weight was bears on the portage. Ironically, I had no idea that my dad had a two-fold reason for bringing and displaying that pistol until I was about 40 years old when he told it to me. I always simply thought it was for bears. I don't believe I ever unholstered it even once in all those times I carried it.
Once I got bigger and stronger as is what happens to kids, plus having seen but never been bothered by a bear ever on the portage, I decided to lighten my load a bit and I began leaving the pistol home. Spending as much time as we did in the woods growing up, if bears and wolves were ever going to be a problem, we should no longer be of this earth any more. Don't get me wrong, all of our family members have had some pretty wild times with black bears here around the resort, but under much different circumstances. I respect bears, but I'm not afraid of them. Give them space, let them pass. Don't smear bacon grease on your chest and run around like an idiot and you should do fine. It's simple common sense and it seems to work since I know of nobody with any bite marks or the more obvious signs of being disemboweled by a bear. Being in the resort business, that is a good thing, I figure. I still get the sense that bears would much rather not be interacting with us and that's just fine with me.
I more or less explained this to my guest about going to Wood Lake. He's from out of state in a large urban area, and I've noted people sometimes are a little on the jumpy side while here in the woods. I always felt it was a bit more than required because we really don't have animals that attack people as a rule. There are no grizzlies and the wolves (so far) have attacked very few people world wide. Now that is not to say that these parameters will never change, but they have been the status quo for the last 50 years that I have been hanging out in the woods. Plus, sending countless numbers of people on canoe trips has only resulted in about a half dozen bear attacks of their food packs only and that is from 1976!
So, bears are not really a problem in my opinion. I suggested he leave his gun at home as it was just extra weight. He hesitantly agreed and quoted "safe than sorry" and I suggested he'd be fine without it.
He drove off to Wood Lake. In 10 minutes I saw his car coming back down the driveway. Did I forget the boat key?...the oars?...nope. He came into the store and said when they got within 150 feet of the Wood Lake parking lot driveway and he was signaling to turn, a large bear crossed the Fernberg road going north right in front of his car and headed right down the Wood Lake portage.
He decided to come back and get his gun. I hope he doesn't shoot his foot off or his wife in that panicky, jacked-up, shaky hands adrenaline rush that one gets when being charged by a large bear.
My money is on him never again seeing that bear. I'll know more tonight.
Free Advice for what it is worth: Unless you have extensive training and experience in shooting charging bears/animals with a pistol, I STILL say, leave the pistol home. Shooting targets at the range and shooting a charging bear are not even closely related. Plus, if you shoot a bear that is not on top of you trying to end you, you may find yourself in a world of hurt legally in Minnesota. I just think its a problem waiting to happen. I don't carry a pistol and have spent a lot of time in the woods. It's never been a problem.
Come get the crap scared out of you by bears at Northwind Lodge (kidding) Click Here
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