Flooding, Eagle Banding, Gorges...Oh, My!

The rain has slowed down considerably, but the river keeps rising.  The National Weather Service tells us Rainy Lake will crest this week, but...

The is the first week that we've started getting out.  On Monday we got the honor to be part of an eaglet banding ceremony in honor of Tommy Valentine.  Tommy was a Navy Seal and killed in 2008.   In the photo of the family posing with the naturalist and the

eaglet, note how Tommy's nephew and the eaglet are "bonding'.

On Tuesday we and our neighbors (the Yates) took a trip down to the Crane Lake area (southern end of Voyageurs Natl Park).  There we took a buggy, wet hike along Vermilion River to Vermilion Gorge and Falls.  Pictures don't do either justice.  Posting videos to Facebook got a lot of attention and comments compared to the photos.

 Unfortunately, the videos are just too large to post here.  The high water did make for a spectacular show, though.

Anyway, that's our week.  Hope yours was good.  Later, David

Vermilion Falls

High water at Voyageurs Natl Park

The raining has stopped for us, but it's raining all around the area and all that water has to go through International Falls on its way to Hudson Bay.  Today the water is about a foot higher than shown in the above photo of the maintenance dock area.  All the fixed piers in Voyageurs Natl Park are under water.  Numerous campsites are closed, too.  No boat tours are offloading at Little American Island due to the flooded dock area.  Other than that, most boat tours are operating.  However, there's little ramp area at the boat launch here at Rainy Lake Visitor Center.  You basically launch in the parking lot!  According to one older gentleman I talked to, this is the worst flooding since 1950.  It seems when this happens, people do two things: fish & sand bag.

In other news, we're fine though Donna's been under the weather a little bit today.  She may have pulled a muscle and then there's a sensitive stomach to deal with.  We had an exciting day, yesterday, when we realized by mid-afternoon that the exhaust fans on the frig weren't working.  When these things stop, a frig installed in an RV slide out can't hold a set temperature very well and ours wasn't.  The Tanners volunteered to take our frozen food.  We got a 50 qt cooler and 15 lbs of ice to hold the non-frozen food.  We've done this before in other trailers, and it took a little bit to remember just how we did things when the RV frig didn't work.  Once the sun started setting, the frig temp came back down below 40*.  So we know it's working, but just can't hold the temperature.  Anyway, I think Donna pulled a muscle in there somewhere, and she's feeling it today.

The RV tech plans to be here tomorrow.  He's coming to install a new air conditioner on our neighbors trailer.  After that he'll check our frig out.  The plan - depending on what he finds - is to jump the fans past the thermostat and let the fans run continuously (assuming it is a thermostat problem & the fans are OK) until we can get the correct parts in and get it back to normal.  Kinda angry at myself as I'd thought many a times to go ahead and buy these parts as spares and carry them with us for just this occasion.  I didn't as I was told the parts are common and easily obtained.  Well...not in International Falls.

Anyway, we're on our normal work schedule for this season.  We work the visitor center Friday through Monday.  Seems to be a good schedule for us.  Now that we're settled in, we'll start getting out.  I think a trip to Ely is planned (knit shop there), and Donna wants to spend a night or two at Grand Marais on the north shore of Lake Superior.  We're told the Angry Trout is the place to eat there.  And get a doughnut from some shop there that I can't recall.  That's the current planning, anyway.  Oh, and we went to see "How to Train Your Dragon 2" on Tuesday.  If you handle 3D, see it in 3D.

So that's our week.  Hope yours was good.  Later, David

Still Wet in the North Woods

So it's still wet...biting flies are now out...mosquitoes somewhat better...deer's antlers are showing...wolf in the maintenance area..Rainy Lake is now above flood stage...docks under water.  I think that covers it.  Oh, and they're closing some campsites due to high water.  There.  That's covers it.

We're fine.  Get a nice day every now and then, but it's raining way more than it did two years ago.  Dragon flies are out, and they feed on mosquitoes.  So we're all happy about that.  Maintenance reported a wolf on the road near here.  Wasn't sure if to believe them or not and then one comes walking by the trailer on Tuesday.  (Sorry, no pictures.)  Apparently, one was collared and tagged here a while back.  So it's more common that I thought.  Pay way more attention than I use to when I carry garbage to the garbage bin now!

That's pretty much it from here.  Boat & canoe tours begin this week.  Things will get hopping then.  Anyway, that's our week.  Later, David

Wet Week in the North Woods

Let's see...lots a rain, lots a ticks, lots a mosquitoes...yep, that covers this week.

We're beginning to get into a routine though training still continues.  This week they got in boat training for the Voyageur's crew & Rainy Lake interpretative rangers.  Oh, and there's that CPR/first aid training many of us had to have, too.   But we've never seen it rain up here like it has over this past week.  Oh, a couple of days of dry weather were sandwiched in there, but they passed by in a hurry.  Locals tell us this is the worst the mosquitoes have ever been.  Not surprising given the wet winter and the rain they've had since we've arrived.  Lots of standing water in the woods - good for breeding mosquitoes.

Our neighbors daughter arrived for a visit.  Unfortunately for them, one of their two air conditioners failed a day or so later.  Surprising to me, there are techs up here who do work on RVs, so Randy & Shirley are just trying to decide whether to go ahead and get a new air conditioner now, or wait until they get back to Florida to have it replaced.  I'd do it now, but it's their call.

So that's our week.  We'll keep fighting the bugs.  David