Rainy Lake Walleyes

We went fishing up on Rainy Lake.  Its about a 40 mile drive from Kabetogama to the Rainy Lake visitor center where the boat launch is for the part of Rainy Lake that we like to fish.  We both caught very nice walleyes in the 22 to 24 inch size.  They are such a pretty color coming out of Rainy.  This size walleye has to go back in the water but we didn't mind -- they were so pretty.  We did catch a smaller walleye that we kept and ate -- one last walleye sandwich -YUM.

We are heading out of the area on Wednesday if the weather cooperates.  We will be spending a few days in Bemidji on Cass Lake and then we will be heading over to North Dakota.  We've decided that its not worth driving through the Twin Cities and going through all the road construction.   So we will be going through the Dakotas.  We will eventually end up in Yuma, Arizona for the winter.

Voyageur Sunrise Resort

I took some pictures of the resort that is next door to the one we are working at this summer.  I was surprised at how big it is. They have 15 cabins and 24 RV sites and enough dock spaces for all of the sites in a nice little canal and two huge docks.  There is a walking bridge up over the little canal.  You can see the green netting of the bridge in the picture.  Its a nice resort but we wouldn't want to work there because it has too many cabins to clean.  Most of the RV sites are for seasonal people -- they stay all summer -  there are only 4 sites for overnight RVs.
You can sure tell its getting toward the end of the season.  It has gotten very slow with very few guests staying at any of the resorts in the area not just ours.  Since it is so slow we get to leave a week earlier than we planned which is always nice.  We get anxious to move on after so many months in one place. 

Beautiful Views

Sunrises here are very pretty and so are the views from different islands and resorts around the lake.  Some people that stay at the resort can't get enough of the view even if its just a glimpse of the lake while others complain that they really can't see anything and aren't happy because they don't have a panoramic view right from their RV or cabin.    Each resort has good and bad views from cabins so you have to be careful when you book if you really want an outstanding view right from your cabin. 

We have had lots of people passing through checking out Voyageur National Park even though they don't understand its all about the water.  We've gotten good at asking the guests --RV'ers and those staying in cabins - if they have a plan -- have they signed up for a boat tour or do they need help figuring out what to see.  If they don't have a plan some of them have ended up in the resort for several days complaining that there is nothing to do or see.  Yikes!

IW Stevens Resort

The National Park Service put in a dock and some paths through an old resort on Stevens Island.
  I.W. Stevens moved to the island in the 1930's and built a resort.  He lived there year round until 1979.  The island still has the buildings of the resort on it.  This was one of the old cabins.  It was big and inside was all wood floors, walls and ceilings.  Everything had been stripped out but it was still in good shape.   When this was an active resort IW Stevens offered guests a sauna and there was a generator building so there was some kind of power. 

The views from the island were beautiful.  We could picture staying in one of the cabins back in the day and enjoying the views.  We had been past this area a zillion times in our boat and never knew it was here.  We saw the write up in the newspaper and went to find it.  The Park Service has put in a picnic area and some toilets so with the dock its a very nice place to stop. 

Pat Smith Island

This is Pat Smith Island.  Its on the far east side of Namakan Lake.  Its about a 40 minute boat ride from where we are staying.  If you look close in the top photo -- on top of the rock in the center of the picture is a tiny spike sticking up.  This is a spike marking the border between the US and Canada.  The border is north of the island in the middle of the lake so they put the spikes in the nearest land which happens to be this island.  We like fishing in this area because we usually have pretty good luck. 

The island has a campsite on it which means there is a wilderness toilet.  We stop at the island to take advantage of it once in awhile.  The last time we were on the island it was covered in ripe blueberries.  I picked a bunch and ate a bunch.  I wasn't big on blueberries but once I had the wild ones I discovered I really like them. 

We are busy working or fishing -- that seems to be our life right now.  Trying to get in as much fishing as possible because we don't fish in the winter. 

Pelican Love

We've been enjoying some great weather Finally!  Its been a little on the warm side but we aren't complaining.  The water has warmed up to 75 degrees which is pretty good up here.  We've been fishing our hearts out on our days off and doing pretty well.  We enjoyed some walleye dinners and even put some fish in the freezer. 

The resort has been busy but now its starting to slow down a little.  We are getting quite a few RVs in for a few days at a time.  Many of them are going across the northern part of the country visiting national parks.  They come from Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota and stop here to visit Voyageur National Park and then move on to Isle Royal and the Apostle Islands.   Most of them sign up for the boat tours of the lake that the Park Service offers.  The tours are very popular and  sell out.  Luckily there are some private boat tours available that are almost better because they stop at more places.   We still have a few things around the lake that we haven't seen -- we've been too busy fishing!

Showy Pink Lady Slippers

The Minnesota state flower is this lovely pink lady slipper.  They are hard to find in the wild.  These were growing in a flower box in the front of the little general store and gas station at the turn off from highway 53 to Lake Kabetogama.  I've only seen one in the wild once over on Gunflint Lake on the Gunflint Trail out of Grand Marais.  We have seen the little yellow lady slippers growing in the wild up here but they don't compare to the showy pink ones. 

We just had two busy weeks with the resort full.  Most of the guests were a group of Mennonites from Indiana.  They were part of the Newmar corporation.  This is the Mennonite owned company that makes Newmar motorhomes -- very high end RV's.   Half of them had Newmar motorhomes and half stayed in cabins.  They decided that they needed one more boat so everyone could fish comfortably so they just went to the local boat dealer and bought one.    We never saw a group that loved junk food as much as they did.  They took bags full of every kind of candy, chips and other sugary treats out on their boats.  The women did tons of laundry (at 6.50 per wash and dry) and they used every towel in the cabins every day so we were doing tons of laundry as well.   They were very nice but they kept us hopping so we were glad to see them leave.