Eagle Eyes

Eagles seem to be everywhere these days.  We've seen them in many states and of course its no surprise to find lots of them in Minnesota.  We have watched the nest of eaglets grow up and leave the nest.  They don't get their white feathers until later so you might think they are crows or vultures flying but its immature eagles.  Crows and vultures don't fish for their meals although eagles will eat carion if they get the chance. 

When we clean fish and a walleye is over 17 inches - even by a hair we have to throw them back in the water.  Jim will spend a half  hour trying to revive them so they will swim away.  It doesn't usually work if they have been in a livewell for awhile.  He took one fish out in the boat away from the docks so it wouldn't wash ashore on our beach.  It was probably three minutes after he threw it in the water and started motoring back to the dock when an eagle swooped in and carried the dead walleye away.  It flew right to its nest to feed its young.   

A "House" on the Lake

When Voyagers National Park was formed there were many cabins on the islands that suddenly were now in the park.  The cabin owners had federal leases and when their lease was up or they died they had to give up the cabins.  The owners would strip out and take everything they could and then the park would come in and burn the cabin and any other outbuildings.  Now you can't even tell there ever were cabins on most of the islands.  We found this one cabin on Namakan and saw maybe two others on the whole lake where there used to be many.  There used to be enough cabin owners on islands that there was actually a barge service that would go to the islands and deliver bulky items like big propane tanks or a load of lumber etc.  Now thats all gone.

You can still experience "cabin" life on an island by renting a houseboat.   There are houseboat sites on many of the islands where they can be beached on sand.  There is a fire ring so you can have a campfire on the beach.  A houseboat is nicer than camping on an island in a tent.   You have all the comforts of home - kitchen , bathroom with shower and real beds.   Some of them even have a hot tub on top and a slide off the back to slide down into the water.    

Loony Tunes

Couldn't resist taking pictures of the loon family.  Mrs loon wasn't happy with us getting so close to baby.  We've watched the eaglets fledge and leave their nest.  They hang out along the shore thinking about trying to fish.  An otter brought her two babies to our dock.  They like to swim under the main dock and feast on minnows.  Anyone silly enough to leave a minnow bucket in the water overnight without it being locked tight is in for a surprise in the morning.  The otters can get in them with ease and munch down the whole bucket.  We have also had a beaver that comes in the evening with a branch or two in its mouth and it zips under the main dock with his prize.  We don't know what happens next --- we never see him leave and we don't see a large cache of branches under the dock. 

We also have lots of bats around the resort.  The resort owner has put up several bat houses hoping to entice them to live in them rather than the cabins.  We don't think the bat houses are in the right places because the bats still seem to prefer hanging out around or YIKES in the cabins.  We've had to go in to a cabin or two and capture and "relocate" several bats. 

If you get a chance check out the webcam at the resort.  Type nlro in your web browser and click on the choice that says Webcam- Northern Lights Resort Outfitting and Youth Quest.  It shows a little bit of the dock and some boats and you might get a glimpse of one of us.  We work Fridays and Sundays early and Mondays late.    
 

Hoist Bay

Hoist Bay is in Namakan Lake.  This bay originally had a logging camp on its banks.  It was turned into a resort in the late 30's.  The park service has turned it into a place you can explore, look at the old buidings and have a picnic.  I'm not sure when the resort went out of business but the cabins are still in pretty decent shape.  You can go inside the cabins -- they have been stripped down to the walls.  They have knotty pine covering the walls, ceilings and floors.  They even have electricity that works.  Not sure if the park service is working on doing more to restore them or not.  The other building that looks like an old barn actually was used to store ice that was harvested from the lake in the winter.  The ice was covered with sawdust and stayed frozen for use in the summer.  This building even had a fish cleaning area in the bottom part.   

The other interesting place we found exploring around here was a fallout shelter.  It was built in the ground like a root cellar.  It had a sign over it saying fallout shelter.  You couldn't open the door.  Not sure I really wanted to see what would come flying out of there anyway.  I don't know if it was a joke but the sign looked pretty official --like it truly was a fallout shelter built back in the 50's.  

Ash River

We took a pontoon ride with the other two workamper couples.  We went to the Ash River.  The Ash River dumps into Namakan right at the border between Lake Kabetogama and Namakan.  We used to stay at a campground on the Ash River about twenty years ago.  There are also several resorts and a houseboat rental business on the river.  We stopped at a resort called Ashkanam.  They have a bar and restaurant right on the bank of the river and a nice dock.  

The ride over to the Ash River was a little rough with some pretty good wind but we were fine because we were going with the wind.  We lucked out coming back because the wind had died down by then.  It is a very nice perk to be able to use any of the rental boats when they are not being rented by guests.  We just have to pay for the gas.  Unfortuanately, now our boat is in the shop -- the motor needs work- and all of the resort boats have been rented for the week so no fishing for now.  We are hoping the motor problem is simple and covered by the warranty.   

Ellsworth Sculpture Gardens

We went over to Ellsworth Sculpture Gardens.  It is located on the northside of the lake.  You can only get the the gardens by boat.  The park service has a tour boat that makes a stop here and have a staff person on site to help you understand the work that went into the place.  The gardens were created in the 40's by Mr Ellsworth who loved to carve stone.  He carved many different shapes out of the rocks around his property.   There are rocks that look like animals and others that look like furniture made for the Flintstones.  The flower gardens are not tended anymore so there are few flowers but you can still see where all the flower beds were. 
It is a large area to walk through and the paths go up and down and wind around and at every turn you see something different.  Some of the sculptures are hard to decifer with the weather wearing away at them.  The bugs were bad when we were there so we had to keep moving but it would be nice to go back in the fall and spend more time.

Water Birds

We've been fishing our little hearts out.  Some days we catch a few fish and on the hot days with no wind we cruise the lakes.  We have seen all kinds of wildlife cruising around.  Lots of pelicans but according to the park ranger they don't nest here.  The pelicans that hang around here are immature males not ready to mate yet.  The other ducks we see a lot of are mergansers like the ones on the rock.  We also see a lot of golden eye ducks - they have dark heads with a bright "golden" eye. 

We are enjoying our work.  Saturdays are the toughest day cleaning cabins and sprucing up the grounds but the other three days we work are pretty easy.  We just help folks with their boats and clean fish. 

We saw the northern lights for the first time last night.  We are hoping tonight they will be even better.   They didn't have much color just a light green and only danced a little bit.  The solar flare/sunspot activity isn't at its peak yet so they may get better.each night for a few nights.