The Things We See on the Gunflint Trail

     Each day there are things happening all around us that we are totally unaware of. It’s only when we stop to look that we really see.

     This morning after I dropped the kids off at the bus stop I went for a little drive. I saw a pine marten scurry across the road, watched the sunrise and enjoyed watching a fox catch his breakfast. I always see fox but I don’t often take the time to just sit and watch. I could tell this fox had something on his mind. He was sitting attentively on top of crusty snow that was covering a swampy area. He sniffed at the ice, gave it a little scratch and sat back down. Then he rose, tilted his head to one side and sprang up five feet into the air.  He dove nose first into the snow and came out with a mouse. Animal Planet moment on the Gunflint Trail.

     The other day when Voyageur Crew member Mark was driving on the Gunflint Trail he came across a moose on the side of the road. She was struggling to get out of a deep hole of snow on top of a swamp. It’s tricky to travel this time of the year because hard and crispy snow in the morning turns into mush that you can sink into by afternoon. It happened to me on a spring hike one time. Easy going on the way into the woods and not so easy on the way out when I was up to my waist in snow with every step I took.

     Mark watched as the moose struggled and quickly drove to Voyageur Canoe Outfitters to grab his camera. When he returned to where the moose was she was nowhere to be seen.  There was a hole in the snow and water on the roadway but that was all that was left.

     The moose story reminds me of a different story about when I was attempting to go kayaking one time. I’ll save that story for tomorrow unless I see something else on the ever-amazing Gunflint Trail.