Trip to Red Lake Ontario

In the last blog I mentioned arriving in International Falls, MN, but I didn't talk about why we left the Bemidji area. In reading the police report in the Bemidji Pioneer, cousins Pat and Jim were concerned about the "crime wave" in town. There were three alarming incidents which I am surprised weren't reported in the national news. 1) The black plastic letter "f" was stolen from the Snowflake Lodge during the weekend; 2) A 4-by-8-foot sheet of plywood was stolen from a yard in the 1100 block of Beltrami Avenue; and 3) A tampon dispenser was damaged and $4 in change was stolen from Bemidji State University's Bridgeman Hall. This is the kind of information the Chamber of Commerce doesn't want tourists to know about.


In International Falls we had a great time visiting a museum (I had my picture taken with Bronco Nagurski) and the Voyageurs National Park. Pat and Jim played golf and Jim toured the Boise paper mill; the plant stills operates 24/7 turning out paper for copying machines. I guess the electronic age still requires lots of paper.

We left International Falls, MN, on August 9th and drove to just south of Red Lake, Ontario. Crossing the border was quite easy; the Canadian agent just wanted to see our identification, know where we were going, and how much alcohol and tobacco we had. We had been warned to not take potatoes into Canada, but this time no one asked. On the trip to Red Lake, I saw a moose, a black bear and many eagles.

Jim and Pat found a campsite at a fishing camp on Gull Rock Lake. The camp is about 12 km south of Red Lake. We had a great site facing the lake. The owner of the camp had just buried her husband that week, so that was a little depressing. She seemed happy to talk about the "good old days" of the 1960s, as we knew many of the same people in Red Lake of that era.

This was an interesting trip for me, since I heard many of the stories about when Jim and Pat spent three summers (1966-68) at Black Bear Lodge, just west of town on Red Lake. Actually, Jim had spent the summer of 1965 there, too. One day we drove out to the camp (back in the 1960s, the only access to the camp was by boat or float plane). The camp has changed, with some of the old cabins replaced by new cabins. Most impressive was the new main lodge: kitchen/dining hall/recreation center. The old lodge still stands but is showing its age as is the cabin that served as the "honeymoon suite" in 1966. Some of the old cabins still had the double bunk beds Jim and Walt Rundle built in 1965.

The new lodge has modern cooking facilities, not the old cast iron cookstove Pat used to cook for over 100 people at a time. She doesn't miss the pancake eating contests the high school boys would hold some mornings before heading out to fish all day.

The day after visiting Black Bear Lodge, I was allowed to co-pilot a Cessna 180 float plane so Jim and Pat could tour the area and take some aerial pictures of the camp and town. This was the first time I ever took off and landed on the water in an airplane. It sure is fun.

After spending several more days in the Red Lake area where Pat and Jim played golf, etc., we drove to Kenora to spend a few days. In Kenora we found what may be the only Safeway grocery store that has almost as many boat slips for customers as it does parking spaces for cars. Many people in town as well as at the camps in the Lake of the Woods area come by boat to do their grocery shopping. We had hoped to meet a couple we met on a trip to Mexico last winter, but our timing was off by a couple of days. They had not returned from Saskatchewan when we had to return to the United States.

Coming back across the border to re-enter the United States was fairly easy, excpet the almost one hour wait in line. There sure seemed to be lots of people from the U.S. going to and from Canada. Since many were pulling boats, I assume the travel was for fishing. I did not have to show my passport, but Jim and Pat had theirs. An agricultural agent boarded the motor coach to check for contraband like plants, food purchased in Canada, etc. She opened cabinets, asked a few questions and we were on our way in a manner of minutes.

From International Falls we drove to Orr, MN, and stayed at a campground/fishing camp on Pelican Lake. We did drive up to see the Vermillion Falls and then to the end of the road at Crane Lake. This is one of the many jumping off points into the Voyageurs National Park. Like so many places we have been this year, the tourist business has been a little slow. Some of the Canadian camps have said business is down about 50%, but it doesn't seem quite so bad on the U.S. side of the border. Between the weak U.S. dollar and the overall economy, it shouldn't be too surprising. I was surprised when Jim stopped for fuel yesterday and saw that diesel prices have dropped about $0.50 per gallon.

While at Orr, Pat and Jim took me to the Vince Shute Wildlife Sanctuary. Vince Shute was a logger who would kill black bears to keep them away from his workers. He eventually learned that the bears just wanted something to eat and were not vicious. Vince began to feed the bears and they quit breaking into the cabins or chasing the workers looking for food. Now the sanctuary continues the process of feeding the bears to provide the opportunity to study their behavior and to allow others to watch the bears play, climb, vocalize and eat in a "natural habitat." It is natural in that the bears are not confined in any way; it is the observers who are confined to a viewing platform. We saw over 30 bears that evening, with mothers sending their cubs up into the trees while they ate. After the mother finished eating, she would call the cubs back down and they would all wander back into the woods.

Next we drove to a campground at Fortune Bay Casino, near Tower, MN. We met Ted and Barbara Spaulding, a couple we first met on a cruise. They live in Ely and took us to the International Wolf Center. This center is trying to educate people about wolves and show them in their north woods habitat. While in the area, Jim also toured the Soudan mine, Minnesota's first iron ore mine which opened in 1882 and closed in 1962. The tour took Jim down about 1/2 mile and almost 800 feet below sea level. In addition to the tours, the old mine is being used as a physics lab by the University of MN, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and others to seek answers to questions about how galaxies are formed and to better understand neutrinos.

From the Ely area we drove to Twin Harbors (on Lake Superior). I got to visit Gooseberry Falls State Park and then tour the Split Rock Lighthouse in Beaver Bay. I wanted to dive to look for sunken ships in Lake Superior, but Pat and Jim said no. So, it will be off to Turtle Lake, Wisconsin.

Gus

P. S. Please post comments if you like.