Out of the BWCA
We (being myself, Dad, tigerlily_blue and her boyfriend ABP) returned from BWCA today. We had gorgeous weather - it rained once for about twenty minutes at 2am. The rest of the time was either sunny, or mostly sunny. Of course, to compensate for this unusual display of gorgeousness, we had absolutely the worst mosquitos I have ever seen there in 12+ trips.
A digression: people often complain about the mosquitos in Ohio. "Oh, they were so terrible." they say as they show off their two or three miniscule bites. Bullshit. Can you go outside after dark (or at all) and not be instantly swarmed by hundreds of savage bloodsucking fiends? You can? Then your mosquitos are NOT TERRIBLE and you should shut up. Minnesota, specifically the wilderness area of the BWCA where spraying doesn't happen ever under any circumstances, has terrible mosquitos. My arms look like someone fired BB guns at me from close range for a few hours. Any time the wind died down enough for them to get airborne they were all over us. On the bright side, xhollydayx informs me that mosquitos prefer people with good cholesterol, which may be why my sister got bit a lot more than I did.
Anyway, not much non-insect wildlife was sighted on this trip. My dad and ABP each caught a single solitary bass. We saw the usual chipmunks, turtles and loons. Bald eagles abounded, as did buzzards. We saw a few deer, which is a bit unusual in the BWCA, but they are the same deer you see rocking the suburbs. More exciting was the pileated woodpecker in our campsite. No moose, which are basically just super huge deer of pure awesomeness. No otters.
Most exciting of all was the wolf howls we heard. Rachel and ABP had gone to bed already. Dad & I were sitting by the edge of the lake watching the last sunset remnants when we heard a howl. We looked at each other, as if to ask "did you hear that?" As soon as I said it out loud, he said "Yes" and then we heard another one. That's not as cool as seeing a wolf, but I'll take it.
Other highlights: a day trip down the Basswood River to observe the Lower Basswood Falls, which are very impressive for the BWCA. It'd been about ten years since we'd been in that area, and it was nice to see my memory meshed with the actual awesomeness. We went up into Ontario a mile or so to see the Indian pictographs, but those were less cool.
Dad has now been to the BWCA 18 straight years. As best as I can recall I was there from 1990 to 1997 inclusive. Then I missed a bunch of years in college, went again in 2003, missed 2004 due to hoarding vacation days for Australia, then 2005-2008.
Now to go read the new Bujold book (Sharing Knife: Passage). Which basically means I'm reading a romance novel with fantasy trappings, but the woman who created Cordelia Naismith demands my obedience. If you don't like the Cordelia and Miles books, I feel very sorry for you. Maybe you will be cool in a future life :-)
A digression: people often complain about the mosquitos in Ohio. "Oh, they were so terrible." they say as they show off their two or three miniscule bites. Bullshit. Can you go outside after dark (or at all) and not be instantly swarmed by hundreds of savage bloodsucking fiends? You can? Then your mosquitos are NOT TERRIBLE and you should shut up. Minnesota, specifically the wilderness area of the BWCA where spraying doesn't happen ever under any circumstances, has terrible mosquitos. My arms look like someone fired BB guns at me from close range for a few hours. Any time the wind died down enough for them to get airborne they were all over us. On the bright side, xhollydayx informs me that mosquitos prefer people with good cholesterol, which may be why my sister got bit a lot more than I did.
Anyway, not much non-insect wildlife was sighted on this trip. My dad and ABP each caught a single solitary bass. We saw the usual chipmunks, turtles and loons. Bald eagles abounded, as did buzzards. We saw a few deer, which is a bit unusual in the BWCA, but they are the same deer you see rocking the suburbs. More exciting was the pileated woodpecker in our campsite. No moose, which are basically just super huge deer of pure awesomeness. No otters.
Most exciting of all was the wolf howls we heard. Rachel and ABP had gone to bed already. Dad & I were sitting by the edge of the lake watching the last sunset remnants when we heard a howl. We looked at each other, as if to ask "did you hear that?" As soon as I said it out loud, he said "Yes" and then we heard another one. That's not as cool as seeing a wolf, but I'll take it.
Other highlights: a day trip down the Basswood River to observe the Lower Basswood Falls, which are very impressive for the BWCA. It'd been about ten years since we'd been in that area, and it was nice to see my memory meshed with the actual awesomeness. We went up into Ontario a mile or so to see the Indian pictographs, but those were less cool.
Dad has now been to the BWCA 18 straight years. As best as I can recall I was there from 1990 to 1997 inclusive. Then I missed a bunch of years in college, went again in 2003, missed 2004 due to hoarding vacation days for Australia, then 2005-2008.
Now to go read the new Bujold book (Sharing Knife: Passage). Which basically means I'm reading a romance novel with fantasy trappings, but the woman who created Cordelia Naismith demands my obedience. If you don't like the Cordelia and Miles books, I feel very sorry for you. Maybe you will be cool in a future life :-)