June at Chik-Wauk
We get a good reminder to appreciate the little things this time of year. Wildflowers blanket Chik-Wauk’s grounds at the moment, including the tiny bearberry pictured above. If you look carefully, you’ll find wood anemones, violets, false lily of the valley and more lining Chik-Wauk nature trails. It’s worth a trip up to the Gunflint Trail museum just to see all of these beautiful little buds.
If you need more than wildflowers to entice you up the Trail, here are some upcoming Gunflint Trail Historical Society events:
Monday, June 10: Annual Gunflint Trail Historical Society Membership Meeting, 1:30 p.m., Gunflint Lodge Conference Center. The meeting includes speaker Wayne Anderson as well as the annual remembrance of Gunflint Trail residents who passed on during the past year.
Monday, June 17: Annual fish fry dinner fundraiser, 12:00 noon, Chik-Wauk Museum and Nature Center. Enjoy fried fish, potatoes, beans, beverage and dessert, as well as good conversation at this favorite Gunflint Trail community event. Suggested donation for lunch. All welcome. More information from 218-388-9915. Reservations not needed.
We kicked off the 2013 season with a couple school field trips. The kids above are playing a Voyageur inspired game where they try to balance a cup of water on the end of a paddle while traversing a cedar log. Wanna play during your visit? Just ask at the front desk and we’ll get you all set up.
Speaking of fun in the woods . . . we’re almost set to roll out a new, family-friendly naturalist program, called “Gunflint Trail Explorers” at Chik-Wauk. The program features a ton of hands-on activities all designed to get kids exploring the great outdoors. Families (and everyone else interested in the program) can check out unique “activity bins” at the Chik-Wauk front desk. The bins – which each have a theme such as frogs, Voyageurs, water – can be used on the Chik-Wauk grounds. Kids get to dress up like a lumberjack or wildland firefighter, can build their own continental divide, see if they can hop as far as frog, and so much more. Check out the program website to learn more.
We are patiently (okay, not so patiently) waiting for our loon pair to nest on the nesting platform in the Chik-Wauk bay. The loons have been up on the nest a few times most days, but our late ice out perhaps delayed their nesting instincts this year. We suspect they will have to lay eggs within the week for the chicks to have enough time to learn how to fly south before winter. Loon incubate their eggs for approximately 27-28 days before the chicks hatch. The latest we have had chicks hatch was July 15. You can view live photos of the loon nest on our home page. For archived images of the nest, visit the loon cam photo gallery.