Almost Spring on the Gunflint

April 2 - This morning there still is eight to twelve inches of snow in the woods and there is plenty of snow on the Banadad Ski Trail for a spring ski. In fact yesterday several skiers were out and said, "the skiing was great!" The lakes, of course, are still ice bound and on cool mornings great for ski skating. And it is snowing. The snow began this morning and it has continued through most of the day.

However, there are some slight signs of spring. The Lima Grade and the Little Ollie Roads into Little Ollie Lake for the first time since December are now nearly free of snow cover and they have returned to gravel. In a trip to town yesterday we noted that the North and South Brule Rivers are starting to open. The Poplar Creek began to open serveral days ago. At Poplar Creek Guesthouse B&B, the red rubarb "buds" planted with a good southern exposure next to the B&B are starting to poke through the ground- a sure sign of the approaching of Spring.

While it will still be serveral weeks for the snow to leave the woods and the lakes to open this is, after all, the Gunflint Trail and it is early April.