Bear Head, As I Recall It, Sitting Here, Satisfied and Re-Charged: Part 3

Or, A Trip to Bear Head Lake State Park

Tuesday, Sept. 30: Coffee, Wolves, and SSSSssss - bloomp

As I mentioned, Sept. 30 is sort of the end of "prime season" in Minnesota State Parks. So it is, also, with many of the other somewhat remote facilities and attractions in northern Minnesota. As such, Tuesday was to be the final day of weekday programming at the International Wolf Center in Ely, about a 25 minute drive from our campsite. I'd never been to the center before, so didn't want to miss this opporunity; and they were offering an informal "Family Pack-Tivities" program at noon.

So, we woke up to another day of threatening, misty, cloudy skies (with odd, brief moments of tantalizing sun - a theme which would continue throughout our stay); and fixed some breakfast - which varied from tasty brown sugar & cinnamon oatmeal to homemade granola throughout the week. I will take this opportunity to mention that Sharon really outdid herself in the menu planning & cooking. We ate like royalty, with varied & hearty meals.

Anyway, on this morning, alone, we skipped coffee at camp, because our plan was to make it to Ely by midmorning and, it being a somewhat tourist-y town, find a coffee shop and have a nice sit-down cup while enjoying some of the local vibe. And we found just the place in The Front Porch Coffee and Tea Company. Just the sort of "home away from home" coffee shop we look for in our travels, everywhere. Unique & artsy, free wi-fi (not that we have a wireless device, but the idea), fair trade coffee and even with a little children's corner where Lucy & Rose could play around while we sipped at leisure. I resisted the (strong) urge to read the paper and check out the political horse race and just had a nice time sipping and listening in to conversations of the locals. Great coffee, and I saw some art for sale on the wall that I was truly moved to buy. I still regret that I did not, and I've half a mind to call the shop, see if they still have it available, and pay for the shipping. It was a watercolor painting/drawing of a little girl sleeping next to a watchful bear, based on a line from a poem called "I'll Go On Trusting." I'd love to hang it up in the girls' room.

We wrapped things up at about 20 minutes till noon, and headed off for the IWC (which really must have purchased the rights to their URL early in the game. We had a great time at the exhibit, though it was another stark, stark difference between the notion of a trip just consisting of Sharon and me (we once spent two and a half hours just looking at and reading "history of Minnesota logging" exhibits in Grand Rapids - a luxury which would now be unimaginable). We did a lot of kid-friendly exhibits (can you mimic different wolf vocalizations, and climb into a plaster wolf den?), and kind of whizzed through the more text-based and substantive parts. Then, a picnic outside and a pose with the IWC's famous pack of bronze wolves out front, then back to Bear Head.

Still spitty, rainy. Sharon went off for another run (more cabin-oriented fun for the kids & me). Then when she came back, I was permitted to dispense with the Scooby pole and try my own hand at some Grown-Up Big Game Fishing. I trespsed down to the lake with two tackle boxes in tow, as well as my rod (heh heh); and it was very evident I had not fished in the past five years. A comedy of errors, in fact. With a strategy of "working the weeds," (and on only my second cast) I hooked my favorite silver "weedless" spoon on a log that was just a little far our for me to wade to, and lost it as a result. I took it as a sign from God that I should put an enormous honking lure on and cast out to middle of the lake. I was so unprepared. It occurred to me that, were I to have hooked a northern or a walleye, they could have bit right through my measly 6 lb test line - as I did not have a metal leader at the end. So, I tied right to the lure - a big, snakeskin-ey red & gold spoon that was at least four or five inches long. I didn't have a clue what I was doing. Was the lure the right type of lure for the fish in the lake? WHAT fish were in the lake? Was the color of the lure the right type for these weather conditions and at this time of day? It occurred to me I could have researched at least some of this in the days prior to the trip.

Oh well, fishing with no real expectation of catching anything and me go way, way back; to which Mixx, in particular, can attest. There was still that fleeting sun, and a clear, pervasive silence throughout the surrounding world. The little docks and lakeshore were down a bit and out of sight from the cabin; and I couldn't even hear the kids. I strained my eyes to the other side, hoping against hope to catch sight of a careless moose wandering in the shallows, then just closed my eyes and breathed in the fresh, damp wind that filled my senses with a relaxing electricity.

Then, the cast. The very next cast (the third since I'd been at the shore).

SSSssssssssssssssss - bloomp.

My line, upon being cast out, immediately slackened and went limp, about fifty feet out across the lake surface. The gigantic lure, thanks to my ridiculous "knot," kept sailing. On and on across the lake. It came a lot closer to catching a fish in Lake Vermillion, to the West; or perhaps a loon, in mid-flight; than it did to pulling any fish out of the North Bay, that day.

I then did a little exploring around the bank, finding an old, almost submerged series of logs from an ancient dock, that extended out into the lake a bit, just down the embankment from a beautiful, hilly stand of pines. I played around with trying to create a jig with squirmy, plastic lures, but all hope of catching A Fish That Matters had fled. I just played around like a kid on his first fishing trip ever for awhile more, then headed back to the cabin.

I think it was chili for supper that night, and more attempts at having s'mores with that ratty-ass mass of marshmallows. Then off to bed. To bed at 8:30-ish was getting to be the norm. Without a doubt, had the weather been nicer, Sharon & I, at least, would have been staying up a lot later, enjoying the night sounds and the starry skies (it was in new-moon phase), and maybe even going on night hikes.

But as it was - a bit chilly and somewhat wet, going to bed seemed to be the thing to do.