Last Night On the Gunflint

I can't let go of my Gunflint experience until I tell you about my trip to Gunflint Lodge and Gunflint Lake.  A native Minnesotan, I never knew there was a Gunflint Lodge or a Gunflint Lake.  My host and hostess took me on a safari before heading to Gunflint Lodge.  On our saferi we saw one Eastern cottontail, 4 painted turtles and 0 moose.  At the lodge we gathered around a folk singer with his guitar and his very talented violinist.  With 20 people gathered around on the grass, we listened to his songs about canoeing, camping, and the BWCA.  I can't remember his name but I enjoyed his songs and the way he incorporated the name of every dog in attendance into the songs.  The music was great and the atmosphere was magical but the no-seeums were biting me despite my bug repelling bracelet and despite a Deep Woods Off towelette smeared on every bit of exposed skin.  Those stupid bugs would raise welts on me that were still huge lumps three days later. 

When the concert was over a very friendly woman invited all of us "Birch Lakers" to the lodge for a beer.  Those Birch Lake people are extremely friendly.   I posed for a photo on the dock on Gunflint lodge at sunset.  Those trees and the shoreline behind me?  That is Canada!  I am on international waters having a heck of a good time.  Today there was a sale.  The Gunflint Lodge was sold from elderly owners to a new couple from Atlanta, Georgia. I met the new owners and I thought they seemed a little shell shocked.  I can imagine. Georgia/ Minnesota.  Owning a lodge from not owning a lodge. Owning the Gunflint Lodge would not be a career but a lifestyle.  I wished them the best of luck as I enjoyed a glass of Chardonnay in the rustic lodge with the head of a moose on one wall and the skin of a silver fox on another wall.  I can not imagine owning this lodge.  What I can imagine is coming back here in the future and sharing this awesome place with others who have never seen it before.