Spring at Bob

 On Thursday, to celebrate Cinco do Mayo in fabulous spring weather, we headed to Bob Lake to check on this NFS campground and the Beaver Lodge Trail.

We found the road in rather snowy.

We lunched at the boat launch.
Sunny, calm, warm, no bugs. Perfect!

Then the tools came out for trail clearing.

We started out on the old RR grade.

Would have been a cool thing to have seen.

Moles over winter?

Didn't take long to find a big one across the trail.

Arly diced it up.

No problem.

A little snow still on the shady spots of the trail.

We thought there would be more down spruce than this.

Just a few cuts to open the trail back up.

Now on the loop section of the Beaver Lodge trail.
This was the very top of a dead hemlock. The rest of
the large broken off tree was hung up and leaning
over the trail, too hazardous to do anything with.
Hopefully it will fall on its own soon.

The ponds were alive with singing frogs and birds.

Dolly! I learned to hunt frogs here when I was a puppy.

The little board walk is hanging in there.

We all enjoyed the view from the bench.  Sand Hill cranes were heard.

All done!

Campers left their fishing poles plus lotsa garbage in
the fire pit and scattered all around. Guess they
figured their mother was coming out to pick up after them?

A return to Lake Ste Kathryn and Deer Marsh Trail

 On Sunday May 1st, we started the month on a good note. The pack loaded the dog truck with trail tools and headed down to Lake Ste Kathryn to start clearing the Deer Marsh Trail and put up a "campsite reserved" sign for Cheryl, the campground host. She'll be back in the north woods soon!

We had hoped to camp there this weekend but the forecast ended up too cool and wet for the first camp of the season. But getting out for the day was an excellent alternative!

Ya Dolly, this is one of our favorite camp grounds.

Snow was gone and trails dry in many places.

A certain puppy with tender paws must have
her booties....although she hates to take time
for adjustments. So many things to sniff and chase!

Water was rather low at this crossing.

Still some snow and ice on the marsh.

And in the shady spots, plenty of snow left.

Arly got to use his saw quite a bit.

Such a pretty spot.

So pretty, we stopped to have lunch here.

Down trees can't slow down a trail mutt!

Hmm, snowmobiles had been in here late this winter.

Took a while to get this cut up and moved away.

Arly trimmed off all the branches, then cut
up most of the trunk for fire wood.

Now in the campground. Some snow remains here.

A Pileated lunch box?

Certain young pups are getting trained.

As always, down spruce to clear off.

Done!

Not all of the trail got cleared, so we'll be back.

Many more dead-falls were removed than seen in these photos.

Cheryl's reserved sign.
See you soon!

Lake Ste Kathryn trail adventure.

On Sunday April 3rd we hopped in the dog truck to have a trail adventure down at Lake Ste Kathryn.

We started at the north end trail head. 
This is the Deer Marsh trail.

I think paws are allowed!

Wally is teaching Dolly fun new things to do every day.

OK Dolly, let's go!

Not surprisingly, dead spruce have
been falling over the trail this winter.

The 2-leggeds had to wear snow shoes,
since the deep snow wasn't very crusty any more.
I bravely jumped up on the railing...see?

Don't even need the board walk to cross when
you use all-paw drive!

We saw quite a few critter tracks. Dolly
thought she could smell some.

We'll come back this spring to clear these off.

Older, wiser mutts show off.

Younger pups think they're fast!

The shelter at the south end was
nearly crushed by this big limb!

We stopped for lunch at Cheryl's site.
There were a few ice fishermen out and they had their mutt along.

Hopefully we'll be back with the camper soon!