Ma and I vacated home last Sunday and drove up to the cabin in Two Harbors. When we got there we found it, generally, too wet to mow anything but the back yard area. Lots of water yet from the late spring melt and the huge amount of snow that was in the yard. The temps were very nice but we could nnot be outside because of the clouds of mosquitos, buffalo gnats and black flies. And I do mean clouds of them. We've never seen them this bad. Ever.
Of course I hit Lake Superior at the breakwater in Two Harbors but found the cottonwood lint and the fluff from blooming aspens in a solid mat extending about 100 feet into the lake on the lake side of the breakwater. I could fish the shallower harbor side but the fish were on the lake side. All three trips down to fish were plagued with the crap so I gave up.
On a plus side we had a fairly large bear come visit the cabin each night. He didn't give us a daytime peek so no pictures. And on my last quick trip to the wall to cast a river otter hopped up on the walkway right at my feet. In fact is rolled across my shoe and got my foot wet. It put on quite a show for me and a few walkers on the top deck. Of course Careole forgot her phone that morning and had mine to make some calls so I could not get a picture. Later that day after dinner we took one of our little drives and found ourselves needing to turn around because of bad road. I found a field drive and pulled in and what should hop out of a brushpile not far away but a beautiful male wolf. Maybe 60 feet away. Typical wolf coloration. I put him at about 150-170 pounds, maybe 40-42" at the shoulder. Never showed any real concern with us and had we had the phone, any phone, we could have gotten several nice pictures.
Such is life. We'll be returning in a couple weeks, hoping the water is cleaner and warmer and that the bugs have found their way into bats' diets. It was a fun trip in spite of the phone issues and what Mother Nature handed out.
