The Lickety Split fits in the boathouse again

The lake level has now fallen two feet and we were able to get the Lickety Split back under the boathouse again, just barely as the photo shows.

The falling water is a great relief to us as it means our new boathouse docks will be above the ice when it finally forms in the next couple of months. It would have been disastrous if the ice was above the docks.

We can now get back to work putting the finishing touches on the boathouse's motor shed, something that came to a halt when the lake rose more than two months ago.

Here's some interesting facts about the summer's bizarre weather. We received double our normal rainfall which was a record. At the midst of the rainy weather each inch of rain that fell made the lake rise four inches.

Then we went from the ridiculous to the sublime. September will go down as the warmest and driest on record. September was warmer than July. That is also a record.

Many of us believe that the falling lake level had more to do with evaporation than the outflow of water down the Chukuni River which is the outlet to Red Lake. We all noticed that the level fell most on the hottest, windiest days.

Autumn colors have been slow coming this year no doubt due to the hot weather but berries have ripened right on schedule including these mountain ash berries in camp.

Mountain ash berries are favorite foods of migrating song birds including cedar waxwings and robins as well as black bears.

Moose don't eat the berries but love to browse the mountain ash twigs in the winter. In fact it is their favorite food and they will go far out of their way to find it.

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Haven't seen this for awhile -- our dock!

The gorgeous fall weather we've received the past three to four weeks has done a number on the flood level to the lake. Yesterday our boathouse dock reappeared as the water continues to drop.

We've even started to re-use the boathouse instead of conducting all our activity from the lodge floating dock. It's just in time too as the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources will soon need the floating dock for its lake trout spawning activities.

Temperatures have been the warmest of the entire summer and it has barely rained a drop.

This has let the lake fall more than a foot and it continues to go down about an inch a day.

If it falls another foot than it will be back to the normal spring high water mark but would still be two feet higher than normal for this time of year.

The forecast is for seasonal temperatures to return starting Monday. That's not all bad. The cool temps will probably get rid of the mosquitoes which have been exceptionally rough lately.

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A beautiful day to be on the lake

Sam and I and staffers Rosalie Tilley and Jeremy Baldwin got a chance to go fishing yesterday afternoon and what a beautiful trip it was!

The lake was like glass and the fishing was great. We caught some nice pike for supper and I released a hefty slot-sizer.

Then as we sat down to eat in the lodge, we spied this big bull moose swimming across the narrows right in front of camp!

It was so still we could hear him breathing as he swam and could see steam coming from his nostrils.

He got out of the water right near Cabin #10.

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The very large and the very small

There are few things more impressive than watching a bald eagle and recently I got a photo of one "striking" at a fish carcass to the surprise of an immature eagle on the ground.

At the same time there are also impressive things in miniature to see such as this plump caterpillar which I believe is the larvae of a luna moth.

The caterpillar is about as big around as your thumb and perhaps three inches long.

The luna moth is very beautiful. It is the same color as the caterpillar and perhaps 4-5 inches in length with long swallow tails.

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Now that it's fall, summer has arrived!

Everyone is enjoying the beautiful weather we have been getting.
The days are very warm and sunny and there has been a nice breeze to help dry out the soil and evaporate some water from the lake.
We only have a few more inches to go before our boathouse dock will be above water.
The warm weather seems to have stopped the color change in the trees. Most everything is still green.
The nights have also been clear. There has not been any northern lights this summer. I believe it's because of quiet sunspot activity. These solar storms send radiation toward Earth that lights up the night sky as northern lights.
As I understand it we have missed the 11-year cycle to the sunspots. In addition to creating northern lights the sunspots also create the hot, dry weather that was missing from most of North America this summer.
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Nicest week of the entire summer!

We just had seven consecutive days of warm, even hot, sunny weather.
It was the warmest week of the entire summer.
New staffer Jeremy Baldwin and I were able to get the entire lawn mowed at camp and the yard has dried up very nicely.
Even the lake level fell by about three inches. If it goes down another foot we'll see our boathouse docks again.
There is rain in the forecast again for several days this coming week so I still advise everyone to bring rubber boots. If you don't end up wearing them you can always take them back to the store.
We weren't the only ones that appreciated the sunny weather after about two months of rain. The fish also seem to like it and are biting very well, even the northern pike which have been hard to find.
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