Live The Adventure

 On October 1, 2022, Canada finally dropped all vaccine mandates including no more vaccine requirements, no AriveCan, no masks, no quarantines and no testing.  What a huge relief!!!  Let's hope and pray that we Americans and Canadians and other countries worldwide will never have to go through those horrible mandates including lockdowns ever again.  What a devastating effect that has had on so many people and so many businesses! We have not had an income for virtually three years and yet we were fortunate that we had fairly recently paid off our mortgage, otherwise we may have gone under.  Other resort and camp owners in Canada were not so fortunate.  We are so thankful for our wonderful guests who have stuck with us as much as they possibly could, hoping things would change.  And we do believe that things are going to get better and better. Because of a record amount of snow here in northern MN last year, we had unprecedented flooding in May and June ...

Ohmylanta I am always so late on posting about my races! lol We got another 3rd Place Finish at the 2022 Copper Dog 150!!!! So proud of my dogs, they did amazing this whole season!!! Our training was sporadic and poor yet they consistently did awesome at all our races! This is always one of my favorite races! We had a tough first 50 mile leg Friday night with my taking a chance on my super star awesome driving leader Bandit who has dealt with nausea from getting too amped all his life. This year I thought might be a chance he would be ok as we were giving him pepcid AC twice a day every day whether he ran or not so it was in his system and he did great all winter, no nausea. Was going to test him at Beargrease but then he had the clogged saliva gland and was on 3 different antibiotics in a month to treat that along with a minor medical procedure. Copper Dog was the last chance to test him at a race and it did not go well. He was off from the beginning and I lost track of how many tim...

  Joanna got third place in the recent Beargrease Sled Dog Race in Duluth, MN.  Here is her writeup of the race. Beargrease is always an adventure and usually never goes as planned:) On Sat. we had just gotten all the dogs out and the vets were heading our way to check the team when I noticed Bandit (who was panting with excitement) had a HUGE lump under his tongue!!! I wish I had taken a photo of it looked absolutely awful, like a huge growth!!! To the vets... umm... I have a problem... I had worked late the night before so my dad had fed the dogs... we had run them short on Thursday and Bandit was on fire, ran great! The only thing my dad had noticed as he was the one to usually feed Bandit is that he ate a bit slower then normal. I don't normally bring a spare dog to races as it is a hassle to care for or sometimes have room for an extra dog but I might have to in the future:) Long story short, it was a blocked saliva gland most likely due to trauma and most likely from B...

  On Saturday January 9th, Joanna won the Gunflint Mail Run Race in the 8 dog class.  What an amazing day it was!!  John and Joanna got up at 3 am the day of the race so that they could gather things together and drive about an hour on the Gunflint Trail from our home to the race site at Trail Center Lodge.   But when they looked outside, they heard the wind howling and blowing snow every which way, not to mention that there was already 5-6 inches of fresh snow on the ground.  John was questioning whether he could even see the road to drive to the race in the dark with these blizzard like conditions.  It wasn't likely that the road was even plowed.  Joanna emailed the race coordinators to let them know her predicament and that she might have to scratch from the race.  All the other mushers from out of town had rented cabins to stay in at the race site, so it wasn't a problem for them. John and Joanna discussed it and decided to wait another h...

 To say that the fishing is phenomenal is an understatement.  The lakes around us have not had much if any fishing pressure for the last two years with the U.S. border closure.  It has been a tough time for us to be without our guests, both socially and financially.  But we are oh so thankful to have four cabins with guests in them now since the border has reopened.   Joanna and I have been fishing on Indian Lake quite a bit since we got here on June 20th.  It's been amazing to be able to catch fish so easily even in the middle of the day.  We usually have only been going to the first point after coming out of the river and we catch both Walleye and Pike, nice sizes too.  We feel so spoiled.   Now we are hearing from our guests what great fishing it is.  The Landa group came in from fishing a short time on Saturday evening and were beaming from ear to ear.  They said it was some of the best fishing they have ever had....

 We hoped and we prayed, but we didn't know for sure if it would happen this year.  Sure enough, we have received word that the Canadian border is now opening on August 9th to those Americans who are fully vaccinated no less than 14 days before crossing the border.   We have notified all our guests to let them know in case there are some who are able to come on a moments notice.    We also have posted on our website the new rate changes for this year.  Cabins 1 through 7 will be $380/person plus tax and the waterfront cabins 8 and 9 will be $390/person plus tax.   Here is some info you will need in order to cross the border.  I hope you find it helpful. I have checked with the Canadian border to find out exactly what will be required of each person crossing the border and this is what I am told. 1.  Each person will need to provide proof from a doctor that they are fully vaccinated at least 14 days before their arrival into Canada 2...

 Boy oh boy oh boy did we have some fun fishing last Sunday on Indian Lake.  Sandi Duncan, a friend from Dryden came out to camp to spend a few days with us.  She loves to fish and brought along some fresh minnows besides.  It was a perfect day which was a bit on the dark side even in mid afternoon due to smoke from fires burning north west of us.  Wind was from the west blowing right toward the point we were fishing around.   All of a sudden, bing, bing , bing, we were all getting hits and then hooked some Walleyes.  We only had one net with us, so had to take turns lifting them into the boat.  In less than an hour we had our limit and tried to catch some pike.  It was the best fishing I think I've ever had.  They were the perfect size, 16 - 17 inches with one a little over 18 inches.  Sandi and I caught all but one fish.  Joanna bemoaned the fact that sitting in the middle she assisted both of us in landing our fish and ...