For those of us who live and work in the tourist industry, it is important to take advantage of the micro-seasons, which occur at either end of summer and winter.
Peak season is too busy for us to escape, but the brief windows of opportunity when business begins to slack are also the best days of the entire year to enjoy the outdoors, almost like a reward for enduring the more challenging times.
Rachelle and I rewarded ourselves by spending the first day of spring snowmobiling to our Gunflint Trail home, and the weather was perfect. The sounds of melting snow and trickling streams replaced ringing phones and sizzling burgers, as we returned our snowmobiles for the season.
We answer a lot of trail condition reports for the tourists, and I would no longer recommend anyone to travel up here for the purpose of snowmobiling, but there was enough snow for the groomer to make one last pass up the G-Trail, and we were lucky enough to time it perfectly. The trails are barely holding on and the season for riding snowmobiles is nearing the end.
It is still too early to predict winter’s outcome, but April is around the corner and the spring season is already beginning to look similar to last year’s abrupt meltdown. The snow base on the trails is down to a few inches, and that could disappear entirely with one hot day of sunshine. A rapid meltdown will cause the lakes to open early, and then we hope for enough spring showers to get us through an otherwise dry spring.
Many of us have been inside for too long this winter and our bodies could use some Vitamin D. The sun feels great, so get outdoors and enjoy “one last ride” of your own.
Cory Christianson has worked as a fishing guide on the Gunflint Trail since 2000. If you have any fishing or wildlife reports or stories to share, send an email to: christiansoncory@hotmail.com or call 218- 388-0315. You can also visit Cory’s website at Gunflintfishingguide.com.
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