If this were the first winter I had ever spent on the Gunflint Trail I might have invested some more thought into choosing our residence. When temperatures get this cold everything stops working, including tourism. The Gunflint Trail hosts a variety of different winter activities that attract a myriad of tourists, but it is hard to enjoy the outdoors when conditions are borderline dangerous, and I have a hard time selling something that I would not want to do myself.
Surviving the Arctic temperatures has been challenging these past few weeks but recently there has been a cold of another sort biting down on the Gunflint Trail residents. This particular cold kept me bedridden for a couple of days and has now been passed on to my son Bo. Rachelle and I took every measure possible to keep our kids from catching this cold but little Bo was not so lucky, so now I am staying home with him.
Bo might be little, but that has not stopped him from handling his cold much better than I did. He laughs and plays in-between naps until his energy fades away into another nap. I just stayed in bed for three days moaning while Rachelle nursed me back to health. Kids are tough, especially the ones in this county.
Bitter cold is something my family has gotten used to while living on the Trail. I often like to make it sound like we are suffering but it is usually enjoyable. Twenty degrees below zero is not that bad if there is no wind. I have spent many days above a hole fishing for trout in the negative temperatures but add a little wind and it becomes miserable fast.
The grass often looks greener when it is 30 below zero, and catching a fish requires drilling a hole through 20 inches of solid ice. The brighter side is that eventually the temperatures will warm up and the winter will become fun again.
The pros of living a Northwoods life are still outweighing the cons for our family and a few weeks of sub-Arctic conditions are not enough to scare us away yet.
The BWCA trout opener was on New Years Day and there were a few other brave souls on the pond that day. I took some customers into Daniels Lake in the afternoon and I can tell you firsthand that it was cold. I heard there were some nice fish caught that day but we did not land any in the hour and a half that we tried. We did lose one fish before three of the anglers tried to squeeze into a two-person tent to stay warm. I don’t think there was any fishing going on inside of that tent, but it must have been warmer than sitting in the elements. We decided it was a good time to pack our things and go home instead.
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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