A group of five locals recently returned to Cook County from Patagonia, a remote region of southern Chile and Argentina, following a six-week bicycle tour on the Carreterra Austral. The small party included Buck Benson, Jane Alexander and Chris O’Brien, and Lee and Scott Bergstrom. All recently completed two-week self-quarantines because of their recent travels abroad. The idea to pedal... READ MORE >
It’s no surprise spending time in wild places substantially reduces stress. Tall white pines and trout fishing do wonders, especially during a global pandemic. Take a short drive up the Gunflint Trail, where cell phone service flickers, and the layers of anxiety and worry melt away. Cook County locals Hanna Zakrzewski and Phill Hass recently embraced spring’s sunny momentum, plucked... READ MORE >
If you’ve been to a grocery store in the last week, from the Twin Cities metropolis to small town Grand Marais, you’ve felt the frantic energy and high levels of stress as a shopper. But for the folks running cash registers or restocking shelves well after midnight, the job of going to work every day has changed dramatically. Absorbing communal... READ MORE >
A party of five Grand “Maraisans” will bicycle about 1,700 miles over six weeks through southern Argentina and Chile starting Monday, February 3. The group includes locals Lee and Scott Bergstrom of Thomsonite Inn, couple Jane Alexander and Chris O’Brien, and lone Buck Benson. For Jane and Lee, who are entering their sixties, part of the reason they are pursuing... READ MORE >
Relocating to small town America from a Caribbean island—known for sun-saturated shores, t-shirt and shorts weather, and endless tourism—isn’t a common Cook County experience. For Jason Franklyn of Saint Catherine, Jamaica, passing up an H2-B visa for work in the U.S. was foolish. He couldn’t let go of the moment. Combining summers at Bluefin Bay and winters at Lutsen Mountain,... READ MORE >
On a bluebird Saturday morning with temperatures orbiting around zero, the parking lot of Trail Center and surrounding roads were packed with dog trucks, volunteers, and onlookers for the annual Gunflint Mail Run. Founded in 1976, the dog sled race is broken up into two pieces: a 65-mile, 8-dog race and 100-mile, 12-dog race. In this year’s competition, Ryan Redington... READ MORE >
Sometimes, when it’s 10 degrees below zero and the stars crackle and burn in the dark, do you peer up into the endless night sky and pause in fascination? Thankfully for Cook County, which sits relatively low on the Bortle scale of light pollution, experiencing pristine dark sky without driving eight hours is still possible. In celebration of this vulnerable... READ MORE >
The Girl Scout elves of Grand Marais drove down from the North Pole this weekend—presumably carpooling with the incoming snap of Arctic air—to host their annual Santa’s Workshop at the Cook County Community Center on Saturday, Dec. 7. There was a smorgasbord of trinkets, hot-buttered pancakes, and wrapping-paper covered tables available for the special event, culminating with Santa’s arrival at... READ MORE >
Full of woodsmoke, high spirits, and scalding cauldrons of chili, North House Folk School celebrated the return of winter over the weekend at Winterer’s Gathering. In contrast to the bustle of summer tourism, the three-day festival beckons an eclectic and devoted bunch, not afraid to relish the life ways of the North through winter camping, polar expedition accounts, and diehard... READ MORE >
Whether they are up at the crack of dawn checking bear bait stations or dealing with two legs who pretend they do not know the law, conservation officers (CO) protect the North woods and pile up miles. Most recently, Cook County welcomed a new CO, Kylan Hill of SE Minnesota, to the Tofte station. In proper small-town fashion, here are... READ MORE >
