Gunflint Weekend Part 2: Relaxing
This rock is in the narrow channel between Gunflint Lake and Magnetic Bay. The metal spike officially marks the U.S./Canada border.
Gunflint Lodge is the kind of resort where you spend hours every day hiking, skiing, or snowshoeing, then soak in the hot tub to get the aches out, and you still gain weight over the weekend. Just because you're an hour from the nearest town, and a hundred yards from the Canadian border doesn't mean that you can't get gourmet food and pampering.
A lichen-covered rock with a slowly melting cap of snow.
After arriving on Friday afternoon, She Who Puts Up With Me wanted to go soak in the hot tub immediately. No dice, however, since they had just refilled the tub, and it was anything but hot. Frustrated, She cranked the thermostat up, and decided to nap until our dinner reservations at 6 PM. Naps, I have come to realize, are a very important component of any vacation where we get away from the kids. She slept from about 4 PM until 5:30, and I took a short nap, too, an unaccustomed luxury.
After dinner, we returned to the cabin. The temperature was relatively warm, a few degrees above freezing, and after waiting an hour or so for the huge dinner to digest a bit, we returned to the hot tub. This time, the hot tub was so hot we could barely stand to be in it for more than a few minutes. Nevertheless, there is something very special about soaking in a hot tub while the air is cold and the night is clear. It brought back memories from three years ago, in the same hot tub but a much colder night, when the temperature was below zero and the stars were so bright we felt we could reach out and pluck them right out of the sky.
The area around Gunflint Lodge is heavily infested with Giant Forest Rats, aka White-Tailed deer.
It felt good to stand in the cold air for a minute while we covered the hot tub back up (after turning down the thermostat), and after cooling off, it was time to turn in for the night.
Saturday, after a hearty breakfast (I had one of the lodge specialties, Green Eggs and Ham), we decided to hike out on the lake. The lake ice was reported to be two feet thick in most places, with a couple feet of snow on top of that. We hiked across Gunflint Lake, into Magnetic Bay, and most of the way up Magnetic Bay. Sticking to the snowmobile tracks made for a much easier hike than through the deep snow. The total hike was about four miles roundtrip, and took us about two hours. We came back warm and feeling like we had truly gotten a good workout, especially since we kept breaking through the crust on the snow.
The High Cliffs. My Saturday afternoon hike took me up to the top of the cliffs, with an awesome view of Gunflint Lake
After lunch, we split up. She went on a guided cross-country ski trip with a group from the cabin next door, and I checked out a pair of snowshoes and headed up to the High Cliffs overlook of Gunflint Lake. This is a moderately strenuous snowshoe hike, which climbs several hundred feet over about 3/4 mile. The view is worth it, even if I did slip on the way back down. I wound up doing a body-luge for 20-30 feet down a steep part of the trail, but only my pride was hurt.
The view from the High Cliffs. Gunflint Lake is in the front, and Magnetic Bay is connected to it through the narrows. Gunflint Lodge is on the near shore of Gunflint Lake.
That evening, another gourmet dinner was followed by another dip in the hot tub. This time, the hot tub was a reasonable temperature, and we soaked for quite a while before turning in.
Sunday we returned home. The weather forecasts had been hinting at a late-winter storm, but nothing materialized. Other than strong headwinds (payback for the strong tailwinds on Friday), the flight was uneventful.