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Looking North

A snowy day in wonderland

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April 26th - In the Woods of Northern Minnesota.

We're wondering if it's every going to end. Started again last night and we're up to about 4 or 5 inches so far. Might go to 8" by the time it's over. April has been our snowy month. Other than some nice snowfalls around Christmas, it's been pretty dry. Until April! First a 32" incher and then the following week another 12" and now this...

It's not all bad, and although I'm ready for some soft water fishing, we really need the moisture up here in the northern tier. Last summer was dry and hot and we had some really big fires and a lot of heartache, especially over along the Gunflint Trail, in the blow down areas where a lot of homes without sprinkler systems got burned. An interesting aside is
that ALL the homes with working sprinkler systems survived. The buildings that perished either didn't have systems or they weren't working.

The keep and cook trout season opens in wisconsin next week end. Doubtful that it will be memorable. Too many stained creeks from all this snow and rain. Just saw a report from the Brule River where there was supposed to be a Steelhead fanatics weekend in progress. It was washed out with high water. Not safe to play in the water....

Was able to wet a line and manage to break a 3 Wt, down in SE MN this past week on a really nice 70 degree day (C&R is open there) and although the BWO's started coming off in the late afternoon the water again was stained so from recent rains that not much catching was going on...although the fishing was wonderful! Sad about the three weight though! Can't figure out why it should break four inches above the grip when there was a three pound test leader on the front end...? That one is going back to the mfg. even as I write...

My fly boxes are full of #20 BWO and Adams parachutes and the streamer collection is looking pretty good after getting hammered in AK last September. Never the less on a day like today, snow falling at the rate of 1"/hour, a few more ECH or something mindless should pass the time away.

There's a yearling deer pawing through the snow in the front yard looking for something green that was there only yesterday... I think she is a least as anxious as I for this to stop.

Now that I've started this ramble, I might just keep it up. Seems like good way to interact with the outside world...

Funny thing I should mention. During that first
April storm I wasn't plowed out for about five days (grader broke down and I could here the screaming operator a mile up our driveway) I donned snowshoes and headed for the mailbox 7/10ths of a mile up our driveway. Of course there was a big old Balsam Fir down right at the first bend, after all we did get some sixty mile per hour wind gusts, so I trudged back for the chainsaw, gas, oil, axe and little red sled to haul all of it on. Took about 20 minutes for me and Mr. Stiel to cut her up, and then I continued on down to the road.

Only one letter in the box. It was from the VA and they wanted to know if I felt "trapped and helpless with no way out." It was from the suicide help-line. If I had a cell phone, and there was a signal, which there isn't, I would have called them and explained just how trapped I was... I wonder if they would have found their missive as ironic as I did?

Later...

Corvus
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