The Arrival of Summer

Summer is blooming in Snug Harbor. The weather has been happily warm and sunny, and the mosquitos and flies are out frolicking. In just a few days, we'll be celebrating Independence Day with the lodge folks, complete with canoe races, home cooked barbecue, and sweet tea (I am not permitted to say that out loud in my faux-southern-accent by the Alabama employees - apparently what sounds authentic to ME very much does NOT to them.)

Speaking of parties and delicious food and beverage, our 'Mexican Party' at the Ben East last Tuesday was a rollicking success. Some Ranger III guys came up, Pete attended from next door, and a few people boated over from Mott. We even had a few concessions employees turn out, which is as rare and delightful as an orchid sighting. If I knew Spanish, I would end this paragraph with an appropriate and witty Spanish saying, but I'll have to just go with something from my limited repertoire: Feliz Navidad! Donde esta mi gato?





With the warmer weather, leaps into Tobin Harbor and canoe trips are becoming more and more frequent. Steve, our friendly local maintenance man, can often be sighted on the harbor in a canoe, photographing loons and other wildlife. He's the one responsible for sighting this beautiful moth on the backside of a Rock Harbor outhouse.

The Hooker's Orchid and Rosy Twisted-Stalk seen here can be found next to Smithwick Mine, along the return of the Stoll Trail.


A word to all local NPS and concessions employees: Our full interpretive schedule is now up and running, including performances (it's the only word for it) on everything from mining to geologic history to woodpeckers to paddling to wolves to loons to orchids to insects. Get your butts over here and check us out. Harbor walks commence daily at one pm (except for Wednesdays) and evening programs begin at eight pm (except for Sundays.) We hope to see you here!

Ladyslippers Galore

Snug Harbor Reporter here from the Command Central in the Rock Harbor Auditorium, where we are churning out spiny water flea posters, medical flashcards, and knowledge like nobody's business. I'm just popping in here to let everybody know that the island is just CRAWLING with ladyslipper orchids right now; or, it would be, if ladyslippers were mobile. As far as I am aware, however, they tend to be pretty stationary.

Sam Case, our local photographer/interper has some great photos of clusters of yellow ladyslippers at Daisy Farm Campground, coming in a blog post soon - I propose a name change to Ladyslipper Campground.

The path to Lookout Louise is also rife with ladyslippers, including the pink ladyslipper (aka moccasin flower) and the very rare and beautiful ram's head ladyslipper.

Now is the time for an orchid hunt - so put on your waterproof hiking boots and get out there.

Rainy Days

It's been a rainy and windy week in Snug Harbor, once again necessitating some boat cancellations, including the delay of the RIII's return to Houghton and the postponement of the Voyageur II for two days (requiring them to then zoom from MN to RH to MN in one very long day.) Visitors, for the most part, have remained docile.

For all the horrible weather, it's still been relatively busy here in Snug Harbor - we don't mess around:

• Pete took Casey and I out for our first in-the-water scuba lesson with real scuba gear as opposed to snorkels; rain doesn't seem to matter when you're hanging out underwater anyway, eh? It was pretty exciting.


• EMT training is currently completing their third and final day in our auditorium. The island's whole slew of LE rangers and other trained rangers have been gathered here, refreshing their skills with instructor Chris from the mainland. Yesterday, Leah LaCasse, who's participating in the refresher as a Wilderness First Responder, had to jump in Tobin Harbor and pretend to be an unconscious, hypothermic patient (the hypothermia was probably not so much faked as very uncomfortable) while ten or twelve busy people went about 'rescuing' her and bemused visitors looked on. Everyone will be very happy to learn that Leah made it through the exercise with little to no limb loss.


• Just in time for the EMT refresher, Snug Harbor has been a veritable hive of injury activity the past few days - including bruised/broken ribs, chest pains, and seizures. Pete and Leah have been on the scene. I encourage everyone to be extra careful with themselves this week, because it is apparently a bad time.


• On a more cheery note, last night was the second weekly Swing Dance Night in the concession Rec Hall, where we all refreshed our swing dancing skills and added the Charleston to our repertoire. I encourage all Park Service and Concessions employees to come out for swing dancing on Thursday nights! 8:30-10 pm. Besides being an excellent medic and scuba diver, Pete is also a fabulous swing dancer and instructor. Maybe next week we'll get him to swing dance in full scuba gear while splinting someone's arm. You're gonna wanna come see that.

So rain aside, the Snug has still been bustling. But help me do a sunshine dance, or SOMEthing - I'm getting sick of this gray.

Yours,

the Snug Harbor Reporter

Bats and Snakes and Moose, Oh My!

As seen in the last post, and as usual, Snug Harbor is overflowing with spring wildflowers. Beautiful, but no surprise there. But what we ALSO have are a great deal of fun critters running about in our midst (and no, I am not referring to the interp rangers.)

A moose or two have been consistently sighted at Hidden Lake over the past week and a half, as well as wandering along the shore of Tobin Harbor and even swimming across it. For awhile, we felt like geniuses leading the lodge's Sandy tours to Hidden Lake, because we were always able to produce a moose for people to view. Check THAT out, we said. We are moose whisperers. Sam saw a pair of yearlings, but a mom and her calf have also been seen in the area. It's been a couple days without a sighting now, but I'm confident that the mucky 'lake' remains a moose hotspot. Possibly Hidden Lake features a great underwater aquatic veg buffet; all-you-can-eat; free toothpicks.

Rather smaller than the moose, but equally fuzzy, adorable, and brown, was the little brown bat we found in Snug Harbor last Thursday (and yes, I mean his species was 'little brown bat', not just that he was of a small size and a brown color.) I found him lying on his back on the very beginning of the Rock Harbor trail, just east of the Ben East before you come to the paved trail, in a tiny, defeated-looking, blob of fur. A visitor alerted me to his presence by exclaiming, "Look! A mouse!" (You see what we are dealing with in the V.C.?) Afraid he'd be stepped on and crushed (he was doing a great job of totally blending into the dirt) I scooped him up into a little bug box with air holes and radioed Paul Brown, Chief of Natural Resources.


Turns out I should've left him on the trail, due to risk of disease contraction for me and risk of sudden death by shock for him, but at least he wasn't turned into mush on the bottom of someone's boot. Sadly, little brown bat did not make the night anyway, although Paul (who has had his rabies shots) gently hung his tiny, feeble self (the bat, not Paul) onto the trunk of a spruce. He wiggled his wings about for awhile, but he never moved from his clinging spot on the tree, and by that evening he was dead.
He brought us joy before he did, however - staff and visitors alike were delighted by seeing the fuzzy, goofy guy up close and personal, a rare opportunity in the wild. With luck we'll be turning his rescued and preserved body (in the least creepy way possible) into a neat-o artifact to share with visitors in the V.C.

(Paul [in Star Wars apparel - awesome] presents Mr. Little Brown Bat post-mortem.)

While not technically a Snug Harbor resident, the friendly local otter at Mott Island is too cute not to feature - he deserves fame and fortune, this guy. Just LOOK at him:

(You'd be surprised how long I can spend staring at otter photos going, "Awwwwwww." Or maybe you wouldn't be.)

Finally - the Snug is crawling with snakes. Natural Resources are still working on catching them and collecting samples this year for the genetics study on the amazing variety of colors found on the island, which gave Leah an opportunity to get over her dread of snakes last week. She'd always found them vaguely terrifying, but after a brief lesson in snake handling from none other than above mentioned Paul Brown, she became a right proper snake charmer.

Along with the mosquitos, which have blanketed Snug Harbor and can apparently grow as big as the moose, these critters have been keeping us in the Snug properly entertained.

Stay tuned for more posts, and enjoy the rain, everybody!

** Many thanks to Paul Brown for all the photos in today's post, except for the one of the moose in Hidden Lake, for which I thank Sam Case! **

(If anyone has any great or interesting photos of Snug Harbor or its vicinity, please feel welcome to email them to snugharborreporter@gmail.com. I'd love to include them in a future post.)

Spring Wildflowers

Currently Blooming in Snug Harbor:

(these photos were all taken in Snug Harbor by the author on Saturday, June 18th)

Canada Dogwood/Bunchberry



The fastest moving plant in the world (its flowers open at record speed) and one of the most photographed species on the island, bunchberry is currently in full showing in the Snug.

Mountain Bluet

An introduced species to the island (and one known by about a thousand different common names) but still one of its coolest looking. Here, outside the auditorium, one is pollinated - and the species continues to spread.

Northern Paintbrush

This pale-yellow-white version of Indian paintbrush is the only one found on the island, although its scarlet relative grows in the U.P.

Forget-Me-Not

These tiny flowers have yellow centers, their petals either pale blue, lavender, or white. They're European originally, but they've been here for a very long time.

Wild Rose

Wild roses are another flower that come in a variety of colors. They're just starting to bloom in Snug Harbor now; most of the bushes still hold only tightly-curled buds.

Red Baneberry


These spherical umbels of flowers (and how cool is the word umbel?) resemble those of sarsaparilla, but the bright-green, fatter, slightly-jagged compound leaves clearly differentiate it.








Fringed Polygala/Gaywings



These tiny purple flowers grow in massive crowds along the trails, looking very much like they are dressed up for a gala in their tassled party hats. This is probably the flower we get questioned on the most in the visitor center.



















Violet



Somehow, this perfectly ordinary garden flower takes on something extraordinary when you see it crouched, all purple and deep blue, on the side of an island trail.



















Blue-Bead Lily




The blue-bead lily hasn't yet gained its namesake, the poisonous berries, but currently holds wide-open pale yellow flowers (here being enjoyed by a swallowtail butterfly.)








Hawkweed


There isn't a LOT of hawkweed in Snug Harbor, but its bright oranges and reds makes it instantly noticeable.















Wild Strawberry




The deliiiicious berries are a little ways off yet, but the tiny five-parted white flowers of the wild strawberry, along with the jagged leaves in groups of three, are all over Snug Harbor.

Buttercup

Many apologies...I originally identified this as "marsh marigold" - shows how well I know my wildflowers. Sheesh. Let's give this another try: The shiny, brilliantly yellow BUTTERCUP flowers on their towering slender stalks are along every trail out of the harbor. No wonder they aren't in marshes, eh?

Dandelion

Let us not forget the lowly dandelion, a common splash of brilliant color in Snug Harbor (though by now, a great many of them have already become puffy clouds of seed.)

Some New Arrivals

The flurry of activity that always snowballs around us when the Ranger III arrives has settled; the concrete area under the rooftop is empty; the boxes of groceries have been scuttled off under protective employees' wings. (My guess is that 90% of Snug Harbor residents are currently huddled excitedly around new bags of Doritos, boxes of Pop Tarts, six-packs of...lemonade, etc. Friday is a good day.)

This was a good boat today. Not only did it bring borrowed scuba gear for Casey and I, panes of glass for the Dassler Cabin, a huge box of new books and an absurd amount of bookmarks for the V.C. store, and a brand new computer for us to write permits on (one, sadly, that is not compatible with our keyboard or monitor) - we ALSO were brought the rest of the amazing and delightful Plumer family (Dawn, Forest, and Cole) and our newest staff member on interp and the newest resident of the Ben East, Justin Olson. We'll have to initiate him now to Snug Harbor life, where the water is always - always - cold.

Not to mention our fearless leader, Andrea 'Mama' Tavegia, returned to us from a few days off on the mainland with her delightful manfriend, Wes "tershire Sauce" Tavegia.

All in all, it's a good Friday. And as summer picks up in Rock Harbor, and everybody gets moved in, it's starting to feel like Friday comes every day...

Let's put the 'rock' in Rock Harbor and get this party started.