As the stars fall

His name is dog. We don’t know why people haven’t named him yet. But we do know he lived in a big city in an alleyway with his pack. That is with his mother and siblings. Actually, he’s just a puppy and His mom and siblings have been taken away by the dog catchers. So this puppy is barely scraping an existence in the alleyway. He wanders about sniffing the ground for scraps of something to eat. He is alone, frightened, exhausted and meeting mean people who either ignore him or hurt him. It's a great story and here's why.
     At the beginning of a very sad introduction the book seems a little too slow till a young girl named Mia discovers Dog shivering and hiding in cardboard box. After petting the puppy gently Mia
 tells her father that Dog is injured and very sick and they have to help him. After much ado her father agrees.
     Of course, this must be a love story but remembering the author writes mysteries one never knows where he might take us in writing a book about a dog.

·        I read on to see  where the story went. It happens that cruel people abandon dogs in the countryside.  Unable to fend for themselves unless they are in a pack, dogs can only be saved by humans. We inherited such a dog when a farm family took her in on Easter Sunday and named her Lily. Later when that family was unable to care for Lily because of serious illness in their own family. Mrs. T and I in a sense  inherited a rescue dog and it was love at first sight. For certain, I was going to love this book because the story at the beginning seemed all too familiar. The first few chapters then seemed more like like déjà vu. It didn't stay that way though. Time passed and the little girl grew up and so did Kai his new human name, became a really big boy perhaps even a

  German Shepherd cross. There were Many adventures good times and much love. Mia had previously lost her mother due to cancer and so the new pack was Mia Kais Alpha master and dad. There were many adventures and much love. Kai explained all this in the way only a dog would think can understand. You see it all from the dog's point of view and that view turned darker and darker. Mia disappears and Kai doesn't understand why and he searches and searches just like he did at the beginning of the story for his mother and siblings's.

·        cancer. As the plot thickens our hero dog ends up starving under impossible circumstances. Thus like any good detective story we are drawn to the finish where the final truth will be revealed. Perhaps the  If you are a dog lover as millions are this story is for people of all ages. It is required reading. I highly recommend this book. It is indeed a remarkable and wonderful story

                                                                                                                                    

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@Barrie Summy

Scenes From The Arizona Desert where my grandchildren live.

Birthday present July sixteenth

I was born on July sixteenth 1941.  We are family.The banner was given to me in celebration of my 79th ninth birthday by my five grandchildren. They are a diverse group ranging in age from twins who are three up to a freshman in college. There are two girls and  three boys. Two are black adopted from Ethiopia and Rwanda. Three are white, born in Arizona and North Dakota

.
 The ones in school are all great kids and honors students and the Apple of Troutbirder's eye.
The banner says "in this home we believe" and that is true whether they are staying in grandpa's house or at their home in Arizona.
  The youngest boy in this picture name is Leo he will be driving two years so I called my son and daughter-in-law in Arizona to ask them what they have taught dealing with the police should he be pulled over for some minor violation. This the day of course that I watched a man murdered by the police in Minneapolis what a thing  a parent or grandparent have to do..........

Big Fish Little Fish

When I started this nature blog lo those many years ago and with a name like trout birder I vowed to keep the focus away from pictures of dead fish, fisherman's hyperbole  and concentrate on beautiful birds and flowers. So I did mostly. BUT today with tons of snow falling and my snow
blower not starting and in a mood of nostalgia I give you.........

A rare "midget" brook trout caught deep in the Montana wilderness.

Colorado grandson shows off his first ever "brookie" (much bigger than Grandpa's. )

Rookie river fisherman takes a near record smallmouth from the Mighty Mississippi....

TB goes Crappie fishin......

Northern Northern!

Ted off the dock on Lake Vermillion...

Yup. That's a biggie son....

In Retrospect

In the years that have past, since our Steel River trip, many things have changed. Some have stayed the same. My brother Greg has passed on due to cancer but then, we had young families, mortgages, careers to tend to and other responsibilities. We were not as cautious then. We knew of death but didn't believe it applied to us. We were a long ways from help and there were no cell phones. Today age and health issues would definitely preclude me from dragging a one hundred pound canoe up a cliff….   Still, important lessons were learned about perseverance, self-reliance and teamwork. Today my love of nature and wilderness remains. With vertigo and other balance issues at age 79 I don't go fishing and canoeing anymore.  Sigurd Olson and Aldo Leopold still speak to me thru their writings. Should I never again be able to find my way back to those wild places, like the BWCAW, Canadian rivers or the backcountry of Yellowstone, I will continue to rest well knowing they are still there.

The Steel River country has changed a lot in recent years as well. Several major wild fires charred parts of it. Perhaps, as a consequence, bad floods have occurred there. The floods have created huge logs jams, especially in the lower reaches of the river. This all has created the necessity for much longer and more difficult portages.

Although more people are taking this route now the difficulties of travel beyond low or too high water have increased. There are new routes into the area, as it is possible now to just do the river part of the loop and skip the lake section. This means, above all avoiding the Diablo portage up the mountainside. .

My brother Greg unloading the canoe at Santoy Lake, getting ready to head home.

For us timing was everything. We were among the earliest but not the first to make the journey so we had decent information. The river level was just right. We were lucky.

Now, new threats have appeared there as well as in Minnesota.. Copper, nickel and gold mining are being surveyed. There are people today working to preserve this wilderness. I wish them success.

Later, I took my two sons often canoeing on our local creeks, pristine St. Croix River and the BWCAW (Boundary Water Canoe Area Wilderness). There was also camping/flyfishing trips to southwestern Montana. Those were the days my friends…..:)

Adventure in the Canadian Wilderness (Part V)

Rainbow Falls

We had a beautiful and  easy paddles the next couple of days.  The fishing was great, lots of wildlife and fantastic scenery.  Serenity  is a rare commodity for many of us.  We had found it in the Canadian wilderness. Mostly just by gliding along, not a care in the world.  We did not see a single person the entire trip.  

Steel River

The river was bigger now and running smooth and strong as by mid-afternoon we approached our moment of truth. Its name was Rainbow Falls.  More a cascade than a falls, it had about a 80 foot drop, we could hear a low rumble as we rounded a bend for our approach.

While the map we were given had its blank spots and inaccuracies, the falls was clearly marked, as well as the portage. We had to run a "ferry" to approach the portage but fortunately there were no mishaps. To the non-initiated a "ferry" is what you do when something dangerous is downstream from you and its necessary to cross a river to a safe landing on the other side. If you go straight across the river, the current may drag you downstream and sweep you over the falls. The trick is to angle your canoe about 45 degrees upstream and then paddle like crazy. The result is to cross the stream without going downstream any further. As I’m writing this post it obviously  worked! 

This is the view from a rock overlooking the falls.

The portage itself was steep in spots but relatively easy going downhill. We stood below looking back at the falls. The power and roar of tons of water rushing over the precipice almost shook the mind. If you are swept over a cascade like this you dead for sure as you bounce off all the boulders on the way down.

We found a nice pool below the second set of rapids and called it a day.  By this time we were not even concerned about catching our supper. The dehydrated food wasn't bad. We boiled our water and added Kool Aid for drinking. We hadn't gone hungry yet.

The walleye fishing had been good throughout the trip and we usually fished from shore during our breaks and when camped for the night. The walleye had come as a big surprise to us, in the Steel River.... THEY WERE BLUE. 

In Minnesota walleye come with yellow or white bellies. We were not aware that a rare blue bellied type existed. The next morning we entered the lower section of the river as the current slowed , the bottom and banks became sandy and the landscape had a boggy look to it.

We paddled on leisurely until we came to the outlet delta into our old friend Santoy lake. There we camped near a sandy beach knowing tomorrow we would cross the lake and return to civilization. The next morning found us up early and after breakfast we headed south into a dense cold fog.

My brother Greg leading the way across Santoy Lake and end of the loop.

Knowing it was a long paddle we followed the western shoreline not trusting our navigation abilities in the fog. There was somewhat of a headwind with whitecaps but we were well conditioned to hard paddling by this time. We arrived back at the Santoy landing landing about 10 a.m. and had a long drive ahead of us to return to the Twin Cities. Arriving back in "Civilization" the two survivors (especially Troutbirder) look rather bedraggled....

It had been a great adventure. I hope you enjoyed coming along.....:)

Next:   Our Steel River Adventure in Retrospect.

Adventure Into the Canadian Wilderness Part IV

 Into the Steel River

Duluth packs and gear stowed and ready to go.

 On the morning of our fourth day in the canoe, we had an easy two hour paddle, completing our long paddle  up Steel Lake, to the first of several portages leading into Aster Lake. Aster Lake formed the apogee of our long circular route. We initially found the river to be smooth sailing . From that point we would turn south and begin thankfully to run the Steel River. We initially found the river to be smooth sailing with only a few minor rapids. If the water had been higher, with sweepers and log jams, it would have been dangerous or have required many more slogging portages. Lower and with rocks and boulders to be avoided, the river would have been too "technical," i.e. crashes into hidden boulders and wading and dragging the canoe would have been the order of the day. As Goldilocks once said it was just right and so was the steel River

Upper Steel River

It was a big relief to be able to follow the strong current thru easy chutes and minor rapids. We had little paddling to do other than some steering and avoiding the occasional rock.

An easy rapids

 At one of the first rapids, where we could see straight ahead to the very end, a duck appeared. I wasn’t into birding then, so I’m not sure what kind it was, possibly some kind of merganser. He would be at the head of the rapids and then dive underwater. His reappearance several hundred yards downstream amazed us at first. This little guy seemed to be leading the way as he repeated this performance several times. The idea was, if this little duck could make it ... so could we!

We sailed thru without a scratch. The scenery was stunning with rocky bluffs and the forest for a backdrop.We liked to set up camp by mid-afternoon as that gave us time to catch our supper and relax around a campfire.

About that time, we found a flat area about twenty feet above the rocky shoreline. It was covered with moss and lichens and looked especially soft and comfortable. This proved to be a big mistake. In our tent, that night, we found ourselves being bitten by a mysterious insect we couldn’t see. "No-seeums" they are called. No-see-um ... yep, you sure can feel-um even if you can't see-um! Apparently we had disturbed their home in the moss. Our only alternative was to spend the night out of harms way, our heads buried in our sleeping bags. Not good as it was too warm and stuffy.

The next morning we began our second day on the Steel River confident we could handle any more challenges. At the crack of dawn it was foggy as usual. The rapids we did encounter would best be described as Class II technical. We checked them out carefully, decided our route and with only the occasional "eddy turn," had no difficulty negotiating them. In those few cases, where we were uncertain as to advisability of running the rapids, we chose to portage. The thought of wet sleeping bags and clothes was not appealing.  And yes we did some fishing along the way. 

Troutbirder eyeing a walleyed pike for supper.....

To be continued...............

Adventure into the Canadian Wilderness Part III

Steel Lake

The next day we awoke eager to move on. We  followed a narrow winding little creek thru a series of beaver ponds, short portages, lifts over beaver dams and muddy shallow wades, finally into Steel Lake itself. Steel is a very long lake, maybe 12 miles,  oriented on a north south axis. There was a slight breeze and drizzle  out of the West as we followed the eastern shoreline at a leisurely pace.Wildlife abounded here. We saw two black bear, several moose, in shallow bays, munching in the water, beaver and even some playful otter along the way. They basically paid us a little attention perhaps never having seen humans before.

 We had not, however, seen another soul since leaving Santoy Lake. The view ahead consisted of the lake and low hills on both shorelines with many small coves and rocky outcrops.

We didn’t fish much that day as it seemed a good opportunity to cover the miles. According to Ontario Fisheries, Steel Lake is excellent for Walleye, Northern Pike, Largemouth Bass, Smallmouth Bass, Lake Trout and Yellow Perch. Some days though you just have to keep moving on.

We had seen a few fishing boats "cached" along the shoreline previously that day and assumed some “locals” knew a less strenuous route into Steel Lake than we had pursued. A few isolated logging tracks were known to exist.  They certainly hadn't carried their boats and outboards up Diablo portage. The soreness of the previous day lessened as our muscles slowly became acclimated to the strain.

At about mid afternoon we pulled over about two thirds of the way up Steel and called it a day.  Some skinny dipping was in order to wash off the mud, sweat and assorted grime. That's my brother Greg straight out in the lake from the canoe. Obviously he had not been working on his suntan.It all felt wonderful! Then after setting up camp we dug into our dehydrated food that night for some variety. The  stroganoff was surprisingly good along with some hot cocoa and gorp. We had boiled water to fill our bottles.

Chef Troutbirder touting the stroganoff

My brother Greg stoking the campfire

As the sun set over the western horizon we sat by our small campfire and listened to the sounds of the wilderness.

Some loons were calling long distance. Then a howling. Wolves? The lake was lapping along the shoreline. Quiet now. Time for bed...

To be continued…..