Closing the cabin is always bittersweet

This week I am at the cabin for the last Hurrah of the season. The weather was nice as I left home, but as I got a ways north of the Cities it started to sprinkle, and as I drove further north it started raining harder. It rained all night the first night and today it has been windy and rainy all day. The first evening, the sun came out for about an hour before sundown and then disappeared again.

 

The woodstove made the cabin nice and cozy, and when I climbed the steps to the loft, the temperature was a little too warm. I actually had to crack open the window by my bed to get some cooler air up there. It started raining hard sometime during the night and continued into the morning.

 

I checked the game cameras on the first day and the only things on there were pictures of some deer. There were a doe and two fawns earlier in the summer, but this time there was also a young buck.

 

I spent most of the next day watching the numerous birds filling up at the feeders. A chipmunk has figured out how to walk the rope holding one of the feeders and has been filling up for the winter. There are quite a few Blue jays also feeding there. There are a few juncos, nuthatches and chickadees enjoying the feeders as well.

 

The sun has made an appearance. No matter how briefly, it is still a welcome sight. Seeing the sun in October in the north woods is always a welcome sight. The way that this wind has been blowing, I have to feel that the fall color peak is slowly dissipating.

 

Years ago, when I would take a trip to Spider Lake in the fall it was always an adventure. Some years the weather was perfect. Then most other years it was not quite as good. One year, my son Brian and I rented a cabin for a few days and there was snow on the ground when we arrived. Brian had brought his bow along, so he could hunt deer. Dave, the owner of the resort, told him where to put up his tree stand. He would get up early and drive to where he had his stand. He could only sit in the tree for about two hours before he became too cold to sit in the stand. He then drove back to the cabin and warmed up with steaming hot coffee and a hot breakfast. After that, we would take the boat out and try our luck at fishing. We could only stand to sit on the lake for about two to two and a half hours before the cold got the best of us. There is nothing like being on the lake with a stiff breeze blowing corn snow in your face. We didn’t have the foul weather gear then that we have available to us today. A stocking cap, a long sleeved thermal Tee-shirt and long johns were our winter gear, and don’t forget the gloves. I can still remember trying to put a minnow on a hook with fingers that were numb from the cold. I can still remember how it felt to tie a jig on with cold hands and then clip the wrong line, so I had to start all over again. That was when I would expand my vocabulary and that of the others in the boat as well.

 

Until next time: I won’t be the last one to visit the cabin this year. My grandson Dylan and his wife Kloe will the last ones visiting this year. They are coming up next weekend to relax and do some fishing and a little sightseeing.

 

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