Camp Nebagamon

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Caretaker Joe’s Summer in April

By Joe Crain

The last of the lake ice

After the rough, lion-y finish to March, we here in the far Northwoods of Wisconsin pinned our hopes on April. After all, when you live this far north you know that although the calendar may say that spring starts on the 20th, here March is realistically still a winter month. It’s typically not until around the middle of April that the ice goes off the lake; a few days before or after Tax Day is usually a safe guess for the annual Ice Breaker contest. And it is true that by the last week of March the snow is usually in such a state of decay that it is rare I haven’t put the skinny skis away by then, but we usually have at least some snow left. Here on the shores of Lake Nebagamon spring is normally an April thing. It is not at all unusual for the early emerging plants, like the crocus and daffodils, to not only sprout through the last of the snow but for their spring proclaiming blossoms to get snowed on once or twice. This year, after experiencing 60-degree days several times in March, and not only having all of the winter’s snow melted but also the ice off the lake right at the start of April, we started to think that maybe the calendar was right about the start of spring falling in the third week of March. Sure, we had a rough patch of weather at the end of March, but could we possibly have a normal spring that started in late March and then gradually warmed up throughout the month of April? Well the warning signs of what was to come started the first six days of April in a sort of unusual way: absurdly warm weather all week long. April 1st was around average with 41 degrees, but it warmed through the week to a balmy 73 on April 4th, 30 degrees above average. That was the day we saw the last of the lake ice melt off. The next day we hit a high of 81, 40 degrees above average! Finally on April 6th things started to turn closer to a normal April, but still 20 degrees above the average at 64 degrees.

Caretaker Joe got some hiking in during his mini summer!

These awesome sunny days had us cockily out and about in our t-shirts and even short pants. I kept having to pinch myself, 81 degrees in the first week of April? This must be some sort of prolonged utopian dream I was experiencing. But no, I was awake; others assured me that they too were experiencing these strange days of summer-like weather in, yes, the first week of April. I started to tell myself and anyone around me who was still able to listen while in their state of weather bliss torpor, “don’t be fooled and go putting your long pants in storage just yet, it’s still April, you just never know with April in the northland.” Well of course this absurd parody could not last long and sure enough on the 7th, reality once again took over. We found or selves shivering in our short pants and T-shirts as the temps dropped back to the normal range for the second week of April and the sun disappeared behind a thick gray mass of clouds.

By the 13th we hadn’t reached an average high temperature or not seen the sun in six days, and two inches of mixed precipitation fell during that week. All of the fooled northlanders who would in a normal April be ecstatic that the weather had finally consistently hit into the mid- and upper-40s were instead grumbling about how “cold” it was. The utopic weather scales had not yet fallen from the poor townspeople’s eyes, still tipsy from the brief but hypnotic taste of summer temperatures in the 1st week of April. Normal April temperatures were now a frigid scourge that left them glum and grumpy rather than delighted that spring was finally on the way.

Weirdly amused that the daffodils got snowed on about 10 times this April, it’s Caretaker Joe At Camp.

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Caretaker Joe’s Mixed Up Lions and Lambs

By Joe Crain

The last of the ice is melting off the lake!

This month, our winter ended rather abruptly, but not completely, here in the far Northern reaches of Wisconsin as temperatures leapt into the lower 40s for most of the first two weeks of March. With the snow pack at a mere foot or so it wasn’t long before the trails were wide with mud and grass. But March in the Northwoods can be a month of spring dreams followed quickly by some winter whiplash, so I spent most of this warm period in apprehensive enjoyment of the unseasonably warm weather. Of course, the skier in me was very disappointed, because the first couple weeks in March are often great for late season trips around the cross country trails. This month, trails turned quickly to sheets of ice and bare ground on southern facing hills. With just a short stint into temperatures around the normal mark at the beginning of week three, the temperatures remained in the mid-to-upper 40s and even bumped into the 60s on two or three occasions. But alas, the month known for lambs to lions and lions to lambs was true to its poetic form this year and our lamb like start of the month abruptly morphed to a lion to end the month. A howling wind and snow storm struck leaving us with a few inches on all recently melted lawns in the area. Another storm followed just a couple days later on the 27th, and it was another blaster. That storm was a rather surprising one, because temperatures were fairly warm most of the day and we remained dry, and not until later did the temperatures drop and the snow came in a liony roar at a pace of an inch an hour! When the snow wrapped up early Sunday morning on the 28th, a wet two to three inches remained on the ground. If the ground hadn’t been so warmed before the storm hit and melted most of the snow as it fell, we would most likely have been looking at a foot of snow on the ground! The whole storm was a mere shadow in or memories by midday on the 29th as we went from cold blowing snow to a 60 degrees gorgeous day that melted all traces of the previous day’s winter fury. So this year the old saying about March and its proclivity towards coming and going as a lion or a lamb was more a lamb on the way in and a lion cub on the way out: potentially ferocious but mostly bounce and pounce.

Around the shop we have been finishing up the repairs we had squirreled away in the Wanegan for winter work. It was so warm early in the month that I was able to get the windows reinstalled in the Horvath House. Caretaker Andy took advantage of the stretches of nice weather to build and install some no touch water bottle filling stations on the outside of each of the Jops. They consist of a tiled back splash with a hands free spigot. Much like a soda pop dispenser at a fast food restaurant, a camper just presses their water bottle against the handle and water is dispensed! We have been having a lot of discussions about other ways to keep this season’s campers clean and healthy and able to concentrate on the fun of project periods and friendship building that a summer at camp is all about. These water bottle fillers are just the start!

Excited and cautiously optimistic that things will be very near normal when the first session buses reach the front gate, it’s Caretaker Joe at Camp.

One last patch of snow on the Upper Diamond… Summer is almost here!

Caretaker Joe Sets The Table(s)

By Joe Crain

As the rest of the country was beset by heavy snow and ice storms all the way down to Texas, we here in the far Northern Wisconsin continued our snow drought. Instead, we were treated to some rather extreme, though far from record setting, cold. Things went from abnormally mild here to downright frigid in a matter of hours on the 4th of the month. We started the day off reaching a high of 32 degrees that fell through the afternoon bottoming out at nine degrees. On the 5th I had to check my trusty garage thermometer a couple of times to see if it had broken, because all through that day the needle didn’t move off of nine degrees! But that night the needle started to move again when it sank to zero overnight. And then again on Saturday, I started to wonder if it was time to take a trip to “Thermometers-R-Us” when the needle again refused to budge from the zero degree reading. But that night the needle started to move, down to a bitter -15. It wasn’t the direction I had hoped the needle would move but at least it was working. And then on Sunday the 7th, when the needle moved up again and stopped at a high for the day of only -4 degrees, I was assured that the problem wasn’t with the thermometer — it was with the weather! For the next eight days the needle never reached above five degrees for a high and we saw lows reaching down from -18 all the way to -36 on the 15th of the month. Thankfully the 15th was the worst of the super cold and by midday on the 16th we reached a high of 14 above. Although we did see a couple more overnight dips into the -20s our days reached back up to the more seasonal highs of the upper teens. And just as abruptly as the cold snap had started back on the 4th and 5th of the month, on the 21st it all ended with an overnight low of -17 degrees, warming to a midday high of 32 degrees! Things have gotten down right spring like ever since with highs hovering at or near 40 degrees and overnight lows only reaching down to the mid to upper 20s.

All of that cold and dry weather (we have only had about 6 inches of snow this February a month that on average receives 16 inches) hasn’t kept us from preparing for the warm months of camp ahead. This month, we kicked off our biggest shop project of the winter to build 32 new picnic tables for this summer’s COVID-safe al fresco dinning hall. Of course, as the saying goes, there’s not need to reinvent the wheel. We decided to use the tried and true picnic table design that the Lumberjack village uses for cabin cookouts out on Lorber Point. The tables are big, with a 3 foot by 8 foot top, and very sturdy with their 2X6 construction that all adds up to a hefty table of about 200lbs a piece! The design has also stood the test of time, having withstood every sort of abuse that rough and rowdy boys from 3rd to 9th grade can come up with. These tables have lasted all of my 25 years at camp and I-don’t-know-how-many-more years before I arrived as a caretaker!

Well, after receiving our shipment of green treated wood for the legs and plain pine wood for the benches and tops, we encountered the only problem the frigid weather presented to the project. The green treated wood had been shipped directly from the factory and was still very wet from the treatment process; high temperatures in the negative to single digits and soaking wet wood in a stack don’t go well together! Or I guess they go to well together: stuck together with ice that is. We had to beat the piles apart with chunks of 2X4’s! Also, all of that moisture locked up into the frozen boards made for some back and wrist breaking hauling into the shop. We had to scrape frost and ice off of each board before we could cut them to length, and wore our winter gloves throughout the prepping process in order to avoid frostbite from handling the super-cooled wood. The tables out on Lorber Point that have been dried completely from years of summer warmth are heavy to lift for two caretakers. Lifting new tables built with fresh, frozen, wet green wood? Forget about it! We somehow managed to move the first eight tables out of the shop and into the Big House side yard by hand. The next day, we came back to work exhausted and sore and decided we would be moving the remaining 22 table with the tractor and some ropes from the shop driveway to the Big House side yard. Well, the build went well and took about two and a half weeks and only a couple of rounds of ibuprofen each to complete.

Excited to see the 2021 campers distantly assembled for their first al fresco dinner on the brand new picnic tables, it’s Caretaker Joe at Camp.

Caretaker Joe Skis the Northwoods

By Joe Crain

The warm and dry weather pattern continued for another month here in the far Northwoods of Wisconsin. With barely 10 inches of new snowfall in January and a day of rain as well, we left the month with approximately 12 inches remaining on the ground, a bit less than the 15 inches we came into the month with. It’s an odd 12 inches for a January as well! This is usually a month of deep fluffy snow, but this year the snow is thin and sugary with a quarter-inch layer of ice about three inches down. The poor snow conditions are due to the fact that it wasn’t until the middle of the third week of the month that we saw a high temperature that wasn’t 5 to 10 degrees above average! We were forced to endure temperatures in the upper 20s and mid 30s for days on end. Finally on the 18th of the month, it looked as though we might get a taste of actual winter when the mercury dipped into the mid-teens. But, that was dashed as things shot up into the lower 40s for the two following days. Thankfully that was short lived and things have finally, truly gotten winter-like for the final week of January with temps getting close to normal for this part of the season. Unfortunately, it looks as though the snow drought is going to continue for our area into February, with little snow forecast for the next week or two.

Things were so bleak on the snow front that as we went into Christmas break I was worried that I would have to postpone my annual back country ski adventure, scheduled for the first part of January. Luckily, the big pre-Christmas storm gave us ample snow and my vacation plans were saved! This tradition started back in 2018, the year I went to Yellowstone National Park for a week of guided back country skiing. In 2019 I returned to Yellowstone again to explore more of the park with guided treks into that beautiful remote wilderness. After a second year in Yellowstone I came home with a boosted confidence in my abilities (and also the realization that my chosen career as a boys camp caretaker wasn’t lucrative enough to sustain an annual trip out West to the mountains with hired guides every year!). My confidence helped me start soloing closer to home in order to continue this new annual tradition. Fortunately, as many of you who have taken advantage of camps tripping program know well, I live in an area with endless wilderness within easy driving distances (although lacking in the inspiring mountain vistas…). So last year I did my first solo trip to the Sylvania Wilderness in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and had a delightful and challenging four days of trekking that remote wilderness. For this year’s adventure I decided to trek some miles on The North Country National Scenic Trail (NCNST). For those of you unfamiliar with this trail, it is part of the National Park Services portfolio of national treasures and (upon completion) will be the longest continuous hiking trail in the United States, clocking in at 4600 miles. The NCNST starts in the east at Allegany State Park in New York and passes through Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and ending in Lake Sakakawea State Park in North Dakota. The Wisconsin section passes just 10 miles from Lake Nebagamon as it winds its way along the Brule River and through the Brule River State Forest. I started to ski and hike the Wisconsin section of the NCNST in the spring of 2019 and had skied or hiked about 50 miles on it up until this year’s back country ski vacation. The trail is administered and protected by the National Park Service

but is built and maintained completely by volunteers coordinated by North Country Trail Association, a not-for-profit entity that is headquartered in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I was able to trek 43 miles of trail over four days during the first week of January. Three of the trips I did as out-and-back and one I did as a through ski with the shuttling help of caretaker Andy. The trail passes through some rugged forest as well as some working forest, so the tree density varied greatly from dense and fully grown to sparse and logged over. Thankfully, the trail passes through state and county lands where the foresters practice sustainable forestry, so I did not pass through any clear cuts. For the most part the terrain is rolling and the hill climbs could be tough but not grueling. The trail design uses modern trail building techniques and incorporates switch backs, so I had very few fall line climbs to make. All in all, the trail is challenging but not overwhelming. It’s well marked in most of the sections and the North Country Trail Association has published GPS maps that I used on my cell phone so navigation was never a problem. I highly recommend that any of you who live in a state that the NCNST passes through seek out your state’s trail section — it is definitely a national treasure!

Thinking this will be the year that I achieve my North Country Trail Association’s “Hike 100 Challenge” patch, it’s Caretaker Joe At Camp.

Caretaker Joe Skis Over the Holiday!

By Joe Crain

At long last it is starting to look like winter up here in the Northwoods of Wisconsin. It wasn’t looking to promising the first half of December… We watched what little snow was left behind from November melt away with highs for the first two weeks of the month in the mid-to-upper 30s, and reaching on several occasions well into the 40s. It wasn’t until the 24th that we saw things get anywhere near normal December temperatures. Of course, that was a bit off as well, when our high only hit what is usually a normal low for that date! It was quite a shock; we went from an abnormally warm 37-degree high on the 23rd to a 7-degree high on the 24th, which is the average low for that date. Thankfully, temperatures have been pretty much staying close to average since then, with highs in the mid 20’s and lows in the single digits. Things really started to look up on the snow front as well that same week. You may recall that we had a lot of snow in October, about 20 inches in total, that came and went by mid-November. We had some snow in November that also stayed on the ground a short time as the temps in that month also stayed above normal. Well for the first three weeks of December when we were expecting the start of our snow season, we got nothing! But at long last in the last week and a half the snow fell and by the end of the month we were only one inch off of the average snow fall for December (15 inches). That’s right: we had more snow in October, about 20 inches, than an average December, and yet we started the month of December with basically no snow on the ground!

The snow came just in time for our annual holiday break. Finally I was going to be able to do some real cross country skiing. The only skiing I was able to do up until break was a little skiing out on frozen Lake Nebagamon. The lake froze over rather late this year on the 1st of December. Though late, the conditions were ideal when it froze over with an absolutely wind free night and a 10-degree temperature that left the lake as smooth as glass that morning. Although the days reached into the low 30s that week, the lake ice was able to thicken through the week as the night time lows fell into the single digits. By the end of that week the ice was up to about four inches thick consistently from shore to shore producing the perfect ice skating conditions over the entire surface of Lake Nebagamon. I’m not an ice skater but Caretaker Andy, his wife Amy, and Adam Fornear all are and they were over the moon with giddiness with this year’s ice conditions. They were able to skate for miles on end out on the snow free surface of the lake. Amy and a friend even skated unimpeded all the way to the YMCA camp at the far end of the lake past the little light house, the same route paddled every year by Camp’s youngest campers for their first overnight camping trip. Andy was having so much fun out there skating every night after work that he went out and bought a new pair of skates! I was a very jealous skier sidelined with no snow on the lake or the ground but was happy to see them all enjoying themselves so much. Finally during the second week of the month, about a half of an inch of snow fell leaving just enough snow stuck to the ice that it was my turn to have some fun out there. The wind had blown the snow off of most the lake but I was left with a patch about a mile long and 100 yards wide and about ¾ of an inch deep. The snow was sticking to the ice just enough to give a good kick without slipping and I was able to ski laps from Lobber point in the west to the east about a quarter mile past the Dairy Queen. The tiny bit of snow wasn’t enough to ruin things for the skaters and was just enough to give me some skiing; we all were very happy “Campers”!!

Finally able to wake up “The Miracle on Snow” my 1974 Artic Cat Pantera snowmobile and pack some ski trails, it’s Caretaker Joe At Camp.

Caretaker Joe’s Fall Stretches to Winter

By Joe Crain

You may, possibly, recall that at the end of last month’s article we were hoping that things would warm a bit so we could get our annual fall leaf blowing done for the year. After we were frozen in our tracks by December-like temperatures and unseasonably persistent snow, well, we got our wish. In the matter of a day the thermometer went from a high of a December-like 30 degrees to a June-like 70 degree high! We quickly fired up the blowers that day, and though we had to move a little ice along with the leaves in a few shady spots, it looked like we just might get through this annual chore. We had a lot of ground yet to blow clear of the fallen leaves. The temperature rise held steady through the week and we saw 70-degree high temperatures four times that first week of November and our confidence in finishing the job was high. Our mood turned a little less optimistic after we had a warm and wet snow storm the weekend of the 7th. About six inches of snow came down in heavy wet squalls. The new snow for the most part quickly melted due to the previous week’s crazy warmth still locked into the ground. When we got back to it on the following Monday, some warm weather gave us optimism that we’d be able to finish the job. Well our warm spell fell off a cliff that night and for the rest of that second week of November our highs were once again unable to climb out of the lower-to-mid 30’s. Once again, we were blowing a bit of ice along with the leaves and our progress slowed a bit, but it was still looking like we may actually get all of the grounds cleared. Things were starting to look a bit bleak as the forecasts started to call for more snow the coming weekend. We pushed our blowers back and forth over the grounds that week as the temperatures continued to fall a bit lower each day. With all of the moisture we had gotten, snow soaked down through the leaves we needed to clear. Our progress got slower and slower through the week but we were within striking distance of finishing at the end of
the day on Friday the 13th. (Friday the 13th… hmmm…) As we parked the blowers for the weekend we had about ten yards left to the lower diamond road and about 30 yards left from the front of Logger One to the Rec Hall left! Well that weekend we got a monster snow storm that left us looking out at eight inches of snow covering those remaining areas to blow! This time the preceding week was in the lower 30sand the snow was standing solid at eight inches, and to this day we still have a hard crusty two inches or so of that storm total with us. It is looking like those last piles of leaves are going to have to wait for spring to finish removal. The snow was perfect for my first skinny ski of 2020 though!

We shifted gears for the second half of the month and got to work on some indoor projects. Caretaker Andy spent some time doing some much needed plaster repair and painting in the Caretakers House. And I headed over to the Horvath House next door and pulled all of the windows out for some much needed repair over in the shop. I removed all of the windows from the house, covered the window holes with plastic to keep the winter out and started to remove what was left of the glazing. Some of the windows are so bad that a gap was showing between the glass and the sash. I will have to replace a bit of cracked glass as well, but this should make for a much more pleasant stay for a few staff members next summer.

Hoping that winter will come to stay now that December is here, it’s Caretaker Joe At Camp.

Caretaker Joe is Surprised by Snow!

By Joe Crain

Early October brought some lovely foliage!

It’s been a cold and snowy October here in the Northwoods of Wisconsin. With only 10 of the 31 days of the month reaching average high temperatures, and the last 15 days of the month 10 to 15 degrees below the normal highs we were forced to break out the winter wear way to early! The stretch from the 18th to the 27th were exceptionally rough, with the high temps not reaching what are the normal lows for those dates — the mercury didn’t climb out of the 30’s for those nine days! Unfortunately the coldest stretch of the month also saw several snow storms sweep across our region. Though we expect our first sighting of some snow in October each year it normally comes to us in a passing flurry or maybe an inch or two that soon melts away. But this year we had three snow storms of two or more inches each all in the same week! The first storm seemed normal enough on the 17th with temps hovering around the freezing mark. The snow was wet and, for the first few hours of the storm, melted on contact with the still relatively warm ground. When the front finally moved off the next morning we had an inch or so accumulated on the grass but the roads were just wet. By the end of the day on the 18th no trace of the first winter storm was left. We didn’t fair quite so well with the next front that came just three days later on the 21st. This second snow storm of the week had all of the hall marks of a serious winter storm with high winds and snow rates that often reached an inch-per-hour. Luckily the ground had still not froze completely, and the first few hours of the storm much of the snow melted on contact. But, the intense rate of snow fall soon overcame the warm ground and the next day we were left with a thick snow cover of four and a half inches on the ground! This time the snow persisted and was helped by the high temperature staying just below freezing and the lows dipped deep into the 20’s. With a thick ground cover of snow, we were shocked when the weatherman started to warn us that the worst was yet to come with a predicted 6-8 inches of snow to hit us on the 24th! Thankfully the trajectory of that storm altered enough that the predicted totals were way off and this final storm of the week was so wet and warm and gave us only an additional inch of accumulation. Unfortunately all of this mid-month snow combined with the unusually cold temps has left us with a crusty 3-4 inches of snow cover before November 1st! The weatherman claims a warm front will return to our area for the first stretch of November, bringing us (wouldn’t you know) October like temperatures for the first week or so of the new month.

All of this early snow still on the ground has disrupted our usual leaf blowing routine which usually happens the last week of October into the 1st week of November with few exceptions. We have our fingers crossed in hopes that the weather turns more fall like again so we can get the grounds cleared before the actual winter hits. Winters here in the Northland are long enough in a normal year when the snows come in mid/late November and the first true signs of spring coming in late March or early April, adding a month (or in this case nearly two months!) is truly a disheartening way to start the season!

Hoping for a good, but not too long, skinny ski season, it’s Caretaker Joe At Camp.

Caretaker Joe Ticks Off His List

By Joe Crain

The heavy rain pattern we had throughout the months of July and August stopped completely in September – we only saw ½-inch of rain for the first three weeks! But things have turned soggy again here in the last week of the month with several rainy days from the 23rd through the 30th, bringing us about 2 inches for the month. Overall, it was a cooler than normal, with temperatures early in the month hovering about 10 degrees below the normal high of 75 and lows that dipped deep into the 30s, giving us all a taste of early fall. The cold spell took us deep into September. It was not until the 15th of the month that we reached a normal high temperature! But then things warmed up significantly and we enjoyed temps at or slightly above average for the next two weeks. Though no one was very excited by the early onset of chilly weather, we were all glad to see the heavy rains stop and we were able to spend September putting the finishing touches on all of the projects we had gotten under way in between the rain events of the summer.

One of our main goals going into this odd summer of coronavirus was to take advantage of this bad situation. We sought to finish as many of the jobs we have always wanted to do, but never seemed to have the time or the weather conditions in the off season to get too. One job that has been in my head for a decade or so was to get a water source down the hill to the bike shack/tennis court area. I’ve always thought it would be a huge plus to have water for both the tennis players to quench their thirst, and for the bike program to fill water bottles and keep the bikes clean. Finally, at the beginning of the month that project was able to step out of my head and stepped into reality! With the help of Josh Hanson-Kaplan, a 150-foot-by-10-inch-deep trench was dug from the North West corner of the Swamper jop (the nearest water supply) down the hill to the South East corner of the bike shack. I ran a plastic potable water line in the trench and made a few simple plumbing connections, and at last I had one less “someday” project rattling around in my head! I spent most of the rest of the month busy driving the tractor back and forth to the Range Road dirt pile and did a lot of finishing landscape work in three main areas; in front of camps new skills bike course, around the slab for the new Rec Hall hand washing station, and around the edge of tennis courts 1 & 2. That last one was another of those projects that has been on-my-mind-but-hard-to-find-time-for jobs that has needed to be done since those courts were re-finished several years back. And I finished up the month by starting the finale trail of the Camp Nebagamon Bike Trail (The CNBT) system. Yet another of those jobs that has been trapped in my head for years now! The finale trail will be called the Mill Ruins Trail and will work its way past and through the remaining walls and rubble piles of what was the Warehauser Lumber Mill, the original owners of our beloved Camp Nebagamon site.

Caretaker Andy was able to get one of his long wanted to do projects done as well this month; the re-caulking and painting of all of the windows in his domicile, The Caretakers House. A tedious job that had him up and down a ladder for several weeks! But at last he too has one less job rattling around in his head. Andy finished up the month by getting one of the normal late September jobs done as well, taking the water out of camp and getting our plumbing system ready for another winter.

Very happy to have less things rattling around in my head but sure it won’t be long before many other “someday” projects are dreamed up and take their place in the jumble that is my mind, it’s Caretaker Joe, At Camp.

Caretaker Joe Explores the Northwoods

By Joe Crain

A mighty White Pine!

The hot, humid, and rainy weather pattern that started in July continued through the month of August here in the Northwoods of Wisconsin. The area received 10 inches of rain from eight storms in the past 28 days! Several of the storms were rather severe and did a bit of tree damage as they rolled into and through the area. The weekend of August 8th and 9th was especially noteworthy with a multi-front storm that brought 60+ mph winds and six inches of rain! We saw several trees down around camp, most of which had been snapped off 10-15 feet above the ground. The most impressive of the damaged trees was the top 60 feet of the White Pine just off the corner of LJ .5. The storm left 20 feet of trunk standing and deposited the remaining 60 feet neatly across the back yard of the Rec-Hall. Thankfully no buildings sustained any damage from that storm, or from any of the storms throughout the month. Seemingly for days on end this month the humidity level of 80 percent matched the temperature of 80 degrees, making for some very oppressive days; thankfully the lake was always welcoming and gave us sweet relief on those particularly warmer days. Wanda and I spent many evenings jumping off of the Mud Turtle, our pontoon boat, beating the heat and enjoying the beauty of Lake Nebagamon.

A big silver lining from this summer of Covid is that I was able to take my very first “summer” vacation in the past 24 years. I took the week that would have been Family camp off and headed over to our little off the grid cabin on the Amnicon River with my little 5-pound dog, Zigs. The highlights of the week were our two treks on sections of the North Country National Scenic Trail (NCNST). Our first hike was a 4.5 mile out back from the McQuarrie Wetlands Trailhead to the Mud Creek Overlook, a section of the NCNST, two miles from the Wisconsin/Minnesota border, 10 minutes south of the city of Superior, WI, and about 45 minutes from camp. The first mile and a half of this section of the NCNST takes you through open grassland that is punctuated with several natural and engineered ponds that I have read are teaming with water fowl during the spring and fall migrations. Not being migration season yet, Zigs and I only saw three swans-a-swimming when we stopped for a water break at the Oswald viewing platform that extends out into one of the larger ponds. Our second trek took us to Solon Springs, Wisconsin, and the northern tip of Upper Saint Croix Lake, just about 20 minutes south of Camp. There, we hiked the historic portage section of the NCNST. This two-mile portage connects the head waters of the St Croix River that flows south to the Mississippi River and the head waters of the Brule River that flows north to Lake Superior (a section of river our campers paddle every summer!). The portage has a long history of use by Native Americans, European explorers, fur traders and settlers who traveled between the Great Lakes and Mississippi watersheds. Zigs and I used the trail from the St Croix trailhead to the Chuck Zosel Viewing Platform purely for pleasure and logged five miles for the day when we added the ½ mile of the Brule Bog Boardwalk to our in/out hike. These were both great hikes that I would highly recommend to any of you looking for a counselor’s day off or camp family visit day adventure.

Congratulations Jack!

Finally, this month marked the official retirement of Caretaker Jack from camp’s caretaking crew. Jack Served as Camp Nebagamon’s seasonal Caretaker for 18 years and as a trip driver for one year in the middle of his time with us. Jack was always a warm, reliable and steady member of our caretaking team who will be much missed and very hard to find a replacement for. Jack was an avid golfer during his time off and his love of ranch dressing was legendary. We had a “farewell” party for him on the upper diamond complete with a chipping golf course that featured several camp props to chip at, from the old basketball back board from the waterfront courts to an old toilet bowl and several other items in between. A scrumptious lunch was prepared by Camps head cook Ann Rowe and camps waterfront director Henry Pulitzer. Of course, these two culinary masters devised delicious ways to incorporate ranch dressing into each of the luncheon offerings. Farewell Jack and best of luck in your next chapter!!

Hoping you all made the best of this summer, it’s Caretaker Joe At Camp.

It’s Zigs at camp, too!

Caretaker Joe Plants for Next Summer

By Joe Crain

The abnormally hot summer continued through the month of July here in the Northwoods of Wisconsin. We endured temperature reading in the upper 80s and lower 90s for the first two weeks of July, a month that normally sees an average temp around 80 degrees. And with the humidity levels reaching into what the weather forecaster’s called the “oppressive” level our heat index was often in the triple digits! Unfortunately, the high humidity made the cooler temps in the night of upper 50s and lower 60s seem rather irrelevant and we spent a lot of nights trying to sleep uncovered and with every fan in the house roaring at the high setting. Thankfully the heat wave that got its start back in mid-June finally broke on July 20th and the temps have finally returned closer to the normal pattern of 80 degree days and upper 50 degree nights with moderate to low humidity levels that we cold blooded northlanders enjoy. The really good news on the weather front is that the month has finally brought badly needed rain to the region and we have dropped out of the severe drought category and are now only in a moderate drought. You may recall from last month’s report that we only had ½ inch of the normal nearly 4-inch average rain fall in the month of June! The rain came by the bucketful in mid-July with one big storm that dumped from 4 ½ to 6 ¾ inches on Lake Nebagamon! The next storm that came our way dumped 2 inches of rain and then the following week we had a 1 ¼ inch rain storm. Needless to say I had to spend a few days’ on Camp’s big blue tractor grading the gravel roads on the hilly grounds of camp back into shape.

We have been doing our best to take advantage of this strange non-ending off season at camp by taking on some projects that we never seem to have enough time to get to in a normal off season. The Lower Diamond is getting a major grass overhaul. The grass of this heavily used gaming field has always had a “bad” patch that refused to grow grass on a strip from what would be the pitcher’s mound into what is often home plate. Additionally, with the big renovation of tennis courts #1 & #2 a few years back all of the heavy machinery used did some major damage to the field that has never completely recovered. With some soil testing and advice from a local college extension program, we tilled up the problem zone from the backstop all the way down through the volley ball court. We had 34 yards of good quality top soil trucked in and laid down what the extension agent called “starter” fertilizer along with a generous amount of grass seed topped of with some moisture retaining straw for cover. Adam Fornear has been diligently watering the field each day as needed and things are starting to green up nicely! You may be wondering about how the field endured the “big” rain we had – well Fornear was on top of his game and though the ground was ready for planting he held off when the forecast called for rain that week and we didn’t lose any seed to the big storm. The storm did reveal some low spots in the top soil that we spread and he was able to address those areas and got the seed planted without major disruption. The Lower Diamond is greening up nicely and with this summer’s lack of heavy foot traffic we are hopeful that by the start of next year’s camp season the lower diamond will have a deeply rooted and dense crop of grass.

Some of the other projects we have gotten going this month include a major repair to “The Horvath House” front porch, and a complete paint job of the exterior, and a lot of painting in the Infirmary, “The Waldorf Castoria”. We’ve also been hard at work all month replacing rotted rail road ties around the Big House and along the side of the road down to the bike shack, to further help with erosion control around The Hill. Hopefully, the new ties will help keep the Hill as, well, a hill! We also got a major project underway for the Biking project, a new skills track that I will describe in more detail in next month’s Arrowhead!

Until then, keep your chin up and get out and enjoy your local parks, lakes and recreation areas. Hoping you all are staying safe and healthy, it’s Caretaker Joe at Camp.

Fornear and Briggs, strawmen!

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