I heard last week that the drought was over.  Some one forgot to tell the rain.

Got up early to do a job that needed internet and phones but the floods postponed that project.   Well at least we had power.   I had to use the HAM radio to find out about the fiber cable being cut by the flood waters.

What are your war stories?

-MD

We tried to make Voyaguers NP today. We spent a couple hours trying to work our way around but had to give up and come back home. Left home at 0800 hrs. and got home 1500 hrs.

I am supposed to take a little family vacation to Duluth on Monday, now I am not sure if it will be worth the trip.

My sump pump can handle 3420 gallons per hour, and couldnt keep up. Water was coming up the drains and through the walls. Ended with water 6 inches deep, stay up all night moving stuff so i didn't lose too much stuff.

Worked on stabilizing the driveway yesterday.  I have a spring time creek that was dry last week.  It can handle 2-3 inches of rain but 6 inches it overflows taking the driveway with it.  To really fix the drive way will take lots of gravel with a new crown.

-MD

That was one crazy night!

Wow, those are amazing pictures, LD.  I also saw pictures of the swinging bridge at Jay Cooke getting washed away.  The stone pilings are still there, but the suspension bridge is gone.  We usually enter the park via 210 to get registered for the hunt, and then spend our time hunting on the 23 side.  Its generally less crowded over there, but with a couple hundered guys sharing 9000 acres, the place is pretty quiet.  You will run into guys, but you will have done some walking first. 

I have been hearing other stories, particularly going up the North Shore, and have seen a pic of kids tubing behind a truck somewhere in Duluth (I assume Duluth, but could be Superior, after reading Niemz troubles).  Wish you all luck and that you get your lives back to "normal" quickly.

LD, have you been getting my emails lately?  Just wondering, making sure I am using the right address.  If not, I will share with you guys what has been going on with my family lately.  I will any way, but not tonight.  Need to get some rest. After I check the forums a bit more.   

CA, I'm admittedly one of the worst I know when it comes to checking my email. I rarely communicate threw that medium, so I rarely check them.

I want you to know that I'm not the most religious man that you know (which I'm sure you've figured out already) But I do have faith.

My prayers go out to Jean, yourself, and your family. I'm praying for a full and speedy recovery for Jean.

And don't forget to tell Jean that her troubles are all in her head... Err... at least they were... I don't know what to tell ya about the new excuse's yer going to have to come up with now That one appears to be out the window

I made it to Cloquet today.

These first two pics are of Spafford Park where you and Tony camped on our first Grouse Hunt GT





This is the boat launch/landing at Spafford, in the background you can see the old bridge pillar, I believe that bridge was swept away in the 50's as well.



I'm not sure how this last pic will show the debris piled up against this bridge. it's a long shot for a cell phone cam.

The next time you come threw Cloquet, glance to the right when your crossing the first bridge across the St. Louis River(As your heading North, that will be East) This is the small RR bridge that crosses the river.

Lunkerdog, that is an amazing amount of water in that river.  A friend of mine said the St. Croix is really flowing too.  I hope to get over to Taylors Falls/St. Croix Falls in the next couple of days to take a look.  I can barely make out the debris up at the railroad bridge in your pic.  Thanks for sharing those pics.  I will have to show dad when i can.  Its pretty amazing what you folks up along the shore are dealing with.  Some friends of ours were camping (tent) at the Souix Agency State Park in western MN last weekend when those storms began.  They said it was quite the experience.

I appreciate that you are not a religious person, but that you are a person of faith.  Religion often gets in the way of faith, and we begin to depend on it rather than faith to gain access to God.  All religion does is give us a way to feel good about ourselves as we compare ourselves with the neighbor down the street, as we pat ourselves on the back for not being "that bad".  I better quit before I get to preaching.    From reading your post about your grandson, I know you have faith.  That is good.  And Thanks for your prayers.

Just to update the rest of you as to what Lunkerdog is referring to, my wife had surgery this past Tuesday.  You may (but more than likely have not) heard of Chiari Malformation.  It is a condition in which the cerebellum is larger than what the skull can contain, so part of the cerebellum pokes through the opening that is normally occupied by the spinal column.  This puts pressure on the spinal column, not allowing for the proper flow of cerabralspinal fluid, and affects parts of the nervous system (if you use google you will get a better explanation).  The surgery invovles removing some of the bone in the skull, and in Jean's case, a small amount from the neck bone, to give the cerebellum more room and relieve that pressure.  Its not that terribly risky of a surgery, but it is pretty delicate.  Her surgery went very well, but her recovery is kind of rough.  So far she is still pretty unsteady on her feet, and has to have help walking (using both a walker and someone to help with balance and also bring along the I.V. pole.  One of her more serious issues is that she is having a difficult time swallowing.  She did have some swelling in her throat after surgery, but ultrasound and Xray show nothing out of the ordinary in her neck to cause it.  It could be just the nerves reacting to the surgery. So for the next couple of days she will have a feeding tube until she can swallow.  She has some therapy exercizes to help get things working properly.  She will be in the hospital for at least a couple of more days.  We appreciate your prayers for a speedy recovery.

CA

CA, on that rail bridge on a normal day you would be able to see threw the bottom of the bridge.

I had initially reported that this was the worst flooding in over 50 years. As the data has come in it looks like you can go back over 100 years, and of course now many in the region are referring to it as the 100 year flood.

 Rain was likely largest storm in Duluth history

If I would flip a cigarette, it would start a fire here! What is it with getting way too much or none!?!?!?

Tom, Shi indicated the same thing, and asked me to send him some water

Are you guys anticipating getting any rain from Debbie once she comes ashore?

Nope....and none in forecast but it has cooled off on my back deck to a balmy 104.....

LD & CA,

I heard on the radio today that Jay C Cook Park is closed for the season.  I have not heard anything about the lottery hunting.

-MD

Mark, I heard that it will be closed until at least October.

CA's hunt may still be okay since he hunts on the HWY23 side of the park he'll still have an access though he'll have to take a detour from Carlton.

That said, he may have more company from other hunters than he's had in past years due too restricted access from the HWY210 end of the park.

Well a couple of ways to look at it for me.  One is I won't have to worry about it as it is a lottery hunt, and it seems like an every-other-year deal, so this is the off year for us, if the pattern holds.  You do have  to apply every year, just to keep in the pool and it seems to keep on schedule.  Adding a guy to the party in a way kind of screws up the schedule, until that person gets the same amount of preference as the rest.  I think you can have 4 to a party.   

The other way to look at it is my group might get drawn, if the number of applicants goes down due to limited access, and the park closure.  If they don't do a lot of trail maintanance, it could be a rough hunt this year.  LD is right in that we wouldn't have much trouble getting in where we hunt, but getting tree stands back in could be fun, since last year we used my buddies deer cart to haul in a couple of ladder stands.  Of course it could force us to explore some other areas of the park, if it too crowded.  There are a couple of other access points over by Wrenshal.  One I don't think gets used much, as it involves more walking than most are inclined to do.    That would be worth checking out.


Just an update on Jean.  She is still at the rehab center.  They are trying to get her ready to come home, but she is still having difficulty swallowing (although its getting better), and she is still not able to walk without some assistance.  We have a meeting tomorrow morning to see what she needs to help her recover.  I'm back to work, so I try to stop and see her on my way home.  Can't do it every day, but at least 4 or so times a week.  Tonight my boys and I are going to visit her (as soon as they get the dishes done) and hopefully watch fireworks with her from the lobby window.

CA

Oh, LD, I picked up another fly rod, with the intention of using it for northerns and bass.  Just have to finish getting it rigged up. 

CA, thanks for the update on Jean. You haven't updated the email in a while so I didn't know if things had gotten much better, or had taken a turn for the worse.

My Grandpa didn't fly fish for Northern's in his later years, but still had many Dragonfly type of flies from the days that he did. Northern's seem like a tricky proposition on a monofilment leader. Tho when we used to surface fish them with jitterbug's I don't remember that they ever swallowed the lure.

Yeah, I've kind of dropped the ball on the updates, since they moved her to the Rehab Center.  Now that my only time to visit her is limited to evenings, I don't always feel like getting on the computer to do the update.  End up spending too much time thinking about what to say and how to say it, and then of course, just surfing the net.   I think I will take the laptop to work with me tomorrow and if I find some free time I will do an update then.  I especially want to get one sent out after our meeting with the rehab team tomorrow.


There is a new tie-able stainless steel leader for fly fishing, called Toothy Critter.  It looks like it should cast like a mono leader and supposedly tying knots with it is no problem.  It is suppose to work on all kinds of toothed game fish, from pike to barracuda.  I also bought a mouse looking fly, which was labeled as a bass fly.  I didn't realize bass would eat a mouse, but figured that a hungry northern probably would.  Should be fun and interesting to try.