Early Winter

North Shore residents awoke to a fresh layer of snow on Saturday the 6th of December. It is cold enough now that this several inches of white stuff should stick. We haven’t received much snow to date, but this is a start because everyone wants to start skiing sooner rather than later this month. The inland lakes are all almost completely frozen and a few brave fishermen already are starting to venture out. It has long been known that early ice can yield some of the best catches of the season. Be safe out there guys and gals!

Thanksgiving was celebrated last weekend by all the staff members including our two new students from Columbia, Laura and Jhonnathon. They enjoyed the Traditional Thanksgiving Dinner Buffet with all the fixins over at the Restaurant. In fact, close to 100 people were served that afternoon! I’m sure a lot of those people caught a little shut eye afterwards especially with some real snoozers for football games on TV. All staff is looking forward to our annual Christmas Party in a few weeks. It promises to be a wonderful time with food, drinks, music and great fellowship. There will even be a gift exchange and prize drawing too!

We are happy to announce that we will be hosting Horse Drawn Sleigh Rides this holiday and winter season. The resort just received clearance from the state park officials this week. This is a wildly popular winter activity and fun for the whole family! The rides are for lodge guests and visitors alike. Two massive Belgium horses will pull the lighted sleigh on an hour long scenic ride through the woods. The sleigh can accommodate up to 15 people! Advance reservations and payment is required through our local tourism office. Rides start just before the holidays and after the new-year are actually free on Tuesdays and Thursdays! Guests arriving for this holiday season will also find 4 additional in-room TV channels. 3 will be Encore movie channels and then one extra satellite channel. That brings us to a respectable 15 in- room channels for your convenience. Happy Holidays!!

The entire Cascade Lodge staff recently bid farewell to an integral part of our team from spring to late fall. David was an outstanding cook who put in lots of hours and helped lead the restaurant to a successful season. We held a fantastic potluck dinner party last Tuesday night in honor of him and his wife Lek, who are moving back to Thailand soon to teach English. Thank you for all your hard work! The spread was amazing and somewhat Scandinavian with Swedish Meatballs, Pickled Herring, Seafood Enchiladas, Sweet N’ Sour Chicken, Spinach Dip, assorted breads, and even Sonja’s homemade Pumpkin Cheesecake!
Cold temperatures settled in over the weekend just in time for the Deer Season Opener. Many hunters reported great success including a nice pair of 8 & 10- pointers here at the resort. In fact the annual “Big Buck Contest” at Buck’s Hardware in Grand Marais has a youngster sitting atop the leader board. It is the young man’s first season hunting! It seems blaze orange is the hot fashion trend this season as bright colored clad visitors scurry to get some last minute hiking in. They are being treated to some roaring rivers and waterfalls and excellent vistas of Lake Superior now that all the leaves are gone.
Maintenance is super busy getting everything winterized, put away, and equipment readied in anticipation of winter. The removal of a large pine tree went sour the other day. In danger of falling on either the old owner’s home or the maintenance garage, it was determined that this dead tree needed to come down. It ended up coming down all right, but the large branches ended up knocking out our satellite TV dish and damaging part of the roof on the garage :( Oh well, I guess the damage could have been a lot worse. On a lighter note, Matt reported a moose sighting up along the ridgeline on his way into town the other day. However, the report was discredited after finding out his “moose” was actually a farmer’s rather large chocolate colored donkey!

MEA and the return of da “North Stars”

The last two busy weekends of autumn have come to an end. On the 16th-18th of this month lots of visitors came to the shore for the big MEA holiday. Since MEA is the last three day weekend until the holidays, many families made one more visit up to the northland. They were treated to some last minute fall colors along the lakeshore, great hiking, and some decent weather too! This past weekend the North Star Ski Group invaded several area resorts to get their hands dirty. For many years here at Cascade Lodge and Solbakken Resort this weekend has been a long standing tradition. The ski group comes up from the Twin Cities and volunteers their time and effort helping us clear ski trails before the snow falls. In return we provide them with room and board, equipment, and direction. The Cascade group went out to Deeryard Lake Ski Area on Saturday and cleared the main loop of downed trees, windfall, boulders, and cut back branches to widen the trail. The annual potluck dinner was held Saturday night at Solbakken for everyone to gather and have a nice dinner, talk about the day out in the woods, and about the upcoming ski season too of course! The second day was spent clearing the Pioneer Trail and Ridge Runs that start from the resort trailhead. The trails are looking awesome and ready to be packed, tracked, and skied. We haven’t seen any snow this month yet, but we are more than ready for it now! Happy Halloween to all you ghosts and goblins out there from the Cascade Staff!!

Fall Colors

Well the Fall Color Season has reached its mid point and the leaf enthusiasts did not go home disappointed! Just a short drive away, the Caribou Trail and Honeymoon Trail provided a brilliant array maples, birch and poplar contrasted with the forest green pines. What a stunning display of mother nature hard at work painting the forests! The salmon are still running in the Cascade River, but recent rains have the river full so they are much harder to sight fish. Michael Sr. took his boat out on the big lake for the last time and had some great luck highlighted by a 15lb. Lake Trout reeled in by the good owner himself. Several other Chinook salmon were caught that day too making for some great table fare. Matt and Michael Jr. are hoping the weather holds out for about 3 more weeks so they can get some late fall fishing in before they put their boats away. Matt ventured down to Leech Lake about a week ago and had excellent fishing for walleyes and definitely expects to parlay that into some good luck up here in the Northland. In sports, our local Cook County Vikings football team is 5-0 and ranked first in the state. With a balanced air and run attack led by quarterback Miles Drake, the Vikes are poised to make their second consecutive trip to State! Maybe their bigger brother name sake down in the cities can find similar success this season! Savor what you can for the rest of autumn because the snow will probably fly at some point this month.

Autumn Fun

The Cascade Lodge and Solbakken Resort crew had their end of the summer staff party on Sunday the 14th. It was a way to celebrate another successful summer of 08’ and usher in the fall color season. We also wanted to thank the summer students for all their hard work housekeeping and in the restaurant. The party began at Golf N’ Stuff miniature golf course in Grand Marais. Groups of 4 went out and had a blast. Even little Marshall got in on the action with his mini putter. The leader board went Skip, Michael Sr., Matt, and Michael Jr. After golf, anyone who wanted to try the climbing wall raced up the tree against one another. Young Ben and Sam probably did the best out of the whole group. The party concluded with a staff BBQ and Ice Cream Social that was very well attended. The food was excellent and the desserts were highlighted by Sonja’s homemade blueberry pie! The fall color season is underway back along the ridgeline with the maples just starting to turn their fiery red hue. Soon, leaf peepers by the thousands will descend upon the area to tour the magnificent display! In other outdoor news, the salmon have just started to run up into the Cascade River. Michael Sr. and Jr. tried their luck last night and returned with no supper. Oh well, better luck next time guys and remember persistence counts!

The Sun Sets on Summer

Well the official “Last Busy Weekend” of summer has come and gone and we look forward to a pleasant fall color season fast approaching. It was a very good holiday weekend with the resort at full capacity and many a restaurant a goers leaving with full bellies of delicious food. The weather could not have been better and some of our guests even drove up to Grand Portage to attend the Bayou Boogie and get their cajun freak on! A month or so of very little rain lead the Forest Service to enact a fire ban for the blow down area of the BWCA a few weeks ago. Areas close to Lake Superior will still allow for campfires however. Mother nature attempted to even things up last week with a nice dosing of rain. Two nights in a row it poured down after dark with total accumulation of about 3 inches. This was very much needed! With our international summer students leaving already for school, we had some temporary staffing issues in the restaurant and housekeeping departments to address. Some staff members from different areas stepped up to fill the void. Yes, that is our motto here at Cascade…pitch in and do whatever it takes to get the job done!! We have since hired several new staff members including four women to serve at the restaurant and two housekeepers. So far they have done a wonderful job for us! We will introduce them all in upcoming posts. The fishing has slowed somewhat in recent weeks as the water is “turning over,” but Matt is hopeful him and his friend Sean can reel in some big fish this weekend when he comes to visit. On a final note, all the kids around the resort will be returning to school this week to sharpen their young minds and hopefully restore some peace and quiet around here.

Dog Days of Summer

The weather recently has been fabulous with daytime highs in the 70’s and low 80’s here next to Lake Superior! We are settling into more normal mid-late summer warm & dry weather patterns. This has everyone out and about to enjoy the great outdoors without having to worry too much about rain. Cascade staff around the resort has been really busy serving all our guests and visitors so far this month. Most nights we have happily been able to turn the “No Vacancy” sign on! The restaurant has been equally busy serving tray after tray of wonderful food this summer. The cooks have introduced several new menu items on this summer’s menu that are really delicious! There are daily specials for each day of the week too including: Mama’s Red Ribs w/ Sweet Potato Fries, Spaghetti & Meatballs, Jumbo Fried Shrimp Dinner, Fish N’ Chips, and Prime Rib Dinner. There is a different Soup N’ Sandwich special for lunch each day and the Traditional Sunday Dinner as well. Check out the full menu on our website’s Restaurant page! Between guests in Cabin 10 this weekend we will be installing a brand new kitchen. The old fashioned “all-in-one” kitchenette was getting outdated and did not work up to our high company standards anymore so it was time for it go! Since Cabin 10 is one of our most popular cabins, this new kitchen will be a delight for guests to use for many years to come! Despite being so busy, most of the staff was able to spend some time in Grand Marais for the “Fisherman’s Picnic” Festival last weekend. The weather was glorious and everyone had an awesome time seeing all the events, stage performances, shopping, and of course eating way too many Fish Burgers! Matt was able to take all the international staff down to Duluth recently too. The students got to see the beautiful Canal Park area, famous Lift Bridge, big ships, and lots of sailboats. Of course the girls wanted to go shopping, so there were also stops to the mall and retail stores. It seems like this summer of 08’ is just flying by, so savor what’s left because it will not last long enough!

Around the Resort

The high season is here and we have multiple projects going on to keep the buildings up to date. Log cabins #3 & #12 have recently been re-carpeted with some really nice soft new carpet. Perfect for laying by the fireplace on cool summer evening or cold fall-winter night! We know that everyone will be really disappointed that the pink carpet in Cabin 12 is gone, but it was time to say goodbye to it! Along with new carpet, the two bedroom apartment unit (5D) is also slated for a new kitchen in the future! Matt, Michael Jr. and Dmitry from Russia recently finished painting the east side of the Main Lodge building and it looks fantastic! It was much needed and we always aim to preserve the historic building for future generations to enjoy! Some of the other cabins will also be painted when time and resources allow. The next project is trail maintenance on the Pioneer Loop and Ridge Runs. The crew will be out mowing and clearing the different sections of the loop. The hiking and mountain biking conditions should be excellent again real soon! Check the trails page on the website for up-to-date trail conditions. The different summer activities have been attended very well so far this summer, with the All-American BBQ and Wildcats in the Woods campfire presentation leading the way! Check them out during your summer vacation here, or on the activities page where you can download the full weekly activities schedule. The two biggest weekends are approaching fast…The Dragon Boat Festival is this weekend July 25th-27th and has paddlers from all over competing on different teams racing in the Grand Marais Harbor. And the famous Fisherman’s Picnic Festival is the following weekend of July 31st-August 3rd. There are many different kinds of activities, events, games, music, dances, and vendors from all over the Midwest serving mouth-watering fare of all sorts! The Cascade Staff will surely be there enjoying all the festivities! See you there!

Rainbows and Wildflowers

Wow the wildflowers have really exploded this summer with brilliant colors! There are white and yellow daisy's and orange devils paintbrush surrounded by yellow buttercups all along the highway. The green forests backdrop is awesome and inspiring many to slow down a bit and take in the magnificent view. We have had much needed rain on a regular basis this summer so our creeks and water levels are more normal than the past few years and we have had virtually no threat of a forest fire all summer long. Fishing has been good and the Superior National golf course is playing real nicely.
Michael Sr. recently was driving along 61 when one of the brightest, well defined rainbows he had ever seen appeared in the mist. Then, on top of that rainbow, another full rainbow appeared and guess what the most amazing part was? It ended at Cascade Lodge!!!! As he drove up to the Lodge, there it was, silhouetted on top of the lodge building.
Our Raspberries look to be in tip top condition for summer picking and the blueberries will not be far behind. Wild strawberries are pretty much over, but a few can still be had.

Summer on America’s North Coast!

The weather is starting to warm nicely and all the fun woods & waters adventures have officially gotten underway! We have a full line-up of weekly summer activities laid out at the resort thru Labor Day Weekend. We have Bingo, Canoe Trips, Wildflower Walks, A.M. Nature Hikes, Disc Golf, The All-American BBQ, and Campfire Presentations with S’mores! The big 4^th of July weekend is coming up fast and everyone is very excited. It has kinda turned into a tradition where most of the staff runs into Grand Marais at dusk to watch the fireworks over the harbor with ice cream and hang out afterwards for a while. Alice is our new international student worker. She is a very smart, friendly girl from the Ukraine. She arrived about a week ago and is adjusting nicely to life in America! She would like to travel to Chicago and New York after fulfilling her work requirements. Say hi to her over in the restaurant, or out housekeeping. We may be getting two Russian boys coming up in July, but students are having problems with their visas this summer. We’ll keep our fingers crossed because it will be a busy season! In other staff news, Matt bought himself a new (used) boat! It’s a 16 foot Lund fishing boat with a 25hp Mercury outboard with all the bells and whistles. He is very excited and should be reeling em’ in soon. It’s pretty funny - Michael Jr. is mad because Matt’s new boat blows his out of the water! He is currently trying to convince Amanda to let him buy one too. Happy Independence Day to everyone out there and happy birthday to the great US of A!

Showers upon Showers

Lutsen and Grand Marais residents woke up to flooded creeks and rivers, washed out roads and debris everywhere last Thursday morning. The area received 5 inches of rain on Wednesday and Thursday, June 4th and 5th! Eight inches has fallen in the last week! Local creeks and rivers flooded their banks leading to closed county roads and sections of Highway 61. A tranquil Cascade Creek erupted overnight moving large boulders and hurling logs, branches, and part of an old foot bridge towards the mouth of the creek. Some of this debris got wedged under the bridge to the restaurant and had to be removed. The scene was eerily reminiscent to the “July 4th Storm of 1999” on a smaller scale. However, all this moisture is good for many reasons. Here’s just a few: The fire danger will be greatly reduced this summer…meaning we can have campfires and use our grills! Lake levels are on the rise…whereas last summer they were at historically low levels. There should be a long wildflower season followed by a bumper crop of raspberries and blueberries...satisfying both the peepers and the tummies!

Some of the staff went on a fun camping trip this last week to the End of the Gunflint Trail. They encountered moose, bald eagles, deer, and caught some dandy smallmouth bass- some in the 5lb. class range! The campsites sat right along white water rapids on the Seagull River. The party mentioned that they will be returning to the spot again sometime this summer. Here’s to an excellent summer for all, and hopes of getting some of that nice summer weather soon!

Early Summer at Cascade Lodge

It is a busy time around the resort here getting prepared for the big summer season. Painting, grounds work, planting flowers and maintenance are just some of the many jobs going on at this time. The weather has been great for the most part- mild temperatures and avg. rainfall will hopefully keep the grass green and forest fire risk down for a long time. The hiking trails and mountain biking trails are drying out nicely and the first wildflowers should pop any day now. Our weekly activities program is set and can be viewed as a PDF from the activities page on the website. There is something going on everyday of the week; definitely fun for the whole family! With all the activities, events, and festivals planned, it should be a most memorable season. In staff news, Matt just returned to the area after attending his best friend’s wedding way out in Chamberlain, SD. I guess it was a beautiful ceremony in an excellent location- a pheasant hunting lodge up on a bluff overlooking the Missouri River Valley. All just a mere 12 hr. drive from Lutsen! Our first foreign exchange students should be arriving from overseas in a couple of weeks. This year they are from Russia and the Ukraine. We are all very excited to meet them and to host their 4 month work visas! Until next time readers; have a great summer and hope to see you all soon!

Outdoor Life

It seems we may have some new residents that have moved to our neck of the woods this spring. Several moose have been spotted by our crew along Highway 61 between Solbakken Resort and Cascade Lodge. The O’Phelan family has reported seeing, “Moose everyday on the way home for the last week!”They will try to get a picture one these times to post on the blog! Another employee saw a group of about 15-20 loons all in a big circle on Lake Superior just down the shoreline from the Lodge the other day! He thought the reason being was that there is still ice cover on most of their interior lake homes. Seeing that many stately birds together at once is a very rare sighting! Although the ice might not be out on all the lakes by the fishing opener (May 10th), the spring steelhead run is in full effect in the Cascade River! Crewman Michael Jr. caught a nice 5 lb. steelhead on 5/4, but shortly thereafter had to release the fish because it was not clipped-Native; only clipped fish-Stocked may be kept for dinner. Several other non-clipped steelhead were caught by anglers that day. This is a very good sign that native steelhead are making a strong comeback in Lake Superior. Author’s note; Jr's big fish story was indeed confirmed by a DNR trout and salmon official!

One Last Gasp out of Old Man Winter

Last Thursday on April 10th, Cook County was hammered with 8-12 inches of snow! Hopefully it is the last big snow storm, as the great winter 07/08’ now comes to a close. For the season we received a total of over 85 inches of snow, compared with about 55 inches last winter. We would like to thank all our guests, visitors and staff for a terrific winter season! Lodge crewmembers Matt, Michael Jr, Amanda, and young Ben took advantage of the “fresh powder” on Saturday April 12th to ski at Lutsen Mountains for one last time. They reported that the conditions were “Mid-winter like and excellent!” It sounds like they really had a blast out there that day. Well, that snow is almost all gone now leaving just a sloppy mess in its path. The creeks and rivers have opened up and are starting to “roar!” In the next few weeks they will be upgraded to “raging” status as more snow further inland quickly melts coupled with some spring rainfall and temps in the 50’s. Should make for some great waterfall viewing very soon!

Spring Meltdown

Since the last posting, the resort has seen the snow cover shrink from more than a foot to basically nothing. A string of warm, sunny days has expedited the process. However, a nice family from the cities was able to create this “Easter snow bunny” with some of the last wet, sticky snow. Excellent job kids! The stately front lawns of Cascade Lodge and the Cascade House get some of the most direct sunlight in the county; hence they are now snow-free. Several deer all at once can be seen browsing the lawn grass after sunset. This time of year deer metabolism increases dramatically after the long, cold winter. They come down to the shoreline in droves to forage because there is still lots of snow back in the woods. Food along the shore is now readily available for them to feast on. There is still a nice base of snow for spring cross country skiing on most sections of the trails, especially further inland at the Deer Yard Lake system. The conditions should likely hold for a least another week or so. We are keeping our fingers crossed! Lutsen Mountains is skiing great and is open through the weekend of April 4-6th and will be open one last time on April 12 -13th for the “Mountain Meltdown.” Many fun events are planned including an outdoor concert! So get your skiing in now before it’s too late and have to wait until next year!

Early spring and some interesting wildlife encounters

Welcome to early spring on the North Shore! There is nothing better than spring time skiing on Cascade’s fine network of trails. Average daytime temperatures are very comfortable at 30-50 F. The sun shines brightly most days and enables one to enjoy an extended ski or snowshoe outing. It's so nice this time of year to have fun in the great outdoors and not freeze your buns off in the process! March 11th was easily the warmest day of the year with the mercury topping out at a balmy 47 degrees! Michael O’Phelan, the owner of Cascade Lodge had an exciting encounter driving home from work the other day. This handsome timber wolf was perhaps enjoying a nice venison meal along the roadway as he passed by. He paused just long enough to have his picture taken before returning to the woods. Yes, a very rare sighting indeed and during the middle of the day at that! Photo credits go out to Michael. Some early March ice build up along the shore prompted one brave deer to venture out on the ice. With many onlookers watching, the deer tentatively wandered about 200 yards from shore. Shortly thereafter the inevitable happened…the ice broke and the poor thing was submerged in the icy waters up to its neck. After struggling for a while, the deer was able to get its front hooves up on the ice and pull itself out of the hole! To everyone’s delight, the young deer was able to get back to safety with a great story to tell the rest of the herd!
This deer truly had the “Luck of the Irish.” Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

Sunny ski weekend at Cascade Lodge

This past weekend was a picture perfect February ski weekend on the North Shore. The conditions were ideal… crystal clear blue skies, temperatures hovering just above freezing, and freshly groomed ski trails. There were many people out enjoying the great skiing, snowshoeing, and sightseeing. Many guests reported seeing lots of deer and other wildlife back in the woods. The shear amount of tracks in the snow reveal that we are not alone out there. It makes one wonder about the nocturnal activities of the four-legged variety that must transpire after the two-legged brethren turn in for the night. A warm fire in our cozy lodge living room and a hot beverage awaited guests and visitors alike after a long day out on the trails. There’s always a lot of good story telling and colorful characters to entertain. It seems like everyone has a great story to share about their personal adventures in the great North Woods. Saturday also brought along a first for Cascade Lodge…an outdoor winter wedding! The Lodge holds many weddings throughout the year, but this one was unique. How cold was it going to be? Was it going to snow? Those questions were answered after hearing the weatherman’s report of mostly sunny and unseasonably warm with temperatures in the low 30’s. The ceremony held at the outdoor chapel was absolutely wonderful with the sun shining down brightly from the heavens. It was followed by a lovely reception in the main lodge living room. All in attendance had a joyous time and let us know about it during Sunday check out. It was very nice to hear about all the great experiences. A truly memorable weekend!