Return of the Mosquitoes!

It seems to be a really great spring for tree pollen this year! I really felt it on my five mile rail-trail run last Saturday morning. Even though there was a light drizzle to knock some of the particulate down, the oxygen transfer didn’t feel anywhere close to normal. While an afternoon hike would have been the preferred activity, the rainy, cool weather provided me the opportunity to complete one of my creative projects indoors.

Sunday we joined a big group of our friends to take a hike to the Black Creek Nature Sanctuary on Lake Superior. I don’t have any photos to share, but I did bring the GoPro along and you can check out my video on this link to the Remote Workforce Keweenaw YouTube channel at:

Memorial Day would be our last open Airbnb date until at least September, so the day was spent working in the yard, cutting grass, and assembling a load of trash to be hauled off to the Houghton County transfer station the following day. I stayed up late that night to check out the expected meteor shower at 1:00 a.m. The new moon provided the perfect dark sky for stargazing, but a couple of bands of thin clouds created a couple of periods of less than optimal viewing. While kicking back in a zero-gravity chair on our lakeside deck, I spotted five meteors, a couple of satellites, and a high-flying jet in the forty minutes I was out there. Even without a large number of meteors, the star-choked night sky in the Keweenaw did not disappoint! Best of all on this night was the total lack of mosquitoes!

Tuesday we headed down to the North Country Trail with our friend Mark to hike a portion of the trail south of Alston with the primary objective of taking a measurement where a bridge would need to be extended later in the week to address a higher level of water caused by some industrious beavers.

We continued eastward from this location hiking down to Boulder Creek.

After crossing the creek, the trail runs through a beautiful older-growth hemlock forest where there is a fair amount of up-and-down terrain.

Upon reaching the Silver River, Mark continued on to scout for fallen trees. Julie and I stayed at the river where I waded upstream taking in the views below. The clear river is shallow and has a firm sand bottom.

We did not encounter any mosquitoes, but maybe that was because of the wind which was gusting to up over 40 mph. We were able to answer the age-old question about if a tree falls in the woods…as we had a couple trees fall in the course of our hiking that were actually quite loud! Driving out on the Forest Service Roads, we had to make a major detour due to a tree that had fallen all the way across the road and we were nearly blocked again on our re-route! Pretty sorry that two North Country Trail volunteer sawyers were traveling without their chainsaws. It really isn’t a bad idea to have one along when you get into more remote areas, particularly when you venture onto logging roads.

If you would like to check out my GoPro video from this hike, check out this link to the Remote Workforce Keweenaw YouTube channel at:

Tuesday night we hosted a really cool Airbnb guest from Los Angeles who was on his way to Maine. He stayed with us to see a nun with whom he had been a pen pal with since the age of ten.

Wednesday was spent preparing for Thursday’s Planning Commission meeting and then running with the Keweenaw Running Group on the MTU Trails!

We met up with our incoming Airbnb guests after running and it turned out that we had many more guests than we had expected…by more guests I mean of the flying variety. The mosquitoes had arrived in large numbers!

Thursday morning was spent making final preparations for the evening’s Planning Commission meeting where we would be kicking off our Master Planning process. Since the day was really nice, we headed out to Agate Beach for a walk along Lake Superior. Julie stayed closer to the park and I walked at least a couple miles to the west and ran into no one at all!

Do you have the ability to work remotely? Would you value living in a place with ubiquitous natural beauty that has no congestion and lower crime? Consider locating in the Keweenaw where you will be surrounded by amazing places! Learn more by visiting the Remote Workforce Keweenaw website at https://remoteworkforcekeweenaw.com and learn about those who have made the decision to locate here by following the Remote Workforce Keweenaw Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/RemoteWorkforceKeweenaw