Fall colors, grouse and glorious weather

Fall Colors Bright on a Sunny Day

Northern Minnesota has a variety of forest type ranging from mixed hardwoods to lowland conifer. You can encounter all sorts of colorful mixes on a variety of scenic drives. another option is to bring your boat and explore the spectacular scenery of Voyageurs National Park. If you would like suggestions of great scenic drives and fun points of interest, drop me an email. I can also tell you about boat tours or guides available this fall in case you don’t have a boat. For a quick look at Voyageurs, watch this fun video.








Ruffed Grouse, the King of Game Birds!

Minnesota is one of the top grouse hunting states in the nation. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources drumming counts were up this spring. There’s plenty of statistical evidence of the boom and bust cycle of grouse populations and they are on their way up this year, heading for a peak near the end of the decade. Northern Minnesota is where you will find the concentration of habitat that supports the largest numbers of birds. E-mail us and we can let you know where there are some nice hunter walking trails in our area. To get some insight, and have a look at typical northern Minnesota grouse woods. Check out this video.



Bird’s Eye View of Bird’s Nests!

​Seeing Voyageurs National Park from the air is a really different perspective. Minnesota Public Radio Photographer Evan Frost includes quite a few great aerial photos in his really nice photo tour of Voyageurs National Park. One in particular shows about three dozen cormorant nests in a wetlands grove of dead trees deep within the park. Now, think about this: Minnesota Public Radio Photographer sounds kind of like Secret Service Uniform Division doesn’t it. Is that irony? Never mind the ramblings, just click to see the photo essay here.






Continental Divides and Waysides!

So, you go roaming around in search of fall colors and find there are a lot of waysides located on the continental divide. That’s because there are three divides in our region. There is a place called the Hill of Three Waters in the Hibbing/Chisholm area where they all meet. Sorry, you can’t visit there, it is within one of the taconite mines. From this hill, a bucket of water might travel north through our region on it’s way to Hudson’s Bay, or, it might just wander a bit west and flow into the Mississippi and then the Gulf of Mexico, or, it could head east, enter Lake Superior and end up in the Atlantic. This is an easily accessible wayside on the Laurentian Divide just off of Minnesota 38, “The Edge of the Wilderness National Scenic Byway.” Just one of the great Scenic Byways near International
Falls, Ranier and Rainy Lake. click here for more information.

​​Bring your fishing gear!

Fall is when the game fish put on the feedbag while the colder weather sets in. The waters may be full of forage, but you can compete, your just need to have your bait stand out. One tip is to use a spinner rig, the extra flash and thump of the spinner seems to help trigger bites. You have to be mindful of a few other things, like making sure your presentation is in about the same vertical area as the fish and that your retreiving or trolling speed is not too fast. the size of the spinner blades make a difference too. A larger blade will tend to stay higher in the water column while smaller blades tend to stay deeper. Some anglers will use a weight or weighted core line to hit the right depth. Another factor is the bait, generally live bait will be best and minnows will be the best of the live bait. Even the type of minnow matters. Check out this link to the “Ultimate Fishing Site” which offers Rainy Lake and season specific tips as well as quite a few videos. click here.

Miss the International Falls Bass Championship? Catch the Video.

The local access TV Channel in International Falls put together a video to show the Bass championship, from the Boat Parade through to the final weigh-in with flashed of the entertainment, games and family fun zone. Take a look and you’ll see why this event is the premier fishing tournament in Minnesota. It’s worth a look just to see the new IFBC Mascot “Toadzilla” be sure to note that smokey bear has that bass hooked! Click here to see the video.​

Very Cool Interactive Website!

The Heart of the Continent site is a National Geographic Geo-tourism site where points of interest, scenic vistas, unique places to visit or eat or stay have been listed. The site is fairly easy to navigate. Zoom in on an area, Like International Falls and you will see icons representing things to see, places to eat, recreational opportunities and the like. Those icons can be filetered so if you want to see only Recreational opportunities, you can do that.The Heart of the Continent area stretches from International Falls and Fort Frances (and the historic Rainy River mounds west of here) to Duluth in the United States and Thunder Bay in Ontario, Canada and all the points within that rough triangle.The site is also mobile friendly so you can use it while you are traveling. See the “Travel the Heart” site here.