Walking The Trails

Dear Knittah,

Noricum's family maintains a network of trails near the cabin. I thought you might enjoy some of the sights.

Near the cabin there's an abandoned gravel pit. The city of Flin Flon used to dig gravel there in the winter time... the gravel could only be dug in the winter because they had to drive across the ice to get to the gravel pit. Recently a family of foxes has been living in the gravel pit. On our walk, we went to check out the various dens:

However, it looks like they haven't been used for some time. Perhaps they were used earlier in the spring and summer, and the family moved out when the kits were older?

Here's a view of the gravel pit from the top, looking down:

You can tell from the size of the trees just how long it's been since the city dug there. (Also, remember that this is northern Manitoba... we counted rings in a tree that was cut down... it's only 4" in diameter, but there were over 100 rings!)

This is the view from the top of "Lookout Mountain":

It's not actually a mountain, but it is the highest point near the cabin, and it has a nice view. If you look closely, you can see one downside of the location of the cabin: Flin Flon is a mining town, and has a smelter operation. When the wind is from the wrong direction, we get to breathe the smelter smoke. Yuck!

This tree at the top of Lookout Mountain is the climbing tree:

Noricum's grandfather carved some of the branches to make it easy to climb higher for a better view. However, the tree is quite old, and the carved branches are now quite brittle. No one climbs it any more.

One of the good things about the location of the cabin is the wild blueberries!

Sadly, our trip was *after* blueberry season. *sigh*

More to come!

Love,
Swatchy