Some Gunflint Outfitters History...

Thanksgiving Drama - Part 2

Meanwhile the moose must have struggled for almost an hour with everyone watching. People tried to eat but their eyes kept coming back to the animal. New arrivals quickly became caught up in the drama on the lake.

Different ideas of how to help were suggested but nothing seemed possible. The ice was too thin. There was no road access to the shoreline. Besides any human attempt to help would probably just spook the animal. The only option left was to focus our collective will power and try to will the animal onto strong ice.

Finally the animal’s front feet got a grip on solid ice. It drag its body up onto the ice. The first few minutes it just lay on the ice to gather strength. Then it got up - it wasn’t a moose but a deer! The deer seemed to get steadier on its feet with each passing minute. The audience in the lodge felt a sense of relief and success. Maybe our energies had helped in some indefinable way.

As the deer started slowly moving to shore, attention moved back to dinner. It was time for a second trip through the buffet line. Bruce started sharpening his knife. Others were ready to pick out their dessert. A few continued to casually watch the deer while sipping their coffee. The rest of us who were working started to concentrated on our jobs again.

The second act in this little drama open just before the deer reached shore. Two wolves came running out from the shore to attack the deer. A couple of people who were still watching the deer alerted us to the new danger. The wolves may have been watching from shore the entire time. They may have driven the deer onto the ice to begin with. No one in the dining room had seen where the deer had originally come from.

Once again everyone’s attention was drawn to the struggle, but it was a different kind of struggle this time. Our preconceptions made us think that the bad guys were attacking our hero. In reality, this was just a natural struggle between predator and prey. Nature does not have good guys and bad guys.

The deer quickly reacted to the wolves by running back out onto the ice. The wolves were right on her heels. She ran back to the channel of broken ice and jumped in. As she swam out toward the open water, the wolves ran on the ice along the channel. Both of them would reach down and nip at the deer. Soon the wolves got as far out on the thin ice as they felt comfortable. They stopped.

The approach of darkness, however, was not stopping. It was now close to 4:30. Full dark comes by 5:00 p.m. at this time of year. We could just barely see the wolves. Because the deer was not struggling in the water, we couldn’t see her at all. Was she still alive? Could she swim across the open water to the far shore almost ½ mile away? The curtain of darkness dropped.

First light the next morning brought up the final curtain on our little drama. We all peered into the increasing light. The view did not answer our questions. The wolves were gone. No sign could be seen of the deer on the ice. There were, however, a several birds feeding on something either in the channel or on the ice next to it. Was the dead deer floating in the channel for birds to feed on? It didn’t seem like there were enough birds for that. Had the deer managed to swim to the far shore or did exposure and exhaustion kill her somewhere in between?

No neat ending was ever given to our drama. Those of us who like solutions found it hard to accept a lack of any ending at all. Naturalist who study animals know that this is often the results to their studies. We felt cheated with no one to tell us the end of the story.

Read Part 1...