How much has the lake come up?

That's a good question. Since it began raining in early September, we have received over 25 inches. Gunflint Lake has benefitted greatly from this, not only from the rain actually falling into it, but also from the run-off. I asked Greg for some observations on the lake level, and here is what he shared with me.

Offhand, it probably came up 36 inches. Last November, it was a foot lower than it was this year before it started raining.(That would be around September 6th.) Without actually measuring it, he estimates that it is 47 and 3/4 inches higher than it was last year in December. That's a lot of water!

I prefer to see landmarks that help me understand what has happened. To that end, here are some photos to share.

This photo of our boat landing was taken on October 18th.

This was taken just four days later.

I took this one today. These are the two trees on our beach (or what remains of it) that had fallen down after the blowdown storm in 1999. With the high water and waves, these two trees are once again under stress. We are hoping that the water doesn't take away all of the soil/sand that surrounds the roots.

This one is a bit dark, but it is of the lake today, when the wind came from the northwest. Greg is just to the right of this pool. He is out at Cedar Point, looking west. Where the waves seem to be crashing is a line of rocks that normally delineates the top of the beach. Water has spilled over that. This is true in many places. We are seeing standing water, islands of trees, rocks on the shoreline completely submerged. We had more rain today, though not as much. The next few days are supposed to be sunny, so that should give the shoreline a reprieve.