Trout Lake

The Trout Lake trailhead is located 20 miles north of Grand Rapids, Minnesota in the Chippewa National Forest. The property at one time was a plush summer resort for the Joyce family, a wealthy lumber tycoon from Chicago, Illinois, USA. The family owned the property from 1880 to 1973. At the time the property contained 30 out buildings, a lodge, several cabins, a bath house, and even a nine hole golf course. The estate was called "Nopeming". As we left the trail head we soon came upon bear scat and some very defined bear prints along the trail. The area had been logged at the begining of the century, but today it is fully recovered. The Jack Russell Terriers were very active at this point from the many distracting smells along the trail. Keeping them on the trail required constant effort. After about two hours of hiking through the national forest we reached "Nopeming." In its hay day this place was quite a hunting lodge, but only four buildings remain standing today. The wood tick population was in full swing, and with the high grass around the estate, the Jack Russell Terriers were covered with them. The ticks were brown with white heads, and we had never came across this type of tick before. It reminded me of the original movie "The Fly" at the end where the little fly with the human head is stuck in the spider's web calling out, "help me, help me". We climbed to the top of the bath house that was located on a pennisula that juted out into the lake to remove the ticks and eat lunch. Nitro wanted to swim in the lake and battle the breaking waves as they came to shore. We watched two Loons dive for fish while we rested and finished lunch.

After lunch we walked around the estate before heading back the way we came. There were picnic tables hued from 60 year old logs that looked like they could last another 60 years. On the way back, we ran into large masses of mosquitos that harressed us and the Jack Russell Terriers through most of the low lying areas of the trail. Our attempted to take pictures of some timber wolf paw prints on the trail were continously interrupted as we were forced up the trail. Except for the bugs this was a nice 6.6 mile hike that followed a well defined tractor trail to the eastate. Trout Lake is a semi-primative non-motorized area. It provides scenic views over rolling terrian in a very wild setting. We did not see anyone the day we hiked the trail, but from the bear and timber wolf prints along the trail, night time is a much different story. There are numerous primative campsites in the area for the more daring. This hike require about five and a half hours to complete, and there were adequate rest rooms at both ends of the trail. Although Nitro, Bandit, and Buzz never got to harrass a bear or timber wolf, they enjoyed the afternoon without any incident.