The Banadad Bulletin

The following information on the Lizard Lake fire was posted by the Forest Service this morning:

NEWS RELEASE
Superior National Forest
August 30, 2010, 8:00 am
Lizard Lake Fire – Gunflint Ranger District

Situation Update – Monday, August 30, 2010
The weather Sunday was a mirror image of conditions on Saturday. The winds were strong 10 to 15 miles per hour with gusts to 25 miles per hour, temperatures were warm, and relative humidity was low. Despite this, the fire perimeter remained relatively the same. The overall fire size increased about 6 acres and the total fire area is estimated at 51 acres. The fire is very patchy with islands of unburned vegetation interspersed within the burn. Large water dropping aircraft, CL215s worked the north and east perimeters of the fire again on Sunday and were very effective in containing the spread of the fire in those directions. Weather conditions for Monday are expected to be similar as to what the fire has experienced over the past several days but the relative humidity is expected to be a little higher and there is an increasing chance of precipitation on Monday and Tuesday. The fire did receive some moisture overnight about 0.17 inches, the relative humidity is about 97 percent and winds are light.
Water dropping aircraft will be used again on Monday to cool the northern and eastern perimeter of the fire in preparation for another day of hot, windy weather.

Nature and Cause of Incident
Smoke was spotted on 8/26/10 by USFS fire personnel traveling on the Gunflint Trail. The origin of the fire is believed to be a lightning strike from a thunderstorm 7 – 10 days ago.

Location – Size – Fuels
The fire is in the BWCAW approximately 1 ½ miles north of Long Island Lake; 1 mile south of Dawkins Lake. The size is estimated at 45 acres at this time. Fuels in the vicinity include lowland conifers, tamarack and white spruce.

The fire is not near canoe travel routes and is not a threat to visitor safety or structures. The closest portages are: the Rib Lake to Lower George Lake Portage which is approximately ¾ mile to the west; and the Lower George to Karl Lake Portage which is approximately 1.5 miles to the SW. There are no closures or restrictions in the BWCAW as a result of this fire and none are anticipated.

Management Strategy
Vegetation in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness is part of a fire adapted ecosystem. This fire is being managed to allow fire to play its natural role in the wilderness.

Contact Information
For current conditions:

check the Superior National Forest (SNF) web site, www.fs.usda.gov/superior;

SNF Information on Boreal News at: www.boreal.org.;

or call the Gunflint Office at 218-387-1750.

As a result of yesterday’s rain the following email was received from, Donna Hart,  USFS  Gunflint Ranger District, Grand Marais, “Effective today, Friday May 14 at noon (12:00 p.m. ) the fire restrictions are liffed, Fires are allowed anywhere, anytime.”

This means both inside and outside the BWCA campfires are now allowed.

Sorry folks the snow is gone; the Banadad is no longer ski-able. See you next winter. The last skier on the trail was March 20th.

I just was on the east end of the Banadad yesterday and there  still is enough snow left for a few more days of skiing. The tracks are about gone and you will find bare spots on the side of the trail. You can ski out 3 kilometer as far as the first beaver pond where the snow is gone for about 4o meter and then continue on another 2 kilometers to the Lizz Lake Portage.

Spring skiing on Tuesday on the Banadad–conditions were still good on Tuesday early afternoon–watch out for a couple bare spots, but there are long stretches on the east end of the trail that are still lovely skiing!  A moose was also taking advantage of the trail on Tuesday–but he was well behaved and knew to walk alongside the trail and not in the tracks!   Great job of grooming, Ted!

There is almost no snow anywhere, but as of Sunday, March 14, the Banadad was in great shape!  It was freshly groomed on Saturday and the conditions were good–a few icy spots but only a few. It is rare to ski the Banadad in 50 degree temps with no coat.  It is beautiful in this weather.  now, I did not see a lynx, but it was still wonderful. – Linda

After several weeks of above freezing temperatures the Banadad remain open for skiing. Yesterday’s skiers reported that there was still plenty of snow along the trail, no bare spots over the section of the east end they skier but there was a lot of sticks and pine nettles scattered along the trail.   With the warm weather the snow is soft.

The ice covered alder brush and small trees clogging the Banadad Ski Trail from last months storm, and that forced the closing of the trail, has finally been removed. The Banadad is once again open.  The re-opening of the trail took nine-four hours of hard-wet-cold hand labor by trail crews.

Groomers have now finished packing the fresh snow and the re-setting of tracks begins today, February 11. It is expected that the track setting of the Banadad will be completed by tomorrow.

According to trail maintenance manager, Ted Young, “the brush that clogged the trail from this storm was by far and away the worst I have ever seen in my twenty-seven years of working on the Banadad. The crews that helped re-open the trails did a great job!  Young continued, “I wish to give a special thanks to Jim Morrison, Peter Spink, Pete Harris, John and Barbara Bottagar who volunteered their time along with paid trail workers, Jim Raml, Mike and Matt Hendrickson.  And thanks to other members of the Banadad Trail Assocation who, contributed moral support, including support from as far away as New Zealand. The re-opening of the Banadad was truly a team effort.”

Ted Young, Trail Administrator t- Last week I had to attend an important but boring state tourism conference; I was gone four days. When I returned I discoved that the weekend’s rain followed by twelve inches of snow had devastated the Banadad. The ice/snow covered brush and small trees had caved into the trail making it impassable. I have since hired two local guys and who along with Jim Raml and I are working to get the trail opened. Thus far we have now spent fifty-seven hours (two or three people each day) on the trail. We now  have approximately 25kms of 39 kms open. We expect it will take another thirty hours or so to complete the job. I have requested supplementary funds from the DNR but not sure if they will come through.