Garden Lake Resort Blog

We had a stretch of beautiful weather up at our Ely Minnesota resort for a few weeks. Warm days in the mid 70s, cool nights in the mid 50s.  Some days have been clear with a sky strikingly blue. Other days the sky has been dappled with white cotton clouds that are as animated and entertaining as a two-year-old child. Perfect weather, really. 

The days are long now, and the great weather makes you want to start early and end late and soak up as much of the day as you can.  We have over fifteen hours of daylight to fish, swim, hike, bike, picnic, paddle, golf, and camp until--whew!--finally a rainy day.

Thank goodness!

From our Garden Lake Resort dock, guests can get to the BWCAW via South Farm Lake and the Kawishiwi River.  Mark Ellerbroek often gives them a short tow to the mouth of the river, and from there they are able to fish and explore  the hundreds of miles of paddle-only lakes in the Boundary Waters.

Most of the time, our guests use canoes or kayaks on paddle-only lakes and rivers. But not always! One of our resort families has mastered tube fishing in northern Minnesota.  

For many years now, this family has headed to our Ely Minnesota resort for a week or two of intense fishing. Admittedly not the usual family of anglers, this group fishes morning, afternoon and night, and they do it mostly from float tubes on the paddle-only areas of the Kawishiwi River.

June was a great bass fishing month for most Ely Minnesota resort guests. Early June is usually a great time for finding bass in shallow water as they get ready to spawn. Later in the month, they move out into deeper water along breaks and points. Due to the colder weather this spring, the fishing patterns were a few weeks behind schedule.

In mid June, two friends and I decided to take a day trip into a near-by BWCA lake. Normally we would look for a fourth person so we could use two canoes but this time, my friend Wade decided to use his kayak for the trip.

When the time comes that you're ready to put your fishing gear aside for a bit and move from the water to the shore, consider the many hiking trails around the Ely area.  There are as many trails to navigate and explore as there are lakes, it seems. Some of our favorites are within a ten-mile radius of Garden Lake Resort.

In town, we have the Trezona Trail, a four mile loop around Miners Lake.  The trail is mostly paved and moderate. Here you'll find people of all ages walking, biking, rollerblading, pushing strollers and walking dogs. The trail is popular with cross country skiers in the winter-and in the summer, as they train using roller skies.

Just up the Fernberg Road is the Kawishiwi Falls hiking trail that leads to the impressive waterfalls created by the Fall Lake dam. The loop to the falls and back to the parking area is approximately two miles. The trail is moderate and well maintained; however, you'll want to wear sturdy hiking shoes to keep a steady foot over rocks and roots. The trail leads to an area of low, flat rocks just below the falls that makes for a perfect picnic spot.

At Garden Lake Resort, we are surrounded by natural beauty. But we like to add to it, too!

Dianna believes something about gardens make a place. She devotes hours tending to the eight annual beds around the cabins and on the piers and a big perennial garden next to the house and office. Perennials around the resort include hostas, old-fashioned bleeding hearts and fern leaf bleeding hearts, bluebells, peonies, lilies, irises, and day lilies. Hanging baskets and potted annuals--geraniums, canna lilies, begonias, petunias and more--can be found all around the resort.

 Years ago, Mark and Dianna's oldest son--then a young boy-brought Dianna wild columbine that he dug up in the woods. It didn't come back the next year--not in the same place. Instead it shot out roots and ended up blooming in a different spot. Since then, Dianna lets it do what it will. Every year is a surprise with our wild columbine. "Flowers are enjoyable not only for me but also for our guests," Dianna said.  "They're a lot of work, but when you're done and look around, you take a deep breath and enjoy." There are many things that make our Minnesota resort special. Our flowers are just one of them. As Dianna says, "It wouldn't seem like Garden Lake Resort without gardens and flowers." Right now, the wildflowers along the Kawishiwi Trail that leads to our resort are all abloom. It is they--more so than the date on the calendar--that mark the start of summer.

Minnesota resort vacations are relaxing, rejuvenating, and refreshing. No doubt, a week or two up north in a Minnesota cabin can renew your soul. At Garden Lake Resort, a week or two at our Ely MN lodging is good for your body, too--in more ways than one. Since December 2007, we've gone green!

Green

The term green is used to describe efforts and actions that are safe and beneficial to our environment. For us at Garden Lake Resort, green means using natural, non-toxic cleaning products and energy efficient appliances. Green means being aware of our habits and inviting our guests to be aware of theirs, too. Green means doing our part to ensure the pristine wilderness environment we love remains preserved for generations to come.

"Anglers fishing the lakes in the Ely vicinity and within the Boundary Waters have been rewarded with some of the best early season fishing in years!"

These words, posted on a Minnesota fishing reports site, are echoed by our Garden Lake Resort guests and others who have been out on Garden Lake and our chain lakes, White Iron, Farm and South Farm.

Spring fishing is at its best.

One of the things our guests like best about staying at our Ely Minnesota resort is our nightly campfires.

It's our ritual. As day gives way to night, we gather around the fire ring that's centrally located behind our cabins. There is a time and place for serious conversation, but it's not when we're sitting around the campfire! Then it's a time for stories and sometimes skits and almost always s'mores. On occasion, Mark and friends will bring out the guitars and the singing begins.  

Campfires give us the opportunity to unwind and unplug. Without the distractions of TVs and DVDs and cell phones and iPods, we're free to focus on the friends and family who have gathered with us around the fire, and the fire itself. We tell stories about fishing and hiking and trips to town that are enlivened by the giddiness we feel from the joy of being around the fire. How often in our everyday lives do we tend to the preparation of food the way we do to the roasting of a marshmallow over an open fire? We carefully chose just the right spot over just the right color flame to toast our marshmallow to just the right shade of brown (or black for some!).  Even the very young guests staying in our Ely cabins can participate, to their delight. As the darkness of the night deepens, our voices become hushed. Our conversation dies down, as do the fire's flames. By then, we're entranced by the colors of the glowing embers. This is why our guests choose our Ely Minnesota lodging.  Up here, the fishing's always fine and the air is always fresh, but it's the fellowship around the campfire that calls us home.

For we who love to fish, thoughts of spring begin before Opener and even before March 21. They begin in mid February, or sometimes late January, when we begin to inventory our tackle boxes and dog-ear pages of Cabela's and other sports equipment catalogs. Long before ice is out, we spend hours trolling through In-Fisherman articles for tips and contemplating rigs and jigs.

Then Opener comes. . .

At Garden Lake Resort this spring, we've heard many people say the fishing has never been better. On Garden Lake and our chain of lakes, walleye, northern, and bass are active, aggressive, and biting.  In Ely, the talk about town is of minnows and lures and limits--lots of talk of people getting their limits. And then, of course, there's talk, too, of batter and butter and seasonings.

One of the first things guests do when they arrive at Garden Lake Resort--sometimes even before they check-in at the office--is head to the lake.

They may stand on the dock, sigh deeply, and scan the tea-colored water, making their plans. Or--especially if they're young--they may lie flat on their stomachs on the dock and run their fingers through the water. Sometimes, no matter their age, they kick off their shoes or sandals and stick in a toe. They look beyond their reflections on the water's surface, searching for minnows or pan fish, or crayfish or turtles swimming below. They may skip a rock or two from the shore of our sand beach. Or, they may grab a stick, trying to gauge the depth of the water or pretending to cast.

Reluctantly, they pull away from the lake to check-in and unpack. But soon they're back by the lake with bathing suits on or gear in hand. They may go in the water, or lie beside the water, or go out on the water. Regardless, they head to the lake.

It is finally feeling like spring in Ely MN. This year's long cold winter has prolonged the melting of ice on Garden Lake and has given fisherman the opportunity to catch big black crappie in the west arm of Garden Lake. This is my favorite part of the lake due to virtually no homes or development. The land surrounding this beautiful bay is primarily thick pines and ledge rock.

My friend Wade and I ventured out this morning to see if we could catch enough crappie for a fish fry. It was a beautiful, sunny morning and the temperatures rose from around 28 to 55 degrees by mid day. The lack of snow on the ice made it easy for us to quickly drill several holes and start fishing.

Within the first hour, we had caught around eight fish between 9 and 12 inches. This was a good start but we knew that this bay had bigger fish. We moved several times throughout the morning and around noon, our efforts finally paid off. Wade looked at his depth finder and saw activity just above his bait. He slowly brought his line up to meet the mark on the graph. Suddenly, the bobber went down and the hook was set! Seconds later, a golden slab of a crappie came through the hole in the ice. This beautiful 15 inch crappie was the largest of the day.