Ely

Many believe that the journey ends when you run out of road,
but here in Ely, we think that your journey can’t really start
until nature pulls your senses off the road.


After shutting off my lights on one particular night I found myself stepping out into an absolutely glorious atmosphere. It was warm and comfortable. As I moved towards the door of my house, I felt a tug to turn around and just enjoy the evening for awhile, and with that I made my way to the shoreline of Garden Lake.

On the way I could fell the presence of something that I had not felt for a long time: humidity. Finally, after several weeks of bone-dry weather conditions, rain had made a graceful entry into the northeastern Minnesota where it was accepted with open arms by both people and plants alike. And so the grass thanked the rain in a special way by giving off its summer fragrance that it had withheld until the arrival of water.

Reaching the lake, I took in a deep breath; everything was peaceful as the animal kingdom laid down for the coming of dark, or at least I thought.

Thump!

I looked up, my senses revved into fifth gear. Glancing around I tried to distinguish who, what, or even where that noise had come from. It had sounded like a flat rock making a belly flop into the water, but knowing that rocks can only do cannonballs, I ventured that it was probably something more nature-like.

Peering towards the lake, I began to differentiate between the dusky lake and a little blob and the quiet wake it was producing. Then it came to me: I had heard a beaver swatting its tail on the water, and sure enough as I moved onto the dock, I could make out two beavers swimming wide semicircles in front of me. In a way it kind of looked as if they were guarding the lake from a foreign species, warding me off with an intimidating thump.

I smiled. It was fine with me if they controlled the lake that night. I was happy just observing tonight.

Behind these two security guards was an impressive yet fading orchestra of birds playing the last refrain of a day long songacross the narrow, motionless bay.

With the silhouettes growing darker and the stars beginning to shine through the sky's canopy, God himself was surely smiling down on me that night. I could not help but wonder: What I would have missed if I had turned in that night rather than stepping out into the wonderful theater of life?

No Regrets

I have been attending VCC for two years now and will be graduating with a degree in Water Quality Science. The reasons I chose to come here are the small class sizes and the teacher-to-student ratio. All the teachers are extremely good at what they do. They make time for students, not only giving additional help but also speaking to them individually. This is a rare thing to find at college, so I am glad I chose to come here.
It was a combination of the academic programs and fishing and hunting that made me want to come here, and I have no regrets about my decision.
David Pufall, sophomore Water Quality student

Five Weeks Left

As the ice recedes from the lakes and the dull browns and grays are turning to greens and colors of spring, there are changes about. Obviously, spring is here. You can see it in the students here. We are getting anxious, antsy, excited for our final weeks of the ’09-‘10 school year. The days are longer, and the weather is warming as well. We are spending time outside enjoying the season.
Five weeks left.
We need to enjoy ourselves for our own sanity, but at the same time, we need to keep at the books and not let our studies down.
What a great time of year!
Jake Otto, freshman Fish Wildlife student

New expirience

This year at Vermilion, I have seen things that I would have never seen in Vermont. I was able to see wolves for the first time. They are magnificent animals. They definitely strike fear into me knowing how big they actually are. I have also seen five eagles since being in Minnesota. Before this, I had only seen one wild eagle and one domesticated eagle. The wildlife up here is completely new to me. It’s an experience I’m glad to have.
Jared Hodgin, freshman Wild LE student

Bone Hunting

Sometimes fun times are hard to come by over a long weekend.
There’s smelting. Smelting is fun to do with a bunch of guys because of running the nets through the water and catching all the little fish. Cleaning is the worst, but they taste good when cooked in a fry pan.
And there’s hiking. A hike can turn into a lot of fun. My roommates and I got into a truck this weekend and drove. We came to the end of a road and leapt out of the vehicle. We started to hike through the woods, looking for sheds.
We ended up finding nothing but a road. We followed that road for about half a mile.
The road led to a lake. It was beautiful.
We rounded back and found some moose bones. Nothing better than finding what you’re looking for!
Overall, we hiked for four hours. We got good exercise and found some moose bones. It was a fun hike and another memory to add to our college years.
--Timothy Robert Winter, Tyler Bortle and Calab Svenby, freshmen students

A memory

As Easter weekend was winding down, I found myself sitting at my grandparents', overlooking Lake Vermilion and wishing upon no hope that school would disappear.
The sun was glistening off the gentle waves rolling in from the east. To make matters better, the temperature was sitting at a perfect 55 degrees. Earlier that day, my grandma documented this year as the earliest on record the ice had ever gone out of Frezer Bay. But none of these facts allowed school to come to a halt, and, like all good memories, this one had to come to an end to become just that... a memory.
This past weekend was just a small taste of that yet to come. In just six weeks, summer will be upon us, although I must not be too hasty, for I do like Minnesota, and weather here has a mind of its own . . .

--Erick Ellison, freshman Wild Mgmt student

Snow Carving Fun

The two of us decided to take on the challenge of snow carving for the first time. It was difficult to come up with a good design. We settled on our object to carve the day before we started. Since it was the first time to try snow carving for the both of us, we weren't sure what to expect. Some big challenges for us were; Visualizing something round coming out of a square block, communicating with each other, finding time to work on the sculpture, and keeping pieces attached to the sculpture. In the end we were quite satisfied with our sculpture. We cant wait for next year to come around when we can try our hand at carving again!

Derek and Kate
(Winners Adult Amateur Division)