September 2022

By Katya Gordon At another steamy meet at Pattison Golf Course south of Superior, Wisconsin, the North Shore Storm (with runners from Cook County, Silver Bay, and Two Harbors) had a very respectable showing against ten other teams from around the region including Duluth East and Superior High School. This was a new meet and a new course for the Storm, relatively “flat and easy” according to the runners. The weather was anything but easy however, as temperatures again hovered in the mid 80s. A breeze and haze kept the conditions from worsening, but water spraying and ice was handed out after the race and the danger of hyperthermia was distinctly present.

Editor’s note: We will soon return to the saga of the Great March for Community Newspapers. In the meantime... We had our annual visit from the ghost of Babe Ruth last weekend at the shack. He appeared out of nowhere at home plate in vast and historic Camp Shack Stadium, No. 3 in Yankee pinstripes, wistfully looking toward the outfield fence, facing a past that has receded from view like a passing comet. “The old days are gone,” he said shaking his head with a reminiscent smile. “I used to know every kid that changed the numbers in every scoreboard in the league. I can still see their faces peering out from those scoreboards, excited about the game. Now they sit there and play videogames in between pitches in a control room that looks like it came out of a Buck Rogers movie, too preoccupied to be excited about the game. I couldn’t use a cell phone if it came in a bottle of rye.” The Babe stops by every hunting season for a drink and a cigar and he really is a cheerful fellow, even in a deceased state. “Nothing wrong with being departed, inanimate, without physical substance, defunct. My knees don’t hurt and I haven’t had a hangover since 1948. Don’t rush to get here but it ain’t all bad.” He signs our shack log every year and we have an autographed picture of him on the wall that says: “To the boys at the shack, save a drink for me.” Here’s to you, Babe.

Bikes and Trails One of the best purchases I made during the Covid-19 pandemic was a gravel bike, the acquisition made much easier with the stimulus check I received from the federal government. I was lucky to find the bike, because in the wake of massive lay-offs, bike manufacturing slowed way down, and the existing supply was being rapidly depleted as folks bought bikes and pretty much every other type of recreational equipment to help fill their free time. For me, getting a bike re-connected me to an important part of my youth, satisfied some local wanderlust, and was an easy way to maintain some of the aerobic fitness that typically peaks for me at the end of the ski season.I think for the vast majority of kids from my generation a bicycle was a huge part of their lives—the small-scale parallel of the adult world, where the car or motorcycle was the key to mobility across the landscape and a symbol of personal freedom. For sure, my friends and I felt free to go where we pleased on our bikes, the radius traveled from home increasing as we aged. By the time we were on the cusp of getting our driver’s license, that radius was as far as fifteen miles, mostly to access local lakes and streams to fish—or to explore the rapidly vanishing pockets of somewhat wild land remaining in suburbia. I believe every kid today, no matter what, should own a bike or have easy access to one.Biking, like so many other sports or activities, has morphed and splintered into a wide variety of niches, and the new technologies and materials applied to bikes has made them lighter and more efficient to ride than ever. Think carbon fiber and titanium. And if you like to ride on a variety of terrains, you will need more than one bike. That road bike ain’t gonna be fun to ride on gravel, and that gravel bike might be outgunned on some single tracks–or on snow. Some(electric bikes or “ebikes”) even have battery- powered motors to assist the rider on uphills or anywhere else they mig

The NFL regular season roared off to start with an eventful opening day. The Minnesota VIKINGS met up with longtime rival, the Green Bay Packers, in a game that had some of the usual game-week tension and excitement. Being a lifelong fan of the VIKES, I am keenly aware of some enhanced physical and mental changes in the lead-up to any game between these two. There is a little bit of stress, the pulse and metabolism likely go up in a measurable fashion, and you get this overall feeling that something really big is on the verge of happening.