Busy Beavers at Baker Pond

One of the indicators of water shed levels in the Grand Marais area is the Baker Pond, located a few miles east of town. Of course, that also depends on the beaver activity in the pond. My friend, Mary, and I drove over there last night to investigate.

I have actually seen this pond completely dry in past drought years.  But I have seen where it also has flooded the road on the east side of the pond.  There is certainly some water, but way less than normal.

The beavers are always working on building up this spot where the pond empties into a creek.  I was hoping to see the beavers, but we were not that lucky.

Evidence of the lower than usual water level is seen in the following picture.  This area is usually full of water.  You can see past beaver pilings at the end of this former channel.

Here is a shot of the creek looking down stream.

Off to the side we noticed some huge trees that the beavers cut.  These are certainly tenacious beavers.  The first tree fell across the road.  Someone cut the top half and moved to the other side of the road.  In total the two halves indicate that the beavers cut down a tree over 50 feet tall.  After all that work they must have been disappointed that they could not move it.  I wonder if they were scared when the tree fell.

Here is another one that they did not topple.  The section to the left actually did break off, but it is being held up by branches from another tree.

I took this photo looking straight up the tree's trunk.  It is around 30 feet tall.

I liked the way the sun was back lighting last year's cattail.