Judy Byykkonen and her family have been enjoying summer times at the Green Camp in Bootjack for 30 years now. I always look forward to the photos she posts, showing the beauty they experience and imagining how peaceful and calming the time must be, even with the younger generation livening things up, it still must be such a wonderful time with family and friends enjoying and relaxing together. Another of those making memory times in life. What a great way to document it all for years to come, with pictures to remember the fun times. My favorite shot is the last one, with the camp all lit up, although you can tell I like the view from the camp of the water scenes, too. What about that sunset? My guess is it’s from those Canadian fires masking the sunset, since we’ve had lots of haze in the air here lately. Either way, it sure was an unusual sight.

906 Outdoors is taking us to visit with the Agate Lady, Karen Brzys, at the Gitche Gumee Agate & History Museum in Grand Marais, MI. That lady KNOWS agates!

Great set with lots of wonderful memories. I can relate. Treasure these times while you're together. Mary, i agree with you, the picture of it all lit up is very charming.

Such great pictures. I was lucky
enough to visit Judy while she was
out there, and I saw for myself
why Judy continues to go back. The
view is awesome and the whole
place is so homey and inviting.

I, too, love the picture of the
camp lit up at night. It's so
inviting.

How incredible...these are stunning...LOVE the
Eagle, and that sunset is incredible. I'm sure it
is smoke....

That video is from Discovering, which I am so
addicted to. Awesome, awesome stuff! Do I wish I
could hit that area...and hang w/that agate lady
and go picking. That's the thing I miss the
most...picking agates. Labor Day was the day my
bud and I picked agates, come He** or High Water.
We did decades of agate picking.

Nice set! “The Green Camp at Night”
photo has me wondering; Is that
the front of the cabin and is it all
glass??? If so, how cool would that be.
Nice video too and I now know how
to pronounce “agates”. I always
called them “Aye-gates”, gates like
on a fence. Please tell me it ain’t so.

Alex, that is the front, facing
the water and it is all glass.
It's amazing!

I've always pronounced agates as
ag-its

Thanks Deb…that is amazing. It would seem
to me that you would have to be fully clothed
whilst walking around inside the cabin so
that peeping Tom’s can’t see your junk.

Alex, you are bad, lol. The rest
of the cabin isn't quite as open.
I believe that's the porch with a
view to kill

Great pics & video!! I love the intro to the U.P.
and "And one area code"!! lol

I'm assuming that's Torch Lake??? Is that lake
polluted from the past mining, or isn't it?
Depending on who you ask, one can get a variety of
answers.

It is Portage Lake. And I believe
there are parts that are polluted.
But I don't know how they
determine where.

I retired in the wrong place. That's the porch and view I'd like. But I'm actually right where I belong, 10 minutes from my Grandson, Rory. I don't understand most of what he says yet, but we are really starting to strangely communicate.

Excellent presentation of the museum and geology. My Geologist couldn't stop watching and rewinding to get all the details correct. Wow!, She sure knows agates. That was the best description, with great detail, of agate formation and hunting.

U.C.,

Yes, indeed. Torch Lake is a giant Super Fund site. I doubt it will ever receive the money required to clean it up. The number is just too big. Quite a bit of cleanup WAS done in places around the shoreline. It's been replanted and repurposed. But then I think they called it quits. The bottom of the lake is crazy with all sorts of bad stuff. Almost nothing all the way down to microorganisms can live in the mud. There are other places around the area that are included under the umbrella "Torch Lake Superfund". Calumet Lake & areas near Boston Lake.
And then there's the Gay Stamp Sands.

Torch Lake SuperFund

I forgot to add that the EPA reports that there are no problems when it comes to human exposure, surface water & ground water.

Yes, D.A., I don't see it getting
cleaned up in my lifetime, for
sure. I thought they had it pretty
good, but then they tried moving
the dredge and a lot of pollution
entered the lake again. I could be
wrong, but that's what I was told.
It's such a shame because it's a
beautiful lake. I was told to not
eat the fish from there, but I'm
sure those same fish go to Portage
and vice versa. So who knows?