You can see for miles now where giant white pines and spruce trees once blocked the view, see across North McDougal Lake and across acres of the Superior National Forest blackened last summer by the Greenwood Fire.
The fire burned so many of the trees in its path that it opened up much of the forest in this area, creating views where none existed before. But something happened here that’s hard to explain. As the fire burned toward the U.S. Forest Service campground on the north shore of North McDougal Lake, it stopped. Call it the fickle hand of fate. Call it divine intervention. Maybe it was just a switch in wind direction. The fire burned right up to the campground, obliterating a hiking trail, but only did minor damage to the camping area itself.