RHINELANDER, Wis. (WJFW) - With gun deer season coming, it’s important for hunters to understand rules, safety regulations and how to be prepared. With the nine-day season beginning November 18th,
By Mitch Mode, special to the Star Journal
An old photo; colors washed with aging. Tucked away on a shelf, dusty, the masking tape that once held it to a mat now brittle and pocked. A small image, 5-by-7; vertical alignment.
It is a photo of me near the end of the 1980 American Birkebeiner.
By Mitch Mode, special to the Star Journal
I have a path near my hunt shack, a serpentine trail; out, back, out again and back. I walk it in summer, carry a shotgun on autumn days (we see an occasional grouse), snowshoe the short loop come winter. I like it best on days of cold and snow when I ca
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“Things took off,” said Mitch Mode, the owner of Mel s Trading Post in Downtown Rhinelander. “We didn’t run a smarter business, we got luckier.”
Mitch Mode stands near a row of 11 bicycles - a fraction of what he typically has in stock.
Credit Erin Gottsacker/WXPR
Mel’s Trading Post sells all kinds of outdoor equipment – from bikes and kayaks to snowshoes and skis.
Mode said these items have always been popular.
“But in the year of COVID became increasingly strong to the point where it’s no secret in the world that that bicycles were difficult to find on a good day, impossible the rest of the time,” he said.