Mid-November Anticipation

At MTU last year on a freshly groomed skate trail

What a tumultous month it's been! With Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama elected in a landslide, most of the nation's people are feeling optimistic in spite of a global financial downturn with no end in sight. The nation has been under such an oppression for the last 7 years that lifting and drop kicking out the Republicans at the polls has given the populace a bit of self-determined optimism that "we shall overcome" and take back so much that has been robbed from us by the Bush/Cheney cabal.

We're finally getting some promised snow, with the last few days of below freezing temperatures preparing us for what was predicted since last week. I'm hoping to get out on my skis this week as the Nordic Track treadmill is getting tiresome. I must say that I am concerned about the status of my fitness to guide the trips over at Wintergreen with my hips and lower back being consistently sore.
I am possibly going to be doing some kayak guiding trips with Living Adventure out of Bayfield this next summer. I'm email corresponding with Gail Green after Ervin M. put in a word to her that I was interested in getting back working in the Apostles. Hopefully this will lead somewhere good in the future.
I am very haltingly going forward at writing an informational article on dog team trips at Wintergreen for Northern Wilds which is a North Shore of Minnesota newspaper that Kate works for. Once I talk to Sean Perrich, the owner and editor of Northern Wilds things will hopefully fall into place for my writing...
(Evening) The snow continues to sift down and I'm glad that we have ample seasoned wood for this winter. I finally bought some stove oil for our furnace - 80 gallons to top off our tank. The stock market crash world wide has lowered petroleum prices by nearly 2/3, even with OPEC cutting production. Now was a good time to stock up, though prices of fuel oil haven't dropped as much as gas. This summer we paid for a time in excess of $4.00 a gallon for gasoline and it is now around $2.00 a gallon.
Got my first view of a Northern Shrike swooping in on the birds at our feeders today. After last winter not having goldfinches and purple finches staying around it is nice to see a large flock of them (goldfinches) at our feeders.

Fall Melancholy

"If you are afflicted with melancholy at this season, go to the swamp and see the brave spears of skunk-cabbage buds already advanced toward a new year. Their gravestones are not bespoken yet. Who shall be sexton to them? Is it the winter of their discontent? Do they seem to have lain down to die, despairing of skunk cabbagedom? “Up and at ‘em,” Give it to ‘em,” “Excelsior,” “Put it through,”—these are their mottoes. Mortal human creatures must take a little respite in this fall of the year; their spirits do flag a little...I say it is good for me to be here, slumping in the mud, a trap covered with withered leaves. See those green cabbage buds lifting the dry leaves in that watery and muddy place. There is no can’t nor cant to them. They see over the brow of winter’s hill. They see another summer ahead."
Henry David Thoreau Journal, Oct.31, 1857

I am truly enjoying the "shoulder season," the time between the busy-ness of employment as summer paddling guide and that time in early December when I begin guiding with ski and dog team. The shoulder season is where I remember the long days of sun and the thankfulness for the long soaking rains of spring and early summer - Superior was finally rising, after being at an historical low point. The shoulder season is also looking forward to clean snows, dressed in warm and lightweight clothes and mukluks to keep off the frigid air; ski and snowshoe travel, sled dogs pulling on the narrow trails and blazing wood fires to be warm by.

The one human event that, for so many years threw me off my rhythm and made me feel the cruel finality of winter was the falling back of an hour with daylight savings time. Those years in Alaska, it was like losing an hour of daylight, and right in the late afternoon when outdoor chores had to be completed in darkness after a day in the classroom looking out at daylight. In the places I lived most of the time I would put on my trusty headlamp and it would be on my head until I got ready for bed. Living with kerosene lamp light and Coleman lanterns in Anaktuvuk Pass and for many years in Eagle, I am reminded of a poem that I know of from those days that captured the experience of living an Alaskan winter without the convenience of electricity:

A Winter Light

By John Haines

We still go about our lives

in shadow, pouring the white cup full

with a hand half in darkness.

Paring potatoes, our heads bent over a dream---
glazed windows through which
the long, yellow sundown looks.

By candle or firelight
your face still holds
a mystery that once
filled caves with the color
of unforgettable beasts.

Headlamps and later, mini-mag lights were indispensable tools. They brought light to the shadows! And what a convenience! To have bright instant light on your person with a twist or flip of a toggle switch. Thoreau would have been envious, especially if he could see the wall-mounted floodlights that I now use for outside chores in the winter.

There was one October, in Anaktuvuk Pass, when for no reason that I was aware of, the fall-back of daylight savings was not observed and the coming winter held no dread. The shortening days were better balanced in my life without the falling back of the clock. By mid-January I would have at least a sky-lightening at mid afternoon outside. I wondered why daylight savings time didn't keep on their summer schedule. I guessed the reason was because of the bulk of the population in the more mid- latitudes commute to work in morning daylight, working while the day is light, commuting home in light were some of the reasons. But for Alaska it doesn't make the same sense. One ends up going to work as well as coming home in darkness during the dark months of winter. Better, in my situation, to have mornings in darkness but having some light after work to be outside with daylight.
Nowadays it is less of a concern. As a guide of dog team trips,I operate with a concern toward utilizing the daylight with less regard for the clock time. When I'm at home I schedule most of my time to be outside in the daylight. I am blessed to not be tied to an inside job during the dark months.

Lynn, in being home with the children, and having a real need to be in the light of day for psychological well-being, would always get outside with the young kids during the height of the day. Bundling up the kids sufficiently to keep them warm in far sub-zero temperatures for sled rides into town tried most parent's patience. We never ran a motor vehicle other than a snow machine (which was a real benefit to living a village existence), so the half mile trip to the library, store, post office or friend's cabin was a journey that needed prepared for. Lynn made much of the baby and toddler outerwear because most of the store-bought clothing was not warm enough for 50 below. Those years of village life are fond memories now, but concerns for keeping little kids warm, the worry and struggle to get our young ones dressed, was a serious daily affair; one can make few mistakes with the imminent threat of cold injuries on young bodies.

With the signs of winter showing hereabout, and with so many of the aging and younger population oriented toward indoor and warm weather leisure activities, it is understandable but troubling that so many who are consigned to higher latitude areas become so unhappy as signs of winter appear. Life is too short to be unhappy for so much of the time.

Waiting For Apocalypse

Looking out over the valley... The Pilgrim River valley, or actually a little bend in the river near my home.

I received a call from an old friend of mine who lived in Alaska for many years. He was written of by John McPhee in Coming Into the Country. Since those days, Mike, a man once known as the toughest trapper with or without his fists on the Upper Yukon and Glacier Peaks, had a fundamentalist Christian religious conversion. He became a changed person, as far as his life goals, read the Bible when he had never read any books except pulp westerns, left Eagle with his wife and daughter as a missionary (with work done in Alaska, Wyoming and Mongolia), inherited a bundle from his father after years of financial support from his parents, and now has a sailboat on an island in Hawaii from which he wants to conduct a ministry to anyone he meets on his sailing travels. Mike knows that the Lord will bless him if he is faithful...
He spent much of the summer on the island in Lake Vermillion in Minnesota that his family has owned for 3 generations. He is now down in Arizona with his daughter and grandkids until he and his Native wife Adeline fly over to Hawaii for the winter.

When Mike called, it took me about 20 seconds to begin to begin to feel that Mike was listening carefully to what I said and was critically scrutinizing my speech to see if I had fallen away from the faith that he holds so dear.
On the National election, Mike is true-red Republican. He places stock in what Sean Hannity says on Fox News and holds tight to the doctrine that Jesus will come again to earth and reclaim the degraded planet for those who remain faithful. What happens to the planet is important only in the context of the theological and spiritual battle of good and evil as determined by his sectarian fundamentalist world-view. Firmly a backer of pro-life as the main issue in American politics, nothing more really needs said. When I said that Fox News pundit, Sean Hannity reminded me of a mad dog, Mike laughed and said that he agreed with Hannity "on most everything".

I hung up the phone feeling depressed about the smallness of the my fundamentalist friend's world. This is the Mike that many years ago said that if there is one service that a country should help its citizenry with in life, it is health care. This is a non-issue for him now. His wife as an Alaskan Native receives free health care. He receives it due to his inherited wealth buying it for him. This is great for Mike and Adeline, and I would wish such good fortune for all Americans. Not to say that Mike is against socialized medicine nowadays, but the topic doesn't concern him. Spreading the gospel and converting others is what drives him.

With our materialist world cracking and eroding down, with the Republican non-change agents trying to keep the status quo for themselves, I now have to count Mike as one of them. I'll be thinking further about the Republican faith-based voters of our country; and praying that they go to a new level of understanding and compassion for all creatures great and small.

Don, walking it off on a woods trail, mulling over the world's problems.

A Fall Day...

The day feels like this picture - A burst of sunlit color as a copse of young maple culminate their year of growth. The maples, being durable hardwood, have driven above the disturbed canopy of apple and aspen. After the struggle to rise above other vegetable growth, nature's competitive quest for survival, dormancy, and a long winter sleep await. For now all is glory for them. Next spring will bring more challenges - among the copse-mates as well as from without. This is what I see adjacent to my woodshed.
We had another hard frost last night . As we go toward winter, many homestead chores must be halted, that is a seasonal surety for me. Time to look and assess with a bit of contentment my world. Our heating wood is in, seasoned and stacked. The chimney extension with its mortar and insulation is nearing completion, with supplies for the rock facade paid for and ready for spring. With the climate teetering on the cusp of cataclysm and the world financial systems receding into crisis, there is assurance that nature's seasons are still guiding my life. What has always been my inspiration and compass - nature - continues on with me a small part of the whole.

October Colors Ebbing...

What a fall color tour it has been, close to home in the UP. With so much great colors close to home, we stayed around with a few forays out a few miles. The color change seemed to keep going on much longer than usual. There has been some wind and a bit of rain this fall, but the colors prevailed.
With the presidential campaign in full-on drive, with the Republican John McCain negatively muck-raking (and not finding much) on Democrat Barack Obama, I had some time and did some volunteering at the Houghton Democratic headquarters. McCain has pulled his campaign out of Michigan for weeks now due to polls showing he has lost the state - you would never know it here in the Copper Country. Calls I've made to the older residents in the area show that conservative republican voters are alive and well in the UP.

Lynn with our 2 dogs, Gabe and Dixie, on an autumn walk.

Looking through a fiery maple to the firmament

On the 19th, a sunny Sunday morning, Lynn and I headed into Marquette for a presentation by the Will Steger Foundation on the effects of global warming in the polar regions.The presentation was sponsored by the Superior Watershed Alliance, which I've worked with a bit, learning how to test and sample for water quality of streams. SWA is a sponsor of the Will Steger Foundation. Another organization that I'm a member of is Earthkeepers and I was invited to attend a mid afternoon roundtable with Will Steger where participants would get to know him and talk with him. Lynn dropped me off at the meeting site and I was the 3rd person there. Will talked to our little group of 10 people for close to an hour about his upbringing and 64 year-old life, then he took questions and finally the meeting broke down to informality with simple talk. I had a chance then to talk to Steger about places we had in common and his life now in a houseboat on the Mississippi River.
Lynn was waiting for me in her car and we went looking for a dinner-to-go, as she wanted to have a picnic in a pile of leves at Presque Isle Park looking out on Lake Superior. The food, from Vango's was good and Greek; the large leaf windrow, formed from the wind blowing them to waist-high was soft and warm. After the picnic we drove over to Upfront and Company where the Superior Watershed Partnership meeting was being held. It went on for a long time. I was mentioned by Carl Lindquist and asked to stand as a member of the Partnership who had experience living in the arctic. One of Steger's expedition partners, who was Norwegian talked after Will's slide show on his findings on the impact of global warming. Students talked about the Energy Action Coalition, organizing that is taking place on campuses to influence the start of green industry and awareness of the need for society to change to save our planet and its biological diversity. After a panel discussion by all of the speakers, the evening was over, and we headed out of Marquette and arrived back home at a bit past 11:00.

Lynn relaxing during our Presque Isle picnic.

Will Steger in Marquette

Autumn Already...

Spirit Tree, North Shore, Lake Superior, Minnesota

What a busy summer it's been! I seldom had time to even think about this blog, but now I will have a bit of time to write, or at least the state of mind to do so. Since my blog is basically to me, I don't feel compelled to write in it regularly. If there is anyone out there who has ever checked this, all I can say is sorry for your futile bother... In looking at my list of posts I noticed that I didn't ever post some in May, simply left them in a saved state. I'll remedy that in short order and the writing and any pictures will appear in back of this entry. After a busy summer of guiding sea kayak trips, life hasn't slowed down all that much. So much left for later at home. My inherent laziness on new projects at home, with winter closing in, leaves me with a lot to do but with basics covered.

Perilous times we are living in politically and economically. A world-wide monetary crisis that is looking more like the Great Depression all the time. Inflation continues to rise here at home. A presidential race getting down and dirty with the Democrats again and again being the brunt of Republican dirty politics. I have been volunteering at the Democratic party office in Houghton, and calls to mostly right wing voters have tested my cordiality. Though I don't agree with the Democrats on some important social issues, these issues pale when I look at the state of the middle class, the environment, the way that the neo-con Republicans have taken our country since Reagan and under Bush for the last 8 years.

We have been having a wonderful color change here in the Copper Country for the last couple of weeks. Now a bit on the ebb as we slide toward late autumn, the vibrancy seems to hold on still. I don't know when I've seen the trees blazing so colorfully for so long.

I've invested in a 27 ton log splitter and have been making short work of hardwood knotty rounds that were so tight grained that maul and wedges were foiled. All but the really old and punky ones (that I gruntingly rolled aside years ago) are going to be burnt in the wood stove like chunks of coal. A new 10 cord logging truck load of sugar maple is being whittled down fast into next years split and stacked fire wood with the use of the hydraulic splitter.

Life goes on...

May 4 Road Tour of Keweenaw Peninsula

Here it is, mid-Sunday morning and the sun is glinting through the clouds. Time to make a trip the 50 + miles, roundabout to Copper Harbor....

Time to visit pocket parks by the shores of Superior and laze around in the chilly northern air with our parkas zipped up. Finding caddis fly larva in their sand-rough shells on the copper colored rock pools on the shore. A good sign of pure water.

A wonderful time to visit the waterfall running into iced-up Lac La Belle with its full spring runoff flow ...

Let's go up to the top of the Keweenaw's hawk mountain, Brockway Mountain to watch the spring migration of raptors soar on the thermals. Here the trees are squat and stunted, thick and sitting low to the mountain with the wind and snow pruning them there. When the sun shows through and heats the basalt cliffs, the hawks, eagles, falcons, vultures and ravens soar high in unison in the firmament.

Let's hike and beach comb around Hunter's Point , making like joyful tourists on a holiday, taking nothing but pictures: of a water spirit Misshepezhieu, created a million years ago in volcanic basalt of quartz, breathing a fire of and outlined in copper-colored deposits.

May 2008 Boundary Waters Canoe Trip

Ever since I was a student in middle school and beyond I thought and dreamed of the north wood's Boundary Waters. While making a kit canoe from my paper route earnings, writing an 8th grade term paper on canoe methods and technique (the teacher was amazed when she read this book length term paper), reading Sigurd Olson and Calvin Rutstrum's wilderness essays, I've dreamed of canoe travel in the Boundary Waters wilderness. Looking back it seemed as though my youthful paddling was all in preparation to that dream of paddling in the boreal forest's north woods.

As I was out paddling, camping and hiking the Michigan woods and waters I looked at these areas as degraded and less complete than the wilderness Boundary Waters. It seemed as though I was training prior to going into the real thing - the stretch of land from Minnesota's Superior National Forest clear up to Hudson Bay. The boreal canoe country of the Canadian shield was untrammeled compared to the mostly roaded and fragmented Michigan landscape.
Without the means as a kid and with my sights set solely on Alaska as a young man, the time never came when that Boundary Waters canoe trip wish was fulfilled.

I remember reading the Wilderness Society's Living Wilderness periodical about the long fight to save the Superior Quetico Wilderness from a host of resort owners, mining companies, loggers, fly-in fishing operators and motor sport operators. This fight became big in my wilderness-minded heart, and it was good to hear that in the end the forces of good wilderness management mostly won. The tranquility and primitive values of the Wilderness Act of 1964 were upheld.

After working as a dog sled guide in and around the Boundary Waters for the last few years I still hadn't paddled there and never seemed to have the time with a family and guiding sea kayak trips in the summer. Then a friend who I guided with at Wintergreen Dog Sled Lodge, Steve Eisenminger, knowing that I had long wanted to paddle there, invited me to go up on the Knife Lake region to scout out a possible guided spring trip for Lake Trout that he wanted to get together. Steve has guided for many years on fishing trips, through a lot of Quetico-Superior. With his experience I had little doubt that the trip would be fun.

Our trip started on May 13. The weather was cloudy and threatening rain as we left the landing in Steve's loaded 17 foot Bell "Northwoods" Royalex canoe. The ice had just gone out on the lakes a week previously on this cold spring of 2008. There was definitely some activity at the boat landing parking lot and we saw 4 motorboats on the duration of moose Lake. One was a shuttle boat that was on its way to transport canoeists back to the landing, probably from a portage at the end of the motorized route on Moose.

The rain began soon after we left the landing and it wasn't long afterward that we passed two paddlers who had been out a week previous, who were weary of getting snowed on in the stormy weather of that past week; they were heading home.
Our route was to go from Moose to New Found Lake to Sucker to Birch Lake to Melon Lake to Knife Lake.It rained intermittently most of the way to the Knife. The rivers between the lakes were roaring over their banks and the five portages had overflow from the rivers running in them, some of it calf deep, the remnants of the winter's snow were still present. I was glad to have on my knee high Extra-Tuf rubber boots. I learned a lot about the paddling in the Boundary Waters; on the way up to the Knife; why the best canoes to have are also the lightest. I thought that a durable Royalex canoe was the way to go there, but I learned that whenever you run into rocks and rapids that there is a portage trail so light gear for the portages is more important than heavy and bomb proof.
It didn't take long on the Moose to get into the team paddling that would become synchronized for the whole trip. Steve, in his good natured way told me twice to quit trying to steer from the bow. I was so used to paddling solo or in the stern, and always steering that it took me awhile to let him steer and to just paddle steadily and keep an eye peeled for rocks and other obstructions.

I was glad I could set the paddling pace and keep it because,on the portages, I was definitely the lightweight on load bearing. Steve had a huge waterproof portage pack that carried all of his and his dog Brook's gear. Usually I helped him put it on as it was too heavy to slip into unless it was up at torso height. I brought my gear in a medium size Duluth pack and a medium size waterproof portage pack. We would do each portage in 2 trips. Steve talked about Aaron Chick, who is a jack of all woods trades around Ely. Aaron disdains doing 2 trips on a portage trail and will pack a canoe as well as his pack on one trip. My back can't take the strain any longer, hence ultra light is the way to go for me. I remember portaging my Grumman 19 foot freight canoe when I had to, on the Yukon. That and numerous other youthful excesses all helped to create wear on my backbone discs.
Steve surveyed campsites that would be good for an early spring fishing trip that he may offer next spring that would base out of the area that we stayed in.
Even though the trip was soon after ice-out, there were perhaps 3 parties of people who were paddling and camping in the area we were in already. I was glad that my first paddle trip in the boundary Waters was in early spring so as to avoid the summer crowds.

We ended up paddling back to the Moose Lake entry point with skies threatening rain with a bit of sun. When we were a couple of miles from the parking lot, rain backed by northwest wind made us paddle more vigorously for our takeout point.

A spring-clear morning for paddling on the Knife. All ice is newly off the lake system and the warblers are back and singing.

Morning light just returning as Steve and his setter Brook enjoy breakfast and a misty sunrise. With the fire rings and plentiful "beaver pile" wood, we were enjoying campfires morning asnd night. Much different than most national park wilderness areas where gas pack stoves are mostly used.

Don with our Lake Trout dinner. We portaged into Topaz Lake and caught 2 Lakers in short order.

This is a portage trail up by the Knife River while we were on our way back. The running water was down to a trickle with puddles left from a few days before. The snow was all melted out due to the warm rains that we had on our way in... The rivers between the lakes were roaring over their banks and the five portages had overflow from the rivers running in them, some of it calf deep, the remnants of the winter's snow were still present.

Snow in Spring

The beginning of May 2008: after a "regular" winter - one that was snowy and long. Spring is the same way that springs used to be - a lot of precipitation and cool by many people's standards. After an afternoon and evening of torrential rains we had snow coming down hard but it was wet and melted on contact. I'm planning to go over to the Gunflint Trail this next week and do some paddling and camping, then over to Ely after that, but at this point the lakes in the Boundary Waters aren't broken free of ice yet...
Lynn is working two jobs and is putting in very long hours - burning the candle at both ends. For the past couple of weeks I've been working at Nissila's Greenhouse, transplanting and planting seedlings up to trees in size. Some of it is tough on the back.


Today was rain that changed to snow, though the snow was wet and melted rather than stuck.

The cherry wood paddle that I carved out in the Northwoods pattern., ready for finish. There's Gabe, snoozing away an afternoon after chasing some squirrels.

Here's a picture of the back areas of Nissila's Greenhouses. The chimney is from the old coal fired boiler set-up to heat the greenhouses. The roof on the boiler room collapsed a few years ago as it had not been used for years and was neglected. There is a whole lot of run down and ruined structures on the Nissila's grounds. The whole greenhouse is a gem of the copper country due to it's storage of such a variety of plants and Pete Nissila's expertise as a horticulturalist. The physical plant is pretty rundown and cobbled together.

The first spring blossoms - crocuses - under the cherry trees; blooming just outside of the snow line.

Winter Camping in the Boundary Waters, Part 1

There are a number of ways to go travel in the winter Boundary Waters Wilderness while bringing along your full kit for a number of days and nights: with skis and pulk, snowshoes and toboggan or backpacking with snowshoes, and using a dog team The way I've been blessed with is by dog sled and ski. As a guide I teach the participants to mush the dogs (a big learning curve for the beginners) and then, with Wintergreen programs, the guides (typically 2) ski while the participants mush the dogs. One guide skis out in front of the first team (like the rabbit chased by the dogs) and the second guide skis among the sleds and helps with tangles and numerous other events that occur on the trail.
The camping trip is most generally a 5 night event that begins with the arrival of participants at the Wintergreen Dogsledding Lodge in the afternoon. Following dinner there are informational talks by the guides on topics such as clothing (we as guides check participants' clothing systems to ensure that they don't have cotton and have proper clothes for safety and comfort), diet and hydration. Many of the participants rent clothing and boots from Wintergreen. Fitting boots and liners to participants is always a time-consuming task. One important topic is using the sleep system that we provide, and participants try the Wiggy's brand sleeping bags and simple bivy sacks with foam pads while in the lodge. The sleep systems have to fit and the participant has to know where draw cords and zippers are so that they can adjust them in the dark. Tin cups, bowls with attached spoons, nalgene water bottles and insulating cozies are all handed out.
In the morning, before a guide-cooked breakfast, participants help to feed and water the dogs, then it's time for Dog Sled 101. The lecture-type course, in it's duration inside the lodge, covers teamwork and safety, terminology, sled and tack parts, dog psychology and voice commands,sled and lead musher roles, tips on the trail, and a host of other pertinent topics that come up during the course. I always have the feeling that the participants are in learning overload by the end of the short course, but most of them sort out the information once they're actively heading down the trail.
Following 101 we take a short woods walk to look at a variety of trees with participants being shown types of dead wood that makes good camp firewood and wood to avoid bothering to gather in the woods. Tents are looked at and put up, though often participants sleep out in the open without use of the tent or other shelter. Then we have a sled packing session followed by pushing the sleds down to the dog yard - all exciting activities preparatory to heading out from Wintergreen.
Even before the participants arrive at the lodge the guides are busily working to gather all gear, prepare the sleds, figure out menus, route and logistics.



Our skis at an island where we camped. The skis aren't jammed into the snow covered ice, but are actually "tripod-leaned using the ski pole straps. This helps to avoid chipping and delaminating the ski ends by crunching them through the snow onto the hard ice. The dogs are tied out on cable lines on the edge of the island. All dog poop is removed from the riparian edge.

This year, during the cold months Paul had a 4 person Empire Canvas Hybrid Snowtrekker tent with a titanium wood stove - a first for Wintergreen Dogsledding. Wintergreen always had cold camps with a 5 foot fire pan as the sole heat source; nylon mountaineering tents or else sleep units out in the open for sleeping the night away. The heated tent, during the dinner time was luxurious. The stove was a nice addition to cook on and the tent dried out clothing and warmed participants. An added benefit was the amount of wood that needed to be cut was a fraction of that needed for the long fire pan. In the case of heating the large kettle of lake water, we used a small lodge to lodge fire pan that was just big enough for heating the kettle. One drawback to the use of a heated tent was that once the tent was heated that is where participants congregated, not out around the campfire, under the starry firmament. We used 2 candle lanterns to light the tent.

A chickadee landing on a hand with the bait being some trail mix.

Hot water turns into vapor when thrown into the air at below zero temperatures.

Winter Camping in the Boundary Waters, Part 2

In Part 1 of "Winter Camping in the Boundary Waters" I covered the basic steps before hitting the trail. Often the trips start out at Wintergreen Dogsledding Lodge and we leave the dog yard with loaded sleds, the guides driving the sleds down onto tie-out posts on White Iron Lake with the participants walking ahead of teams and guides on the narrow and sloped trail down to the lake. Other times the dogs are loaded into our large trailer with sleds put on top and all is hauled out to an end-of-road location.
The first day of participants mushing (handling and running) the dogs is usually chaotic but also quite amazing as most of the beginner dog mushers are able to put their classroom learning into the team that they are controlling with good effect. Yes, there are lost sleds and tangles due to inattention to the tenets taught to the participants, but basically I'm amazed that the trips begin as smoothly as they do.
Dog mushing is far removed from the lives of many of the participants, who are more used to their minds doing their work for them. in their everyday lives. Those who are involved in regular athletic pursuits and sports usually have an easier time of handling the dogs and trail occurrences.
We end up leaving in the afternoon and if the trip is in the short days of December, January or February we can only go for a few hours before we're forced to stop and set up camp. There is always the hustle of stopping and rushing to unpack the sleds, set up tents, spud in a water hole, gather firewood, set up the tripod and fire plate, and all of this after getting the dogs strung out on the cable picket lines and their harnesses taken off.
Food at breakfast and dinner is always hardy, with a high calorie count. Evening pizza tortillas as appetizers, the main course being stir fried shrimp and vegetables with sweet and sour sauce or meat balls and pasta with a spaghetti sauce followed by no-bake cheese cake. Breakfast may start with cinnamon and brown sugar on fried-in-butter bagels, followed by fried eggs and hash browns. Both meals are liberally lubricated and warmed by hot drinks: coffee or various teas, hot tang, cappuccino, or cocoa. The whole meal is a 2 hour affair with all participants hunkering down around the wood stove, or more typically the fire pan on sleeping pads arranged on top of logs, everyone soaking in the campfire's heat. Participants are discouraged from drinking liquids following the meal, so that they would be less likely to need to exit their sleeping bag in the middle of the night.
Feeding the dogs takes place after the people are fed, though the kibbled dog food is hopefully soaking up warm water for a long time before the dogs are fed.
Wintergreen's camping programs have always adhered to a hard-core image of cold camping (without heat other than a campfire) and for the truly rugged there is the discarding of even a tent - sleeping out, right on the ice and snow in the sleep unit. The guides generally sleep out or in the dogsled. I guess the dog sled pinpoints where the guide is, for the participant in distress, who is otherwise confronted with which black mound out on the snow is the guide. For the participant who is prematurely in distress just thinking about sleeping out in a winter camping trip, we tell them that they will surely not sleep too soundly the first night but that the second night everyone will sleep undisturbed... By the time the second night comes around, everyone is too committed deep in the wilderness if not too exhausted to bail on the trip.

The trips may break camp every day, traveling to a different area each day; or if the group and conditions dictate we may break camp and travel on the second day out, then base camp and do day trips. It is nice to travel to a new area, either for a day trip or to set up a new camp. The figuring out of a good place to camp is always a challenge - a place that has a good stake-out location for the dogs, that is sheltered from wind and has good firewood and a clear water source have to be considered.

When the camp site is chosen the first thing to be done is getting the stake-out cables out and unspooled and connected to trees or deadfalls. Usually the guides do this and the participants mind their dogs and sleds, which are typically on ice with nothing to anchor them to with the trailing lines. Then the dogs are put on the stakeout lines in order of teams. Once that is done the harnesses are removed. The sleds are hurriedly unpacked and camp is established, a water hole is chopped and spudded for water while some people forage for firewood and others set up tents and prepare the firepan and tripod with seating.
After the camp chores are done, the participants have time for themselves. This may mean taking a walk, or preparing for the night by organizing their tent or sleep system. There is always something to do and seldom are people idle.


Teams halted on a lake after going over a rough portage. On the first team, in the foreground, the "lead musher is keeping the dogs lined out while the "sled musher" keeps the brake on.

Around the campfire at night. The tripod is used to hang a large water boiler for drinking water. Each camper is a spoon, bowl and cup for all the eating that they will do at breakfast and dinner. Lunches are generally not cooked but consist of hot water in thermoses for ramen or other instant soups, hot drinks, jerky, string cheese, nuts, candy bars and other finger foods. If it is really cold we will sometimes have a noon campfire.
Notice how the snow and some ice has melted under the fire pan.

A camping sled all loaded on the trail along a bit of fast water near a portage trail.

Winter Camping In The BWCAW Pt.3

On The Trail

This wide-open trail that we are using was made by ice fishermen on Farm Lake, using their pick-up trucks with snow plow blades. The fishermen generally set their tip-ups close up to the boundary that separates the designated wilderness. Often ice fishermen go into the Boundary Waters wilderness, pulling a light sled or toboggan to favored fishing spots for a days fishing through the ice. Greg Drum is the skier who is guiding the sleds so that they stay on our route rather than turn right onto another trail. I am the skier up ahead, leading the dog team train.

Looking ahead at a beaver lodge to the right of center in the picture. I'm using skate skis on this day, which is a great treat to use when conditions are right.

Viewing a wolf kill of a deer. When we came up to the edge of the lake off of a portage trail, eagles and ravens flew up. We weren't yet in view of the kill site, but stopped the dog teams as we knew that the leavings of the wolf pack's dinner were just ahead. The wolves must have brought the white tail down just a few hours earlier, as the rib cage and other parts were still intact. The wolves were probably listening and watching us as we viewed the site and then went back and had our lunch as well.

Wolf tracks and bits of fur were all that was left at the site where the deer was taken down.

Winter's Last Blast?

It's not that we weren't expecting this blizzard, if a person listened to any weather report...
The winds from the northeast started yesterday morning and gusts (up to 30 mph) were soon buffeting the landscape and shaking any object that was vertical. Muir's canoe, which has wintered this year under an apple tree, was blown by the wind 20 feet to the bumper of our old GMC truck. Last night the snow and sleet started in and continued all day today and is still happening.as of this night.
The migrating juncos and red polls and robins are having a difficult time finding food. I threw down some sunflower seeds as well as filled the feeders and all day there were birds mobbing the area, in spite of the wind. Even some starlings at the suet.
Muir took off into the teeth of the storm , heading to Marquette for classwork that he had to do at the hospital there. He took his old 4 WD Toyota truck. He's staying at Fillmore's house for the 2 day trip.

At least for at least a little while I'll be skiing. Lynn is happily working as manager of the floral dept. at Econo Foods which is a relatively short drive from here, pays well and she really enjoys the work.

April 12---- Still mist snowing and gray mono chrome skies and world. No big wind gusts. Great for skiing!

Ski Mornings

Morning is the prime time around here because of the freeze that occurs at night. If you linger abed or don't allow time before your day job, you will inevitably lose the frozen snow to the warmth of the day.
For myself, after I get back from a guiding journey, I need a number of days to recover from both trip and travel. As I've gotten older the time needed for recovery hasn't decreased. So it took me a few days after arriving back home from the Arrowhead of MN to get back into a healthy exercise regimen.
Good exercise at this season means skiing; either early morning Keweenaw crust through the bush, or the very controlled exercise of skate skiing at the world class, groomed MTU trails that are less than a mile from my house.
Today is supposed to go to 40 degrees Fahrenheit, so with the sun beating down, one must get in a ski while the temperatures keep the snow hard. So, for a few mornings now I've got in my ski by at least mid-morning. The MTU trails are freshly groomed and appealing in their wide lanes through the mixed hardwood and conifer forest. The trails wend through hills and forest, pass within sight, at this leafless season, of roads and a few buildings. I park at the Pilgrim Rd. lot, which is close to my house and usually nearly vacant, but the main lot is always with cars and local skiers coming and going. Though I am a solitary skier by temperament, I do enjoy seeing a few skiers on the trails who are invariably happy to be out. On the occasion that I see someone who I know, it is nice to stop our sliding and talk for a minute or two.
As the morning rolls on I begin to notice areas of the trail that have direct sunlight becoming slushy and slow - a sign that signals the time to head home for chores and correspondence.
Some of my thoughts as the ski season wanes begin to turn to the waterways that are beginning to open and show signs of the migrating spring weather, though as Dan at Downwind Sports said the other day, "Some are saying that this year we may be out skiing on the trails into May."
I don't think there is better exercise for my back than skiing every day. I'll reluctantly give it up soon as the trails and ground turns bare.


A typically wide piece of trail at MTU. The university invested into what were simple and unimproved narrow woods trails to turn them over the last 5 years into a world-class Nordic ski facility.

A freshly groomed trail for skate skiing on. My skis were the first to be on this trail the other morning. Like skiing in a park, which I guess the trail system is. Jeff Parker and an old acquaintance from Eagle, Alaska, Jim Meese, do the grooming of the trails.

At the trail head parking lot on the MTU Campus. The waxing room and other team rooms are to the right. The skiers, and later, mountain bikers enter the trail system from here.

A chery wood paddle blank that I cut out recently is being planed thin on our back deck. I cut out an ash blank as well, both of which I hope will see use later this spring on the water.