Archives for February 2016

Following the “Billy Goat” portages between Fourtown Lake and Mudro Lake makes you feel like you are entering another world. The rugged portages follow a deep, cliff-lined ravine. Scrambling up and down the the rocky, undulating trail feels like you are in the mountains.
Yesterday Jeff, Jacob, and Joseph Goldstein, Jason Jabokrtsky, Amy and I harnessed up their dog team as well as our dogs and headed out to explore the “Billy Goat” portages, looking for ice. Icicles often form on the cliffs along the portages. The portages are too steep and rocky for dog sleds. We tied off the dogs at the end of the portages and walked and snowshoed through the deep snow down the gorge. After half a mile, our hard work was rewarded by a magnificent sight. Long sheets of ice lined the cliffs and formed miniature jail cells with bars made of ice. Jacob, Amy, and I all took turns being locked in jail.
The Goldsteins have been coming to the Boundary Waters in the summer and the winter since Joseph was a small child. He and his brothers love the Wilderness and we are always excited when they come and visit. Joseph was diagnosed with leukemia in the fall of 2014. Despite his illness he is working tirelessly with the Campaign to Save the Boundary Waters to protect the Wilderness from the sulfide-ore copper mines that are being proposed along the southern edge of the Wilderness.
Winter camping is a challenge no matter how you slice it. Most people visit the Wilderness in the summer. The extra skills and energy required to camp in the Boundary Waters in the winter discourage many people from visiting during this magical time. Joseph is determined to resupply us once a season during #wildernessyear to @savetheBWCA. In between chemotherapy treatments Joseph and his dad and brother have now visited us twice– once in the fall, and now in the winter. Joseph’s courage, dedication, and determination are a true inspiration.

Please join Joseph and thousands of others like him who are working tirelessly to protect this national treasure. Please sign the petition by following the link in our bio. Donate, volunteer, call your elected officials, and make your voice heard.

We are happy to have our friends Joseph, Jacob, and Jeff Goldstein and Jason Zabokrtsky join us for a few days.

Jacob and Joseph brought us a fresh pineapple as a special treat. We are wondering if we are the first people to eat a fresh pineapple on Tin Can Mike Lake in February. What a special treat on day 147 of our #wildernessyear to @savetheBWCA .

Photo by: @mattyvanbiene
Firewood warms you twice, once went you cut it and again when you burn it. The nights are long during the winter. I am often splitting wood with my headlamp because it is one of our last chores before retiring for the night.

The payback is the simple luxury of soaking in the heat of the wood stove after a long day on the trail.

Tonight bone-dry black spruce is causing the sides of the wood stove to glow red.
#WildernessYear #savetheBWCA #BWCA

Happy Valentine’s Day from the Boundary Waters! To celebrate, Amy made heart shaped carrot cake pancakes for breakfast this morning.

Let’s share the love today and take action to protect the Wilderness so sweethearts for generations to come can lose themselves in this vast maze of of lakes and rivers.
Many honeymoons have been spent out here. Amy and I were married on the shore of White Iron Lake, just a few miles downstream from the proposed Twin Metals mine, and paddled through Voyageurs National Park and the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness during our honeymoon.

This place is just too precious to risk. We must take action – not once, but many times – to ensure this vast Wilderness remains untrammeled for future generations.

Follow the link in our bio to learn more and sign the petition. Share our #wildernessyear to @savetheBWCA with your friends, donate, volunteer, and take action – because all of our voices are needed.

#ValentinesDay #food #wilderness #BWCA #savetheBWCA #BoundaryWaters #love

We returned to our campsite as the sun was setting this evening. We spent the day escorting Nate and Matt out to the Wilderness boundary where we met a group of friends that snowshoed in with some dog food– and surprised us with fresh cookies, brownies, and cinnamon rolls!

We can’t wait to see the film that Nate and Matt are working on with @ducttapethenbeer about our #wildernessyear to @savetheBWCA .
The tent feels extra large now that it is just Amy, Acorn and I. Acorn’s tail is healing, but she is such a good tent mate I think she will continue to sleep in the tent.

Our 144 day in the Wilderness was spectacular. Cold, calm, and sunny, the perfect day to be traveling wth dogs. As I sit sleepily by the wood stove, preparing for bed, I can’t help but wonder what tomorrow will bring.

#boundarywaters #bwca #wilderness #winter

Cold, clear, moonless nights have made the stars feel close enough to touch. The warmth and light that our tent provides takes on new importance in the cold. It is humbling to realize how vulnerable we are. We can’t just curl up in the snow like the wolves or find a protected roost and puff up our feathers like a chickadee. With considerable effort we are comfortable out here, but the Wilderness is their home. We are only visitors.

@arborealis and @mattyvanbiene are joining us for a few days. They are working with us on a film that @ducttapethenbeer is producing about our #wildernessyear to @savetheBWCA .

#wildernessyear #savetheBWCA #BoundaryWaters #BWCA #winter #stars #nightsky #onlyinMN #WeAreTheWild

After gathering firewood, hauling water, and completing our daily chores we took the dogs out for a run. Skijooring with the dogs is so much fun. I encumbered by our heavy toboggans we fly across the lakes unbroken surface. The dogs are really in their element traveling fast and light, pulling for the horizon. Silent, cold, wild, free, alone, what a beautiful day in the Wilderness.

Today is the 143rd day of our #wildernessyear to @savetheBWCA. We all must speak loudly for this quiet place. Please take action today, sign the petition by following the link in our bio, and make your voice heard. This national treasure is too precious to risk.

#wildernessyear #savetheBWCA #BoundaryWaters #BWCA #winter #stars #nightsky #onlyinMN #WeAreTheWild

Photo by @mattyvanbiene
Sunny, calm, and cold- yesterday was a classic winter day in the Boundary Waters. We were all surprised that the high temperature was 4 degrees. We took our time packing up camp so the sun could work its magic. We enjoyed the simple pleasure of wrapping our hands around steaming cups of coffee and had a leisurely breakfast before breaking down camp.
The cold snow squeaked under our boots as we went about our camp chores and by the time the toboggans were packed, the sun was climbing higher in the sky. We traveled through the glorious silent calm.
Crossing the featureless expanse of Gull Lake in the afternoon, the dogs fell into a rhythm. Acorn and Tina listened to every command, “gee Acron gee” and she turns slightly to the right, “haw Acron haw” and our track bends to the left. It was a pleasure watching them work. They are in their element out here, just like we are, roaming across this frozen maze of waterways.

During a rest stop ,Amy knelt down to let them know they were doing a good job. They quickly relaxed and began grooming, licking, sniffing, and vying for Amy’s attention. Dogs just make our lives better.
Today is our 141 day in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Please help us protect this national treasure by visiting @savetheBWCA, signing the petition in our bio, sharing our journey, and telling others about the threat of sulfide-ore copper mines being proposed along the southern edge of the Wilderness. #wildernessyear #savetheBWCA #wilderness #dogs #dogsledding #winter #cold #onlyinMN #Minnesota

We are excited to have @arborealis and @mattyvanbiene join us for a few days. They are working with us on a film that @ducttapethenbeer is producing about our #wildernessyear to @savetheBWCA .

Photo by @mattyvanbiene

Snow swirled across Angleworm Lake with every frigid gust as we loaded our toboggans this morning. The dogs barked and lunged with excitement as we prepared to leave our sheltered campsite and head north into the biting wind. “Let’s go dogs, let’s go”, and the toboggans surged forward. I synched my fur ruff to protect my face and my view of the world quickly diminished to the snow blowing across my skis.
In the afternoon we rested in the sun, sheltered from the wind. After being buffeted by the wind all morning, the sun hitting my unprotected face felt glorious. We ate lunch and rested until our toes told us it was time to move on.

Wilderness strips away the noise in our lives and allows us to appreciate life’s unrefined pleasures. Shelter, warmth, food, companionship: these are the things we are all searching for. Wilderness makes these simple truths evident to those of us lucky enough to feel it’s ambivalent power. In return we must guard these untrammeled lakes and rivers, windswept ridges, and rocky portages so that others may learn from the biting wind and aching muscles the Wilderness inevitably provides, like countless voyageurs before them.

We are excited to have @arborealis and @mattyvanbiene join us for a few days. They are working with us on a film that @ducttapethenbeer is producing about our #wildernessyear to@savetheBWCA . #SavetheBWCA #BoundaryWaters #BWCA #WeAreTheWild #onlyinmn

The slush is back in full force. Yesterday we ran into several big pockets on Tease Lake. It was warm so the slush didn’t freeze to our skis, but the temperature began plunging overnight.

I think it is safe to say there is some “creep and slog” traveling in our future. I’m hoping the cold will freeze up most of the slush over the next week. Oh well. It is the challenging days that stay with us the longest, so the next week is likely to produce some long lasting memories.

I clearly remember when Adam Hansen and I got our dogsled stuck so bad in slush on Ada Lake many years ago while training for a 6 week dogsled trek in northern Manitoba. We had to unload the sled and carry multiple loads to shore before finally getting the sled out. After setting up our tent, my mukluks were so wet and frozen that the toe of sock was frozen into my mukluk.
Another time Amy was leading a group of middle school students and one of their sleds got so stuck in slush they had to hook two dog teams up to one sled to haul it out.

It is fun to think back on those events; they help put minor discomforts and hurdles that life routinely tosses our way into perspective. The challenges Wilderness experiences provide may be an indirect reason people trek into the backcountry, but it is a critical reason we need to @savetheBWCA and protect these wild spaces.
#wildernessyear #savetheBWCA #BoundaryWaters #BWCA #winter