The wind died and the temperature shot up to 30 degrees today. We paddled east down Knife Lake to gather firewood and portage over to Bonnie Lake to see if it was frozen yet. Knife is a very deep lake and Bonnie is a very shallow lake. Shallow lakes typically freeze a few days, or even a week or more before the big, deep lakes. A fresh dusting of snow overnight covered the portage into Bonnie Lake. The only tracks we saw were several paths where red-backed voles had run back and forth across the trail over and over again. Red-backed voles live in the subnivian layer of snow. The subnivian layer is the loose snow that forms where the snow meets the ground. The red-back voles tunnel through the subnivian layer all winter long. When they hit a packed trail, they pop to the surface, scurry across the trail, and then disappear under the snow on the other side.
As we cressed a hill, Bonnie Lake’s snow-covered surface spread before us. It was frozen! We wanted to run out onto the lake, but we knew that it might not be safe. We gingerly stepped onto the lake and used our ax to chop a hole. The ice was about 1 and 1/2 inches thick. It held our weight, but we will wait for it to get at least an inch thicker before we venture out across the ice.
Seeing the smooth snow-covered surface made it feel like winter had arrived in an instant. We couldn’t wipe the smiles of our faces. We can’t wait to start skiing and working with the sled dogs that Frank Moe is loaning us for the winter, Acron, Tank, and Ace.
The forest around the portage burned in a forest fire about 3 years ago so there is lots of dead, down, dry firewood along the portage. We spend several hours cutting firewood. We carefully stacked the logs into our canoe until the logs were piled over the gunwales. It feels good to have a large stockpile of wood. It is hard to know when Knife Lake will start to freeze and we will no longer be able to gather firewood with our canoe.
As we cressed a hill, Bonnie Lake’s snow-covered surface spread before us. It was frozen! We wanted to run out onto the lake, but we knew that it might not be safe. We gingerly stepped onto the lake and used our ax to chop a hole. The ice was about 1 and 1/2 inches thick. It held our weight, but we will wait for it to get at least an inch thicker before we venture out across the ice.
Seeing the smooth snow-covered surface made it feel like winter had arrived in an instant. We couldn’t wipe the smiles of our faces. We can’t wait to start skiing and working with the sled dogs that Frank Moe is loaning us for the winter, Acron, Tank, and Ace.
The forest around the portage burned in a forest fire about 3 years ago so there is lots of dead, down, dry firewood along the portage. We spend several hours cutting firewood. We carefully stacked the logs into our canoe until the logs were piled over the gunwales. It feels good to have a large stockpile of wood. It is hard to know when Knife Lake will start to freeze and we will no longer be able to gather firewood with our canoe.
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