The temperature shot up to 6 F today, the warmest it has been in several days. We harnessed the dogs this morning and headed out for a run. We wanted to practice traveling across the open expanse of the lake where there is no trail for the dogs to follow. Tina and Acorn have become more and more comfortable hopping off of a packed trail and heading out across the lake when we say, “gee” or “haw”. I am always a little amazed when I say, “gee Acorn, gee” and she turns to the right without breaking stride and heads off across the unbroken snow with no sign of a trail. Once we are off the trail, Acorn and Tina end up pulling each other left and right as I encourage them to go in the direction we want to go using “gee”, “haw”, and words of encouragement.
Today we packed our ice drill and water quality testing equipment into our backpacks so that we could take water quality measurements as we traveled. We stopped over the deepest part of the lake and drilled through 8 inches of ice. Then we lowered our dissolved oxygen probe through the hole and recorded the temperature and dissolved oxygen. We used another probe to measure conductivity.
Today we packed our ice drill and water quality testing equipment into our backpacks so that we could take water quality measurements as we traveled. We stopped over the deepest part of the lake and drilled through 8 inches of ice. Then we lowered our dissolved oxygen probe through the hole and recorded the temperature and dissolved oxygen. We used another probe to measure conductivity.
Towards the end of our run we were cruising along the shore. All of the sudden two grouse erupted from the snow a few feet from us. During the winter grouse often burrow under the snow to find shelter and warmth, but if you pass close to them, they fly from their hiding place, which always makes by heart jump.
#wildernessyear #savetheBWCA #dogsledding #dogs #winter #fun #skijorring #BoundaryWaters #BWCA #Wilderness #science #WintergreenNorthernWear
