March 13, 2016 at 09:56AM

All of the sudden I realized that the toboggans were slowing down and the dogs were speeding up. The gang line had separated from the toboggans and the dogs raced off down the trail. I fumbled to unhook myself from the trailing line and pass the toboggans as they came to a stop. By the time I got going, the dogs had disappeared over the next hill. As I crested the hill, I could see them racing across Ensign Lake 150 yards ahead of me. I picked up speed once I reached the lake and after about 10 minutes my lungs were burning, but I had closed the the gap to within 100 yards. I was gaining on them slowly, but I wasn’t sure how much longer I could keep up that pace.
The dogs disappeared behind an island and I cut off the corner, gaining another 25 yards. Luckily the dogs headed into a small bay a few minutes later to rest in the shade and eat snow. We were all panting and happy. After resting in the shade for a few minutes I skijored back across Ensign Lake and arrived at the portage as Amy and Conor came trudging along with the toboggans. We always use a locking carabiner to attach the dogs to the first toboggan. At some point while shuffling sleds, we had used a non-locking carabiner instead. That is a mistake we will not be making again!

The sun unveiled its real power yesterday. At 60 degrees, it felt like we were in an oven. We traveled fast in the morning, but as the temperature rose our tempo changed. We became shade hunters, traveling from shady patch to shady patch letting the dogs eat snow, drink from puddles, and rest in the shade often. As we approached Snowbank Lake the sun really started to show its teeth. The streams leading in and out of the tiny lake between Boot and Snowbank were brimming with snow melt. Open water and rotten ice sent us crashing through the woods over rocks and roots for 50 yards to access the portages. The narrow ice bridge that allowed us to traverse the pond yesterday is most likely unsafe today, eaten away by the snow melt.
Today is the 173rd day of our #wildernessyear to @savetheBWCA. Please join us in our efforts to protect this national treasure.

#BoundaryWaters #Wilderness #spring #ice #adventure #savetheBWCA