Deep Freeze

Wow. This is what we said when we got in the car this morning and the thermometer read -10. We’ve dropped right into the deep freeze. I like it. It means the skies are my favorite color blue and the clean snow clumps don’t melt off of the pines.
We’ve fallen into one of the familiar parts of this season---long drives home from the kids’ hockey/skiing practices. The dark tunnel of the Gunflint Trail facilitates some great chats.
After we pass the South Brule river, the Gunflint Trail starts twisting and then we come upon the moose. As long as I’m not in a hurry, ( been trying not to be lately), it’s such a comforting pleasure to see them again. Usually we see their glowing eyes first. They hesitate to leave the salty road to forge the deep snow. The blank look they give us, along with their lankiness reminds me so much of our first dopey yellow lab named Buck. Finally they lumber along and their furry rumps disappear into the woods. It’s all part of the rhythm really, this regular occurrence defines the winter time of the year.

I know the moose population is on the decline. During hunting season, I absolutely hate to see their heads in the beds of pick-ups. With the increasing deer population, I’m afraid that the brain worm that the deer can carry will wipe out the moose. So when they now re-appear on the Gunflint Trail to lick the salt, I am relieved. Another year, and it looks like they’re going to be all right.

Winter Wonderland

We have snow! It couldn't be lovelier.

Whose Grouse?

Andy and Daniel went hunting last week---Andy shot it---

Daniel was very proud, and he cooked it.

But it was clearly Denali's grouse.

The Best Advice

Do not burn yourself out. Be as I am-a reluctant enthusiast...a part time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the land; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it is still there. So get out there and hunt and fish and mess around with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forests, encounter the grizz, climb the mountains. Run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, that lovely, mysterious and awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to the body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much: I promise you one sweet victory over our enemies, over those deskbound people with their hearts in a safe deposit box and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this: you will outlive the bastards.

---Edward Abbey

Ice

As of Friday, November 15th, Round Lake is officially frozen.
Daniel hopes we can skate before too much snow---it looks like we're going to have to wait until it is thick and shovel it this year.....

Can’t Get Enough Of Quetico Park

Andy spends all summer hearing of other folks’ adventures----Fall’s biggest allure is to create his own. Andy and his friend Dave had to take one more Quetico trip in late October.

He spends weeks rearranging the colored Post It arrows on his office map---this time they hit Northeast Quetico---French Lake, Baptism Lake, Cache Lake, Cache River into north Kawnipi, Poet Chain, Pickerel etc. They can’t quite get enough---even paddling through much rain and wind once again. They started the trip in the rain, against the current up the Baptism River---moving logs out of the way.

Late fall canoe trips mean constant movement---to stay warm, to get to all the places you want to see while you have light. They portaged over multiple waterfalls up there---a continuation of the falls chain beyond Kawnipi. (below---the Cache river flows into North Kawnipi.)




















Kawnipi rocks.



The Baptism River
Morning on Pickerel (below)

They apparently will remember this Sauvage Portage---Dave went first, in mud to his hips. If I had to choose ONE photo to define Andy, this might be it. When I first met him, one of his jobs was to drive the pontoon to Fishook Island on Seagull Lake where he schlepped loads of gear and food and tools and materials and campers’ gear and….EVERYTHING up the hill at Wilderness Canoe Base. (He says this is a before shot in an advertisement for Hairclub For Men. I’ll admit that he’s showing a little more skin on the forehead than he did 20 years ago)

One byproduct of fall canoe trips---we didn’t take the dock out until November this year-it was actually very pleasant in the snowy calmness of Round Lake.

Winter

We've been scrambling around sweeping roofs and emptying gutters and taking docks out because we knew it would be coming.... The kids (and some friends), on a workshop day off from school were not disappointed AT ALL!