Snow!! And soon an ice road

Glorious snow! We got what appeared to be about 6" or so on Saturday and with any luck at all it should stay to form a nice base for winter fun. While Lake Superior does not quite look like the above photo, taken last February in the Porcupine Mountains State Park, it will be in a couple short months. One of the more interesting phenomona on Lake Superior is the Madeline Island ice road. The ferry plies its way between Bayfield and Madeline Island on a daily basis for most of the year. Even after the lake freezes the ferry can still break about 6" or so of ice and continues to do so on its daily trip. At some point after the first of the year the ice just gets to thick. The diesels overheat and the ferry needs to take a couple of breaks in the 3 mile crossing. By then the ice is plenty thick to route the road from the Bayfield beach, launch site for many kayak expeditions to the Apostles, to the boat landing in Madeline Island. The ice road usually opens the day after the ferry quits, typically around 10 January although later the past couple of years. Sometimes, mainly in the spring breakup, a windsled is used to make the crossing.

The ice road is actually designated as an extension of Wisconsin County Highway H and your car insurance is in effect as are all other traffic rules......as long as you stay on the marked road. The road is monitored and marked with evergreen trees for when blowing snow and other nasty weather make visibility a challenge. You wouldn't want to go driving off toward Canada! Every now and then cars stray off the road and find themselves in 150' feet of water. Dragging them out is expensive and the DNR is pretty adamant about hauling a oil and gas filled car off the bottom of the lake. My friend RangerMark crosses to Madeline Island on a daily basis. A couple years back some guys ignored the signs and strayed on to some slushy ice and got stuck. They walked out to the island and when they got back to their car there was only a hole in the ice. Cars don't normally just crash through the ice; it usually takes about 10 minutes. RangerMark punched the spot into his gps as he peered down the hole on the day it happened. Good thing too, since he was the only one who did and it would have been real tough to find the vehicle in 190' of water without a good starting point.

We were remarking over breakfast that it feels like a normal winter. Snow during deer season, skim ice on the pond, and now a significant snow weeks before Christmas. If this holds up we'll all be skiing and snowshoeing before we know it. And maybe even inhaling a little chlorine at the pool now and then......

Chlorine phobia

Our buddy Silbs posted this week urging everyone 'into the pool' since our lakes have become a bit stiff to padde in. While he and I are normally completely in sync on kayak and other crucial world issues, I'm afraid we are 180 degrees opposite on this one. I hate the pool. I hate the fetid, humid chlorine smell, the sharp 90 degree angles, the stinging eyes, the hard tile, and particlularly the chlorine itself. I think it stemmed from those swimming lessons I was forced to take as a small child. I've always had a stubborn anti authority streak and refused to learn to swim and pass the Red Cross tests at the YMCA pool but easily learned in Prairie Lake later that summer. I also have this belief that everything has its season. Its one of the main reasons I live in the northland. These days I look wistfully at my cross country skis when I leave for work and anxiously check the weather forecast, hoping for winter storm warnings. Just like I eyeball those kayaks in March, waiting for the lakes to soften up. When my two boys played sports, especially hockey, there was the pressure to sign up for spring league, interim league, summer league, and the fall warm up camps. I always encouraged them to grab the baseball, soccer ball, football, and especially the cross country skis and canoe paddle, and enjoy the different seasons....screw the year round mono sports obsession.

The sad and somewhat hypocritical truth however, is that I will most certainly attend some pool sessions because I'm just too addicted to being upside down in those damn skinny boats. Plus my paddle buddies will be there and GalwayGuy is literally inches from his norsaq roll. It kinda like when someone offers you a light beer. You smile, say thanks, drink it, and remember that excellent glass of Guiness you had the day before. You realize that there will soon be another glass of Guiness set in front of you and that it will taste even better in comparision to the inferior experience you just had.

Just be sure to wash that stinkin' chlorine off your gear!

The Big, Bad Wolf

The founder of our deer camp, DrDon'tThrowThatAway, was stillhunting along the north boundary of the property when he encountered our neighbor to the north. Upon exchanging the usual pleasantries he asked how the deer season was going he was told that, "Goddamn wolves ate all the deer". This was met with much derisive laughter back at our camp when the story was related. I'd seen 8 deer that day, GurneyGranny had seen a similar amount and one guy had seen 17! After it snowed there were feeding areas that looked like a cattle feed lot.

It seems that there are always a certain number of rednecks who want the wolves eradicated again. Deer hunters, especially the ones who just aren't that competent, find the wolves to be a good excuse for their lack of success. Farmers tend to blame them for any livestock depredation too. A guy who had several sheep killed in his pasture complained to the DNR who quickly discovered that it was his renters Rotweiller and not the wolves who had been out killing his sheep. A wolf kill is unmistakeable. They always eat what they kill because they frankly just aren't that successful in bringing down big game. Usually you find a 6' area of deer hair, a foot or two of vertebra, and and part of a skull. After one particularly hard winter with a lot of snow in March, when the deer are most vunerable after going through the winter, we found over 20 winter killed deer carcasses and 3 wolf kills on the property. Draw your own conclusions from that.

At our camp we enjoy having them around and GG and PodMan went to the training offered by the Timberwolf Alliance, a program through Northland College, and are now the official wolf survey folks for our little area of the county. This involves heading up to camp after it snows for some XC skiing or snowshoeing to check the wolf movement. As you can imagine this is tough duty but someone has to do it. I've selflessly volunteered for a number of tracking sessions. The more you learn about the animal the more you appreciate how it fits in and the 'wildness' that it brings to the area. It sends shivers up and down your spine to hear them howl when you're sitting in your stand, its getting dark, and you know you have to walk through the woods back to camp. We are happy to have them around and are happy to share the deer with them.

Note: the deer in the pictures are not only alive and not eaten by wolves but were actually in the area where we heard them howling.

How I spent my Thanksgiving Day

Most of the deer camp roused at about 5:30am after the customary early evening and energy sapping hot sauna. The big blue ceramic coffee pot was fired up and GurneyGranny's cinnamon rolls were slid into the 1921 Detroit Jewel propane oven. We lit a couple of the Humphrey propane lights and started organizing our hunting gear with the goal of being up in our respective trees shortly after dawn. As I walked out on the deck the moon was still up and a thin line of light was becoming visible across the creek to the east. I manned my tree until about 9:30 and then took a little walk. I found the wolf tracks in the spot where we had heard them howling the previous afternoon and also cut bear tracks that were almost as big as my hand. I think we may have caught his picture on the game camera which had been placed on one of the gut piles.


I headed back to camp, being careful not to take an unexpected swim in the creek since the snow had coated the rocks nicely. I stoked the pot belly stove and prepared to butcher the deer I had taken the day before. This was carefully calculated so I would be working on the venison while the Packers played the Lions in the traditional Thankgiving game. The KingofIronwoodIsland, a kayak and hunting/fishing buddy, is an avid Lions fan in a den of Packer fans so the game was a must to listen to and attempt to watch on the 6" black and white battery powered TV.


After the Packers easily handled the Motor City Kitties and His Majesty was properly abused, I put the finishing touches on the venison and put the turkey on the Weber. The afternoon plan was to stroll out to one of the more obscure stands with my rifle and primarily my camera. A relaxing afternoon sit as the sun went down and a stroll back to camp in the dark ended the hunting portion of Thanksgiving Day. The trimmin's were cooked on the Detroit Jewel, the 18 pound bird hauled off the grill, and we all enjoyed a candle light turkey dinner followed by a hot sauna and an early bedtime.


The only actual downside of this Thanksgiving Day was that the Voice of Reason was with her sons and folks in Mora instead of at camp. She also had feverishly transformed our kitchen into Home and Garden-like showpiece while I was out in the woods, a very astute move on her part. Thanksgiving Day felt like it must have decades ago with no airport lines, phones, cars, or electronic noise (the 6" B&W is only allowed on during Packer games and the World Series). Water is hand pumped, wood is cut and burned, good friends are present, and life is very simple. Not a bad way to reflect on all we have to be thankful for. Happy Holidays everyone.

Gales of November III: kayak symmetry

It would appear that the 2007 kayak season will end much as it began, with temps in the 30's, a 30-35 knot northwest wind, and horizontal sleet flurries. RonO, the ManFromSnowyLegs, and I began the season that way on Lake Waconia and may have ended it that way on Lake Minnetonka. Seven hardy souls launched from Mound at about 2pm on Wednesday and paddled to Goose Island for a chilly picnic. Instead of camping gear we had the hatches loaded with firewood as well as the customary food and beverages. The launch site was in a lee and deceptively calm but when we got out into the bay we got surf-able swells which prompted the IrishPirate to remark, "This is nearing the limits of my comfort zone". We got a late start and just missed CaptainAnnapolis, who had got out there early and started a fire. We could see him paddling away but the miracle of cell phones got him turned around and back at the festivities. Had he turned his head 45 degrees to the left he would have spotted the flotilla frantically trying to overtake him.....gotta check your 'six' more often I guess. Knowing the proclivities of this group when bonfires, wine, and good food are involved, we all had headlamps for the inevitiable paddle in the dark back to the launch. Minnetonka is far from a wilderness lake so there was plenty of light to see. We also had the lake to ourselves except for a few muskie fishermen.

This third annual Gales of November paddle (scheduled for the closest mutually agreeable date to the anniversary of when the 'Fitz' went down on 10 November 1975) was the first one where there was an actual near gale. The other two were done in bluebird weather. A little cold weather shakedown like this is good to check your gear out in case you decided that a late November LakeSuperior trip was a good idea. RonO checked the western lake Superior buoy before I picked him up and discovered 7.5 foot seas with 5 second intervals. Probably a good day to be on Minnetonka. My Reed tuliq worked perfectly as did the various dry suits. Extremities were a problem. The BessemerConvivialist purchased pogies and didn't wear them until the return trip. She pronounced her curved finger gloves only 'OK' after 3 fingers finally decided to warm up just before we landed on the paddle out to the island. The pogies were declared to be "oh my god, unbelievably warm!" on the return trip. The BC did have some foot gear issues however, which prompted her to beg me to sit on her feet, penguin and egg-like, to warm them up. Bottom line: if you paddle in cold water invest in Chota or some other high mukluk! Getting anything wet in those conditions is a very bad idea.

Blog note: I will be at the deer camp, chasing the elusive Reefer Buck until the Sunday after Thanksgiving. The beauty of the place is no electricity, running water, or central heat. Its a vacation in the 19th century. Electronic devices, other than gps units and weather radios, are banned. The one exception is that a 5" screen, battery operated black and white TV is allowed for Packer games and the World Series. My next post will likely be 10 days from now. Enjoy the holidays!

Credits: All photos courtesy of BjornDahlieofMahtomedi, whose local high school football club, Mahtomedi of course, just qualified for the state finals.