It was a beautiful, warm, sunny winter day and I decided to take advantage of it by heading out for some adventure. I would be headed down to the Ash River area of Voyageurs National Park to complete a snowshoe hike that Noelle, Sierra and I had started last weekend. See, last weekend we had gone sledding at the Kabetogama Lake Sledding Hill,
then driven the Kabetogama Ice Road over to Ash River where we donned our snowshoes and set out to explore Lost Lake.
Unfortunately, after a full morning of sledding, Sierra was pretty tired and we didn't get to see all that much of Lost Lake. I did, however, see some otters playing around on the ice and when I had returned to the site today I had noticed that they left evidence all over the place on the snow.
Otter tracks were everywhere!
Anyway, after checking out the otter tracks I snowshoed over to the Lost Lake campsite to investigate.
Sierra really wants to try a canoe camping trip this summer and I thought a short paddle might be the best way to give it a try. I think the campsite there might be one of our best options. Hopefully this pumpkin witch is gone by summer!
After investigating the campsite I moved to the north side of Lost Lake
and quickly found the portage that connects Lost Lake to Long Slough (Slu).
It was an easy hike, even on snowshoes, but with vegetation so close to the trail, it probably makes for a pretty rough .25 mile portage when you're carrying a canoe.
The area on the other side of the portage is pretty scenic.
There was lots of fresh evidence of beaver activity and even a hole in the ice that it was obvious that beavers have been using pretty frequently.
I then took a side trip over to a beaver pond whose dam looked to have breached at some point.
If there were any people around when that happened, it must have been pretty exciting! I then trudged through the snow
over to some snowmobile tracks. Walking on the snowmobile tracks was so much easier than breaking trail!
I made my way to Lost Bay and made a left turn.
By this time the temperature was climbing and the snow was getting wet and sticky. Snow would build up in the crampons of my snowshoes and get heavier and heavier with each step until, eventually it would fall off and the process would start all over again. There was a fair amount of snowmobile traffic, which surprised me a bit, since we were so far from the staked, groomed trail. Walking in their tracks made my hike so much easier though!
Eventually I made my way out of the bay and onto Kabetogama Lake. I stopped at the Round Bear Island Day Use site
to eat a snack and rest in the sun. Having eaten, I moved on past scattered islands.
I was getting pretty tired by the time I could see the Ash River Visitor Center sign. I opted to walk the Ice Road for the last stretch of my journey to save my tired legs a bit.
I have mixed feelings about the impending end of winter. I am definitely ready for warmer temperatures, but I'm not looking forward to the "in-between" season when there's just not a whole lot to do. Hopefully I still have a few weekends of winter adventures left!
Happy President's Day! I spent my afternoon with an adventure out on Rainy Lake. I drove the Rainy Lake Ice Road to it's eastern end at Cranberry Bay, parked the car and then set off on snowshoes to do some exploring.
I wanted to check out 2 things: the large glacial erratic on Cranberry Bay and Harry Oveson's Fish Camp in winter. I was successful on both counts.
I set off, immediately heading south past some fish houses to the distant shoreline. I carried my ice picks for the first time,
though there was little chance of breaking through the ice. It was interesting to look back at my route and see the path I had chosen laid out in snowshoe tracks on the snow.
The snow was quite windblown and packed, so I did not sink very far as I traveled. I soon found myself at the glacial erratic boulder and was finally able to get a sense for just how large it really is.
I took my photo with it and then noticed some faint otter tracks and slide marks in the snow.
Then I traveled east through scattered islands to the site of the fish camp.
The site looks a little bit different in the winter than it does in the summer.
I could get a real sense of what it must have been like for Harry Oveson and his friends to harvest ice from the lake in the winter. I inspected the buildings a bit
before deciding it was time to head west, back to the car. I passed a few small, but photographic islands along the way
and then made a short side trip to check out two islands that were connected by a bridge. I had noticed the site many times on the Grand Tour boat tour and was curious about it. I assume it's private property, so I didn't trespass. I did, however, get a closer look at an old boat,
now covered with snow, and the bridge itself.
There doesn't appear to be any building on the westernmost of the 2 islands. Perhaps there was at one time.
My last stop was an island where I knew there was a large bald eagle's nest.
We had seen eagles commonly at this site during the past summer. It made me wonder if eagles will return in a few weeks to establish the nest again.
Today Noelle and I took advantage of our babysitter (Grandma) and got out together for a ski. We opted to head across the border to the Rocky Inlet Trails, just outside of Fort Frances. We arrived, paid the $5 Canadian, per person fee and hit the trails for some kicking and gliding in a light snow.
We ended up skiing almost the entire perimeter of the ski trail system.
We were both quite tired by the end! We checked out the lodge a bit before getting in the car to head to lunch at Tim Horton's.
I decided to get 2018 off to an active start with a ski trip to Ellsworth Rock Gardens on Kabetogama Lake. It was cold as I made the drive down to start of my ski at the Kabetogama Lake Visitor Center boat ramp. A bank thermometer read -19F! Still today was forecast to be the warmest day that we've had in some time, with a high of a balmy 0F. I arrived to the parking are to find I had the park all to myself. Not too many people were willing to brave the cold (and perhaps a hangover) on New Year's Day.
I strapped the skis to my boots and took off. My skis didn't seem to be gliding very well at first, perhaps due to the extreme cold. I picked out a landmark on the horizon: a distant Sugarbush Island. Eventually my skis gained a little bit of glide. I followed some wolf tracks for a short distance,
crossed over a pressure ridge,
and passed by a small, rocky island with a metal tripod mounted to the rock.
I guess its some kind of navigation marker or a frame to attach a marker to. I passed another small island dotted with deciduous trees
and then I found myself in the middle of three islands: my landmark Sugarbush Island, Harris Island, and another unnamed island.
At this point I picked out another landmark to ski towards, the right side of Cutover Island. I quickly made my way past an eagle nest in a tree on the northeast side of the island
and then past a point that I believe to be the site of the Nagurski Cabin.
Pro football Hall of Famer Bronko Nagurski had a cabin on that point. It was a base from which he went on numerous hunting and fishing trips. Soon enough I could see a distant dock on the Kabetogama Peninsula, marking the site of Ellsworth Rock Gardens. I skied to the dock, took off my skis
and trudged through the snow, up some stairs to the gardens.
I was pretty hungry by this time, so I headed over to the picnic shelter, found a sheltered area in the sun and ate a snack of some mixed nuts.
I had filled my water bottle with warm water and was pleased to find it had not frozen. I took a drink and then set off to explore.
I think the snow on the sculptures that Jack Ellsworth had created added to the scene.
Everything looked beautiful draped in fresh, clean snow.
I spent about 30 minutes exploring the gardens,
but the cold started to set in and I decided to get moving to warm up.
I made my way back to the dock and strapped my skis on. I had one other destination in mind before I started to make my way back to my car. I noticed a place labeled Clyde Creek Falls on my map. It is just east of the rock gardens, so I made the short ski up a small bay and found a glacial erratic marking the mouth of a small creek.
I took off my skis and walked up the creek a bit to a tight constriction where you could hear water flowing under the ice.
I assumed this was the falls, but with all the snow and ice it was difficult to tell.
After visiting the falls I put my skis back on and started the trip back to the car.
For the return trip I had some wind in my face. It made for a very cold trip. About an hour later I was tired, sore and back to my car for the drive home.
