Brrrrrr

It was-50 degrees today with the windchill and I taught frozen lake study. An interesting experience where thankfully nobody, including me, got frostbite.

The end.

Ely, MN

Mary Beth and I took a short get away to Ely, MN. It's about an hour and a half further inland from me on highway 1. It is a popular town because it's on the edge of Boundary Waters and pretty touristy. We did a little shopping, got massages, and made tacos in our hotel room. It was fantastic. 

We also took a little snowshoeing trip in the Boundary Waters. We were on a lake the whole time, trekking across it to find some Native American pictographs on a cliff face....we never actually saw them. Mostly because we forgot the map and thought we'd gone far enough and that they were covered in snow. But we had a great time anyways. We were the only ones there and the silence and snow falling was magical. 

We also came across a fresh wolf kill from the previous night which was creepy. There were two halves of a deer and we could still see the spots where the wolves had taken parts to eat a little away from the main pieces. Needless to say, I started checking over my shoulders for wolves that might be stalking us...

Lax Lake Highway

So here we are, driving on a road, that is on a lake. 

And now sitting on top of a car that is on the lake.  

Drinking some MN root beer, on top of a car, on top of a lake.  

Minnesotans are crazy. My comfort level with being on frozen lakes has not really increased at all.....maybe after a few months of teaching on one it'll get better. 

Winter Training Plus a Beautiful Sloan Guest

I'm back at WR and it is a whole other world covered in snow. We had three days of winter training starting on the second and I got a few pictures to share. 

We started off with Superior Snowshoe class. This was my first experience with snowshoeing and I really liked it. It's kind of an awkward walking motion, but great because we were off trail almost the whole time. This picture is when we were crossing frozen Raven Lake.

And other snowshoeing picture as we tromp through the woods.

Going across frozen Wolf Lake, Marshall Mountain to the right.

Speaking of snowshoes...here are tracks of an adorable snowshoe hare. They turn all white in the winter (brown in the summer) and have giant back feet to have better flotation over deep snow.

 View of Wolf Lake

And one of the views of Superior we hiked to.

On Thursday we did frozen lake study where we measured ice depth, lowered sonar and cameras into the holes, did a little ice fishing, and cut some chunks of ice out of the lake.....but I forgot to bring my camera with me. 

But on Friday I was joined by this adorable creature. She tagged along for our Ojibwe snowshoeing class training. I think she had fun despite the look on her face :)

 The view of Raven Lake, and behind Lake Superior from our Ojibwe site.

Friday afternoon we did some manual labor like move a voyageur canoe...which was actually really fun. It is a new one we had to slide down to Wolf Lake.

Ice fishing houses on Wolf Lake.....all the tracks from sliding the canoe across the lake.

Chunks of ice we had cut from the lake the previous day.
I'm not going to lie, I think this is crazy and will be terrified to do it with kids. There is a saw you use to cut the ice, then tongs to pull it out of the water...I am sure me or one of my kids is going to fall in on accident.

They were also working on building a quinzee, which is a mixture of a snow cave and igloo. You pile a ton of snow, pack it down, then dig out the middle. They are building a giant one so we could bring a whole class of kids in at the same time. But Christina and I ran away to....

...Chickadee landing! She told me she doesn't like birds because she has had negative experiences so I had to give her a good one. And what's better then having birds land all over you Beauty and the Beast style with an adorable red squirrel as well munching out of your hand?

I also took her cross country skiing for the first time! We have two sets of ski trails that are kept groomed for classes.

 And of course we fit in some rock climbing....basically I wanted to wear her out and make her really sore. And I think I succeeded. Truthfully winter training has been really exhausting and our dorm has had many stretching parties and we groan every time we stand from all the snowshoeing and skiing.

 Beach of Lake Superior with all the snow...really cool.

So thankful I got to see this girl and share some of my crazy life with her! I am also really glad she didn't freeze to death!

The group at a Lake Superior overlook.