Permits are in!!

Just got the confirmation emails tonight about the BWCAW lottery. It turns out we struck gold this year getting all 4 of our entry permits. Our first bwcacast trip will be at the end of May right when school gets out. The second trip will be a few days after we get back from Australia. The second one is the really big trip. It is known as the “Voyagers Highway”. A rough check using google earth it looks like the trip will be about 180 miles. I sure hope we are up for such an adventure. 🙂 It will take a lot of planning. Jim and I are going to have to take out the maps and really do our homework.

Once we sit down and iron out some more details I’ll be sure to share them with you. Now its time for bed.

137 Days

That’s all that’s between Erin and I and our trip to Australia. The weekend seems to just fly by. Its already Sunday evening and it seems work is just around the corner. Students in the Virginia School District will be enjoying a three day weekend. The teachers however have a work day. The high school teachers will be in a four hour differentiated instruction class in the morning. Hopefully the day goes well. I’m already looking forward to next weekend. 🙂

BWCACAST Season Two

Tonight Jim and I scoured the maps and planned our trips for the upcoming summer.  We are currently in the lottery phase of bwcaw permits where you sign up for the entry points and dates you’d like, but you also put in alternate entry points for each date.  They draw names and issue permits this coming Friday and you find out by next Tuesday what you end up with.  After this point they display on their website all entry points and the dates that still have permits to issue.  You can then go and reserve them until they are gone.

BWCAW has completly rebuilt their website.  They are now part of recreation.gov, and I have to say the new site is very nice.  It seems like they have used some of the newer techniques like AJAX to make the reservation process much more stremlined.  They have also integrated google maps with all the entrypoints marked on the map.  A very nice touch.

Anyway, Im really excited for the upcoming trips, its always fun to head off into the wilderness.

Break has come to an end.

Let me be the first to tell you that the last week and a half has been very very nice.  I really enjoyed sleeping in every morning and playing outside on the nice and not so nice days.

I feel I accomplished a lot over break with a new bwcacast episode being shot, five episdoes edited up, some snowshowing on the lake with Erin, and some skating at the outdoor hockey rink in cook.

We went to a couple of movies “Yes Man” and “Marley and Me”.  Both were fun movies.  Erin and I unfortunetly got the gigles at the end of Marley and Me when there were people in the theater that were so caught up in the movie that they were actually sobbing.  Let me tell you its not good to get the giggles in a “quiet” theater surrounded by very upset people.  Luckliy we were able to control ourselves enough to not cause a scene.  The movie was a little sad, but man… Its a movie folks, its not your dog.  🙂

I am hoping that the new year of work will go by as quickly as the last few months.  I am ready for another summer of adventures.  If you haven’t heard, we booked tickets for Austraila in June.  I can’t wait for the trip.  Its going to be a ton of fun traveling the Great Ocean Road with Erin for three weeks.

I have also strated planning trips into the BWCAW.  I need to get some dates from people that will be going with to see what will work out best entry permit dates.

For now I have another few months with students and teachers to focus on.

I hope everyone has a nice January.

Snowshoeing and Editing

Erin and I took off to shoot our first winter episode for BWCACAST.com.  I was planning on heading out to Hegman Lake on Wednesday (New Years Eve Day) because the weather forecast showed a sunny day.  Well Tuesday morning Erin got up before me and checked the weather.  She came back and woke me up suggesting we go then instead of Wednesday and that the weather was supposed to clear up for the day.

With this sudden change of plans I hopped out of bed and started rummaging around the house collecting all the gear we would need for the little adventure.  I was planning on pulling all the gear together that evening, so we were a bit unprepared.  I dug around in the closet and pulled out my cook stove, fuel, nested cook kit, and backpack.  Along with the basics we added some extra layers, face protectors (for the wind) and some extra mittens.  Erin not only got some hot water in a thermos, but also made some tasty egg sandwiches to get some nice warm food in our bellies before we headed out in the cold.

We threw our gear in the car and headed down the road.  We got about half way down Raps road (the road we live on) and I realized I had forgotten a headlamp and tp.  The headlamp in case we were out into the evening hours, and the tp is pretty self explanatory.  So we turned around to retrieve the much needed supplies.

Once on the road we made it to Ely around noon where we stopped at Will Stegers shop so I could buy a pair of mukluks.  With my new purchase freshly sprayed water sealant we headed down the Echo trail.  We pulled into the Hegman lake entry point a little after 1:00 PM.  We hopped out of the car and donned our snowshoes.  I got the video camera out and on the tripod and we started down the trail.

It was great that Erin got me motivated to go that day because as soon as we were on the trail, the skies cleared up and it was nothing but sunshine and blue skies for the rest of our trip.  Erin is great to shoot shows with, she is patient during all the retakes, and the time consuming shots that require us to set up the camera, walk by it, then go back and retrieve it.  She also gives pointers on different shots to get and what might enhance my on the spot dialogs I have with the camera.

It took us a little over two hours to snowshoe the 2.4 miles out to the pictographs and back.  We were able make it back to the car before the sun went down.  It really was a perfect day to be out in the woods.  On the car ride back we called up Erin’s mom and had her fire up the sauna.  So we swung by her place and relaxed in the sauna and visited for a couple hours.

With this newly shot footage and some time to actually get some editing done, I spent the last couple days hammering away at new episodes for BWCACAST.  I had already edited up a couple of shows last week, and released one of them the day we were out shooting our winter episode at Hegman.  All in all I now have 5 shows that are newly edited.  So if your a fan of the show here is what you have to look forward to in the coming months.

Exploring Kifes Lower Arm – Released Tuesday December Dec. 30th

Leaving Knife Lake – Jan 13

Lakes 1-2-3-4 – Jan 27

Hiking the Angleworm Trail – Feb 10

Snowshoeing into Hegman – Feb 24

Along with editing today I did catch part of the Winter Classic.  It was really cool to watch Detroit and Chicago play on the outdoor rink.  I am not surprised the venue was sold out in less than an hour and that tickets were being scalped for over a $1,000.

About halfway through the second period, Jesse and I went out snowshoeing to slim chance the same place Erin and I had gone to on Sunday.  Jesse and I went further up the trail back to a little slough.  Well I was following Jesse across a bit of ice and happened to break through.  The snowshoes I was using weren’t as big so they didn’t displace my weight as much and through the ice I went.  Luckily I only went in up to my calves.  My mukluks did a phenomenal job of keeping my feet dry. I hopped out as soon as I could and used a bunch of dry snow to wick away the water on my mukluks and snow pants.  After that was taken care of Jesse and I continued to explore round the area where we flushed a grouse and a couple of deer.  After hiking around we hopped back on our trail and headed home.

Snowshoeing on Vermilion

It was an amazingly sunny day out today.  This afternoon I donned Jim’s mukluks and snowshoes and Erin and I headed out across the lake.  The snow was crunchy on top sounding like glass shattering on each step.  We got a little ways from the house and looked back to see our tracks in the snow.  This is one of my favorite things about snowshoeing.  You can really see your progress with just a glance over your shoulder.

We continued down the lake towards Black Bay.  We weren’t planning on going all the way there.  We really didn’t have a goal in mind, but were kinda thinking about checking out a trail called “Slim Chance” which we usually get to by boat in the summer and fall.  On our way It was fun to see the relatively untouched snow covering the lake in front of us.

We continued down the lake enjoying the frosted trees everywhere and the snow covered docks.  Its kinda nice here in the winter it gives you the feeling that you are the only ones on the lake.  Most of the houses are summer use only.

We did make our way out to Slim Chance and hopped onto the trail.  Erin snapped this photo of me heading up the trail.  It was a little up hill, but the snowshoes did their job of keeping us on top of the snow.

We continued down the trail stepping over fallen trees and actually crawling under one.  Erin got a little tripped up stepping over one.  The cool thing is it doesn’t even look like she fell, it looks more like she is posing for a photo in the snow.

Along the trail there was a tree with a huge shelf fungus stuck to its side.  I’ve seen a lot of these, but not many this big.  I didn’t touch it, but if you do touch the bottom with your bare fingers it will stain the fungus where ever you touch it.  You can essentially write on them with just a finger.

Once we were on the trail it was really cool to look up through the trees above watching the blue sky shine through.  It really is a very different atmosphere between summer and winter.

After a little hike up the trail we headed back home before we were too sweaty and cold.  The hike back went just fine.  There were a few spots where we sunk through the top layer of snow into the slush below.  We were quick to hop a head and attempt to soak up the remaining water with dry snow.

We came home to a warm fire in the wood stove.  The mukluks performed greatly, but they are a bit small for me.  I might run over to Ely and pick up a pair for myself.  I love my bunny boots, but they are a bit heavy for long hiking trips.  The mukluks are nice, light, and warm.  You can check them out at www.mukluks.com.

I am hoping to head out to Hegman Lake this week.  Hegman is where the painted rocks are that we did for one of our first BWCACAST shows.  I am hoping to basically shoot it again, but this time in the winter.  It is supposed to be sunny on Wednesday.  That’s the proposed day for the trip.

I am also thinking about driving up to Atikokan Ontario this week to shoot a show for bwcacast on the Souris River Canoe.  They make very nice canoes and its a very small business.  I think it’d be fun to show a behind the scene look on how their boats are made.

No Ice Rink :(

My hopes and dreams of clearing off a skating rink over Christmas break came to a slushy sloppy stop.  You see after it snowed a couple weeks ago and Jesse and I tried to clear off some of it, the weight of the snow on the ice caused water to be pushed up through the ice and flood the surface.  This mixed with the first 6 inches of snow making a layer of slush above the ice and below a blanket of snow.  It seems the snow on top is keeping the slush from freezing.  The area that Jesse and I had cleared off did freeze up.  The bummer deal now is that there is too much slush to remove with anything short of a big plow.  Which we don’t really have a way to get down on the ice, and even if we did I don’t know if I’d want to be driving a big plow around on the ice.

So with out our nice little rink in front of the house, Erin and I headed in to Cook to try out the rink they have in town.  We weren’t there but 5 minutes when a few kids showed up.  Half of the rink had some pretty choppy ice while the other half was managable.  I had brought a puck with and I was letting the kids play with it.  I’d skate in every once and a while to play a little defense on them.  One time in the choppy end I was skating backwards and my skates punched through a little bit sending me over backwards onto the ice.

Erin was johny on the spot with the camera.  I have been giving her a hard time about taking photos of my blunders instead of my figure skater-like skills I normally display out on the ice.

It was fun to skate around.  I would enjoy some time passing the puck around with some bigger kids that actaully wan’t to play with me.  These kids ended up stealing my puck.  🙁

Half way there…

Yesterday a new pipe was installed between Jim’s house and ours.  This new pipe would bring the ever precious clear liquid used to not only replenish ourselves, but our poor dehydrated Christmas tree.  Unfortunately even though the line was good to go coming into the house, since the pipes under the house hadn’t been used in a week they had all frozen solid.  🙁

Last night I worked at the Virginia High School Hockey game against Princeton.  The final score was 9 – 3 with a Blue Devil win (Virginia).  I was in charge of taking tickets at the door.  Erin gave me a call to let me know that the pipe had been installed, but we still didn’t have running water.  I told her that I’d pick up a heater at L&M before coming home.

My friend Tony came to the game with me.  I asked if he’d watch the door for me while I ran off to buy a heater.  He was kind enough to leave the stands and tear tickets apart.  I drove over to the store and found that there were a few different options for heaters.  I knew that I needed one that put out enough heat to heat the whole underside of the house, but one that wouldn’t burn the place down.  Its kind of a catch 22.  The two “bigger” heating options were a diesel heater and a propane heater.  I knew that diesel would be easier to obtain, and not require a special tank.  Since it was already 7:45 in the evening, I figured getting a propane tank filled would be a bit of an ordeal, so I opted for the diesel heater.  Turned out to be a 40,000 BTU “ReadyHeater”.

I went back to the game an let Tony head back to the stands, and finished taking tickets till the second intermission at which point I joined Tony and Steph (another teacher at VHS) to watch the third period.  Since Virginia was so far ahead, the Princeton team seemed to play a bit more dirty.  There were a few questionable hits and ensuing penalties assessed to curb such behavior.   The game was a lot of fun.  Hockey is definitely my favorite sport.

I got home around 10:30 after picking up some diesel from the Cook gas station.  Since it was kind of late, I didn’t mess with the heater and just went to bed.

Today Erin and I ran into town and visited with her grandparents and then stopped by the hardware store to buy a couple pieces of angled stove pipe to attach to the end of our ReadyHeater hoping to divert the hot air away from any combustible areas of the house.  We got back out to the house and found that neither piece of stove pipe would fit the heater.  We talked to Jim who was on his way back up from the cities.  He wasn’t too jazzed up about our new heater being a bit concerned that it might burn the house down.  He told us about a heater he had set out in the garage that we should try instead.  So I ventured up to the grage to find this miracle heating unit.  This is what I was presented with…..

I know… Like your thinking…. Really… this is going to heat up the entire underside of the house and thaw out all of our water pipes?  Here is the comparison between what I bought, and what was left in the garage.  Which do you think would handle the operation a little better?

So we plugged in the little one until Jim came home.  Unfortunately the breaker was popped by the heater and not much was accomplished in that time.  So when jim was there we set up the bigger heater.  We were still concerned that it might start the hosue on fire, so I stood outside for a while to make sure everything was under control.

After about 10 minutes of this über heater we had dripping in the kitchen.  After about 30 minutes we had running water in the kitchen.  At 1 hour we had dripping in the bathroom, and at 2 and a half hours we had running water at all faucets and our drains finally were thawed out.  We are leaving the water running and the heater going to make sure that all of the ice has been cleared out, but we are finally back to showering at home and having the ability to flush our toilet without dumping water from a 5 gallon bucket into the back of the toilet first.   I’d say that this was a successful weekend.

Ohh before the hockey game yesterday, Tony and I went out for dinner and then headed over to the curling club in Eveleth where we hung out with an Olympic bronze medalist and watched curling for about 45 min.  I think I’d really get into curling if I were closer to a curling club.  Its just not that feasible with a 50 mile drive.  I’ll probably go and throw a few stones this winter.  It was a lot of fun watching the “professionals” work their magic on the ice Friday night.  It sure is amazing how accurate they are.   I am looking forward to finishing up school this coming week and enjoying the Christmas break.  I hope you all have a very safe and enjoyable holiday season.

Car 3 – Me 0

The battle began last summer when the car threw the first punch deciding to have its transmission go out.  I fought back by leaving it for two months at the transmission shop to get it fixed.  The car took this in stride and started to leak transmission fluid to show we hadn’t won the battle yet.  We combated this passive aggressive behavior by adding more fluid and trying to make sure it was nice and warmed up before driving.  The car threw another right hook by lighting up its check engine light.  We were planning our next strike a visit to the car shop to have a computer plugged in to diagnose the troublesome light in the dash.  Before we could execute this stealthy move the car sucker punched me when I drowsily went out to start the car at 6 am keeping up the rigorous routine of warming the car up before driving to work.  As I opened the door to start the car it lashed out and struck me in the face, using the very corner of the door to puncture a hole in my face between my eye and my temple.  At -27 F standing in my pajamas and parka with blood pouring from my face, I let the car know how I really felt about it with a few choice words.  I wasn’t about to back down, so I continued with my goal of starting the car and then went in to shower.

I washed the blood off my face and threw a little band-aid over it.  Back out in the frigid cold I confronted my 4 wheeled black nemesis and drove it to work.  After work I returned the sucker punch with getting it diagnosed at the local car shop only to find out that it had locked up its torque converter.  Not dismayed I called the transmission shop back up and scheduled a time to drop it off to get this new ailment addressed.

If it comes down to a legal matter I have digital proof of the abuse I’ve taken.  You have all now heard my side of the story.

A Day Off

There was a pretty bad storm over the weekend that dumped quite a bit of snow as far as the Midwest is concerned.  The majority of this snow fell on Sunday causing the roads in the area to become essentially closed.  Because of all this most if not all of the school districts in northern Minnesota closed their doors for Monday.

This was very nice.  I was able to sleep in this morning which is always a treat.  When I got up I put on my winter clothes and went down to the lake in hopes of clearing the snow off to make a skating rink.  Well… there was at least a foot of snow if not a bit more and I was armed only with a shovel.  A snow blower or a serious plow would have been a nice addition to the snow removal process.  Lucky for me though Jesse came down to lend a hand.  We worked on it for a couple hours and then gave up for the day.

The afternoon I spent working on another show for BWCACST.  This was on our first day into Kife Lake.  This was our last multi day camping trip for the summer.  I am a bit behind as you can see on getting shows out.  I am hoping to get them posted a little bit more regularly if I can.

This evening Erin and I decorated our Christmas tree.  This is our first real tree we’ve had.  Our time in BSSD there really weren’t a plethora of trees to choose from in the villages we lived in, and last year in Baxter we weren’t allowed to have a real tree in our apartment.  The thing I like most about the tree is that it means Christmas break is just around the corner.  🙂