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.

Table Rock Falls

Last weekend Erin and I headed up to Cook.  We picked up some linoleum along the way.  I got the wood stove going as soon as we got home to get the house all warmed up before we attempted the install.   Saturday night around dinner time we started the process.

The directions tell you to leave an extra half inch on all the edges, put the linoleum in place and then after a day of sitting to trim it down.  Well let me tell you, that is the stupidest line of reasoning EVER.  In my experience (doing this only once) when you leave a half inch on every edge, it doesn’t fit in the area you cut it for.  Especially around the corners.  Anyway after about 6 hours of work we got it all installed.  It looks pretty good.  We still have to put the trim back on the doors and put baseboard down.  The carpet should be getting installed in a couple weeks.

On Sunday I was pretty sore from crawling around on the floor for 6 hours the night before.  Jim, Jesse, and I headed out for a little canoeing trip to Table Rock Falls.  We shot an episode for the BWCACAST site.  Jesse had his camera with and took some pretty cool pictures.  Here are a few of them.

It was a fun trip.  Nice to get out on the water.  We had a few snow flakes flying in the air, and it was a little grey out, but watching the volume of water churn its way down the narrow gorge.

It should be posted in the next week or so on the bwcacast site.  Hope you enjoy.

BWCACAST Anouncement!!

For those of you who haven’t heard…

I will be starting an IPTV show (Internet Television show) or if your more familiar with the term VideoPodcast.

The show will be a weekly trip into the Boundary Water Canoe Area (BWCA). Most trips will be just day trips in and out the same day, but once a month the show will be a multi-day camping trip. I entered the permit lottery back in January and was able to get all three permits that I wanted. One in May, June, and August.

I will be shooting the show in High Definition and viewers will be able to subscribe to a HD feed, a SD feed, a video ipod feed, or watch each episode embedded in the website. I will be looking for sponsors for the show to help pay for equipment, travel costs, and editing time. So if any of you are connected to any companies that are looking for a new way to advertise have them take a looks at the site in a couple months, I should have some content up by then.

I have built a website for this whole new endeavor. You can find it at www.bwcacast.com.

Here is a preview….

Tied in with the website I have created a forum (Discussion Board) for viewers to chat about the show or anything BWCA related.

There is a link off the main site to the “Discussions”, or you can go directly to it by using this link. www.bwcacast.com/forums/

Here is a preview of the discussions site…

Feel free to sign up for an account. It has many features. I’ve set it up so when you log into the forum your also logged into the blog so your able to comment on both. In the forum you are able to upload a personal avatar that will be associated with all of your posts. I hope that people enjoy the show. Feel free to send me feed back on the site. I’ll need help looking for bugs and typos.