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.

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.  🙂