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| Steve
selecting la musica. |
Ben
and Tami, moments after I arrived on skis at 9:50
pm on Friday night. |
 |
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| Having
fun, drinking Munich Lowenbrau out of a mini-keg,
and good music. |
An
overwhelming feeling of dance grabbed hold and we
opened the garage door, cranked the music and had
a spectacle of "Dancing Bears" under the
full moon. |
 |
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| Linda,
Tami and Ben, doing the "Dancing Bear"
shuffle. |
A
father-and-son team of "wilderness"
campers quit pulling their sleds of gear right in
front of the garage at the house, and stayed there
all weekend. |
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| The
end of the driveway I skied in on the previous
evening (I don't have a truck). I only parked a
mile away, so it was no big deal. |
A
chickadee enjoys the morning offering on the deck
of the house. |
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| The
snow-capped stove pipe of the sauna, looking
crystalline in the morning light. |
Crystalline
and very cold fresh snow on the sauna roof. |
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| Ben
and Linda on the trail floating expedition. |
Tami
on the trail floating expedition. |
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| Tami
on the trail floating expedition. Tami is looking
fashionable wearing an Empire Canvas Works Wool
Blanket Shirt. |
Ben
and Linda on the trail floating expedition. |
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| Ben
and Linda on the trail floating expedition. |
Ben
and Tami during our first rest on the trail at a
BWCA designated campsite. |
 |
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| Steve
and Linda on a break. |
Ben
was never having fun, as you can tell from the big
frown on his face. |
 |
 |
| Steve
was steaming mad that he overdressed for the
snowshoe expedition. The photographer did the
same, and almost fogged up my lens. |
Ben
and Linda were first on the lake at the terminus
of the trail, and quickly made us a "crop
circle" to stand in on the powder snow. |
 |
 |
| Ben
and Tami. The trail terminus is the site of a
1900-era lumber camp, with evidence of its
existence obvious when pointed out by Steve. |
Standing
in the "crop circle" and eating little
chocolates that Linda brought along and handed out
to us. |
 |
 |
| Your's
Truly, scouting the lake. I was told to strike a
comical "Lewis & Clark" look, so I
did. |
Trouncing
through the 3-foot spindrift powder on the lake. |
 |
 |
| Tony
is looking fashionable wearing an Empire Canvas
Works Arctic
Style Anorak. |
Ben
takes a turn at trouncing through the 3-foot
spin-drift powder on the lake. |
 |
 |
| Ben
is looking fashionable wearing an Empire Canvas
Works Wool
Blanket Shirt. |
Ben
is also looking fashionable wearing a pair of
Steger Arctic
Weathermate Mukluks. |
 |
 |
| Ben
is also staying warm and dry in his Mukluks by
wearing Ullfrotte Original
Wool Socks. |
Hanging
out in the sharp February mid-day sunlight. |
 |
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| Ben
laughs heartily while Steve casually watched five
wolves creep up behind Ben on the lake. |
A
fun "snow pillow" that was on top of
just about every stump in the forest. There are
lots of stumps from the July
4, 1999 BWCA blowdown. |
 |
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| Another
"snow pillow" on a stump. |
Looking
up at the south ridge of the trail through a
balsam top. |
 |
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| Interesting
snow-crest with 2pm winter sunlight shining
through it. |
A
lovely dead spruce against the stark, blue sky. |
 |
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| Just
a neat adherence of powdery snow on a dead tree. |
Looking
west along the trail back to the house. |
 |
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| Looking
west along the trail back to the house. |
Another
view of lichen and the neat adherence of powdery
snow on a dead tree. |
This
is the end of the first trailwork to the East.
We chowed on some snacks and then went out ice
fishing on the lake |
 |
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| Tami
& Ben on the afternoon ski out to the fish
house that was about 1k out on the lake. |
Linda
went first on Steve's snowmobile float track, and
revealed some serious slush midway down the track. |
 |
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| The
slush was mostly unavoidable, and it iced up ours
skis into big bricks of non-gliding sticks. |
At
the ice-house, cleaning ice off the skis. Note
the enormous cliffs to the East. |
 |
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| Linda
had a nice poly scraper for cleaning ice off our
skis and bindings. |
The
"Taj Mahal" ice house. This was the
first time it has ever been used. |
 |
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| Scraping
skis. |
Sunset
at the ice house. |
 |
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| Sunset
at the ice house. |
Sunset
at the ice house. |
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| Sunset
at the ice house. |
Sunset
on the Palisade walls. |
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| Time-exposure
of the nearly full moon rising on the horizon east
of the sauna. |
Time-exposure
of the nearly full moon rising on the horizon east
of the sauna. |
 |
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| Time-exposure
of the nearly full moon rising under a bent birch
tree. Venus is right below it. |
Time-exposure
of the front porch. |
 |
We
ate an amazing dinner of Durfee's Spicy Venison
Lasagna, salad and a nice mix of Linda's greens
and other dinner accoutrements. |
| Time-exposure
of the nearly full moon rising on the horizon east
of the sauna. |
| The
photos below are from Sunday, skiing on the trail
we floated with snowshoes on Saturday. |
 |
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| Tami
after a nice corner biff on a long portage trail
run. |
She
later mentioned, "When your ski tips are
right in front of your face in the snow, you know
something went wrong!" |
 |
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| Ben
right above the previous nice corner biff on a
long portage trail run. He saw the first wipeout
and crashed on purpose to avoid a collision. |
Tami
on the terminus of the trail where we snow shoed
to the previous day. |
 |
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| Steve
enjoying the mid-day sun that kept poking out. |
Linda
adjusting her ski boot on a handy log at the
portage. |
 |
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| Steve
and Ben at the trail terminus. |
Ben
loving life. |
 |
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| Tami
caught being a "SuperStar!" |
Steve
sneaking by on the trail. |
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| Ben
and Tami on the trail. |
Ben
and Tami on the trail. |
| Nothing
beats a "trail kiss" |
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