Bill and Ann on a dogsled trip this week figured out the dog Lewis (shown here). Lewis wanted to pee at the top of every hill. His top-of-hill leg-lifting meant their dogsled stopped shy of the crest and they had to push it to get it over the top. Then they got an idea. As…
The Ely Winter Festival wrapped up this past weekend, just as I wrapped up a dogsled trip. I made it to see the snow sculptures in Whiteside Park in the afternoon. Come late January every year, large blocks of snow get set up in the park, which professionals and amateurs then sculpt into unique, creative…
Kids come up with the darndest of ideas! I’ve been guiding a parent-child trip, and we spent this afternoon playing on the lake by the lodge with a few dogs. Everybody tried skiing, and even those who were total beginners stayed upright much of the time. The skiing was a quick introduction to the next…
Every winter, adventurous sorts come to the woods outside of Ely to prepare for attempts to reach the North Pole by dogsled or ski. It is an opportunity for these people to see how their cold weather systems perform and learn skills for dogsledding and cold weather travel and camping. We call these North Pole…
Layne Kennedy is at Wintergreen Dogsled Lodge this week leading a dogsledding photo workshop. I’m one of the dogsled guides on the trip. It is a joy to work with Layne and absorb his contagious enthusiasm. Layne is a professional magazine and nature photographer. At the beginning of the photo workshop week, participants draw “assignments”…
The recent wet snow has wreaked havoc with area trails. Though the snow-covered trees make a winter-wonderland scene from the highways, drooping trees and branches have seriously restricted travel on winter dogsled and ski routes through the woods in the boundary waters. Most of our dogsledding trails are outside the BWCAW, and therefore we’ve been…
This video shows the actual birth of Lily the Black Bear’s cub near Ely, MN, around noon today. You will see the cub’s paw reach out from behind Lily’s leg and hear the cub’s sounds as it cries out for the first time. I just spoke again with Dr. Rogers and he says that Lily…
The first ever live broadcast of the birth of a wild black bear cub is being broadcast on the web. The North American Bear Center (http://www.bear.org/) near Ely has placed a special live camera in Lily the Black Bear’s den to record this event. Click here for the Black Bear Cam. I just got off…
People often ask me what dogsled guides do on our days off. I tell them that our days off tend to look a lot like our days on. For example, I had this week off from guiding to celebrate a late Christmas with my parents who visited from Iowa. What did I find myself doing…
With low temps around 30 degrees below zero, we cracked open some hand and foot warmers for the dogsledding trip this week. I just finished guiding a trip with a nice family from near New York City. It turns out one of them worked as a hand and foot model. She really appreciated the hand…