Gitche Gumee

The lake looks pretty much open along the North Shore ... hmmm. It might be fun to load a kayak or two on the Jeep this weekend and make the run up to the lake. Friday night or an early Saturday departure, all day Saturday hanging out along the North Shore. Drive back on Sunday.

Lake of the Isles

Winter seems to be holding fast this year. Last year around this time, the sun and warm temps were making short work of the snow. I think the first weekend in March last year we tried skiing the Vasa Trails up in Mora, and although we found some good skiing, we also found an abundance of grass where the trail was once hard packed snow! More than once we had to remove our skis and walk to the next area with enough shade to protect the snow pack. This year I managed to somehow injure my shoulder on the ski trails, so it looks like my skiing is over for the Winter regardless of snow cover. So, I am looking forward to Spring and soon getting the kayaks out on the local lakes again. With thoughts of Spring we ventured out in the 10f temps this morning for a walk around Lake of the Isles. You can see from the photos that we may have just a bit of a wait.

Just a quick Valentine's wish

Take the time to tell that someone you care about ... that you do!
Hey V, Happy Valentines!

Brussel Sprouts and Grip Tape

Running errands all day trying to get some things done I've been procrastinating over for a long time .. in fact, my week has been sort of a house cleaning week. Things tend to pile up and before you know it the list becomes insurmountable. Well, it feels like that anyway. So after a busy day I'm looking for something to eat, the doritos on top of the fridge don't look so good, had a banana earlier, cookies!! (bad idea) so I decide on trying to cook some brussel sprouts. Now, I've had brussel sprouts cooked by someone I enjoy cooking with, but the problem is I should have paid better attention. I came up with a pretty good plan and I was on my way. I had everything I needed! Olive oil, lemons, sea salt, pepper. Even though they got a little crispy, they were pretty good.

With the Vasaloppet Relay race tomorrow morning, and daytime temps forecast to be around 40f, anyone planning to ski the race classic is going have a tough time picking the right ski wax. I'd tried Grip Tape in the past, and have friends that swear by it, I had bad luck with it. Of course, I'm thinking I just might have used to much ... maybe. So we have a few people on the two skoac teams going classic, and tonight we spent some time getting Chris's ski's ready with the grip tape for tomorrows race. I'll be curious to see what people use for kick wax when the temp gets so warm. I have a tough time with it.

the photo is last years relay team. This year we have two teams .. should be a good day!