Outdoor Activities
On a snowy afternoon in mid-January, 50 8th graders pile off a charter bus, ready to spend the next four hours exploring a variety of winter activities at Positive Energy Outdoor (ed)Ventures, a not-for-profit organization I co-founded with my husband, Blake Cazier, in 2004.
As we drive closer, my 5-year old daughter Grace says, “I’m faster without my poles.” My 8-year old son Sam says he’s going to try to use skate technique instead of just diagonal stride. There must be something in the air at the Boulder Lake Cross Country Ski Trails just north of Duluth. The kids turn into Nordic Evel Knievels.
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Our Northern Wilds has in its midst the world’s largest freshwater lake—Lake Superior—yet many northerners have never actually been ‘’on’’ the lake waters. Now thanks to Sail Superior, an afternoon day-tripping can take urban adventurers sailing past the breakwaters and out into the open waters of Lake Superior.
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Luke shouts, "Big wave!"
"What?" I ask, before a frigid wall of Lake Superior smacks me. I snort water out of my nostrils. My rain jacket is now a soaking joke. And we haven’t even started racing.
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"We are leaving for another world," remarked Captain Gary Lange as we slid away from the marina dock and headed down the mighty Nipigon River for Lake Superior.
Four of us were aboard the 47-foot trawler, Anica Lee—Lange, his friends Karlo Kaustinen and Chesley Imhoff, and myself. Lange described Karlo as "the only person other than my daughters who can operate my boats." Imhoff, known as "Ches," has roamed the island-studded waters of Lake Superior’s Canadian North Shore since the 1950s.
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Grace shouts, "Blue sign!" every hundred yards or so. I get a nice shot of adrenaline when she hollers this from six inches behind my head. We’re on our way along the Superior Hiking Trail (SHT) above Silver Bay, and I need the prodding to go uphill with her 30 pounds on my back.
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Today when you mention planked trout or salmon, many people think of the thin, cedar planks that you can buy at many sporting goods outlets to cook fish over the grill on. But what we are talking about for this story involves something quite different, can feed larger crowds and is just as delicious.
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As my fishing buddies will attest, I like gear. But my travels as a fishing writer have forced me to scale down my gear to the bare essentials. What I’ve learned is for 90 percent of my fly in trips, I can get by comfortably with 10 percent of my usual tackle. Here’s a look at how to prepare for a fly in.
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The use of dogs to pull sleds goes back centuries, but formal dog sled racing dates back to the early 1900s. The first race took place in Alaska in 1908. The winner of the All Alaska Sweepstakes completed the 408-mile race from Nome to Candle and back in just over 119 hours. The sport quickly evolved and by 1910, the same race was completed by the winning musher in just over 74 hours.
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Kicksledding and the kicksled first caught my attention a few years ago. I was intrigued. Here was an environmentally-friendly winter invention, available for both competitive sports and recreational activity perfectly suited for Canadian and American winters–and yet it was virtually unknown in North America.
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