North Woods Dog Sledding

Dog sledding in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness

1/24 - 1/30/16

Mural in Ely MN, deep in the north woods.  We're definitely to the right of center.

Forming snow blocks for sculpting in the Ely city park.

Where the dogs live.  10 of about 60.

Where I live upon arrival and the last night.

Where I live the rest of the time.  Sleeping bag, duffel bag and backpack at the shoreline.

How my boots spend the night.  The liners got to be inside the sleeping bag.

Dawn over the dog shit pile.

What the dogs eat--dividing up frozen ground meat with a log splitter.

What  we eat when we run out of cream of broccoli soup.

On the first day we speed along on groomed trails with empty sleds.

 

Tin Can Mike hoping to be chosen for some sledding fun--eat, sleep, howl, shit, fight and pull.

We load up the sleds

And load up the dogs and sleds.  Owner, guide and polar explored Paul Sherke surveys our progress.

We proceed along the road that takes us into the Boundary Waters Wilderness.  Some on sleds and most on skis.

And off we go.

Sometimes the trail just opens ahead of you...

other times it falls away.   Rolled the sled on this one.

Betty--overweight, snappish and never pulled her lead chain tight the whole trip.  There's one in every group.

Even in winter there are stretches of open water and large areas of slush under the snow from water that has squeezed up through cracks in the ice.

Sled's unloaded, dogs on a cable and the pot's on the fire.

The water hole and the access tool.

Visiting the Freeman's camp (2012 National Geo. Explorers of the Year) who are spending a year inside the BWCA.  They are very well connected through social media and visitors like us.

They travel with us for a day and do not sleep under the stars.

It's over the lakes, through the woods and back to the lodge we go.