snowshoeing the North Shore

When Matt and I planned this trip we knew a few things for sure.  We didn't want to fly (we do plenty of that already! and we love road trips!).  With all the 'new' and 'adventure' in our lives, we kind of like going back to places we've already been.  We both LOVE the North Shore of Lake Superior.

So the spot was easy to pick.  We returned to a bed and breakfast we stayed in August 2010.

But we were ready for a totally different North Shore experience - because it's about 80 degrees colder in February than it is in August!

It. Was. Amazing.

We did a ton of snowshoeing - it was my second time and I am definitely hooked.  It's like winter hiking.  Very little skill required.  We each did have a few times that, despite the snowshoes, we plunged waist deep in snow drifts!  [That can be a tricky situation to get out of!]  And on a few of the downhills I ended up mostly sliding on my rear instead of standing on my feet.  Good thing that snow is a nice soft landing - most of the time.

The weather was perfect.  Mind you, it was cold.  But I'm now solidly convinced that if you wear enough clothes you can stay warm in near-zero temps.  Not once did we quit early because we were cold.

Snowshoeing is physically demanding, so our bodies were pumping out lots of heat.  I used boot warmers and Matt had hand warmers which made a big difference.  (And that's why Matt took 90% of the pictures - my hands stayed nice and warm tucked in big wool mittens, but mittens make it hard to take pictures, and I wasn't about to take my hands out unless absolutely necessary!)

The wisps of wind-blown hair caught the hot air leaving my mouth and froze - this was on our last (and coldest) trail.  Gives new meaning to "it's so cold I can see my breath".

I have this exact picture from August 2010.  We actually didn't finish the whole hike this time.  We ran into some deer remains (wolf kill) and I got to thinking that maybe I didn't want to be on the same trail as a pack of wolves.

Matt graciously agreed we could try a different trail.... where we saw another deer carcass.  But by that point we had talked to a park ranger who reminded me that the wolf was terrified of me (as opposed to the other way around).  Still, the deer kills were not my favorite part :)

But the scenery was INCREDIBLE!  So sorry for the deer but he did have a gorgeous final resting spot!

My favorite trail was this one, where we literally hiked out of the mouth of the Baptism River.  During the summer months this is a huge river, rushing towards Lake Superior.  Now it's mostly frozen over (we saw several spots where you could still see the water flowing under the ice cover, but for the most part it was super thick ice).

Once we got out into the lake we could walk along the (completely frozen) shoreline and look up at the rock cliffs.

The icicles were generated by feeder streams and little waterfalls.  Several of them were still dripping (not from melt but because somewhere underneath all that ice the spring that fed the stream was still running!)

[See Matt in there?]

The ice on the lake shifted and looked different every day.  Some days there were big ice floes floating out on the water.  It seriously looked like the Arctic (not that I've ever been there, but you know what I mean!)

The ice and snow and wind created beautiful scenes along the rocky coastline of Lake Superior.

Wild-looking stuff.  The broken slabs of ice reflect the sky and look blue.  It's 100 times more beautiful in person.

And after all our snowshoeing we could rest and relax at a perfect Bed and Breakfast.  Both of us are reading biographies (I'm reading Dietrick Bonhoeffer, Matt reading James Frasier) so it was great to get in hours of reading and also discussing what we're reading.  I think we'll trade books when we finish.

Oh, and today is Matt's birthday.  Pretty much perfect.  Anniversary and Birthday celebrating rolled into one incredible trip.

[Kids did great here at home.  John Paul seems a little stressed by our departure.  But other than that, it's five happy kids and one tired set of grandparents!  Good thing we returned well-rested!]