Road trip to Wisconsin and BC ski!

 On Saturday we took a road trip to central Wisconsin to pick up a used grooming implement. Farthest from home we've been since going to SD this spring. On Sunday we got out for a BC ski!

Arly found a used Ginzu on Craigslist in central WI.
Here we're returning home with it.

 

Sunday, we parked on High Point Rd to romp in to the trail.

This is the Villi Maki trail.

We took this to zoom down the
long way to the Spring Creek bottom.

Many woodpeckers have been foraging here.
We did see a pileated out today, but he wasn't close enough for a photo.

Back-country ski conditions were excellent!

The snow was still quite packed and cold from the
recent polar vortex, but it was above freezing!

Snow was deep in some spots for a young dog with small paws.

We crossed the creek at will everywhere. Not for long!

Then at home, Sandy and Arly got the Ginzu moved to the
garden garage, where Arly will do renovations to it.

Wednesday Spring Creek gorge adventures!

 Every winter, we wait for the snow to get deep and the temps cool enough to have adventures down our favorite river gorges. Close to home, and always a great romp, is Spring Creek gorge.  Today was the day to finally get down into it!

On High Point road.  Snow is much shallower than most years.

Finally we get a going!

Across the edge of the field we go.

Then, down the bank for the first creek crossing right away.

I'm so glad the sun is out! We don't usually see it much in February.

Snow has been tumbling down this hill side.

What is she doing under there??

Ya, this is the creek, and we skied over it many, many times.

What do we call this?

Why did Sandy make go out here?

Almost back!   I hope we get back here again before spring.

Sandy and Arly's training adventure on Tuesday.

 On Tuesday, Sandy and Arly towed the Boss to Mass City, so they asked to borrow just one post from Wally and Gromit with photos taken there.  They had a grand adventure at the Winter Survival/Off-trail snowmobile operations training put on by the NFS.  

We met at the Greenland Township fire hall,
located in beautiful down town Mass City. 
And, across the street from Bubba's house!
He's "the mayor of Mass City", ya know.

Our intrepid instructor, Dave Tembreull (center, in black)
had a short "classroom" presentation, then got everyone
out for hands-on learning.

Then we headed out to the real classroom. This cut-over
was at a camp near the former Indiana Mine (as far as we could tell).

This was where off-trail riding could occur.
It didn't take long at all for someone to get stuck!
This was the point, as Dave taught us how to
get un-stuck and riding again.

The Boss of course didn't get stuck, even when
driven by an amateur.

Since Sandy doesn't own a snowmobile helmet, she
was very grateful to borrow one from Amber Tembruell. She's
the rec manager for the Ottawa near us and is Dave's better half.

Ya, in-the-field training was great!

The sun even came out, and it warmed up some!

Next, we went to a different location to learn how
to build an emergency shelter. Here Arly is relaxing in ours.

Our proficient shelter-building gang.

Ya never know when you may need to do this for someone.

The line up of sleds, waiting for their shelter builders to return.

Getting ready to start a fire. Yes it is possible to 
get a fire going with one of those goofy flint spark strikers!

All in all, it was a fun and informative day.

Weekend snow and its adventures.

Ya, everyone is keenly aware that the polar vortex is still sticking around. North and northwest winds mean we're still getting lake effect snow.

Satellite image of our big lake creating snow this week.

We've not strayed too far from home but we've had fun in the yard!

Sunday was roof-shoveling day. Its been cool here all week.

View of our drive way and the street.
Note the garage roof was shoveled earlier.

All the trees are pretty snowy. You can see one of the plow piles.

The big plow pile, from the area's big snow pushing machines.
We'll try and get photos when they come around
with the Sno-Go, where they'll blow the pile into
dump trucks and haul it away.

Arly took a few photos while running errands today.

It took a while but winter's really here now!

Weekend snow report!

The lake effect snow machine has finally kicked in, and it's done so with a vengeance.  It's been snowing here for 5 days now, and our forecast shows no end to it. This awesome news is only tamped down by the fact that it's going to be close to 0 degrees F night and day for more than a week.

Arly's been out pushing it with the Boss.

The snow has really been building up, maybe 25" since it started

We finally are getting out!  But it won't last long,
it's very chilly out. We had to wear our booties, we
both got too cold without them.

Me and Gromit have both been out
a little, but they only got photos of me.

We've been rolling the neighborhood sledding hill.

The afternoon sun through the lake clouds.