The wild and rugged shores of northern Lake Superior have a captivating presence that cannot be denied. For those who have traveled upon her, Superiors stunning beauty and immense power is very well known. In the summer of 2008 three Lakehead University students in the Lake Superior Research Group (LSRG): Aaron Nicholson, Jessica Johnson, and Zack Kruzins embarked upon a 50-day sea kayak expedition within the newly announced National Marine Conservation Area. While studying everything from campsites to water trails, risk management, arctic disjunct plants, lichen, terraced beaches and more, the three were treated with many of Superior’s gifts. This film, a reflection of their expedition, was created as a tribute to the stunning beauty and power of Lake Superior.

www.lakesuperiorresearchgroup.ca

February 26, 27, and 28, 2010

Participation in the Expo is FREE OF CHARGE! There will be a fee for the Saturday night dinner, music and prizes (which we expect everyone to attend) - this includes the Sunday morning Finnish pancake breakfast.

THE DETAILS

The event kicks off on Friday night with dinner and a bonfire under a full moon at Beyond the Giant Nature Retreat. Saturday will start with a three-hour clinic for beginners. The afternoon will be open for shorter one-hour, drop-in lessons. Experienced kiters will fill the day exploring the bay and trying out the latest kites and equipment from Ozone and Ocean Rodeo. Dinner, prizes and live music will cap off the day at the conference centre on Lake Marie Louise, Sleeping Giant Provincial Park. The final day will begin with traditional Finnish pancakes and birch syrup and end with a long distance kite tour down the length of Black Bay. Accommodation is available at Beyond the Giant (only one cabin left!) and at the conference centre on Lake Marie Louise, Sleeping Giant Provincial Park.

THE LOCATION

Most of the action will be taking place in on Black Bay, offshore from Beyond the Giant Nature Retreat. The dinner, food and live music will be taking place at the conference centre in Sleeping Giant Provincial Park. Depending on condition, more events could move to Lake Marie Louise. Check back for updates.

THE OPTIONS

All participants must register. There is no fee for this. You can register HERE or by calling 807-627-3017 or send message HERE..

There are two options for taking lessons. A three-hour clinic will be held on Saturday morning (wind and weather permitting). This in-depth clinic will cover kite design, equipment and safety before heading out onto the lake for hands-on with a variety of kite sizes. Limited to six participants. We supply the kites and harnesses, participants will need a helmet, skis or snowboard. Cost for the three-hour clinic is $100/person. You can register HERE or by calling 807-627-3017 or send message HERE.

The other option for lesson are drop-in one-hour Intro to Kiting lessons. Learn the basic skills of flying a 3-4 line trainer kite to prepare for the larger kites needed for snowkiting. We supply the kites and harness, participants need a helmet. You can register HERE or by calling 807-627-3017 or send message HERE.

There will be food (Saturday supper, Sunday morning breakfast) prizes and live entertainment for a cost of $20/person. You can register HERE or by calling 807-627-3017 or send message HERE.

Accommodations are available at Beyond the Giant (one off the grid log cabin left!) or at Sleeping Giant Provincial Park conference centre ($40/person - shared and private rooms available). You can register HERE or by calling 807-627-3017 or send message HERE.

Photos and results from the 2010 Sleeping Giant Loppet.

Find more photos here.

Event website here.

Results here.

[Show as slideshow]

Gunflint Trail- The big news on the Banadad is that after twenty years of managing the Banadad Ski Trail Boundary Country Trekking has turned over the management duties to a newly formed non-profit- the Banadad Trail Association. The mission of the Association according to Karen Monsen, the association’s president, “ is to maintain and enhance the Banadad Ski Trail, preserve the history of the forest and the trail, and promote the appreciation and care of wilderness lands which the trail runs through.”

The Association has retained boundary Country Trekking as the Trail’s maintenance coordinates.

Other Trail news-two more miles of the Trail’s remote interior within the BWCA were widened this summer. In August a five-person crew from the Minnesota Conservation Corp (MCC) working out of “spike camps” along the trail spent eight days widening and clearing another two miles. According to the Trails maintenance staff, “the wilderness section MCC cleared due to it’s remoteness has been neglected you years and was about to be choked off by brush. It is now cleared six to eight feet wide and all the overhanging brush is gone. MCC did a great job!”

On the other end of the Banadad outside the BWCA, with the aid of a Minnesota DNR grant the Tall Pines Trail has finally been re-surfaced by a bulldozer. Four year’s ago the trail was hand cleared but due to the Trails rough surface grooming was impossible and skiing difficult. Finally with the bulldozing completed the rocks and ruts are gone and the Trail is groomed and ready for skiers.

Skiers traveling the BWCA’s Banadad Ski Trail this winter will be greeted midway along the trail by greatly improved overnight accommodates. A new twenty-foot yurt was erected earlier this fall at Bedew Lake. Olga’s Yurt as this new yurt is called replaces the old Olga’s hut. The name Olga is of a mythical character created by guests staying at the yurt camp many years ago. Olga’s Yurt will serve as the main lodging at the camp with overnight accommodation for up to seven guests and house the camp’s dining facility. The older Croft yurt will provide additional lodging for another four guests.

With fourteen inches of snow on ground the groomers are out grooming the entire forty kilometers of the Banadad Trails.

“Try walking like a cowboy.” Leah Pierce edges away from us, her crampons digging into the slightly crunchy snow, her exaggerated bowlegged swagger punctuating each step. After her snow-walking crampon tip, Pierce, with a tool in each hand, and carabiners dangling from her harness, heads towards the base of Orient Bay’s Cascade Falls, one of many ice climbing spots near Nipigon, Ontario. After a long cold winter, it almost feels like a balmy near-zero degrees in the sun (it’s more like -10 C), a little chillier in the shade, but not too bad. Dreading the possibility of minus thirty on my first ice climbing venture, I’m personally thrilled. “We have never climbed in such warm weather before,” helper Julie Sachs gushes. “This is lovely.”

Read the rest of this story in the Winter 2008/09 issue of Superior Outdoors.

words and photos by Chris Gibbs

It’s January 1998.  The temperature is -19 degrees below zero, and I have just set up my nylon tent for a weekend ski outing along the north shore.  It’s hard work making sure the tent is secure and everything is in place.  My fleece hat is covered in frost and the mid-layers are damp from perspiration. I fire up my ultralight naptha stove and begin to prepare our evening supper.  My wife and I stare out at the beauty of Lake Superior as the sun sets and the temperature begins to plummet.  Before I am able to finish my meal it begins to freeze to the bottom of my bowl. Teeth chattering, I say to my wife, “Honey, I am not going to be a man about this; we are going to freeze to death tonight.”  She agrees and we pull the plug, semi-packing our equipment and retreating to a motel in Grand Marais, salvaging a fun ski weekend.  Sound familiar?

Read the rest of this article in the Winter 2008/09 issue of Superior Outdoors 

The sun had begun to set over the waves at Park Point and the wind had taken on a brutal chill. Most of the other surfers had left the beach when I saw Randy Carlson, 43, of Duluth MN, already wearing his full-body wetsuit, jump out of his Volkswagen Vanagon and unload his surfboard. 

 “Long day at the office, Randy?” I asked as he paddled by me. He just chuckled and shook his head. “I had to wash wetsuits!” he yelled over his shoulder just before he ducked a wave. 

As the head of UMD’s National Kayak and Canoe Institute (KCI), Carlson has a job that most people only get to dream about. He does adventure sports for a living - a lot of them.

Carlson has been working with UMD’s Recreational Sports Outdoor Program (RSOP) for twenty-five years. Along with facilitating all of KCI’s programming, he also runs the surfing, stand up paddle boarding, and snow kiting programs for the RSOP. 

“It’s a unique job.” Carlson admits. “It’s not really the sort of job you can apply for. Nobody told me I couldn’t start these programs, so I just did.”

Carlson received both his BAS in Teaching Earth Science and his Masters in Education at UMD and never left. 

“I’m an alternative thinker,”Carlson says. “I have spent the past 25 years creating my own job description…I’m still working on it.”

His office is overflowing with stacks of boxes, files, folders and old gear catalogues that, like Carlson himself, don’t seem to fit comfortably into the space. I wouldn’t be surprised if one of the stacks of paper in his office was just a pile of his certifications. He’s an American Canoe Association certified Instructor trainer/educator in white water kayaking and canoeing as well as open water coastal kayaking, a wilderness first responder and, to top it off, a certified Professional Air Sport Association snow-kite instructor.

No matter how busy he is Carlson always stops whatever he’s doing to check the surf report for people passing by his office, even if they’re not particularly interested. He chats in long drawn out tangents, smiles constantly, and in short, is extremely mellow for a guy who makes his living kayaking, surfing, and kiting.

For every hour Carlson spends outside instructing, he spends at least two or three in his cluttered, windowless office doing prep-work or out running around organizing and cleaning gear for the next program.

 “It’s hard to balance everything” Says Carlson, who’s married and has two children. 

“But life is about balance, that’s why I’d rather be skillful in a wide variety of sports than specialize in just one…I don’t really care if I’m the best.  I just want to be safe, skilful and on the scene. There’s a similar generosity up here as there is in places like Hawaii, I think. We all share our experiences and resources to help one another. That’s why I like it here. ”

David Costello is a UMD student and freelance writer living in Duluth, Minnesota.

The growth of ‘New School’ skiing

If you have ever felt the urge to ski backwards off a jump at your local hill, you are not alone. There is a growing trend of new school skiers hitting the slopes of late. Built on the style and attitude of snowboarding, new school, or freeskiing, began in the 90’s when freestyle skiers felt there were too many restrictions on the sport. With limits on the number of flips and a ban on inverted tricks in mogul competitions, freestyle skiers were looking for a new way to develop their sport.

Utilizing the same terrain parks and half pipes that were once meant only for snowboarders, new school skiers began to move the sport forward. Ski manufacturers caught on to this trend and today there are a multitude of twin tip skis to help you get into the park.

Twin-tip skis are more flexible than the average ski, and, as the name implies, they are turned up at both ends to allow for forward and backward skiing. They are designed for skiing on man made features such as boxes, rails, jumps and halfpipes.

According to Kristoff Kardas of The Ski Exchange, twin-tip skis make up almost 90% of new ski sales. But it’s not just the youth market who are thinking backwards. With every major ski brand now carrying a variety of twin-tip models, many are switching over for something new. Regardless of the reason, twin-tip skis are making it cool to be a skier again.

-D. McChristie

If you are looking for a unique ski experience this winter, check out cat skiing in the Porcupine Mountains of the Upper Peninsula. Amidst the old-growth forests of the Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park, the snowcat operation started in 2006-2007 and is a first for the midwest.
The operation consists of two snowcats: one 18 passenger cat named “Curly” and a 12 passenger cat named “Moe.” The snowcats have opened access to backcountry areas lacking lift access that offer long open runs, including glades. One hundred and fifty acres of terrain are available for skiing with over 25 different runs.
According to Lindsey Glieberman of Mount Bohemia, “On a powder day, [skiers can] expect nice dry snow and fresh tracks all day long. Even on non-powder days you can usually find fresh tracks in the woods.” A day of powder skiing is a dream come true for most snowboarders and skiers, something the Porkies can offer because of the vastness of the area. The terrain is challenging, mostly advanced to expert level, with some intermediate terrain on the open runs.
There is a feeling of camaraderie associated with exploring a forest of powder and trees with a dozen other people. The ride up takes about nine minutes and skiers can get in about eight runs a day.
Glieberman states that the support of the Department of Natural Resources was helpful in the early stages of the business. A crew and a logger cleaned out the runs in the woods to get the glades in shape for skiers and snowboarders. The area still has room to grow and Glieberman hopes to add more glade runs in the future.

For more info: www.skitheporkies.com

-Darren McChristie

by Tarmo Poldmaa

Twenty-five years ago, three brothers from upper Michigan, Chris, Joel and Mark Stoppel, visited my brother Enn and his wife Robin at their well established B&B in the hills of Goulais River, near Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. The visit radically changed their lives, at least their winter lives. The brothers had come to ski, but their equipment was unlike traditional downhill gear. They had leather boots and cable bindings with free heels - they were telemark skiers. The Stoppel brothers took one look out the back door at the B&B and said, “Hey Enn, you’ve got some great hills behind your house. Why don’t we go look for some slopes to ski down?” Of course, there was no shortage of hills, but there was also no shortage of trees. Being persistent Scandinavians, they brushed out one particular slope, and removed the small shrubs and thickets to open up the spaces between mature trees for some excellent glade skiing. Tele-One was born - the first named run at what would become one of the best backcountry telemark skiing areas in the Midwest.

Read the rest of this article in the Winter 2008/09 issue of Superior Outdoors.