3 PM: Battling the Elements...

The night before we arrived at the Camp du Nord at the edge of the Boundary Water way up in the north-woods of Minnesota. A 6 hour drive from Minneapolis. Meeting all these new people, most of them are friends with Bonnie, and I can see that I'm gonna have a lot of fun. There are 2 cabins reserved for us all. The nearest Town is Ely and it is about 14 miles away. So no casual going to town for shopping. All meals are planed out and tonight's soup appeared at the other cabin. As I'm eating I get to know the first few fellows, most of them from the Twin Cities, Minneapolis and St. Paul. The whole thing started about 17 years ago and every year it gets a whee bit wackier I hear someone say. Bonnie and I had to go back to our cabin to start preparing for todays breakfast, putting 2 Fritattas together so that we just have to put them in the oven in the morning. We got up at 7 and completed our breakfast so that at 8 we all could sit down and eat. It was a success and there was some leftover.
It was 4°F overcast but time to hit the trails. I had to get some cross-country skies and boots, dress for the freezing cold and off we go for a great loop. It took me some time to get the hang of this kind of skiing again, these dang boards are so narrow and the binding provides no support, pretty soon I crashed and it is the hardest thing to get back up again, then I started to get too hot, so I took the jacket off. What a beauty though, skiing through endless forests and crossing lakes... further out, always up and some down... the turn around was not even on the trail-map anymore. Eating some lunch while standing around on these thin boards was also the turning point of my body temperature. After lunch I was freezing cold, my hands were numb even though I packed them into my mittens and wiggled them as I skied until finally I was comfortable again. Just in time for the 3 o'clock blog report we got back to the cabin, nice and toasty it is to be inside. 10 miles of this kind of activity got me ready for a hot cup of coffee and some cookies to snack on... life is worth living...