Minnesota Winter

With February coming to a close spring is seemingly right around the corner. A week of warm weather really hammered in this point with highs getting into the 60's even up north. Minnesota's weather is very fickle though as the very next week I had to work in sub zero temperatures with lows in the morning as low as -20. I've been making the most of the MN winter though by enjoying working outside and getting out as much as I can on the weekend.  This month and work has been a lot of chainsawing. We had our chainsaw training down at Fergus Falls.  The site was a beautiful rolling prairie.

Karine clearing some brush

John making a face cut

Lonely tree on a hillside

Our Field Assistant evaluating John's down tree

Our worksite as viewed from a hill

A crew way down the hill

My training Group

We also recently had our first real project. It involved creating a fire break in an Aspen Parkland Scientific and Natural Area. Aspen Parkland is basically prairie strewn with stands of Poplar (Aspen), typically Quaking Aspen. Since fire has been suppressed in many of these sites Aspen has been taking over the prairie areas. Naturally fire would keep a balance so we're trying to restore that balance by doing a prescribed burn on the site. Before they can do that though we need to build a fire break to prevent the fire from getting out of control.

Aspen Parkland Landscape

Our firebreak site

To get out to the site we've been using a Kubota as it would be a long walk with all the gear in the deep snow. It's a cold ride on the back!

John and Eleva

The town we're working in is Karlstad, MN which is very far NW MN. Not to far from Canada. Occasionally you can even see moose in the area but this is the only one I've seen so far.

Outside of work I have been doing my best to enjoy the winter. I did a real nice snowshoe at Voyageurs National Park earlier in February.

Full size Moose at Voyageurs Visitor Center

A Beaver pond I snowshoed across

Towards the end of my hike I was stretching in the woods and spotted two Ruffed Grouse within 10 yards of me. They had no concern of my presence and went right along with their business. This gave me the opportunity to get some nice pictures and a video which I put in this clip:

The following weekend I decided to a winter camping overnight trip. It was my first time camping in the winter and it was pretty cool. The temp got down to -5 and I was sort of warm. Considering that my gear isn't intended for winter I was happy with my warmth level. It was a beautiful full moon evening so the sky was illuminated by the moon and the reflection off the snow.

Beaver Pond lit up by the moonlight

My tent in it's little trench

Remnants of my fire

Moon illuminating the trail and creating a sweet silhouette for the Pines

The highlight of this weekend was my snowshoe today at Lake Bemidji State Park. I went back into a Black Spruce/Tamarack bog which is nearly impossible to get to in the summer. For those of you who have never seen a Bog like this the tall evergreens are the black spruces. The ones that look like dead pines are Tamaracks. Tamaracks are interesting because they are the only conifer to shed it's needles. In the late autumn (november or so) they turn a beautiful golden color and are usually the last colors of fall in N. MN

On the way into the bog I spotted a bald eagle.

The Eagle is on one of the left branches of this tall White Pine

The Eagle decided to move elsewhere

In the bog I followed around some Wolf tracks and came across both a Grouse kill and a deer kill. I took a video of the scene at the Deer kill.

The day ended with a beautiful sunset over the edge of the bog and finally Lake Bemidji.

So overall life is good. Winter has been great this year but I am itching for spring already! I really can't wait to do some backpacking and canoe trips. Working in non freezing temperatures will also be nice. But I can't control nature so until spring comes I will continue to enjoy the winter!