Winter Wilderness Weekend

Nanook of the North?  Nope, just Cristin
enjoying the winter wilderness! 

During the third week of January, Cristin and I spent a long weekend at Camp Minogyn, a very unique YMCA camp located 30 miles from Grand Marais just off the Gunflint Trail, a road. The camp is on West Bearskin Lake at the doorstep of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) and only a few miles from Canada.  The winter wilderness weekend trip was offered thru the Friends of the Boundary Waters, an advocacy group devoted to protection of the BWCA.  The guests at Camp Minogyn are referred to as 'campers'.

 

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This area is one of the snowiest in Minnesota and the third week of January is on average the coldest week of the year in Minnesota.  So I was not surprised that our trip to Camp Minogyn coincided with the arrival of significant snow followed by an Arctic Express of extended subzero weather and bitter winds.    Here is a summary from the National Weather Service on the arctic air. 


Jack employs all available accessories  to stay warm on a
 blustery snowshoe hike returning from the summit
of Caribou Rock (in background).