046: BWCA Permit Issues & Updates

We are talking about the extraordinary winter conditions on the lakes and trails this week along with the current fishing conditions on Clearwater Lake and the Gunflint Trail in general + + bonus perch action that had us considering click-baiting this episode. Also, an update on the update of the recreation.gov system.  Plus, we will […]

The post Tumblehome: A Boundary Waters Podcast – BWCA Permit Issues & Updates appeared first on Clearwater Outfitters.

Episode Transcript

[0:00:52 – 0:00:54] SPEAKER_02: Good evening, sir.
[0:01:13 – 0:01:20] Erik: We are in the cavernous, echoey halls of the Arcanum.
[0:01:20 – 0:01:22] Erik: No, this is Cabin 7.
[0:01:23 – 0:01:27] Erik: It’s maybe been close to a year since we’ve recorded in here.
[0:01:27 – 0:01:34] Adam: Yeah, it’s way back in the days of yore, the early days of the podcast when we did a few episodes in here.
[0:01:34 – 0:01:35] Adam: Yeah.
[0:01:35 – 0:01:36] Adam: The winter studio.
[0:01:36 – 0:01:36] Adam: Yeah.
[0:01:37 – 0:01:43] Erik: This is Winter Studio, and I just called it out already for what it was, but yeah, we’re here.
[0:01:44 – 0:01:47] Erik: And it’s kind of an update episode, I guess.
[0:01:47 – 0:01:49] Erik: We’ve got a lot of little things to hit on.
[0:01:49 – 0:01:51] Adam: We have a stacked agenda.
[0:01:52 – 0:01:53] Adam: Yeah, we have an outline.
[0:01:53 – 0:01:55] Adam: No agenda, no attenda.
[0:01:56 – 0:01:59] Adam: We have kind of a plan.
[0:01:59 – 0:02:01] Adam: I’m a parliamentarian over here.
[0:02:01 – 0:02:04] Erik: Some topical issues, what we’ve been up to.
[0:02:04 – 0:02:16] Erik: I don’t think we’ve actually been together to record an episode, just me and you in front of the mobile studio for a few months.
[0:02:16 – 0:02:17] Adam: Yeah, it’s been a while.
[0:02:18 – 0:02:21] Adam: I haven’t even seen you in like two weeks, I feel like.
[0:02:21 – 0:02:22] Erik: Right, well, there’s that too.
[0:02:23 – 0:02:24] Adam: Yeah, it’s hibernation time.
[0:02:24 – 0:02:25] Adam: Yeah, it is.
[0:02:25 – 0:02:35] Adam: I think last weekend we were talking about maybe getting together and I was just like, I don’t know, I’m feeling pretty cozy sitting around the house and that’s about all I did last weekend.
[0:02:35 – 0:02:39] Erik: Yeah, it’s one of the things we’re going to get to is the weather up here lately.
[0:02:39 – 0:02:49] Erik: But before we get to some of the bullet points that we’re going to hit you with, we should say that we are sponsored by Clearwater Historic Lodge and Canoe Outfitters.
[0:02:49 – 0:02:51] Adam: Big up to the Canoe Outfitters especially.
[0:02:52 – 0:02:54] Erik: Yeah, 388-2254.
[0:02:54 – 0:02:56] Erik: That’s area code 218-388-2254.
[0:02:56 – 0:02:57] Erik: Call us up.
[0:02:58 – 0:02:59] Erik: Let’s talk.
[0:02:59 – 0:03:04] Erik: And we are also sponsored by one of my favorite recent discoveries.
[0:03:04 – 0:03:08] Erik: This is by the fine folks down in Duluth, Minnesota.
[0:03:09 – 0:03:09] Erik: Blacklist.
[0:03:10 – 0:03:13] Erik: This is a spruce-tipped Imperial IPA.
[0:03:13 – 0:03:14] Erik: Here we go.
[0:03:17 – 0:03:17] Adam: Nice.
[0:03:17 – 0:03:18] Adam: Oh, yeah.
[0:03:18 – 0:03:18] Adam: Stereo.
[0:03:25 – 0:03:26] Erik: Mmm, man.
[0:03:27 – 0:03:29] Erik: Yeah, you really don’t need more than one of these.
[0:03:29 – 0:03:33] Erik: 9.5% alcohol on these bad boys.
[0:03:34 – 0:03:34] Adam: What?
[0:03:34 – 0:03:37] Erik: Floats like a butterfly, smells like a tree.
[0:03:37 – 0:03:38] Erik: Oh, my.
[0:03:38 – 0:03:42] Erik: Yeah, the aromatics will hit you before you even pick up the glass.
[0:03:43 – 0:03:47] Erik: Oh, here we are like animals just drinking it right out of the can.
[0:03:48 – 0:03:49] Adam: This stuff’s the truth, baby.
[0:03:50 – 0:03:50] Erik: It’s so good.
[0:03:51 – 0:03:58] Adam: Yeah, the first time I saw this, we were in Duluth, and I won’t say where, but we were at a liquor store in Duluth.
[0:03:58 – 0:04:06] Adam: There are a few, and I saw this, and I was like, I must have, and then we were kind of loading up because when you get in Duluth, you just get a little better deals.
[0:04:07 – 0:04:08] Adam: So we were loading up a little bit.
[0:04:08 – 0:04:09] Adam: We got a whole cart of stuff.
[0:04:10 – 0:04:17] Adam: not a whole cart, but you know, we had a pretty sizable, um, purchase and we get up there and the cashier goes, yeah, I’m going to need to see your ID.
[0:04:18 – 0:04:19] Adam: It’s like, whoa, whoa.
[0:04:19 – 0:04:21] Adam: I haven’t been ID in quite some time.
[0:04:21 – 0:04:23] Adam: I mean, okay.
[0:04:23 – 0:04:25] Adam: And I pull it out and hit that.
[0:04:25 – 0:04:28] Adam: My ID was expired, but it was obviously still my ID.
[0:04:28 – 0:04:30] Adam: I’m well over 21 years of age.
[0:04:31 – 0:04:31] Adam: Yeah.
[0:04:31 – 0:04:32] Adam: She goes, no, I’m sorry.
[0:04:32 – 0:04:33] Adam: I can’t sell you this.
[0:04:33 – 0:04:34] Adam: Any of it.
[0:04:34 – 0:04:35] Erik: Policy is policy.
[0:04:35 – 0:04:36] Adam: Natalie’s with me.
[0:04:36 – 0:04:38] Adam: Her ID is legit and valid.
[0:04:38 – 0:04:43] Adam: She won’t sell it to Natalie because she’s with me, obviously, buying this beer and whatnot.
[0:04:44 – 0:04:45] Adam: We had some margarita mix or something.
[0:04:45 – 0:04:47] Erik: Got a real try-hard on your hands?
[0:04:47 – 0:04:48] Adam: Yeah, she wouldn’t.
[0:04:48 – 0:04:49] Adam: No, no, she wouldn’t.
[0:04:50 – 0:04:51] Adam: It’s like, you’ve got to be kidding me.
[0:04:51 – 0:04:53] Adam: Are you serious right now?
[0:04:53 – 0:04:54] Adam: Yeah.
[0:04:54 – 0:04:57] Adam: Like I’m just used to Grammar A treatment where they’re like, hey, how’s it going?
[0:04:58 – 0:05:00] Adam: You know, it’s no question.
[0:05:00 – 0:05:02] Adam: I don’t even have my ID with me half the time.
[0:05:02 – 0:05:02] Erik: Yeah.
[0:05:03 – 0:05:05] Adam: And they wouldn’t sell it to me.
[0:05:05 – 0:05:06] Adam: So I didn’t get to try it.
[0:05:06 – 0:05:11] Adam: But then eventually, like a couple of weeks later, I found it because it’s not everywhere you can find this stuff.
[0:05:11 – 0:05:11] Erik: No.
[0:05:12 – 0:05:13] Adam: They do have it at the Muni now, though.
[0:05:14 – 0:05:15] Erik: Highly recommended.
[0:05:15 – 0:05:21] Erik: Sometimes the beers that we are sponsored by, it just happened to be what we can get our hands on.
[0:05:21 – 0:05:28] Erik: But this one comes highly recommended if you can find yourself some blacklist spruce, spruce-tipped Imperial IPA.
[0:05:28 – 0:05:30] Adam: You can taste the spruce tips.
[0:05:30 – 0:05:31] Adam: It’s rich.
[0:05:31 – 0:05:36] Erik: Yeah, it gives the hop slam a run for its money.
[0:05:36 – 0:05:36] Erik: It sure does.
[0:05:36 – 0:05:38] Erik: If I do say so myself.
[0:05:38 – 0:05:39] Adam: And it’s in a big can too.
[0:05:39 – 0:05:41] Erik: It comes in a big boy can.
[0:05:41 – 0:05:44] Erik: You got to look out a couple of these and you’ll be seeing vapor trails.
[0:05:44 – 0:05:50] Adam: Yeah, we still have yet to release the Tiberius and Raul classic audio we have on that.
[0:05:50 – 0:05:52] Adam: And that’ll probably be its own separate thing.
[0:05:52 – 0:05:55] Adam: But they had some hop slams they had brought up from Milwaukee, the boys.
[0:05:55 – 0:05:58] Adam: And I said, when are they going to make a hop slam in a tall can?
[0:05:59 – 0:05:59] Adam: Get with the times.
[0:06:00 – 0:06:02] Adam: Nobody has a regular 12-ounce can anymore.
[0:06:02 – 0:06:03] Erik: People like the pints.
[0:06:04 – 0:06:04] Adam: Uh-huh.
[0:06:04 – 0:06:05] Erik: Yeah.
[0:06:05 – 0:06:12] Adam: So anyways, to wrap up the story on the getting ID’d, we were like going on a flight like two weeks after that.
[0:06:12 – 0:06:12] Erik: Oh, yeah.
[0:06:13 – 0:06:15] Adam: And then it was like I was mad at the lady.
[0:06:15 – 0:06:16] Adam: Pretty mad.
[0:06:16 – 0:06:17] Adam: I was a little bit upset.
[0:06:17 – 0:06:18] Erik: Pretty mad.
[0:06:18 – 0:06:23] Adam: Because then we went to another liquor store on our way out of town, and they didn’t have the spruce tips, so I didn’t get it on that trip.
[0:06:23 – 0:06:26] Adam: I was a little livid, but then I realized, well, oh, well.
[0:06:26 – 0:06:26] Erik: Silver lining.
[0:06:27 – 0:06:31] Adam: Silver lining here, I actually got my ID replaced and got to go on the flight because I would never have noticed.
[0:06:31 – 0:06:36] Adam: It was just one of those things where I wasn’t expecting my, I thought my ID was good for like two more years.
[0:06:36 – 0:06:36] Erik: Yeah.
[0:06:37 – 0:06:37] Adam: I had no idea.
[0:06:37 – 0:06:39] Adam: They never sent me anything in the mail.
[0:06:40 – 0:06:41] Adam: I don’t know why.
[0:06:41 – 0:06:43] Adam: I thought they usually sent you a reminder or something.
[0:06:43 – 0:06:44] Erik: They typically do.
[0:06:44 – 0:06:47] Erik: I mean, silver lining, you know.
[0:06:47 – 0:06:53] Adam: I just switched my address, so that’s probably sitting up at my former place.
[0:06:54 – 0:06:55] Adam: Still sitting in the mailbox.
[0:06:55 – 0:07:02] Erik: Yeah, you can turn a blind eye to an expired license in so many ways, but you definitely would have not gotten onto that flight.
[0:07:02 – 0:07:03] Adam: Yeah, no.
[0:07:04 – 0:07:07] Adam: So I was mad, and I still got the spruce tips.
[0:07:07 – 0:07:11] Adam: It was worth the wait, and it was a nice trip, so I’m glad we got on that flight.
[0:07:11 – 0:07:12] Adam: I got to see a sequoia tree.
[0:07:13 – 0:07:16] Erik: Yes, so we are sipping on some delicious Imperial IPAs.
[0:07:17 – 0:07:23] Erik: Also have a couple of cozy, warm Huskies curled up in beds here next to us and one ranging arrow.
[0:07:23 – 0:07:26] Adam: Yeah, we got three generations of Huskies live in the studio.
[0:07:27 – 0:07:33] Erik: We have grandma, mother, and daughter all together under one roof.
[0:07:34 – 0:07:34] Erik: You can feel the love.
[0:07:35 – 0:07:37] Adam: Yeah, I don’t think they know who they are.
[0:07:37 – 0:07:39] Adam: No, they have no idea what’s going on.
[0:07:39 – 0:07:42] Adam: Yeah, we had Arrow out fishing with us.
[0:07:42 – 0:07:43] Adam: We’re going to get to that.
[0:07:44 – 0:07:48] Adam: The other two dogs did not join us out on the lake, which is understandable.
[0:07:49 – 0:07:53] Adam: There’s a lot of snow out there, and it’s pretty cold, even though it was very calm.
[0:07:55 – 0:07:57] Adam: So it felt pretty nice today, and the sun was out.
[0:07:58 – 0:08:03] Adam: We will touch on the deal with the Boundary Waters permitting system.
[0:08:04 – 0:08:05] Adam: That’s still not working.
[0:08:05 – 0:08:07] Erik: That whole deal, yeah, we’re going to get on that.
[0:08:07 – 0:08:08] Erik: It is not working, no.
[0:08:08 – 0:08:09] Adam: We’re going to touch on that.
[0:08:09 – 0:08:10] Adam: I don’t know.
[0:08:11 – 0:08:13] Erik: Not that much to say on it, but there’s some updates.
[0:08:14 – 0:08:24] Adam: And, of course, we will be updating the Tumble Home Fantasy Yukon Quest standings at the end of the show, so make sure you stick around for that.
[0:08:24 – 0:08:26] Erik: That’s what everybody’s most interested in.
[0:08:26 – 0:08:29] Erik: Let’s start with updates from last episode.
[0:08:29 – 0:08:32] Adam: Yeah, we have a fact check on the fly.
[0:08:32 – 0:08:32] SPEAKER_02: Doot, doot, doot, doot.
[0:08:34 – 0:08:35] Adam: Facebook.
[0:08:35 – 0:08:36] Erik: Fact checker.
[0:08:36 – 0:08:37] Adam: Fact checker.
[0:08:37 – 0:08:39] Adam: When we pull up the fact check.
[0:08:39 – 0:08:46] Adam: So, yeah, the last episode we put out there was on the pictographs that Natalie and I went and visited on North Hickman Lake.
[0:08:47 – 0:08:52] Adam: And in the field, we were kind of mystified as to, yes, it’s winter mackerel.
[0:08:52 – 0:08:56] Adam: Yes, there’s some canoes with people and what that indicates.
[0:08:56 – 0:08:59] Adam: Yes, there’s definitely a beautiful bull moose there.
[0:09:00 – 0:09:01] Adam: What is that third animal?
[0:09:01 – 0:09:03] Adam: And we were kind of baffled by it.
[0:09:03 – 0:09:08] Adam: I believe I was calling it a wolf or fox and Natalie thought maybe a mink.
[0:09:09 – 0:09:11] Adam: But Nikki Wild Rice chimed in.
[0:09:13 – 0:09:16] Adam: On Facebook, perhaps the animal that is depicted is a martin.
[0:09:16 – 0:09:20] Adam: Martin clan is one of the seven main clans of the Ojibwe clan system.
[0:09:21 – 0:09:25] Adam: And we all agreed immediately, like, yes, it’s obviously a martin.
[0:09:26 – 0:09:30] Adam: So it felt pretty silly not knowing that or not picking up on that.
[0:09:30 – 0:09:35] Adam: Pine martins are a very, very cool critter to see in the woods.
[0:09:35 – 0:09:35] Adam: I’ve seen a few.
[0:09:35 – 0:09:39] Erik: And if you don’t know, could you describe a pine martin?
[0:09:39 – 0:09:41] Adam: Yeah, so it’s like a short fox.
[0:09:41 – 0:09:52] Adam: It has a very bushy tail, which then, you know, it’s like got shorter legs, but also very ferocious looking, like very sharp teeth.
[0:09:52 – 0:09:53] Adam: Yeah.
[0:09:53 – 0:09:54] Adam: It’s definitely a predator.
[0:09:55 – 0:09:56] Adam: In the weasel family?
[0:09:56 – 0:09:56] Adam: It is.
[0:09:56 – 0:10:03] Adam: It’s like a tree climbing weasel, kind of tannish, maybe almost a reddish tan color sometimes.
[0:10:05 – 0:10:06] Adam: Um, very beautiful.
[0:10:06 – 0:10:12] Adam: Uh, I’ve seen one, I was hiking one time, uh, down by our land, just grouse hunting in the morning.
[0:10:12 – 0:10:16] Adam: And here comes a, uh, a rabbit just running full speed at me down the road.
[0:10:16 – 0:10:17] Adam: And I go, this is weird.
[0:10:17 – 0:10:18] Adam: It went right by me.
[0:10:18 – 0:10:21] Adam: And then right behind it was a pine Martin chasing the rabbit.
[0:10:21 – 0:10:21] Adam: Oh yeah.
[0:10:21 – 0:10:22] Adam: Both went right by me.
[0:10:22 – 0:10:27] Adam: And I just kind of stood there, did the, the John Travolta meme thing, like from Pulp Fiction.
[0:10:28 – 0:10:29] Adam: What was that?
[0:10:29 – 0:10:29] Adam: Yeah.
[0:10:30 – 0:10:55] Adam: yeah who’s coming who’s going what anybody else coming down the trail yeah nothing followed by a fox so i don’t know i think i maybe foiled that poor pine martin’s plans because he i think he kind of was thrown off by seeing me he or she my good friend the pine martin yeah um so yeah it’s like um it’s one of the few critters like i’ve always had my cat agnes up here and people are like aren’t you worried about you know her getting eaten by something
[0:10:56 – 0:10:57] Adam: Or carried off by an owl.
[0:10:57 – 0:10:58] Adam: I’ve had people ask that.
[0:10:59 – 0:11:00] Adam: I’m not concerned about that.
[0:11:00 – 0:11:06] Adam: I’m concerned about two things with the cat, the pine Martin, which is about the same size or slightly bigger than a cat.
[0:11:06 – 0:11:07] Adam: It’s probably bigger than a cat.
[0:11:08 – 0:11:10] Adam: Um, but also can climb with her.
[0:11:10 – 0:11:14] Adam: And then also the Fisher, uh, Fisher is much bigger than a pine Martin.
[0:11:15 – 0:11:22] Adam: Very mean and can also, I’ve seen a fisher jump off the ground just straight up six feet into a branch.
[0:11:22 – 0:11:25] Erik: I thought you were going to say you’ve seen a fisher dead drunk.
[0:11:25 – 0:11:26] Adam: Dead lifted.
[0:11:26 – 0:11:27] Adam: Dead lifted.
[0:11:27 – 0:11:29] Adam: A 500-pound dumbbell.
[0:11:30 – 0:11:33] Erik: I feel like the Pine Martin is still, I would still be more concerned.
[0:11:34 – 0:11:37] Erik: The fishers are a little bit more elusive and wary.
[0:11:38 – 0:11:39] Erik: Those pine martins, they just come out.
[0:11:39 – 0:11:40] Erik: Pine martins are very bold.
[0:11:40 – 0:11:43] Erik: We’ve trapped multiple pine martins in the basement of Clearwater Lodge.
[0:11:44 – 0:11:48] Erik: Live trapped and released, but nonetheless, like multiple times.
[0:11:48 – 0:11:50] Erik: Once they find out, they’re brazen.
[0:11:50 – 0:11:54] Adam: They’re very bold creatures, and they can definitely climb with a cat.
[0:11:55 – 0:11:55] Adam: Oh, yeah.
[0:11:55 – 0:12:00] Adam: Like I’ve always said, she can just climb a tree and like that, she’s up the top.
[0:12:02 – 0:12:08] Adam: But a Pine Martin can also do that, and it’s mean enough where, yeah, I wouldn’t want to see the results of that fight.
[0:12:08 – 0:12:10] Adam: I’m not sure a Pine Martin could take out Agnes.
[0:12:11 – 0:12:16] Adam: But she’s getting up there and, you know, subsequently she doesn’t spend that much time outside these days.
[0:12:16 – 0:12:16] Adam: Yeah.
[0:12:16 – 0:12:18] Adam: She used to be like primarily an outdoor cat.
[0:12:18 – 0:12:18] Adam: Yeah.
[0:12:19 – 0:12:23] Erik: And it still seems like the Pine Martins are still going to mostly go for easy prey.
[0:12:24 – 0:12:24] Erik: Yeah.
[0:12:24 – 0:12:25] Erik: Mice, smaller stuff.
[0:12:26 – 0:12:27] Adam: Coon cat.
[0:12:28 – 0:12:28] Erik: Yeah.
[0:12:28 – 0:12:31] Adam: So anyways, yeah, it was obviously a pine marten.
[0:12:31 – 0:12:36] Adam: After we had Nikki suggest it, we said, oh, yeah, it’s clearly a pine marten.
[0:12:36 – 0:12:42] Adam: So anyways, thank you for the fact check, and I’m glad we got to the bottom of that one.
[0:12:42 – 0:12:46] Adam: Now going back and listening to it, it’s like, how did you not see it was a pine marten?
[0:12:46 – 0:12:46] Adam: Yeah.
[0:12:46 – 0:12:50] Adam: Even looking at the pictures, we put a few on Instagram and Facebook.
[0:12:50 – 0:12:54] Adam: You can clearly see it’s a pine marten and nothing else.
[0:12:54 – 0:12:54] Adam: Yeah.
[0:12:55 – 0:12:57] Adam: And it makes sense if it’s one of the main clans then.
[0:12:57 – 0:12:57] Adam: Right.
[0:12:57 – 0:13:00] Adam: Which is what we did indicate on the podcast, though.
[0:13:01 – 0:13:06] Adam: Usually the animals depicted would be of the clan that was there.
[0:13:06 – 0:13:07] Adam: Yeah, for sure.
[0:13:08 – 0:13:13] Adam: It was Moose and Martin clan artists up there on Hegman.
[0:13:13 – 0:13:14] Adam: That’s cool.
[0:13:15 – 0:13:15] Adam: That was pretty cool.
[0:13:15 – 0:13:17] Adam: It was nice to get that one full circle.
[0:13:17 – 0:13:18] Adam: Yep.
[0:13:18 – 0:13:19] Adam: Thanks for the update.
[0:13:19 – 0:13:19] Erik: Definitely.
[0:13:21 – 0:13:30] Adam: So, yeah, I guess moving on, we’re getting into – you guys got some really nice snowfall up here farther inland this week.
[0:13:30 – 0:13:32] Erik: Well, just this week, but I think you’re still beating us.
[0:13:32 – 0:13:40] Adam: Yeah, I’ve got a snow log going down at Studio K, and we crossed our 80-inch threshold this week.
[0:13:40 – 0:13:46] Adam: So we’re now much more snow than I am tall at this point, which I’m not surprised by.
[0:13:46 – 0:13:51] Adam: But for middle of February or early February, it’s pretty good to be over 80 inches.
[0:13:51 – 0:13:53] Adam: I mean, we’re easily going to hit 100.
[0:13:53 – 0:13:56] Adam: It’s just a matter of how far are we going to go with this one.
[0:13:56 – 0:13:57] Adam: It’s been a very snowy winter.
[0:13:58 – 0:14:08] Erik: But for people listening that may not fully understand how snow works, that doesn’t mean that there’s eight feet of snow.
[0:14:09 – 0:14:11] Erik: That’s the thing that I’ve heard.
[0:14:11 – 0:14:12] Erik: It settles.
[0:14:13 – 0:14:30] Erik: 20 feet of snow well it really it packs and it evaporates and it settles and so really like just in terms of like literal snow on the ground right now yeah it is insane how much snow is on the ground right now but it’s still only like knee to thigh deep
[0:14:31 – 0:14:57] Adam: if i go down by the river where it’s kind of open and the wind can all kind of piled in there it’s you know waste or like a little my belly button deep maybe yeah which is tough to walk through if you’re not in snowshoes don’t recommend it um but yeah like maybe the piles like around the steps to the the front door like are now i don’t know chest deep for me right now yeah we got our old christmas trees stuck in one out there i have my stump that i make the kindling on
[0:14:58 – 0:15:03] Adam: And so I keep digging that out, and the pile around there is getting pretty ridiculous.
[0:15:03 – 0:15:05] Adam: It’s a beautiful thing, though.
[0:15:05 – 0:15:05] Adam: I don’t know.
[0:15:06 – 0:15:11] Adam: And then along the road, too, you’ve got some pretty nice piles, and you can snowshoe up on them really easy, and they’re very hard-packed.
[0:15:12 – 0:15:12] Adam: Yeah.
[0:15:12 – 0:15:13] Adam: But it’s a lot.
[0:15:14 – 0:15:22] Erik: No, it’s I’ve been I’ve been here just on location at Clearwater for five winters now.
[0:15:23 – 0:15:30] Erik: I’ve been in the Northwoods for almost 10 now and it’s the snowiest winter I’ve ever experienced.
[0:15:30 – 0:15:35] Adam: Yeah, I think the coldest I’ve had would be like 2013, 2014.
[0:15:35 – 0:15:39] Adam: Yeah, it’s definitely not been the coldest.
[0:15:39 – 0:15:42] Adam: It didn’t get above zero like the entire month of January that year.
[0:15:42 – 0:15:44] Adam: That was the polar vortex winter.
[0:15:44 – 0:15:45] Adam: That was the last time we had the vortex.
[0:15:45 – 0:15:47] Adam: The big polar vortex winter, yeah.
[0:15:47 – 0:15:49] Adam: The big lake kind of almost froze over that year.
[0:15:50 – 0:15:51] Adam: But it wasn’t nearly as snowy.
[0:15:52 – 0:16:04] Erik: No, it wasn’t nearly as snowy, but we did have a couple weeks ago, we had a stretch where I think the record of 60 below in 1996, which occurred in Tower, Minnesota.
[0:16:04 – 0:16:04] Erik: Yeah.
[0:16:04 – 0:16:06] Erik: They only missed by four degrees.
[0:16:06 – 0:16:07] Adam: Yeah, I heard about that.
[0:16:07 – 0:16:17] Adam: And I’ve been hearing like whispers amongst people who have been up here much longer than us that this is now starting to like push into the rivaling, the fabled winter of 96.
[0:16:17 – 0:16:17] Adam: Yeah.
[0:16:18 – 0:16:21] Adam: They didn’t even hear people say that or even suggest that.
[0:16:21 – 0:16:23] Adam: It speaks volumes, I would say.
[0:16:23 – 0:16:23] Adam: Yeah.
[0:16:23 – 0:16:27] Adam: I wasn’t here for 96, but you always heard, like, the 96 winter was nuts.
[0:16:27 – 0:16:36] Erik: Yeah, I was in elementary school down in the cities, and I even can remember, like, just hearing about how they broke the record up in Tower and 60 below.
[0:16:36 – 0:16:36] Erik: It was just insane.
[0:16:38 – 0:16:38] Adam: Yeah, great.
[0:16:39 – 0:16:42] Adam: They canceled school three days straight in Grand Marais.
[0:16:42 – 0:16:44] Erik: They weren’t delivering mail in, like, four states.
[0:16:45 – 0:16:46] Adam: The library closed.
[0:16:46 – 0:16:46] Adam: Yeah.
[0:16:47 – 0:16:50] Adam: Yeah, we’ve been having, it was like real dead quiet.
[0:16:50 – 0:16:54] Adam: Like, you know, we’re talking earlier, we’re in hibernation mode.
[0:16:54 – 0:17:00] Adam: And even when it’s really cold and snowy, you know, town’s still pretty busy even in the winter just because you got ski hill people.
[0:17:00 – 0:17:03] Adam: And there’s usually a bunch of snowmobilers around.
[0:17:03 – 0:17:06] Adam: Like that week, it was just nothing the last week when it was so cold.
[0:17:07 – 0:17:19] Erik: Yeah, it was it was just a hole over the upper Midwest of cold that I thought, you know, well, it must just be we must be the coldest place in the country.
[0:17:19 – 0:17:24] Erik: But I was looking around and it was like we were just as cold as places in Wisconsin, even southern Minnesota.
[0:17:24 – 0:17:24] Erik: Oh, yeah.
[0:17:24 – 0:17:28] Erik: The whole vortex like settled over the upper Midwest.
[0:17:28 – 0:17:30] Erik: And like there was actually places that were cold.
[0:17:30 – 0:17:57] Adam: farther south than us that were colder yeah for sure it was crazy warden who you guys will all meet in the tiberius and raul uh episode if it whenever that one comes out teasing that one a couple of times though we’ve been emailing a lot since the trip and they had like 33 under uh down in trego yeah which was like we barely were right there with you i mean it wasn’t we weren’t a whole lot colder than that that was pretty wild
[0:17:57 – 0:17:59] Erik: Yeah, I think the coldest morning we had here was 38 below.
[0:17:59 – 0:18:00] Erik: Yeah.
[0:18:03 – 0:18:04] Erik: Over the course of that stretch.
[0:18:04 – 0:18:16] Erik: But more on the conditions, like the amount of snow and the cold has combined into real tumultuous lake conditions, to say the least.
[0:18:17 – 0:18:17] Erik: Yeah.
[0:18:18 – 0:18:29] Erik: And I think if anybody follows Clearwater on any of these social medias, you’ve seen over the course of the last couple of months, the slush has been intermittently heinous.
[0:18:30 – 0:18:31] Erik: Heinous slush.
[0:18:32 – 0:18:43] Erik: It’s to a point now where it’s a little bit more manageable and much more spotty, but I can say just last week I took a walk with Doris.
[0:18:43 – 0:18:44] Erik: Oh, hey.
[0:18:44 – 0:18:45] Erik: Hey, Doris.
[0:18:45 – 0:18:46] Erik: Looking at Doris right now.
[0:18:46 – 0:18:46] Erik: No?
[0:18:47 – 0:18:48] Erik: Yep, she’s looking over.
[0:18:48 – 0:18:53] Erik: We walked down North Clearwater, basically the main Clearwater Road down to the public access.
[0:18:53 – 0:18:54] Erik: I walked out onto the lake.
[0:18:54 – 0:18:55] Erik: It seemed nice.
[0:18:55 – 0:18:56] Erik: Oh, no slush.
[0:18:57 – 0:18:57] Erik: Seems nice and packed.
[0:18:58 – 0:18:58] Erik: Light snow.
[0:19:00 – 0:19:01] Erik: Though it has snowed a ton.
[0:19:01 – 0:19:05] Erik: I think it had like kind of seeped into the slush and was like refreezing.
[0:19:05 – 0:19:11] Erik: So I’m like walking on, you know, solid ice with maybe five, six inches of snow.
[0:19:11 – 0:19:13] Erik: We were doing fine walking from north to south.
[0:19:14 – 0:19:16] Erik: Got about 60% of the way across the lake.
[0:19:16 – 0:19:23] Erik: And then we got into deeper drifts, which allows for more insulation.
[0:19:23 – 0:19:25] Erik: And all of a sudden it was like knee foot.
[0:19:26 – 0:19:54] Erik: like knee deep drifts and then punching through like into like almost over the knee slush and like trying to like maybe not break that little bit of ice that had frozen over on top of the slush and just as soon as you think you’re not going to break through you break through like you couldn’t get any kind of a rhythm or a stride going it was terrible some of the worst lake walking ever and then I got to the south shore and
[0:19:54 – 0:20:00] Erik: And where all that snow had drifted up onto the land, it was that waist-deep drifted snow.
[0:20:01 – 0:20:04] Erik: And I could barely move through it.
[0:20:04 – 0:20:07] Erik: And Doris was with me, and she was swimming.
[0:20:07 – 0:20:09] Erik: She was clearly not touching the ground.
[0:20:09 – 0:20:13] Erik: She was just swimming and jumping and kind of bouncing around.
[0:20:13 – 0:20:18] Erik: There was a second where I was like, I might not even be able to get out of this situation.
[0:20:18 – 0:20:20] Erik: I am so deep in this drifted snow.
[0:20:21 – 0:20:23] Erik: So we haven’t walked out on the lake since.
[0:20:23 – 0:20:25] Erik: That was last week until today.
[0:20:25 – 0:20:25] Erik: Yeah.
[0:20:25 – 0:20:27] Erik: And we’ll talk about that.
[0:20:27 – 0:20:28] Erik: Do we want to talk about that now?
[0:20:29 – 0:20:35] Adam: No, I got some… We were trail breaking ourselves down by Studio K today.
[0:20:35 – 0:20:37] Adam: I wanted to get into that too.
[0:20:37 – 0:20:40] Adam: I think that fits in here better before we get to the fishing update.
[0:20:40 – 0:20:41] Adam: Ah, yes.
[0:20:41 – 0:20:48] Adam: So yeah, we were out and I’ve been keeping my little series of snowshoe slash ski trails open around the house.
[0:20:49 – 0:20:51] Adam: And that includes one that goes down and across the river.
[0:20:51 – 0:20:54] Adam: And then you can pick up the snowmobile trail on the far side of the river.
[0:20:56 – 0:21:01] Adam: And so like, we would just walk down there in boots the other day for, I don’t know what the heck I was thinking.
[0:21:02 – 0:21:03] Adam: Just straight up old boots.
[0:21:03 – 0:21:03] Adam: Yeah.
[0:21:03 – 0:21:05] Adam: And like, well, I’m just going through the woods.
[0:21:05 – 0:21:08] Adam: It’s pretty deep, but I, you know, no big deal.
[0:21:08 – 0:21:13] Adam: And then we got out by the river and the snow just like piles in down in that river valley.
[0:21:13 – 0:21:15] Adam: Somehow it was like, I was in the same situation, just
[0:21:16 – 0:21:21] Adam: like up to my, up to my, like bottom of my ribs in snow.
[0:21:21 – 0:21:23] Adam: And like, then I, oh, I’m trying to turn around.
[0:21:24 – 0:21:25] Adam: Like I was basically stuck.
[0:21:25 – 0:21:27] Adam: Arrow is not helping me at all.
[0:21:27 – 0:21:33] Adam: She was just kind of looking at me and, uh, there’s nothing she could really have done, but I basically got stuck out there.
[0:21:33 – 0:21:39] Adam: We came back with snowshoes today just to kind of reopen that snowshoe trail back across the river.
[0:21:40 – 0:21:42] Adam: And, uh, it was a beautiful morning for one.
[0:21:42 – 0:21:42] Adam: I’ve,
[0:21:42 – 0:21:44] Adam: I went out there and it was like four degrees.
[0:21:45 – 0:21:48] Adam: And, well, I didn’t know that until later.
[0:21:48 – 0:21:48] Adam: I was out there.
[0:21:48 – 0:21:49] Adam: It was pretty sunny.
[0:21:49 – 0:21:51] Adam: There was zero wind this morning.
[0:21:51 – 0:21:51] Adam: It was beautiful out.
[0:21:52 – 0:21:53] Adam: We took the snowshoes and went across.
[0:21:54 – 0:22:00] Adam: But Arrow was kind of in front of me doing the trail braking through that one section I haven’t been through in a while.
[0:22:00 – 0:22:26] Adam: and she was doing that like swim jump move in front of me i got a pretty good video of it yeah and uh but i was on my snowshoes so she kind of either like follows right behind me and steps on my snowshoes or then i finally get her to go on by then she kind of just does that snow swim thing we got out by the river we went across and picked up the trail and kind of went all the way down out to like the big pines back there and all the way back it was a really nice uh hike but
[0:22:28 – 0:22:31] Adam: You know, it’s fun to get the pup out doing the trail breaking.
[0:22:31 – 0:22:35] Adam: So, eventually, I would like to get a sled back there with her.
[0:22:35 – 0:22:39] Adam: But, yeah, I thought it was, like, in the teens or 20s just because it’s been so cold.
[0:22:40 – 0:22:42] Adam: And then you have, like, a nice relatively wind-free morning.
[0:22:42 – 0:22:45] Adam: And you’re like, it’s got to be, like, 15, 20 degrees out there.
[0:22:45 – 0:22:45] Adam: I checked.
[0:22:45 – 0:22:46] Adam: It was four degrees.
[0:22:46 – 0:22:46] Erik: Four.
[0:22:47 – 0:22:49] Adam: I’m out there in a T-shirt breaking trail with the dog.
[0:22:50 – 0:22:51] Adam: Yeah, no.
[0:22:51 – 0:22:53] Adam: So, you just – it’s all relative with the temperature.
[0:22:53 – 0:22:53] SPEAKER_02: But –
[0:22:54 – 0:22:55] Adam: Yeah, I don’t know.
[0:22:55 – 0:22:59] Adam: I’ve been doing these, like, snowshoe trails, and I’m eventually going to get a sled here, hopefully.
[0:22:59 – 0:23:05] Adam: My buddy, you know, our buddy, Treeful, is…
[0:23:05 – 0:23:06] Adam: Dropping the name.
[0:23:06 – 0:23:08] Adam: Yeah, he’s a famous dog musher.
[0:23:08 – 0:23:10] Adam: A lot of red lanterns.
[0:23:10 – 0:23:12] Adam: A lot of red lanterns in his career.
[0:23:12 – 0:23:15] Adam: Yeah, world record holder for red lanterns.
[0:23:15 – 0:23:21] Adam: We were having a bonfire a couple months back, and he was like, oh, I can build you a little, like, kick sled kind of thing just for you and Arrow.
[0:23:22 – 0:23:23] Adam: I was like, all right, let’s do it.
[0:23:23 – 0:23:26] Adam: And so now it’s been a couple of months and I was about ready to give up on him.
[0:23:26 – 0:23:29] Adam: You know, he’s just not going to come through, I guess, or he’s too busy.
[0:23:29 – 0:23:30] Adam: And then like, right.
[0:23:30 – 0:23:37] Adam: I went up to the recycling center to buy some like cross country skis for a quarter and I was going to build my own.
[0:23:37 – 0:23:38] Adam: And they were closed.
[0:23:38 – 0:23:41] Adam: Of course, they’re never open when they say they’re going to be open and come back.
[0:23:41 – 0:23:42] Adam: And I had a message from him.
[0:23:42 – 0:23:45] Adam: He’s like, oh, I’m going to get some supplies and start building that sled.
[0:23:46 – 0:24:14] Adam: uh next week so i might actually be getting a sled nice and then you know arrow and me with a really like a 25 pound little kick sled can probably do some pretty good damage yeah it’ll be fun just to try it with her she’s kind of got the directions the g’s and the ha’s uh the ha and the g i guess and uh i think she’ll get it and she’s definitely got the drive to pull and she can she’s a maniac she’s a little monster and i think it’s going to be a lot of fun but then um our neighbors also adopted her sister tika
[0:24:14 – 0:24:23] Adam: And so I’m thinking maybe, you know, maybe I’ll get like two harnesses and get two yearling pups out there that we could really have some fun the rest of this winter.
[0:24:23 – 0:24:29] Adam: Because, you know, like March, once everything starts to like melt down and freeze, we’re going to have a really nice base out there on the trails.
[0:24:29 – 0:24:33] Adam: And we could be doing some sled training well into the spring, I think.
[0:24:34 – 0:24:38] Erik: Yeah, it’s been a heck of a winter, and it’s going to hang on for a while here.
[0:24:39 – 0:24:47] Erik: The prospect of getting out and dragging some sleds across trails out there sounds like a lot of fun.
[0:24:47 – 0:24:53] Erik: Yeah, those open spaces down by the river, it’s crazy how much snow just settles in those spaces.
[0:24:53 – 0:24:58] Adam: I felt like a kid again, like when you’re little, you know, and there’s a snowdrift on your front porch.
[0:24:58 – 0:24:59] Adam: You’re like, this is crazy.
[0:25:00 – 0:25:00] Adam: It’s a glacier.
[0:25:01 – 0:25:01] Erik: Yeah.
[0:25:02 – 0:25:05] Adam: Like that’s how I felt like when I was out there without the snowshoes.
[0:25:05 – 0:25:06] Adam: It was just incredible.
[0:25:06 – 0:25:09] Adam: And then you come back with the snowshoes and you’re just on top of this crusty layer.
[0:25:09 – 0:25:11] Adam: It’s just a world of difference.
[0:25:11 – 0:25:13] Adam: I never in a million years thought.
[0:25:13 – 0:25:16] Adam: When I got my snowshoes, I was still living in Madison.
[0:25:17 – 0:25:18] Adam: And I was like, I’m never going to get to use these.
[0:25:20 – 0:25:24] Adam: And sure enough, years later, they’re like one of the most handy and useful things I own.
[0:25:24 – 0:25:27] Adam: Like I cannot imagine not having a pair of snowshoes living up here.
[0:25:28 – 0:25:30] Erik: Yeah, I don’t want to go off on a tangent too much.
[0:25:30 – 0:25:36] Erik: Hopefully this winter we can get to this subject matter before spring.
[0:25:36 – 0:25:43] Erik: Just the modes of transportation in the winter and how all of them are…
[0:25:44 – 0:25:49] Erik: It’s pretty self-explanatory, but I think the most misunderstood one is snowshoeing.
[0:25:50 – 0:25:51] Erik: Yeah.
[0:25:51 – 0:25:58] Erik: And I’ve always thought that the idea of a snowshoe trail, quote unquote, is basically an oxymoron.
[0:25:58 – 0:25:59] Erik: Yeah.
[0:25:59 – 0:26:00] Erik: Because you don’t…
[0:26:01 – 0:26:03] Erik: If there’s a trail, you just walk it or ski it.
[0:26:04 – 0:26:10] Erik: Snowshoes are for going off trail and being able to walk through deep snow.
[0:26:10 – 0:26:11] Erik: Yeah.
[0:26:11 – 0:26:13] Erik: If you’re just walking on a trail of packed snow…
[0:26:14 – 0:26:29] Adam: yeah there’s really not as much of a need for snowshoes like the best place to use snowshoes for is in really deep snow that’s what we’re doing yeah yeah and like yeah you’re not just what really down by the river there’s some crusty stuff where you are kind of just walking like on top of it
[0:26:29 – 0:26:56] Adam: yeah but for the most part like what we’re doing today is we’re breaking open some trail that i’d previously snowshoed which so there’s a base down there and then we’re just going through some stuff that haven’t walked since like december yeah and so that was just full-on breaking trail which is what i got the video of arrow doing um but like even when you have the broken in like old trails that you’re just trying to re-break so they’re down there like a foot or six inches or eight inches down there like you gotta kind of like
[0:26:57 – 0:27:25] Erik: feel where the old trail was yeah you know usually it’s a pretty narrow path so you kind of just know or you can see old remnants of the trail and you stay on top of it that’s kind of what it’s like out on the lakes where you know you’ve got a snowmobile trail that you’re kind of trying to follow on foot yeah and usually a couple of steps you’ll be on it and then you kind of slide off an edge like you’re like kind of stepping off of the the side of a ridge down into really loose snow yeah
[0:27:25 – 0:27:26] Adam: You don’t want to know what’s down there.
[0:27:26 – 0:27:29] Erik: It’s tough walking, regardless of what you’re using.
[0:27:29 – 0:27:39] Erik: Like, really, the only solid form of travel right now is if you have a snowmobile and you’re on groomed snowmobile trails or skis on groomed ski trails.
[0:27:40 – 0:27:45] Erik: Any other form of travel in the bush, boundary waters, travel is going to be very difficult.
[0:27:45 – 0:27:51] Adam: It’s not even like we did have one kind of big snowfall in the last week, but it’s just been like kind of snowing two inches every day, I feel like.
[0:27:51 – 0:27:55] Adam: And so all of a sudden I came home and I’m like, I got a snowball, but I don’t really remember it snowing.
[0:27:56 – 0:27:57] Adam: Like it’s just snow everywhere.
[0:27:57 – 0:27:57] Erik: Yep.
[0:27:58 – 0:28:03] Adam: Uh, so all your trails that you thought were nice and packed down or all of a sudden filled back in and you can barely see them.
[0:28:04 – 0:28:04] Erik: Yeah.
[0:28:04 – 0:28:04] Adam: Um,
[0:28:04 – 0:28:12] Adam: But it helps having her because she knows right where they are, and she stays on top of it, so you just kind of follow her once you get her to go.
[0:28:14 – 0:28:20] Erik: One more thing before we cue the Reading Rainbow transition to our next segment.
[0:28:21 – 0:28:26] Erik: I posted just a picture of how buried we are in snow up here.
[0:28:26 – 0:28:29] Erik: And then somebody commented, do you like it?
[0:28:29 – 0:28:31] Erik: Do you like that you’re buried in the snow?
[0:28:32 – 0:28:33] Erik: And I thought about it.
[0:28:33 – 0:28:36] Erik: I was like, you know, because we complain about it somewhat.
[0:28:36 – 0:28:37] Erik: And then it’s like fun to have a ton of snow.
[0:28:38 – 0:28:38] Erik: Yeah.
[0:28:38 – 0:28:51] Erik: But then like I kind of thought about it like it really relates to me more like how I love the rain in the summer because I know it’s good for the land and the animals and keeping the fire danger down.
[0:28:51 – 0:28:51] Erik: Yeah.
[0:28:51 – 0:28:56] Erik: And that’s like I feel like this winter more than any other that I’ve been up up here.
[0:28:56 – 0:28:57] Erik: Yes.
[0:28:57 – 0:28:58] Erik: It’s been a lot of work to keep.
[0:29:01 – 0:29:21] Erik: cleared out i keep roads plowed keep driveways shoveled keep things open the travel on lakes has been more or less a pain but it’s like it feels like a real winter it’s been very snowy it’s been very cold and i have no science to back this up but i feel like it is more or less
[0:29:23 – 0:29:27] Erik: good for the flora and the fauna, the animals, the fish.
[0:29:28 – 0:29:32] Erik: It seems like it’s to keep the boreal forest and its inhabitants happy.
[0:29:33 – 0:29:45] Erik: I feel like we are at least taking one step back away from the inevitable transition that global climate change is going to affect on this region.
[0:29:45 – 0:29:49] Adam: Yeah, this winter will help keep those oak trees back another year.
[0:29:49 – 0:29:51] Erik: Yeah, help keep the emerald ash borers away.
[0:29:51 – 0:29:52] Adam: Yeah, well, that’s the other thing, the pests.
[0:29:53 – 0:29:54] Adam: The pests mostly.
[0:29:54 – 0:29:59] Adam: We should have far less amount of ticks and those kinds of things.
[0:29:59 – 0:30:05] Adam: When you have a harsh winter, I’ve been told, you maybe need a couple of them in a row to really knock everything back.
[0:30:05 – 0:30:12] Adam: But when you get to this kind of levels of cold, it does do damage to tick populations.
[0:30:12 – 0:30:12] Adam: Yeah.
[0:30:12 – 0:30:36] Erik: I mean, take even some of the invasives, like you can knock back a serious amount of like, not that we have a, I don’t think we really have any problems with zebra mussels up here, but like even Midwest, like the mid part of mid central Minnesota, like they’re going to do a lot of good this winter in like knocking back like zebra mussels and some of the spiny water fleas just on how deep some of the, the ice is going to get because of the cold.
[0:30:36 – 0:30:37] Erik: Yeah.
[0:30:37 – 0:30:37] Erik: So.
[0:30:38 – 0:30:40] Erik: I think more cold and more snow, the better.
[0:30:40 – 0:30:40] Erik: I love it.
[0:30:40 – 0:30:44] Erik: And in the spring, all that snow is going to melt and replenish lake levels.
[0:30:45 – 0:30:45] Erik: Yeah.
[0:30:45 – 0:30:51] Erik: And it keeps the fish, like the native species, it keeps them healthier.
[0:30:51 – 0:30:58] Erik: So me personally, yeah, I like the cold and the snow, but there’s a sort of like something in the back of my mind.
[0:30:58 – 0:30:59] Erik: It’s like rain.
[0:31:00 – 0:31:05] Erik: After it’s been dry for like two weeks in the summer, that just puts me at ease.
[0:31:07 – 0:31:08] Erik: It lessens the stress.
[0:31:08 – 0:31:16] Erik: I can just sense that it makes me happier because I know it feels right for whatever reason it feels right that it’s cold and snowy.
[0:31:16 – 0:31:17] Adam: Yeah, it certainly does.
[0:31:17 – 0:31:23] Adam: I mean, we it’s griping about the winter is a, you know, a national pastime up here.
[0:31:23 – 0:31:23] Adam: Yeah.
[0:31:23 – 0:31:25] Adam: What else are you going to talk about?
[0:31:25 – 0:31:26] Adam: Exactly.
[0:31:26 – 0:31:34] Adam: But yeah, I mean, something about when you finish like snow blowing out the driveway and shoveling the steps, it just feels good.
[0:31:34 – 0:31:35] Adam: Yeah.
[0:31:35 – 0:31:36] Erik: And it’s the way it should be.
[0:31:36 – 0:32:00] Adam: it is and i don’t know it’s a yeah it’s it’s a good thing and i i kind of we were saying while we were out fishing then yeah you know i could take a break from some snow for a while but it’ll probably keep snowing and we’ll be all right we’ll make it through it and we’ll be we’ll be tougher for it so yeah but uh yeah so we did get out and fish today in the harsh winter conditions and
[0:32:00 – 0:32:02] Adam: It was really gorgeous out there, honestly.
[0:32:02 – 0:32:05] Adam: Even for a high of four, it felt tropical out there.
[0:32:05 – 0:32:06] Adam: Just no wind.
[0:32:06 – 0:32:09] Adam: You don’t get very many days where there’s zero wind.
[0:32:10 – 0:32:12] Adam: There wasn’t even a whisper of wind, I don’t feel like.
[0:32:14 – 0:32:22] Adam: So we did manage to make it out for a good hour and a half around the twilight, end of daylight bite.
[0:32:22 – 0:32:28] Adam: And coming up here, I always like to get out and try Clearwater once or twice a winter.
[0:32:28 – 0:32:28] Adam: It’s…
[0:32:30 – 0:32:41] Adam: It’s one of those lakes where you’re not going to get a ton of action ever, but there’s always that in the back of your mind chance at the old mythical General Sherman Super Laker.
[0:32:41 – 0:32:43] Erik: And we were out on Sherman’s Reef.
[0:32:43 – 0:32:44] Adam: We were on Sherman’s Reef.
[0:32:44 – 0:32:47] Adam: At least twice a winter, we get out and fish on Sherman’s Reef.
[0:32:49 – 0:32:51] Adam: Location will never be disclosed.
[0:32:52 – 0:32:58] Adam: I mean, it’s pretty easy to… You’re going to be able to disclose it once we post the picture of the fish from today.
[0:32:58 – 0:32:59] Adam: Pretty easy to deduce.
[0:32:59 – 0:32:59] Adam: Yeah, no.
[0:32:59 – 0:33:02] Adam: It’s not a secret spot by any means, but it’s a good spot.
[0:33:03 – 0:33:03] Adam: And…
[0:33:03 – 0:33:09] Adam: Clearwater is not a good ice fishing lake, but it has that chance for you to catch one that’s a real whopper.
[0:33:09 – 0:33:13] Adam: I’ve had a fish hooked that completely broke my hook.
[0:33:14 – 0:33:18] Adam: I’ve had a fish hooked that somehow snapped 60-pound fluorocarbon.
[0:33:19 – 0:33:27] Adam: And I’ve had another fish hooked that like popped out of the hole and then I missed it and it was gone and somehow broke the line.
[0:33:27 – 0:33:33] Adam: So I’ve had three magnificent lake trout lost on this fine lake over the years.
[0:33:34 – 0:33:37] Adam: And I’ve caught a few small ones here and there.
[0:33:37 – 0:33:40] Adam: It’s one of those like you’re really swinging for the fences kind of lakes.
[0:33:41 – 0:33:42] Erik: It’s tough to say.
[0:33:42 – 0:33:49] Erik: Like when you say it’s not a good ice fishing lake, I mean, I think I tend to agree with that.
[0:33:49 – 0:33:55] Erik: But I think it’s still a better ice fishing lake than it is a open water fishing lake.
[0:33:55 – 0:33:56] Adam: No, that’s true.
[0:33:56 – 0:33:58] Adam: I shouldn’t disparage it so severely.
[0:33:59 – 0:34:03] Adam: If you want to fish clear water successfully, I think winter is the time to do it.
[0:34:03 – 0:34:05] Adam: It’s your best chance.
[0:34:05 – 0:34:06] Adam: I mean, I’ve caught fish open water.
[0:34:06 – 0:34:08] Adam: I’ve caught fish through the ice out here.
[0:34:09 – 0:34:21] Adam: I think ice fishing for lake trout is just generally better, and it’s a really neat lake where you can access it and just hit this side of it with a vehicle and go out there with a can of beer.
[0:34:21 – 0:34:28] Adam: Or if you want to, you can hike way down to the end or take a dog sled team down there and fish some stuff that’s just not going to get fished that winter.
[0:34:28 – 0:34:39] Erik: It definitely does stand, boy, just off the top of my head, it’s got to be pretty much almost alone in terms of a lake that you can drive right up to in the winter.
[0:34:39 – 0:34:49] Erik: A Boundary Waters Lake that you can drive to its shores and walk out and be fishing an ice hole within 10 minutes.
[0:34:50 – 0:35:12] Erik: i don’t know if there’s too many other lakes that have like really good sized lake trout that you can just walk right out and have a good chance of fishing without um having to either snowmobile snowshoe or ski that’s not to say that the lake trout fishing is going to be incredible but like you said the the size factor there’s always a chance that there’s big
[0:35:13 – 0:35:39] Erik: ones there’s definitely like better action lakes out there but yeah it’s definitely not an action lake although tonight was why we’ve i mean i fished it in the winter probably over 30 times and i had something happen to me this evening that has never happened and that was we should have teased it we should just have like from the the start of the podcast we should have teased that i
[0:35:39 – 0:36:05] Erik: eric had something happen to him out on clear water tonight that’s never happened just saying something yeah and then wait but now we’re just gonna say it so like we went out for basically just like an hour just to kind of get out stretch the legs punch a hole see what the conditions were like and i think i said i was like well you know we got out for an hour like at least we can say we went fishing today yeah and that was mainly it and then we got the reward though
[0:36:05 – 0:36:09] Erik: Yeah, within a half hour, I did something that I had never done, which was…
[0:36:10 – 0:36:11] Erik: I did two things that I had never done.
[0:36:12 – 0:36:15] Erik: One, caught a keepable perch.
[0:36:15 – 0:36:16] Adam: That was insane.
[0:36:16 – 0:36:16] Erik: Through the ice.
[0:36:16 – 0:36:18] Erik: It was a jumbo perch.
[0:36:18 – 0:36:19] Erik: Caught a jumbo perch on clear water.
[0:36:20 – 0:36:23] Erik: And then 15 minutes later, caught a…
[0:36:23 – 0:36:52] Adam: respectable lake trout i mean same hole eatable nothing huge like maybe 16 17 inches that’s a very nice lake trout yeah a couple of nice i mean right back to back too almost multi-species deal multi-species wasn’t including a bass on clearwater i’m 10 feet away with a vexilar i didn’t see or mark a fish i didn’t have a bite eric’s over there blind jigging just catching the old multi-species deal yeah it was awesome
[0:36:52 – 0:37:00] Erik: Blind jigging with like a one and a half inch copper Swedish pimple tipped with two little grubs.
[0:37:01 – 0:37:06] Adam: The lake trout I get, but I cannot believe the aggressive nature of that perch.
[0:37:06 – 0:37:08] Adam: You weren’t jigging the bottom.
[0:37:08 – 0:37:09] Adam: You were kind of up suspended.
[0:37:09 – 0:37:14] Erik: I was in about 10, 11 feet of water, and I was probably jigging in 8 feet.
[0:37:15 – 0:37:16] Adam: That’s insane.
[0:37:16 – 0:37:18] Adam: It’s such a nice perch.
[0:37:18 – 0:37:19] Adam: We were discussing it then.
[0:37:19 – 0:37:25] Adam: We’ve only ever heard of or seen one other perch that we know of that was caught out of this lake.
[0:37:25 – 0:37:27] Adam: That was during the party barging.
[0:37:28 – 0:37:33] Adam: I’m not sure we can even say anything more than that, but there was a party barge of sorts a few summers back now.
[0:37:33 – 0:37:46] Erik: A few summers back, we were tied up with some other neighbors on the lake, and somebody was just kind of fishing kind of aimlessly while we were just drinking and having some party snacks, and all of a sudden this…
[0:37:47 – 0:37:48] Adam: He’s got something.
[0:37:48 – 0:37:50] Erik: I was like, I’m certain it’s a burbot or something.
[0:37:50 – 0:37:52] Adam: We were out pretty deep.
[0:37:52 – 0:37:53] Adam: Yeah, we were out in the middle of the lake.
[0:37:53 – 0:37:58] Adam: He was just dragging like a worm on a big jig, you know, down on the bottom.
[0:37:58 – 0:38:00] Adam: And he’s got something.
[0:38:00 – 0:38:00] Erik: He pulls it up.
[0:38:00 – 0:38:04] Erik: And I didn’t even think that there was decent enough sized perch in Clearwater.
[0:38:04 – 0:38:05] Erik: I was shocked when I saw it.
[0:38:06 – 0:38:09] Erik: And if I hadn’t seen that or been there, I would have been, my mind would have been blown tonight.
[0:38:10 – 0:38:12] Adam: Yeah, no, we’ve actually seen it happen.
[0:38:12 – 0:38:14] Adam: Like kind of tempers the fish.
[0:38:15 – 0:38:18] Adam: the insanity of it a bit, but it’s still a pretty great catch.
[0:38:18 – 0:38:19] Adam: Yeah.
[0:38:19 – 0:38:20] Erik: There’s potential here.
[0:38:21 – 0:38:27] Erik: I would love for Clearwater to become like a perch destination or at least like an average perch fishery.
[0:38:27 – 0:38:27] Erik: Yeah, maybe.
[0:38:27 – 0:38:28] Erik: I don’t know.
[0:38:29 – 0:38:38] Erik: So, yeah, within like a half hour of going out tonight, we caught a keepable perch, which, I mean, there’s not very many lakes up here that you can keep decent-sized perch at all.
[0:38:38 – 0:38:40] Adam: I’ve never kept a perch up here, I don’t think.
[0:38:40 – 0:38:43] Erik: And, I mean, a relatively small yet keepable lake trout.
[0:38:43 – 0:38:44] Adam: Yeah.
[0:38:44 – 0:38:46] Adam: No, that’s four nice fillets.
[0:38:46 – 0:38:46] Adam: Back to back.
[0:38:47 – 0:38:48] Erik: And then I missed a third hook set.
[0:38:49 – 0:38:49] Erik: Yeah.
[0:38:49 – 0:38:50] Erik: What was that one?
[0:38:50 – 0:38:50] Adam: Who knows?
[0:38:51 – 0:38:52] Adam: Could have been a walleye.
[0:38:52 – 0:38:54] Erik: No, definitely not a walleye.
[0:38:55 – 0:38:55] Adam: It was a muskie.
[0:38:56 – 0:38:56] Adam: Yeah.
[0:38:57 – 0:39:01] Erik: So but the conditions out there, I mean, we kind of broke a little bit of trail.
[0:39:01 – 0:39:05] Erik: It was like a foot of snow with like two, three, maybe four inches of slush.
[0:39:07 – 0:39:08] Erik: That wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t great.
[0:39:09 – 0:39:11] Erik: And then I don’t know, maybe not that much ice either.
[0:39:11 – 0:39:13] Erik: I was surprised there was only about two feet of ice.
[0:39:13 – 0:39:13] Adam: Right.
[0:39:14 – 0:39:16] Adam: Like you said, it was so much snow on top.
[0:39:16 – 0:39:22] Adam: The ice hasn’t really been able to get to that like two foot ice level that we normally would see when it’s been this cold.
[0:39:22 – 0:39:26] Erik: Yeah, I mean, I think two feet would be like on the max, maybe like 20 inches.
[0:39:27 – 0:39:27] Adam: Yeah, no.
[0:39:28 – 0:39:29] Erik: It’s been super insulated.
[0:39:29 – 0:39:32] Adam: Yeah, it’s very reasonable drilling.
[0:39:32 – 0:39:38] Adam: We were, despite being in the non-boundary waters portion of the lake, we were using a hand auger, of course.
[0:39:38 – 0:39:38] Adam: The Nils.
[0:39:39 – 0:39:39] Adam: The Nils hand auger.
[0:39:40 – 0:39:40] Adam: Yep.
[0:39:40 – 0:39:41] Adam: Never leave home.
[0:39:41 – 0:39:47] Erik: And it wasn’t like that really hard, dry, cold ice.
[0:39:47 – 0:39:50] Erik: It had been infiltrated by that top slush layer.
[0:39:50 – 0:39:52] Erik: So that always makes for more challenging drilling.
[0:39:52 – 0:39:53] Erik: Yeah.
[0:39:53 – 0:39:57] Erik: So I was really hoping that we weren’t going to have to run the gamut of that auger.
[0:39:57 – 0:39:58] Adam: Yeah.
[0:39:58 – 0:40:02] Adam: We popped like four trying to find the ideal depth that we were looking for.
[0:40:03 – 0:40:05] Adam: And so, yeah, fishing pretty shallow.
[0:40:06 – 0:40:06] Adam: Good action.
[0:40:06 – 0:40:13] Adam: Anytime you’re out there and you get a multi-species deal, like I said, we were just trying to get out and get some fresh air and run the dogs a little bit, but.
[0:40:14 – 0:40:22] Erik: I mean, anytime you’re on Clearwater and you catch two different decent-sized perch and trout within a half hour, that’s like incredible action for Clearwater.
[0:40:23 – 0:40:27] Adam: And that laker had what appeared to be like three to four large minnows.
[0:40:27 – 0:40:28] Adam: Oh, yeah.
[0:40:28 – 0:40:30] Adam: It was like puking minnows when he pulled it up.
[0:40:30 – 0:40:30] Erik: I brought one back.
[0:40:30 – 0:40:31] Erik: Let me go grab it.
[0:40:31 – 0:40:32] Erik: You just keep talking about it.
[0:40:32 – 0:40:32] Adam: All right.
[0:40:32 – 0:40:34] Adam: Well, anyways, I’ll kind of set the stage.
[0:40:35 – 0:40:37] Adam: I catch it out of the corner of my eye.
[0:40:37 – 0:40:38] Adam: Here’s the thing.
[0:40:38 – 0:40:46] Adam: You’re fishing with somebody, and we both had beers, and if you see somebody, quickly, rapidly put your beer down.
[0:40:46 – 0:40:49] Adam: You’ve got to have a spot designated for your beer.
[0:40:50 – 0:40:51] Adam: He just set a minnow on the table.
[0:40:52 – 0:40:53] Adam: It looks like a smallmouth.
[0:40:53 – 0:40:54] Erik: Is it a baby?
[0:40:54 – 0:40:55] Erik: No.
[0:40:55 – 0:40:57] Erik: There’s no way there’s baby smallmouth this time of year, are there?
[0:40:57 – 0:40:58] Adam: I don’t know.
[0:40:58 – 0:40:59] Adam: I think it’s a baby smallmouth.
[0:40:59 – 0:41:03] Erik: Should we post a picture and see if we’ve got any ichthyologists out there?
[0:41:03 – 0:41:06] Adam: Yeah, let’s get some Facebook fact-checking on this minnow.
[0:41:06 – 0:41:11] Adam: We will post a minnow picture after the episode is aired, and you guys can all check this out.
[0:41:11 – 0:41:12] Adam: But I believe it is.
[0:41:14 – 0:41:16] Adam: Yeah, I believe it’s a baby smallmouth.
[0:41:16 – 0:41:18] Adam: Look at the striping out of the face.
[0:41:18 – 0:41:20] Erik: The tail might be a bit nipped.
[0:41:20 – 0:41:25] Adam: The tail was all screwed up, but it did come out of the stomach of a lake trout.
[0:41:25 – 0:41:28] Erik: No, there were three of them in the lake trout’s mouth.
[0:41:29 – 0:41:30] Erik: Just in the mouth, and it was still gorging.
[0:41:30 – 0:41:32] Erik: Just three of them in the mouth, and it went for grubs.
[0:41:33 – 0:41:35] Erik: Yeah, putting on the night feed bag.
[0:41:35 – 0:41:36] Erik: Oof.
[0:41:36 – 0:41:37] Adam: Yeah.
[0:41:37 – 0:41:37] Adam: Man.
[0:41:38 – 0:41:44] Adam: So anyways, I saw Eric just like rapidly put down the beer and then kind of gave it the reef.
[0:41:44 – 0:41:46] Adam: And it was a beautiful hook set.
[0:41:46 – 0:41:48] Adam: And I was like, whoa, he’s got something nice over there.
[0:41:48 – 0:41:50] Adam: I kind of set my stuff down.
[0:41:50 – 0:41:50] Adam: I walked over.
[0:41:50 – 0:41:55] Adam: By the time I even got halfway, he had the lake trout up out of the hole.
[0:41:55 – 0:41:57] Adam: And he’s like, this thing’s full of bait.
[0:41:58 – 0:41:58] UNKNOWN: Yeah.
[0:41:58 – 0:42:05] Adam: And yeah, sure enough, that appears to me to be a very small, maybe an inch and a half long smallmouth bass.
[0:42:06 – 0:42:10] Erik: Yeah, for a second I was like, did I have a minnow?
[0:42:11 – 0:42:12] Adam: Maybe we should salt that.
[0:42:12 – 0:42:13] Adam: Is that legal?
[0:42:13 – 0:42:14] Adam: I don’t think that’s legal.
[0:42:14 – 0:42:16] Adam: Salt preserve this baby smallmouth.
[0:42:16 – 0:42:19] Erik: I should have grabbed the other two that came out of its mouth, but I just grabbed the one.
[0:42:20 – 0:42:30] Adam: So, yeah, Eric caught all the fish, and I just took some pictures, and then it got dark soon after that, and we came in to do a little recording.
[0:42:30 – 0:42:31] Erik: It got dark very fast.
[0:42:32 – 0:42:36] Adam: It was a wonderful way to spend the sunset.
[0:42:36 – 0:42:41] Adam: We definitely are going to get some fresh fish out of it and pretty interesting.
[0:42:41 – 0:42:46] Adam: You always see it like when you catch a fish, sometimes they are like bait in their mouth.
[0:42:47 – 0:42:48] Erik: Yeah.
[0:42:48 – 0:42:49] Erik: I’ve never seen one with three.
[0:42:50 – 0:43:05] Erik: Basically, it wasn’t like there was a bunch of other holes punched in the lake where you could see like sometimes you get that where it’s like, especially out on like Moss Lake, which is a heavily hit lake where you can tell this trout has just been cruising around picking up minnows that people have thrown through ice holes.
[0:43:05 – 0:43:06] Erik: Yeah.
[0:43:06 – 0:43:08] Erik: Nobody else had been fishing that area, if Clearwater.
[0:43:08 – 0:43:10] Erik: I didn’t see anybody else fishing out there today.
[0:43:10 – 0:43:15] Erik: So it wasn’t like it had just been picking up loose, like, live bait that somebody had dumped down a hole.
[0:43:16 – 0:43:22] Erik: This thing was going crazy on, like, gorging, and I’m assuming the other two that were in its mouth were the exact same thing.
[0:43:23 – 0:43:29] Erik: And now that I’m looking at it from a distance, it does definitely look like it’s probably, like, a baby bass.
[0:43:29 – 0:43:32] Adam: Yeah, and, like, I’ll just say this, too.
[0:43:32 – 0:43:33] Adam: Like, when it happened…
[0:43:34 – 0:43:39] Adam: At the moment that you were like, this thing’s full of minnows, I go, that looks like a smallie.
[0:43:39 – 0:43:48] Adam: So that was my initial reaction, and now upon seeing the evidence under light here on the table, I believe that my call is correct.
[0:43:48 – 0:43:49] Adam: But who knows?
[0:43:50 – 0:43:51] Adam: It could be a green-eared sunfish.
[0:43:52 – 0:43:53] Adam: It’s definitely not a perch.
[0:43:54 – 0:43:56] Erik: We’ll still post a picture of it, but I think it’s a bass.
[0:43:57 – 0:43:57] Erik: It’s got the stripes.
[0:43:58 – 0:44:26] Adam: yeah um so anyways nicely done that was pretty cool you know grandpa who taught me how to grandpa wally taught me how to fish he would always when we catch a nice pike he’d cut the stomach of the pike open just to see what was in there it was always a very exciting time so i don’t really do that anymore but to see this it’s kind of interesting maybe we could adapt our jigging techniques you gotta get some swedish pimples that look more like a smallmouth if we’re gonna fish out here on clearwater
[0:44:26 – 0:44:32] Erik: Well, I mean, mine was like a pinkish copper Swedish pimple.
[0:44:32 – 0:44:36] Erik: I don’t know if it had anything to do with it, if it was just a feeding frenzy or what.
[0:44:37 – 0:44:39] Adam: You were in the right spot at the right time there, sir.
[0:44:39 – 0:44:40] Erik: You were only like 10 feet away.
[0:44:40 – 0:44:42] Adam: I know.
[0:44:42 – 0:44:43] Adam: You really joshed me.
[0:44:43 – 0:44:46] Adam: The person without the Vexilar usually catches the fish.
[0:44:46 – 0:44:47] Adam: That’s just the way it goes.
[0:44:47 – 0:44:48] Erik: Yeah, I don’t know about that.
[0:44:48 – 0:44:55] Erik: I definitely feel like that’s a pretty rare occasion where I have outfished somebody with the radar.
[0:44:56 – 0:44:57] Adam: Yeah, the radar’s fun to watch, though.
[0:44:57 – 0:44:57] Erik: Yeah.
[0:44:58 – 0:44:58] Erik: Wow.
[0:45:01 – 0:45:02] Erik: All right.
[0:45:02 – 0:45:05] Erik: So, yeah, if you can’t tell, it’s been a while since we’ve both been in the same room talking.
[0:45:05 – 0:45:07] Erik: We may be rambling a little bit.
[0:45:07 – 0:45:08] Erik: We’re chatting.
[0:45:08 – 0:45:10] Erik: But, you know.
[0:45:10 – 0:45:11] Erik: So we’re moving on to…
[0:45:14 – 0:45:14] Erik: I don’t know.
[0:45:17 – 0:45:19] Erik: A weird controversy.
[0:45:19 – 0:45:22] Adam: Yeah, it’s kind of controversial.
[0:45:22 – 0:45:36] Erik: It’s kind of turning into a controversial thing, considering I got a phone call from somebody representing Pete Stauber, the House of Representatives.
[0:45:36 – 0:45:37] Adam: You got a call from Pete Stauber?
[0:45:38 – 0:45:40] Adam: No, somebody that was representing him.
[0:45:40 – 0:45:41] Adam: I heard he’s having a hearing.
[0:45:41 – 0:45:42] Adam: He’s going to get to the bottom of this.
[0:45:43 – 0:46:02] Erik: Yeah, and if you don’t know what we’re talking about as of yet, it’s the recreation.gov and their failure of a launch on January 30th to open up the online reservation system to both cooperators and private partners.
[0:46:04 – 0:46:12] Erik: citizens and entities to reserve overnight camping permits for the 2019 season starting May 1st.
[0:46:13 – 0:46:18] Erik: And just to give a little bit of background, I don’t want to get too biased in this.
[0:46:21 – 0:46:25] Erik: There was a change announced last fall
[0:46:26 – 0:46:39] Erik: to outfitters only pretty much, cooperators and outfitters, to the recreation.gov system, which I’m not going to go into too much detail on.
[0:46:39 – 0:46:50] Erik: The recreation.gov website is a third-party entity that manages the quotas for permits, and if you’re on episode 50 or whatever this is, you know how all that works.
[0:46:50 – 0:46:50] Erik: But
[0:46:51 – 0:47:01] Erik: What they were doing is updating it so that credit card information was going to be less of a liability, less accessible to hacking.
[0:47:02 – 0:47:11] Erik: In turn, that meant an update to the website and an update to the way that cooperators provided credit card information.
[0:47:12 – 0:47:18] Erik: And that came in the form of specifically individual credit card readers.
[0:47:18 – 0:47:22] Erik: You know, those little things that you find at any place in the world these days.
[0:47:22 – 0:47:25] Erik: Grocery store checkout counter where you have to stick your card in.
[0:47:27 – 0:47:35] Erik: They were providing those to outfitters so that that information was essentially lost upon transaction.
[0:47:37 – 0:47:52] Erik: Now with all that being said, leading up to that, there was also an entirely new website that was going to manage the individual entry points and their quotas per day, which seemed like a heavy task.
[0:47:53 – 0:47:53] Erik: And so the…
[0:47:59 – 0:48:20] Erik: idea was floated and that was basically said this is what’s going to happen this was in like november early december and then the whole government shutdown happened and i don’t know how much that had to do with it necessarily well i’m not an expert in this at all probably done by contractor too well it’s recreation.gov which is a third party
[0:48:21 – 0:48:22] Adam: Yeah, they would have been shut down.
[0:48:22 – 0:48:23] Erik: Booze Hamilton.
[0:48:23 – 0:48:25] Erik: If you want a name, Booze Hamilton.
[0:48:25 – 0:48:27] Adam: Booze Hamilton was not getting paid during that shutdown.
[0:48:27 – 0:48:30] Erik: Isn’t that who Edward Snowden worked for?
[0:48:30 – 0:48:32] Adam: I don’t know.
[0:48:33 – 0:48:33] Adam: I think it was.
[0:48:34 – 0:48:35] Adam: Okay.
[0:48:35 – 0:48:36] Adam: We’re going to go with it.
[0:48:36 – 0:48:38] Erik: Yeah, as a government contractor.
[0:48:38 – 0:48:39] Erik: There’s no conspiracies here.
[0:48:39 – 0:48:40] Erik: I’m just saying.
[0:48:40 – 0:48:44] Erik: I think that Booze Hamilton is like… That’s who he worked for.
[0:48:46 – 0:48:47] Erik: Anyway, the…
[0:48:48 – 0:48:49] Adam: So the website wasn’t done in time.
[0:48:49 – 0:48:53] Erik: Essentially, the day came, which every year, I’ve been doing this for…
[0:48:53 – 0:48:54] Adam: It’s kind of a holiday.
[0:48:54 – 0:48:55] Erik: Yeah, kind of.
[0:48:56 – 0:48:57] Erik: It’s a big deal.
[0:48:57 – 0:48:58] Erik: People call, they’re like, hey, I want to get a permit.
[0:48:58 – 0:49:00] Erik: I’m like, you know, I would love to.
[0:49:00 – 0:49:03] Erik: They’re not available until the last Wednesday in January.
[0:49:03 – 0:49:03] Erik: Yeah.
[0:49:04 – 0:49:08] Erik: I can get your information, and I will go on, gladly get you that permit on that day.
[0:49:10 – 0:49:14] Erik: And this year was a little different because I knew there was some…
[0:49:14 – 0:49:36] Erik: testing that had to happen some testing that occurred in the days prior to that wednesday when we’re successful for the testing of the actual credit card machines that we were issued but the actual day that the full system opened up kind of just fell to pieces were they hacked
[0:49:37 – 0:49:45] Erik: No, there’s been some weird comments online about that that was a thing that happened, but I think it’s mostly been in jest.
[0:49:46 – 0:49:46] Erik: Right.
[0:49:46 – 0:49:48] Erik: I don’t think that there was any hacking.
[0:49:49 – 0:49:58] Erik: I think they were, from what I’ve heard, they underestimated the volume of people that were going to be using it on one individual day.
[0:49:58 – 0:49:59] Adam: They always do.
[0:49:59 – 0:49:59] Erik: Yeah.
[0:50:00 – 0:50:09] Erik: So basically what happened is in any typical year, what happens is you go online and you can use the Bonjewater’s permit system through recreation.gov just like you can any other day.
[0:50:09 – 0:50:12] Erik: It opens up at 9 a.m. Central Standard Time.
[0:50:13 – 0:50:15] Erik: You choose your entry date, entry point.
[0:50:15 – 0:50:20] Erik: You go on, put your credit card information in, contact information in, boom, permit.
[0:50:21 – 0:50:30] Erik: This day, it was just filled with a host of varying issues for outfitters and individuals alike.
[0:50:32 – 0:50:37] Erik: You would get a certain amount of way through the process and you’d either be kicked out or it would just freeze.
[0:50:39 – 0:50:44] Erik: A number of people were actually successful in procuring permits.
[0:50:45 – 0:50:54] Erik: And that is where the biggest headache at this point has occurred is they have gone back through and actually canceled those permits.
[0:50:54 – 0:50:55] Erik: I heard that.
[0:50:55 – 0:50:58] Erik: Because they want to give everybody a fresh slate.
[0:50:58 – 0:50:59] Erik: Fair shot at it, right?
[0:50:59 – 0:51:00] Erik: Yeah.
[0:51:00 – 0:51:13] Erik: And so as of today, Saturday, February 9th, which barring any disasters, you will be hearing this on Sunday the 10th or anywhere thereafter or maybe years in the future.
[0:51:13 – 0:51:13] Adam: Who knows?
[0:51:13 – 0:51:15] Adam: Hello, future.
[0:51:15 – 0:51:18] Erik: I always find that is a weird, interesting thing about podcasting.
[0:51:18 – 0:51:20] Erik: There could be somebody listening to us.
[0:51:21 – 0:51:22] Erik: Maybe my grandson’s listening right now.
[0:51:23 – 0:51:24] Erik: Wow.
[0:51:24 – 0:51:25] Erik: Hold on.
[0:51:25 – 0:51:26] Adam: You just blew my mind.
[0:51:27 – 0:51:28] Erik: Holy shit.
[0:51:30 – 0:51:31] Adam: Oh, I can’t believe it.
[0:51:31 – 0:51:33] Adam: This is going to be out there after we’re dead.
[0:51:34 – 0:51:34] Adam: Yeah.
[0:51:35 – 0:51:37] Adam: That’s really just what you’ve never thought about that.
[0:51:37 – 0:51:38] Adam: Not really.
[0:51:38 – 0:51:39] Adam: Yeah.
[0:51:39 – 0:51:40] Adam: It’s out there now, man.
[0:51:40 – 0:51:41] Adam: It’s in the ether.
[0:51:41 – 0:51:42] Erik: It’s in the ether, man.
[0:51:42 – 0:51:43] Adam: Holy moly.
[0:51:44 – 0:51:44] Erik: All right.
[0:51:44 – 0:51:50] Erik: So anyway, to get back to it, there has been a bit of a and I wouldn’t say uprising.
[0:51:50 – 0:51:52] Erik: That’s a little strong, but.
[0:51:52 – 0:51:55] Erik: Kind of a… Irritableness.
[0:51:55 – 0:51:58] Erik: Irritableness amongst outfitters, especially.
[0:51:59 – 0:52:09] Erik: And not to point fingers or cast aspersions at anybody, but it seems like the outfitters on the Ely side, they seem especially upset and worried about…
[0:52:09 – 0:52:09] Erik: They always are.
[0:52:09 – 0:52:14] Erik: …how this is going to affect their business, which I can completely understand.
[0:52:15 – 0:52:19] Erik: I mean, if you’ve got a stack of… Yeah, it’s volume.
[0:52:19 – 0:52:22] Erik: I mean, honestly, the volume of permits that Clearwater does is…
[0:52:22 – 0:52:23] Adam: It’s small fish.
[0:52:24 – 0:52:28] Adam: It’s a little tiny small bass compared to the big small bass.
[0:52:28 – 0:52:36] Erik: We’re the little baby bait fish that was in that trout’s mouth compared to some of those Boy Scout camps or big outfitters over on Moose Lake.
[0:52:36 – 0:52:42] Erik: I mean, you’ve got a stack of 200 permits, and the day comes and goes when you can secure those.
[0:52:43 – 0:52:57] Erik: And then you’re not given any kind of an explanation as to why or when it’s going to be resolved or how are you going to talk to the customer that you’ve had for 20 years who’s relying on you to get that permit.
[0:52:58 – 0:53:06] Erik: I can definitely relate to that feeling of anxiousness and why they today actually had a forum over in Ely.
[0:53:06 – 0:53:08] Adam: At the Grand Ely Lodge.
[0:53:08 – 0:53:08] Adam: Yeah.
[0:53:08 – 0:53:09] Adam: Congressman Stauber.
[0:53:10 – 0:53:20] Erik: Albeit extremely impromptu, there was literally no opportunity for anybody outside of a couple hours away to go and do it.
[0:53:20 – 0:53:24] Adam: I heard about it two days ago on my drive to work on the radio.
[0:53:24 – 0:53:28] Adam: They’re like, Congressman Stauber’s having a hearing or a forum, I guess.
[0:53:28 – 0:53:29] Erik: Yeah.
[0:53:29 – 0:53:34] Erik: And not to rant and rave too much, like we’re on some kind of a political radio chat show here.
[0:53:34 – 0:53:50] Erik: But to give you just the black and white of it, they were mostly gathering this forum so that outfitters could voice their opinions in a forum where they could be heard because they felt like they weren’t being heard by the U.S. Forest Service.
[0:53:51 – 0:54:00] Erik: And as an outfitter myself, I can relate to that, although I don’t feel like it was to the point where it was at a crisis level yet.
[0:54:01 – 0:54:02] Erik: I mean, it’s only been over a week.
[0:54:03 – 0:54:03] Erik: Right.
[0:54:03 – 0:54:04] Erik: There’s plenty of time.
[0:54:04 – 0:54:09] Erik: There’s still plenty of time for permits to become open and available for people.
[0:54:09 – 0:54:13] Erik: And there are still many different ways to…
[0:54:15 – 0:54:20] Erik: have people apply and secure those based on when they signed up for them as well.
[0:54:21 – 0:54:23] Erik: Not to say that they wouldn’t mess that up too.
[0:54:24 – 0:54:39] Erik: But last I heard, this is just the last I heard, as of Saturday, February 9th, we were informed as outfitters that the system would not open up any earlier than February 19th.
[0:54:40 – 0:54:41] Adam: So we got our ways.
[0:54:41 – 0:54:44] Erik: Well, it’s 10 days from now, and that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t still be after that.
[0:54:45 – 0:54:47] Adam: That’s just as early as the first possible day.
[0:54:47 – 0:54:48] Erik: First possible day.
[0:54:48 – 0:54:50] Adam: They got some debugging, did you?
[0:54:50 – 0:54:50] Erik: Yeah.
[0:54:50 – 0:54:59] Erik: Well, and I assume if they got themselves into a situation where the whole system essentially crapped the bed, they don’t want that to happen twice.
[0:54:59 – 0:55:00] Adam: Yeah.
[0:55:00 – 0:55:01] Adam: They want to make sure it’s right before they try it again.
[0:55:01 – 0:55:04] Erik: So they’re probably quadruple checking.
[0:55:04 – 0:55:08] Adam: I’ve never, like, been one to, I got to be on there the first day to get my permits.
[0:55:08 – 0:55:08] Adam: Yeah.
[0:55:08 – 0:55:10] Adam: Because we’re up here, and we’re kind of more flexible.
[0:55:10 – 0:55:11] Adam: But I get it.
[0:55:11 – 0:55:14] Adam: For people who are coming a long ways, you want to have the exact day you want.
[0:55:14 – 0:55:14] Erik: Yeah.
[0:55:14 – 0:55:15] Erik: I can understand both sides.
[0:55:15 – 0:55:17] Adam: I mean, I’m not… And then last year, I did it.
[0:55:17 – 0:55:21] Adam: Last year, I was right on there, and I got that Frost River permit because I just knew, like, we got this time off.
[0:55:21 – 0:55:23] Adam: We’re going to do that Frost River trip finally.
[0:55:23 – 0:55:27] Adam: I’m getting the permit, even though it was, like, a Tuesday in May.
[0:55:27 – 0:55:30] Adam: Like, what are the chances Round Lake permits are going to be gone?
[0:55:30 – 0:55:32] Adam: Or, I’m sorry, missing links, but…
[0:55:32 – 0:55:32] Erik: Yeah.
[0:55:32 – 0:55:33] Adam: Yeah.
[0:55:33 – 0:55:34] Adam: I get it.
[0:55:34 – 0:55:38] Adam: I’m normally not one to be on like the first, I got to get on there that first day.
[0:55:38 – 0:55:42] Adam: But if you are and you’ve done that like that every year, it can be stressful.
[0:55:44 – 0:55:44] Erik: Yeah.
[0:55:44 – 0:55:55] Erik: I mean, I got the phone call that I received from the representative from the representative’s office, the Stauber office.
[0:55:56 – 0:55:59] Erik: They were extremely on one side.
[0:56:00 – 0:56:00] Erik: I mean…
[0:56:00 – 0:56:02] Erik: Just it kind of caught me off guard.
[0:56:02 – 0:56:06] Erik: I was I was not necessarily ready for the phone call.
[0:56:07 – 0:56:18] Erik: It seemed like he was very influenced by the the thoughts and feelings of the the people on the Ely side, which led me to believe that they were not happy at all.
[0:56:18 – 0:56:19] Adam: What was the phone call like?
[0:56:20 – 0:56:22] SPEAKER_02: We want to hear your horror stories about the foreign service.
[0:56:22 – 0:56:34] Erik: Well, yeah, they were like, this is completely irresponsible and completely unconscionable, like what they’ve been doing to these people who their livelihoods are relying on this.
[0:56:34 – 0:56:38] Erik: And I was like, well, I think that sounds a little extreme.
[0:56:38 – 0:56:42] Adam: Yeah, because the thing I heard on the radio was like, what, like people aren’t going to do the Boundary Waters?
[0:56:42 – 0:56:45] Adam: They’re just going to get their permit a week later or two weeks later.
[0:56:45 – 0:56:46] Adam: Well, and that’s what I was thinking.
[0:56:46 – 0:56:47] Adam: I’m like, I mean, heck with it.
[0:56:47 – 0:56:49] Adam: I’m going to go down to the Everglades instead.
[0:56:50 – 0:56:50] Erik: Yeah.
[0:56:50 – 0:56:56] Erik: And like I like on one hand, I am not a U.S. Forest Service apologist in any way, shape or form.
[0:56:56 – 0:56:58] Adam: Gentle with the U.S. Forest Service on this podcast.
[0:56:59 – 0:56:59] Adam: No, in this case.
[0:57:00 – 0:57:09] Erik: But the way that this this person came across in my mind was like way harsh and like almost detrimental to trying to come to a solution.
[0:57:10 – 0:57:20] Erik: Essentially, he was saying the US Forest Service is not being forthcoming in how this is being worked on and what’s happening.
[0:57:20 – 0:57:24] Erik: And I kind of almost told him, I’m like, I kind of almost feel the exact opposite.
[0:57:24 – 0:57:30] Erik: I feel like they’ve been pretty forthcoming almost more so than they typically are in how this has all gone down.
[0:57:31 – 0:57:38] Erik: And there was no mention of how, in some cases, this might be out of their hands in terms of the government shutdown.
[0:57:39 – 0:57:46] Erik: and how there aren’t as many people in the Forest Service to be on the front lines of saying, this is exactly what’s happening.
[0:57:47 – 0:57:50] Erik: And still, again, at the end of the day, it’s only been a week.
[0:57:51 – 0:57:52] Erik: I did say that to this guy.
[0:57:52 – 0:57:53] Erik: I was like, you know, it’s only been a week.
[0:57:55 – 0:58:05] Erik: My biggest thing has always been, why don’t you just open it up, the permit system that is, the day that the last season ends.
[0:58:06 – 0:58:10] Erik: So like 2018, open up the 2019 season on October 1st.
[0:58:11 – 0:58:12] Adam: Why do they wait so long?
[0:58:13 – 0:58:24] Erik: Because there used to be a lottery because they didn’t want certain entry points being taken advantage of, especially over on the Ely side by huge groups.
[0:58:25 – 0:58:26] Erik: I don’t think that’s nearly as much of a concern.
[0:58:26 – 0:58:28] Erik: They don’t even do the lottery anymore.
[0:58:28 – 0:58:33] Adam: Have there ever been an instance where somebody bought up a bunch of permits and then was selling them on eBay or something?
[0:58:34 – 0:58:34] Adam: No.
[0:58:34 – 0:58:35] Adam: Is eBay still a thing?
[0:58:35 – 0:58:35] Adam: No.
[0:58:37 – 0:58:58] Erik: ebay is yeah yeah and i don’t yeah again i don’t want this to be this uh he said he he said she said kind of like uh representative ely outfitters even gunflint outfitters kind of a anti forest service thing i think it’s a little like i’m not surprised by any of this yeah
[0:58:59 – 0:59:15] Erik: I mean, it seems like it’s a bigger deal than it really is, but I also do understand if you’re an outfitter who, you know, that’s what you do and you need to get these permits booked because that’s what I always tell to people who call me.
[0:59:15 – 0:59:22] Erik: Like, I don’t necessarily feel comfortable reserving you a bunkhouse and canoes unless you have a permit because I can’t control that.
[0:59:22 – 0:59:22] Erik: Right.
[0:59:23 – 0:59:29] Erik: And so if you can’t get a permit for somebody, you really don’t see that trip as being something that can happen.
[0:59:30 – 0:59:32] Adam: It’s not going to really happen until the permit is there.
[0:59:32 – 0:59:33] Erik: Yeah, the permit is the gateway.
[0:59:33 – 0:59:34] Erik: Permit’s the first thing.
[0:59:35 – 0:59:35] Erik: Exactly.
[0:59:35 – 0:59:37] Adam: And then after that, you take care of everything else.
[0:59:37 – 0:59:39] Adam: So have you been having people call here?
[0:59:39 – 0:59:40] Erik: Yes.
[0:59:40 – 0:59:42] Erik: The Wednesday the 30th was insane.
[0:59:42 – 0:59:43] Erik: Yeah.
[0:59:43 – 0:59:46] Erik: Because I was trying to use the system.
[0:59:46 – 0:59:47] Adam: Were you able to get any?
[0:59:47 – 0:59:47] Adam: No.
[0:59:48 – 0:59:53] Erik: I was, I got halfway through a couple, but I was never able to actually to secure any.
[0:59:54 – 1:00:03] Erik: But this was also in between every three to four minutes, somebody calling me saying, I can’t like use the system.
[1:00:03 – 1:00:05] Erik: Maybe a cooperator is going to have better luck.
[1:00:05 – 1:00:08] Erik: And I was like, no, it’s, I was kind of worried.
[1:00:09 – 1:00:11] Erik: But until I started getting those phone calls that it was just me.
[1:00:11 – 1:00:15] Adam: Do you think there’s maybe like an EMP pulse like event or something?
[1:00:16 – 1:00:16] Adam: No.
[1:00:16 – 1:00:17] Adam: At any point?
[1:00:17 – 1:00:17] Adam: No.
[1:00:17 – 1:00:20] Adam: You still had electricity here, so the internet was working.
[1:00:21 – 1:00:21] Erik: No.
[1:00:21 – 1:00:22] Erik: The internet was working.
[1:00:22 – 1:00:28] Erik: For a second, I thought maybe it’s me because I always think that maybe it’s just this dumb computer.
[1:00:28 – 1:00:28] Erik: Yeah, yeah.
[1:00:29 – 1:00:29] Erik: But I was…
[1:00:30 – 1:00:31] Erik: Pretty quickly.
[1:00:31 – 1:00:33] Erik: Pretty quickly it became apparent.
[1:00:33 – 1:00:37] Erik: And then there was this stream of emails that came through where everybody was replying all.
[1:00:38 – 1:00:39] Erik: And it was just a mess.
[1:00:39 – 1:00:42] Adam: Okay, so everybody’s calm now?
[1:00:42 – 1:00:44] Erik: Well, everybody’s…
[1:00:44 – 1:00:55] Erik: It has calmed beyond that day, but there was a forum over in Ely where people could go and voice their opinions on it, which is fine and good, but it still seems a little…
[1:00:56 – 1:00:57] Erik: Premature.
[1:00:57 – 1:00:58] Erik: It’s only February 9th.
[1:00:58 – 1:00:59] Adam: Oh, man.
[1:00:59 – 1:01:03] Adam: I bet that was like total Parks and Rec community forum ask.
[1:01:03 – 1:01:06] Adam: Is there a video of that forum we can get our hands on?
[1:01:06 – 1:01:06] Adam: I don’t know.
[1:01:07 – 1:01:10] Adam: We’ll post a link to that forum video in the show notes.
[1:01:10 – 1:01:14] Erik: I mean, they called on Thursday and they wanted to know if I could be there.
[1:01:15 – 1:01:19] Erik: And I was like, well, you realize that’s two days away and it’s like a three-hour drive one way.
[1:01:19 – 1:01:21] Erik: I appreciate the call.
[1:01:21 – 1:01:23] Adam: I’m driving Highway 1 in February for…
[1:01:24 – 1:01:24] Erik: Yeah.
[1:01:24 – 1:01:28] Erik: No, put me on the email list with the notes from the meeting maybe, but I can’t be there.
[1:01:28 – 1:01:28] Erik: I’m sorry.
[1:01:28 – 1:01:34] Erik: I hope somebody else from the Gunflint Trail can be, but I’ve got a cabin to turn over and roads to plow and whatever.
[1:01:34 – 1:01:43] Erik: But I guess what I’ll end on, and I don’t want to disparage the U.S. Forest Service too much more than they have already been.
[1:01:43 – 1:01:44] Erik: They’re in a tough position.
[1:01:44 – 1:01:46] Erik: I can’t imagine being somebody who’s trying to work on this.
[1:01:47 – 1:01:47] Erik: answer phone calls.
[1:01:48 – 1:01:54] Erik: But this is what I told the person that called me when they wanted to know and gain my perspective on it.
[1:01:55 – 1:01:57] Erik: I said, I saw this day coming a mile away.
[1:01:58 – 1:02:03] Erik: When they announced this system last fall, I knew January 30th, 2019 was going to be
[1:02:06 – 1:02:07] Adam: Sick burn.
[1:02:07 – 1:02:09] Adam: I knew it was going to be a mess.
[1:02:09 – 1:02:10] Erik: It was going to be a mess.
[1:02:10 – 1:02:12] Erik: I wasn’t half surprised when it was.
[1:02:12 – 1:02:15] Adam: Can’t they just reboot the old system and use that?
[1:02:15 – 1:02:16] Adam: It was working fine.
[1:02:16 – 1:02:18] Adam: What are you messing with perfection for?
[1:02:18 – 1:02:19] Adam: Yeah, it was.
[1:02:19 – 1:02:20] Adam: You’ve got to be monkeying with stuff.
[1:02:20 – 1:02:37] Adam: yeah i don’t know they they’re worried about internet and credit card security maybe like worry less about people trying to do the boost from classic and more about getting your website in order though come on get it together guys there you go yeah all right so that’s where we’re at february 19th at the earliest stick them once at least
[1:02:38 – 1:02:39] Erik: Stay in touch, I guess.
[1:02:39 – 1:02:40] Erik: We’ll see what happens.
[1:02:40 – 1:02:40] Erik: Yeah, it’ll be fine.
[1:02:40 – 1:02:41] Adam: Everybody’s going to get a permit.
[1:02:41 – 1:02:43] Adam: You’re going to get to go on the Boundary Waters this year.
[1:02:43 – 1:02:45] Adam: It’s not like the Boundary Waters are closed.
[1:02:45 – 1:02:46] Adam: No, it’s going to be fine.
[1:02:47 – 1:02:48] Adam: Well, let’s not put it past them, I guess.
[1:02:49 – 1:02:49] Erik: All right.
[1:02:50 – 1:02:54] Erik: Well, at this point, I’m 99.9% sure people will get permits before the end of February.
[1:02:54 – 1:02:55] Adam: All right, all right.
[1:02:56 – 1:03:01] Adam: Next up on the agenda is Fantasy Iditarod.
[1:03:01 – 1:03:02] Adam: This is all you, man.
[1:03:02 – 1:03:07] Adam: Yeah, this is my shout-out to the Yukon Quest is going on right now.
[1:03:08 – 1:03:12] Adam: Brent and Alan are leaving Circle and on their way to Central.
[1:03:13 – 1:03:14] Adam: It’s a pivotal moment.
[1:03:14 – 1:03:16] Adam: There’s a couple hundred miles left in the big race.
[1:03:17 – 1:03:22] Adam: I’ve always enjoyed following the Yukon Quest, and they finally did open up Fantasy.
[1:03:23 – 1:03:34] Adam: Fantasy Iditarod, I plugged it last year in one of our first episodes, and nobody signed up, like nobody at all who listened to the podcast.
[1:03:34 – 1:03:37] Adam: There was literally like four people listening to the podcast at the time.
[1:03:37 – 1:03:39] Adam: It was like the fourth episode.
[1:03:39 – 1:03:45] Adam: You got to go on Facebook or whatever, just Google it, Fantasy Mushing, and you’ll find it.
[1:03:45 – 1:03:47] Adam: It’s the only one out there.
[1:03:48 – 1:03:49] Adam: It is the only one.
[1:03:49 – 1:03:49] Adam: No competition.
[1:03:50 – 1:03:53] Adam: So they actually had it for the Copper Basin this year.
[1:03:53 – 1:03:58] Adam: They’re doing it for the Finark Moxlopen and they’re doing it for Yukon Quest right now.
[1:03:58 – 1:04:02] Adam: I’m the only one signed up as far as I know for the Tumble Home Pack.
[1:04:02 – 1:04:07] Adam: And so I’m winning, obviously, because I also have Brent and Alan on my teams.
[1:04:08 – 1:04:10] Adam: and they’re probably going to finish 1-2.
[1:04:10 – 1:04:13] Adam: I’d be very surprised if it ends any other way.
[1:04:14 – 1:04:17] Adam: Anyways, this is just a general reminder that the Yukon Quest is awesome.
[1:04:17 – 1:04:17] Adam: You should check it out.
[1:04:17 – 1:04:25] Adam: It has nothing to do with the Boundary Waters, but as people who love the wilderness, I would think you’d enjoy it, and it’s one of my favorite events of the year.
[1:04:25 – 1:04:27] Adam: I always look forward to the Yukon Quest.
[1:04:28 – 1:04:30] Adam: It kind of falls right after the Bear Grease always, too.
[1:04:30 – 1:04:32] Adam: It’s always like, okay, you’ve got the mail run.
[1:04:32 – 1:04:34] Adam: You kind of get into the dog season.
[1:04:34 – 1:04:35] Adam: Then you’ve got the Bear Grease.
[1:04:35 – 1:04:37] Adam: We’re always down at Sawbill Checkpoint.
[1:04:38 – 1:04:45] Adam: Involved in the bear grease and then right after berries ends the Yukon quest starts and then you’re really into it and then by the time the Yukon quest ends you’re in like a
[1:04:46 – 1:04:50] Adam: you’re within a month of the Iditarod starting, which is the Holy grail.
[1:04:50 – 1:04:57] Adam: So anyways, just a reminder that, uh, you can sign up for fantasy Iditarod.
[1:04:57 – 1:05:00] Adam: You pick seven mushers and their teams.
[1:05:00 – 1:05:03] Adam: You have a certain amount of gold nuggets to spend on your team.
[1:05:04 – 1:05:12] Adam: And, uh, the people who have done well in the past cost more than rookies or that haven’t run the race or people that who generally just not done as well.
[1:05:12 – 1:05:13] Adam: So,
[1:05:13 – 1:05:14] Adam: You kind of got to round your team out.
[1:05:14 – 1:05:21] Adam: You get some really good veterans who are going to do well and then maybe take a wild card bet on some of the rookie of the year contenders.
[1:05:21 – 1:05:24] Adam: So anyways, the pack name will be Tumble Home.
[1:05:24 – 1:05:25] Adam: I will be playing.
[1:05:25 – 1:05:28] Adam: I’ll harass Eric to try and get him to sign up this year.
[1:05:28 – 1:05:30] Erik: I signed up last year.
[1:05:30 – 1:05:30] Adam: Yeah, you did.
[1:05:31 – 1:05:32] Erik: Yeah, you did.
[1:05:32 – 1:05:39] Adam: So I’m the defending champion once again because it was a pack of two or three last year.
[1:05:39 – 1:05:41] Adam: So anyways, just a general shout-out.
[1:05:41 – 1:05:49] Adam: We will maybe post a link in our Instagram account or on Facebook once the sign-ups are open for Fantasy Iditarod.
[1:05:49 – 1:05:50] Adam: So check it out.
[1:05:50 – 1:05:53] Adam: It’s a lot of fun and also just cool to follow the Iditarod.
[1:05:53 – 1:05:55] Adam: So I wanted to plug that first.
[1:05:55 – 1:05:56] Erik: It is a feat of strengths.
[1:05:56 – 1:05:57] Adam: Yeah, it is.
[1:05:58 – 1:06:05] Adam: It’s a test of the art of running fast, but also the art of being able to rest hard and then run fast again.
[1:06:06 – 1:06:07] Erik: Yeah, I think the art of…
[1:06:07 – 1:06:09] Adam: It’s a run and rest thing.
[1:06:09 – 1:06:13] Erik: Yeah, I think one of the things that gets overlooked is just the…
[1:06:14 – 1:06:22] Erik: Not necessarily by you, but by people is the relationship between the mushers and the dogs that they build up over the course of their training.
[1:06:23 – 1:06:23] Erik: Yeah.
[1:06:23 – 1:06:28] Erik: That you get to that portrays itself in how they run their race.
[1:06:29 – 1:06:35] Erik: And especially if you get the chance to ever go out and see a checkpoint or watch a team, that’s the thing that I like the most.
[1:06:35 – 1:06:37] Erik: It’s like the most personal coaching.
[1:06:38 – 1:06:40] Erik: Absolutely.
[1:06:40 – 1:06:46] Erik: My dad used to coach sports when he was a little bit younger and when I was in high school in my youth.
[1:06:47 – 1:07:11] Erik: And I can see why he really liked it because that’s one of the things that I loved about running dogs when I even just used to guide was being able to learn about an individual dog, learn about how dogs related to themselves and how they worked either with themselves or against each other and how to put together the best team to do the best thing.
[1:07:12 – 1:07:33] Adam: under the conditions that you are given so it’s basically like i think the ultimate form of coaching yeah he’s running a really good dog sled race arrow’s a little over a year old now just watching her grow from a pup up to a full-grown 50 pound husky who’s making lots of noise right now no that’s ayla she’s thirsty she’ll drink for like another two minutes straight
[1:07:34 – 1:07:45] Adam: It’s a really neat sport, and I really, you know, especially living up here when you have these long winters, it’s just like something to look forward to in the winter.
[1:07:45 – 1:07:57] Adam: You can sit there and watch the tracker in the comfort of your own home and kind of watch those teams out there virtually competing, and then you get, you know, a lot of pictures and reports from the trail and stuff.
[1:07:57 – 1:07:58] Adam: I don’t know.
[1:07:58 – 1:07:59] Adam: It’s just, it’s really a neat thing.
[1:07:59 – 1:08:00] Adam: I really enjoy it.
[1:08:00 – 1:08:03] Adam: And then having this, I’ve always enjoyed fantasy football.
[1:08:03 – 1:08:05] Adam: We’re playing a lot of fantasy hockey these days.
[1:08:05 – 1:08:09] Adam: So once I heard there’s fantasy, I did ride out and I was like, wow, really?
[1:08:09 – 1:08:10] Adam: Are you kidding me?
[1:08:10 – 1:08:12] Adam: No, it’s, it’s a real thing.
[1:08:12 – 1:08:13] Adam: So it’s a lot of fun.
[1:08:13 – 1:08:19] Adam: Uh, one more thing on that and then we’ll move on is that when you’re watching the trackers, it’s like fun to like have it just set.
[1:08:19 – 1:08:21] Adam: So it resets like updates every 60 seconds.
[1:08:22 – 1:08:24] Adam: So you can watch the little icons moving along the trail.
[1:08:25 – 1:08:31] Adam: But what I really recommend is look at the race flow, uh, tab on a spot tracker, um, and
[1:08:32 – 1:08:34] Adam: It’ll kind of show you the run rest cycle more.
[1:08:34 – 1:08:37] Adam: And then like the steeper the lines, the faster the teams are moving.
[1:08:37 – 1:08:40] Adam: So you can kind of see how teams are like resting more, but then running faster.
[1:08:41 – 1:08:45] Adam: Like right now, Brent Sass has been resting more than Alan Moore, but he is running faster.
[1:08:46 – 1:08:48] Adam: So like they’re essentially like neck and neck, but.
[1:08:48 – 1:08:56] Adam: Alan Moore’s been cutting a lot of rest, and then actually right before we started recording, Brent had left circle first for the first time.
[1:08:56 – 1:08:58] Adam: He kind of went out in front.
[1:08:59 – 1:09:05] Adam: So I think he’s probably the favorite there in the Yukon Quest, but we’ll see how that ends.
[1:09:06 – 1:09:10] Adam: Probably by the time this is posted, they’ll be kind of on their way from Two Rivers into Fairbanks, so…
[1:09:11 – 1:09:37] Adam: just a cool race the yukon quest is really a neat thing and i know it has nothing to do with the boundary waters but i don’t care it has a lot to do with just the the heart of the north the general the feel of like enjoying a hearty winter so yeah moving on midwest mountaineering oh yeah i forgot about that oh yeah we have a big announcement eric’s got a huge announcement here for y’all huge save this one for last because it’s really big
[1:09:37 – 1:09:38] Erik: Well, it’s the big last one.
[1:09:38 – 1:09:51] Erik: We’re going to tease the next episode, which is going to be getting more into a couple of the kind of the last few episodes that we’ve found a little bit of a groove in, which kind of a teaching episode more than anything else.
[1:09:51 – 1:09:52] Erik: Yeah.
[1:09:52 – 1:10:01] Erik: But before we get to that, yeah, we’re announcing that Clearwater, it is, well, I can’t say 100% because I have not heard back from them.
[1:10:02 – 1:10:03] Adam: Well, they better let us in.
[1:10:05 – 1:10:05] Erik: The paperwork.
[1:10:05 – 1:10:08] Erik: Well, we mailed in our paperwork before the deadline.
[1:10:08 – 1:10:10] Adam: I can’t believe you had to mail paperwork.
[1:10:10 – 1:10:12] Erik: I could have emailed something.
[1:10:12 – 1:10:13] Erik: You could have faxed it.
[1:10:13 – 1:10:14] Erik: I could have.
[1:10:14 – 1:10:16] Erik: How long can we talk before we actually say what it is?
[1:10:16 – 1:10:16] Erik: What is it?
[1:10:16 – 1:10:17] Adam: Just tell us.
[1:10:17 – 1:10:18] Adam: What are you talking about?
[1:10:18 – 1:10:22] Erik: I’ve listened to an hour and 20 minutes of you rambling about dog sleds.
[1:10:22 – 1:10:22] Adam: It’s snow.
[1:10:23 – 1:10:41] Erik: Yeah, so Clearwater Historic Lodge and Canoe Outfitters and Tumble Home, a Boundary Waters podcast, has signed up to be an exhibitor at the Outdoor Adventure Expo this April 26th, 7th, and 8th at the Midwest Mountaineering.
[1:10:41 – 1:10:42] Adam: Three days?
[1:10:42 – 1:10:43] Erik: Three days.
[1:10:43 – 1:10:44] Erik: Holy moly.
[1:10:44 – 1:10:45] Erik: Friday, 2 to 9.30.
[1:10:46 – 1:10:47] Erik: Saturday, 9 to 6.30.
[1:10:47 – 1:10:50] Erik: And Sunday, 10 to 5.
[1:10:50 – 1:10:52] Adam: Holy moly, hot dog.
[1:10:53 – 1:10:53] Adam: 9.30 the first night?
[1:10:54 – 1:10:54] Adam: That’s going to be wild.
[1:10:55 – 1:10:56] Erik: 9 to 6.
[1:10:56 – 1:10:58] Erik: Yeah, 2 to 9.30 the first night.
[1:10:59 – 1:11:00] Adam: I can’t stamp past 9.
[1:11:00 – 1:11:01] Adam: I didn’t know about this.
[1:11:02 – 1:11:02] Adam: I retract my agreement.
[1:11:06 – 1:11:07] Adam: We’ll have to do some espressos.
[1:11:07 – 1:11:08] Adam: Yeah.
[1:11:08 – 1:11:14] Erik: So this is at Midwest Mountaineering, 309 Cedar Avenue South in Minneapolis.
[1:11:15 – 1:11:19] Erik: The 26th, 7th, and 8th of April, 2019.
[1:11:19 – 1:11:19] Erik: We’ll be there.
[1:11:20 – 1:11:24] Erik: Me and Adam, most likely Tori, the geologist’s wife, will also be there.
[1:11:25 – 1:11:27] Erik: And we’re going to just be there.
[1:11:27 – 1:11:28] Erik: We’ll have maps.
[1:11:28 – 1:11:30] Erik: You want to come ask us questions about routes.
[1:11:31 – 1:11:32] Erik: Tumble home stickers.
[1:11:32 – 1:11:34] Erik: We’ll have us, basically just us.
[1:11:34 – 1:11:41] Adam: We’ll have the secret ingredients and instructions for if you want to try the Clearwater Boost Room Classic Loop this year.
[1:11:42 – 1:11:46] Adam: We’ll let you know where the book is hidden, where you have to rip the page out of to bring it back as proof.
[1:11:47 – 1:11:47] Erik: Yes.
[1:11:47 – 1:11:49] Adam: Meet us at the booth.
[1:11:49 – 1:11:53] Adam: We’ll be taking selfies, giving out free hugs.
[1:11:53 – 1:11:54] Adam: Eric’s giving out free hugs.
[1:11:54 – 1:11:54] Adam: Oh, God.
[1:11:54 – 1:11:55] Adam: Yeah, that’s right.
[1:11:55 – 1:11:56] Adam: Eric’s a real hugger.
[1:11:57 – 1:11:57] Erik: free hugs.
[1:11:58 – 1:12:04] Erik: So we were talking about doing a live podcast, but we’re doing a live podcast under the table.
[1:12:04 – 1:12:12] Adam: Just have the field recorder hidden behind and we’ll record a field audio with you from the Midwest mountaineering booth.
[1:12:12 – 1:12:20] Erik: Yeah, well, either way, if you just want to come and say hi or if you have questions for us in any way, shape, or form, routes, whatever.
[1:12:20 – 1:12:21] Erik: We’ll be there.
[1:12:21 – 1:12:21] Erik: Bring a beer by.
[1:12:21 – 1:12:22] Erik: It’s going to be fun.
[1:12:22 – 1:12:24] Adam: Stop by with a beer and an algae.
[1:12:24 – 1:12:25] Adam: Oh, I haven’t even thought about that.
[1:12:25 – 1:12:25] Adam: Oh, yeah.
[1:12:25 – 1:12:27] Adam: Yeah, if you want to get your sponsored beer on the show.
[1:12:27 – 1:12:28] Adam: Can we drink beer at the booth?
[1:12:29 – 1:12:30] Adam: Probably not.
[1:12:30 – 1:12:31] Adam: You don’t know.
[1:12:31 – 1:12:32] Adam: That’s why it’s an analogy.
[1:12:32 – 1:12:34] Adam: It’s just juice.
[1:12:34 – 1:12:34] Erik: Anyway.
[1:12:35 – 1:12:35] Erik: Yeah.
[1:12:35 – 1:12:43] Erik: So Midwest Mountaineering, we will, barring any weather emergencies or if our application gets declined.
[1:12:43 – 1:12:45] Adam: It’s definitely going to get declined now.
[1:12:46 – 1:12:46] Adam: Yeah, right.
[1:12:47 – 1:12:48] Adam: We said too much.
[1:12:48 – 1:12:51] Erik: Talking about getting some free beer sponsorships.
[1:12:51 – 1:12:52] Erik: April 26th.
[1:12:52 – 1:13:15] Erik: seventh and eighth cool hope to see you there that’s a think everything that we have besides teasing yes uh the next show coming up next week on tumble home or in in two weeks next week or two weeks uh for sure within two weeks um we’re gonna i kind of like the winter schedule of taking a little bit of time to maybe research a topic a little bit more
[1:13:17 – 1:13:20] Erik: Those are some of my favorite kinds of podcasts.
[1:13:21 – 1:13:22] Erik: I don’t know.
[1:13:22 – 1:13:24] Erik: Have we ever shouted out a podcast?
[1:13:25 – 1:13:25] Erik: Another one?
[1:13:26 – 1:13:28] Erik: This winter, I’ve been into one.
[1:13:28 – 1:13:42] Erik: They do a really good job at researching a topic, which, albeit there are topics I am more interested in than others, which are dark and have a lot to do with serial killers and some things that are maybe not as savory.
[1:13:42 – 1:13:44] Erik: But the last podcast on the left…
[1:13:44 – 1:13:51] Erik: If you’ve never listened to those guys, they do a really good job at doing, uh, cursory research.
[1:13:51 – 1:13:58] Erik: Well, not cursory, but you know, basic research and then putting it out in a kind of a fun and informational way.
[1:13:59 – 1:14:03] Erik: Uh, they mostly, like I said, talk about some dark stuff, but, um,
[1:14:03 – 1:14:06] Adam: I maybe have shouted out S-Town, but I don’t know.
[1:14:06 – 1:14:10] Adam: If you don’t know what S-Town is, then what are you even doing listening to us?
[1:14:10 – 1:14:11] Adam: Come on.
[1:14:11 – 1:14:12] Adam: Right.
[1:14:12 – 1:14:13] Adam: Get together.
[1:14:13 – 1:14:15] Adam: Go fix an old clock or something.
[1:14:15 – 1:14:19] Erik: But I think we had the geology episode, which I thought was fun.
[1:14:19 – 1:14:26] Erik: We kind of had a little bit more of the just general specifics on how
[1:14:27 – 1:14:28] Erik: What is winter like in the Bangewaters?
[1:14:28 – 1:14:41] Erik: But one topic that even before starting the podcast, I got questions on a ton over the course of the year is the Northern Lights, the Aurora Borealis.
[1:14:42 – 1:14:42] Erik: Mm-hmm.
[1:14:43 – 1:15:06] Erik: So I’m looking forward to coming out with, and I have a basic understanding of it, but I kind of want to learn a little bit more myself and bring some basic science along with just some general things that a lot of people overlook in terms of like when they can expect to see some northern lights.
[1:15:07 – 1:15:07] Erik: Yeah.
[1:15:07 – 1:15:18] Erik: And how that all plays into each other, along with maybe some special information from people that we know who are a little bit more plugged into the field.
[1:15:18 – 1:15:20] Adam: He hasn’t met Brother Andrew before.
[1:15:20 – 1:15:22] Adam: He’s a very talkative fellow.
[1:15:22 – 1:15:24] Adam: But Sister Megan is a…
[1:15:25 – 1:15:36] Adam: Legit astrophysicist to have like she’s shot rockets into the northern lights Yeah, I think about what they are made of so yeah, I gotta send her some questions We got to get a little feedback from sister Megan.
[1:15:36 – 1:15:39] Adam: Hopefully we can get her feedback on this
[1:15:39 – 1:15:40] Erik: Yeah.
[1:15:40 – 1:15:46] Erik: So we’re looking forward to a, I wouldn’t say like a big episode, but one that’s a little bit more focused.
[1:15:46 – 1:15:48] Adam: And with special guest Steve.
[1:15:49 – 1:15:49] Adam: Steve.
[1:15:50 – 1:15:50] Adam: Yes.
[1:15:51 – 1:15:56] Adam: I’ve met Steve twice in my life and a very, very fine fellow Steve is.
[1:15:57 – 1:15:57] Erik: Yes.
[1:15:58 – 1:16:00] Erik: Isn’t that what they changed the name from?
[1:16:01 – 1:16:01] Erik: Proton Arcs?
[1:16:01 – 1:16:02] Erik: Yeah.
[1:16:02 – 1:16:03] Adam: They’re not Proton Arcs anymore.
[1:16:03 – 1:16:04] Adam: All right.
[1:16:04 – 1:16:06] Erik: Just making sure you weren’t talking about something that I didn’t know.
[1:16:06 – 1:16:07] Adam: Yeah.
[1:16:07 – 1:16:08] SPEAKER_02: My good friend Steve.
[1:16:08 – 1:16:09] Erik: My good friend Steve.
[1:16:09 – 1:16:16] Adam: So we’ll be back in a couple weeks probably with a fine episode on the Aurora Borealis.
[1:16:16 – 1:16:17] Adam: I’m excited for that one.
[1:16:17 – 1:16:18] Erik: Yeah, well fleshed out, hopefully.
[1:16:19 – 1:16:20] Erik: Although, I don’t know, this wasn’t too bad.
[1:16:20 – 1:16:24] Erik: A little bit of rambling, maybe a little borderline politics.
[1:16:25 – 1:16:28] Erik: Boundary Waters, U.S. Forest Service talk.
[1:16:29 – 1:16:31] Erik: I don’t think I got myself into too much trouble there.
[1:16:31 – 1:16:32] Adam: I don’t think so.
[1:16:32 – 1:16:37] Adam: We only had a couple loon bleeps in there, and I don’t think we really threw anybody under the bus too bad.
[1:16:37 – 1:16:39] Erik: I think that’s why people listen, for the truth.
[1:16:39 – 1:16:41] Adam: This is the truth, folks.
[1:16:41 – 1:16:44] Adam: Just like that spruce-tipped IPA, it’s the truth.
[1:16:44 – 1:16:45] Erik: It is truth serum.
[1:16:45 – 1:16:48] Erik: You drink one of these, you’ll start talking the truth.
[1:16:49 – 1:16:50] Erik: I’ve said too much.
[1:16:50 – 1:16:51] Erik: I’ve said too much.
[1:16:51 – 1:16:52] Erik: Oh, man.
[1:16:52 – 1:16:54] Erik: I threw somebody under the bus there.
[1:16:54 – 1:16:54] Adam: All right.
[1:16:55 – 1:16:57] Adam: Well, we’ll be back, and thanks for listening again.
[1:16:59 – 1:17:03] Adam: For Tumble Home, I have been Adam, and that is Eric.
[1:17:03 – 1:17:04] Adam: Hello, and goodbye.
[1:17:05 – 1:17:07] Adam: Happy snowshoeing and snow swimming.
[1:17:07 – 1:17:09] Adam: Arrivederci.
[1:17:15 – 1:17:26] SPEAKER_02: To think that all the rocking men we make just us fit.
[1:17:26 – 1:17:30] SPEAKER_02: I could know them, yet we make little.
[1:17:30 – 1:17:32] SPEAKER_02: Oh no, I can’t.
[1:17:41 – 1:17:45] SPEAKER_02: What you call sin and what you call goodness.
[1:17:45 – 1:17:48] SPEAKER_02: To think a wider difference.
[1:17:48 – 1:17:54] SPEAKER_02: To think the difference will still continue to others.
[1:17:55 – 1:18:00] SPEAKER_02: Yet will I be on the difference.
[1:18:00 – 1:18:03] SPEAKER_02: To think how much pleasure there is.
[1:18:03 – 1:18:08] SPEAKER_02: I’ve been pleasure from looking at the sky.
[1:18:09 – 1:18:21] SPEAKER_02: Do you enjoy yourself in the city?
[1:18:23 – 1:18:26] SPEAKER_02: Are you engaged in business?
[1:18:27 – 1:18:31] SPEAKER_02: Are you planning a nomination, an election?
[1:18:32 – 1:18:36] SPEAKER_02: Are you with your wife and family?
[1:18:36 – 1:18:38] SPEAKER_02: Are you with your mother?
[1:18:39 – 1:18:51] SPEAKER_02: Brothers and sisters, how lovely was the world, how the beautiful mountain air caressed.
[1:18:51 – 1:18:54] SPEAKER_02: Is all the blood and wine to hold us?
[1:18:54 – 1:19:08] SPEAKER_02: You and I have flown one, but in due time you and I shall take this interest in the new fable of prophets and the cross.
[1:19:08 – 1:19:19] SPEAKER_02: To think there will still be farms and profits and crops Here for you of what faith Here for you of what faith
[1:19:42 – 1:19:43] UNKNOWN: So,
[1:20:29 – 1:20:30] Erik: We’ve got the one mic.
[1:20:31 – 1:20:35] Erik: We’re dropping a fresh catch into the pan.
[1:20:36 – 1:20:37] Adam: The elusive clear water perch.
[1:20:37 – 1:20:38] Adam: Beautiful little trout.
[1:21:07 – 1:21:19] Erik: Nothing more than a fingernail’s depth worth of butter and a little bit of salt and a little bit of pepper on these bad boys.
[1:21:20 – 1:21:21] Adam: Ooh, a little pepper.
[1:21:21 – 1:21:22] Erik: Maybe just a touch of pepper.
[1:21:24 – 1:21:27] Erik: I don’t have any citrus, but they don’t need much.
[1:21:31 – 1:21:32] Adam: They’re about done.
[1:21:33 – 1:21:34] Erik: And they’re done.