Winter updates from the northland.
Subscribe:
Patreon
Spotify
iTunes
YouTube
Stitcher
Google Play
Soundcloud
Subreddit
Contact:
The Answering Machine: (218) 481-0649
[email protected]
Episode Transcript
[0:00:45 – 0:00:46]
Adam: Good evening, Tomo
homies.
[0:00:48 – 0:00:49]
Adam: Thank you for being here tonight.
[0:00:54 – 0:00:55]
Adam: Shout out to our Patreons.
[0:00:56 – 0:00:59]
Adam: It is the darn near the end of February.
[0:00:59 – 0:01:01]
Adam: Are there any of you out there?
[0:01:02 – 0:01:04]
Adam: Thanks for being here, and shout out to the Patreons.
[0:01:07 – 0:01:11]
Adam: Keeping the servers running for these 10-minute episodes.
[0:01:13 – 0:01:15]
Adam: Take up a lot of bandwidth, you know.
[0:01:17 – 0:01:20]
Adam: Starting the show tonight with Greg Commute from National Language.
[0:01:21 – 0:01:25]
Adam: My name is Francois Lacastore, coming to you live from the snow globe.
[0:01:26 – 0:01:28]
Adam: Tonight’s snow log update.
[0:01:29 – 0:01:33]
Adam: Since the last episode, we’ve had 20 inches of fresh snow.
[0:01:34 – 0:01:38]
Adam: We also had one weird night where we had at least an inch.
[0:01:40 – 0:01:40]
Adam: Who knows?
[0:01:40 – 0:01:41]
Adam: It could have been two inches of rain.
[0:01:43 – 0:01:46]
Adam: A bizarre heavy rainstorm thrown in there.
[0:01:46 – 0:01:49]
Adam: I’m going to try and forget about it.
[0:01:51 – 0:01:56]
Adam: That brings us to a total of 96 inches of snow for this winter.
[0:01:57 – 0:02:01]
Adam: We also have a winter storm warning beginning at 6 a.m. tomorrow morning.
[0:02:01 – 0:02:06]
Adam: That one sounds like it could be kind of nasty.
[0:02:06 – 0:02:12]
Adam: So probably going to be a drive the truck kind of day tomorrow.
[0:02:13 – 0:02:17]
Adam: Also had a fun bonus surprise for this evening.
[0:02:18 – 0:02:19]
Adam: Pulled up the KP Index.
[0:02:20 – 0:02:24]
Adam: And it was at a 6 solid.
[0:02:25 – 0:02:27]
Adam: And now it’s like reading as a 5.5.
[0:02:27 – 0:02:31]
Adam: And haven’t really seen the KP Index use the halves.
[0:02:32 – 0:02:34]
Adam: So we’ll just call it a 5 plus on the KP Index.
[0:02:36 – 0:02:39]
Adam: So stepped outside to go grab some wood.
[0:02:40 – 0:02:52]
Adam: from
the shed and let the dog run around a little bit and uh sure enough there’s a pretty nice glow up there in the north and there was definitely like visible spires kind of popping off there
[0:02:53 – 0:02:58]
Adam: Took a couple pretty decent photos with the phone camera.
[0:03:00 – 0:03:09]
Adam: Although it’s mostly been a month of gray commutes up here on the North Shore, it was kind of nice and sunny this afternoon.
[0:03:09 – 0:03:21]
Adam: And even though we got this winter storm warning coming in early tomorrow morning, the skies are currently nice and clear and the stars are pretty twinkly and crispy.
[0:03:22 – 0:03:29]
Adam: So I’m going to probably try and stay up another hour or two and see if this develops anymore.
[0:03:29 – 0:03:31]
Adam: I might actually try and walk a little bit.
[0:03:32 – 0:03:38]
Adam: We’ve got the Christmas lights still on the house, and they’re on like a day-night timer.
[0:03:38 – 0:03:44]
Adam: The thing got buried, so they just go on every night and they just stay on.
[0:03:45 – 0:04:09]
Adam: so i don’t really want to go back there and try and dig that thing out right now just to get the christmas lights off so this might be one where you got to walk up to the end of the driveway to get some true darkness um anyhow um a lot of good snow this month that rain did um kind of mess up the the river crossing at one point otherwise the trails have been pretty nice
[0:04:10 – 0:04:30]
Adam: Yeah, the day after that rain, I walked back there, and I don’t know why I was surprised to see this, but the river had totally overflowed on top of the ice and had risen up a good amount and then sort of all refroze, and then that ice sort of collapsed back down on top of the previous ice, and then we got a bunch of snow.
[0:04:30 – 0:04:32]
Adam: So it’s a weird setup.
[0:04:32 – 0:04:34]
Adam: I’m kind of curious.
[0:04:34 – 0:04:37]
Adam: I may have to take the auger back there and just take a core sample.
[0:04:37 – 0:04:38]
Adam: What does that look like?
[0:04:39 – 0:04:42]
Adam: Uh, there might still be liquid water in between the layers.
[0:04:42 – 0:04:42]
Adam: Who knows?
[0:04:44 – 0:04:48]
Adam: Um, anyways, the trail’s been really nice.
[0:04:48 – 0:04:54]
Adam: Um, but you know, I don’t have all that much free time right now.
[0:04:54 – 0:04:59]
Adam: Um, and it’s, you know, trying to get the dog out and trying to get around these trails.
[0:05:00 – 0:05:00]
Adam: Um,
[0:05:01 – 0:05:03]
Adam: usually I’m trying to bring the baby with.
[0:05:03 – 0:05:15]
Adam: Um, and I really don’t feel good about like throwing him in the backpack and then trying to ski, especially just skiing by myself, let alone being hooked up to the dog.
[0:05:15 – 0:05:20]
Adam: So, um, I just, I can’t really bring myself to do it.
[0:05:20 – 0:05:21]
Adam: I’m too worried about crashing.
[0:05:22 – 0:05:30]
Adam: And, uh, so I’m not actually been getting a ton of skiing and despite having really good trail conditions, what I’ve been doing is,
[0:05:33 – 0:05:34] SPEAKER_00: What I would call…
[0:05:34 – 0:05:36]
Adam: Uh… Snowshoe… Jor…
[0:05:40 – 0:05:41]
Adam: So… Basically I hook up…
[0:05:42 – 0:05:49]
Adam: I hook up the dog in the harness… And I got the big backpack thing with the baby in there… And then I got…
[0:05:49 – 0:06:00]
Adam: So I get my snowshoes on, I put the backpack on, and then I hook up the dog to the hip belt, essentially, with a huge carabiner on the baby backpack thing.
[0:06:01 – 0:06:01]
Adam: And then off we go.
[0:06:02 – 0:06:04]
Adam: And so Arrow can pull pretty good.
[0:06:05 – 0:06:11]
Adam: And the baby gets to ride along and maybe take a nap if it’s the right time of day.
[0:06:12 – 0:06:17]
Adam: And otherwise, he seems to really enjoy it and doesn’t really seem affected by the cold whatsoever.
[0:06:19 – 0:06:22]
Adam: you know, if it really is cold, you got to keep those walks short, of course.
[0:06:22 – 0:06:25]
Adam: But he just seems to really enjoy it.
[0:06:26 – 0:06:27]
Adam: And I enjoy it.
[0:06:27 – 0:06:28]
Adam: The dog enjoys it.
[0:06:28 – 0:06:32]
Adam: So we’re moving at about five kilometers an hour on average.
[0:06:33 – 0:06:42]
Adam: We’re doing like 10Ks, 12Ks, 8Ks, that kind of distance a lot, just on snowshoe.
[0:06:42 – 0:06:45]
Adam: And it’s like the best thing I can do to try and
[0:06:46 – 0:06:52]
Adam: give the dog some harness time, you know, that’s fair to her and it’s fair to me.
[0:06:52 – 0:06:56]
Adam: You know, it’s actually with the weight of the baby on the back, it’s actually a pretty good workout.
[0:06:57 – 0:07:01]
Adam: Um, but you know, it still isn’t that great of a workout.
[0:07:02 – 0:07:02]
Adam: I,
[0:07:04 – 0:07:25]
Adam: know tried to go out and do some skate skiing once a week and i was out of town for one week and you know and then adrian was out of town for something and then it had that rain so we like missed like three weeks in a row just happened to be the night we normally skied it we just had three weeks off and then so we went back
[0:07:27 – 0:07:52]
Adam: uh tuesday and boy i felt like i was gonna die uh we had some fresh snow so the trail was you know clean but it was a little soft on the right step especially i don’t know why that right side of that trail the whole way around was just soft so it was extra hard but i was also just like three weeks off so pretty tough uh i’d take a lot of breaks so
[0:07:53 – 0:08:02]
Adam: Yeah, we’re going to do the ski jour race up at Trail Center in March, and that’s a couple weeks out now.
[0:08:03 – 0:08:17]
Adam: You know, the fact of the matter is I’m just not in very good cardiovascular shape right now, so classic skiing and snowshoeing is still pretty reasonable, but that skate skiing, that’s some serious…
[0:08:18 – 0:08:19]
Adam: That’s some serious stuff.
[0:08:20 – 0:08:20]
Adam: I don’t know.
[0:08:21 – 0:08:25]
Adam: I don’t know how people can get to a level where they just are cruising on those things.
[0:08:25 – 0:08:27]
Adam: It just requires so much energy.
[0:08:29 – 0:08:31]
Adam: And I don’t know.
[0:08:31 – 0:08:33]
Adam: I don’t have those kinds of lungs anymore, I guess.
[0:08:33 – 0:08:35]
Adam: But I’m going to keep working on it.
[0:08:36 – 0:08:38]
Adam: This year’s been better than last year and so forth.
[0:08:38 – 0:08:40]
Adam: This is now third year trying this, so.
[0:08:41 – 0:08:56]
Adam: keeping working at it but I really got to go like two times a week or something but it’s just hard to find a you know a couple hours here and there to make that happen so anyways it’s been a snowshoe genre kind of month a lot of a lot of time on the snowshoes and
[0:08:58 – 0:08:59]
Adam: That’s tonight’s gear.
[0:09:00 – 0:09:01]
Adam: Featured gear.
[0:09:04 – 0:09:08]
Adam: My MSR Lightning Explore 30-inch snowshoes.
[0:09:08 – 0:09:10]
Adam: They’re damn nice snowshoes.
[0:09:11 – 0:09:16]
Adam: I had some Atlas when I first moved up here, and the bindings, I just wore them out eventually.
[0:09:17 – 0:09:21]
Adam: And there’s, turns out I called customer support and there’s just no way to like replace those bindings.
[0:09:22 – 0:09:23]
Adam: They’re too old.
[0:09:23 – 0:09:28]
Adam: I was basically told like go pound sand and replace the, the whole snowshoe.
[0:09:28 – 0:09:29]
Adam: And it’s like, well, that’s ridiculous.
[0:09:29 – 0:09:34]
Adam: So I just held those bindings together, but like P cord for a season or two and then.
[0:09:36 – 0:09:37]
Adam: Got gifted these MSRs.
[0:09:39 – 0:09:43]
Adam: They are really a Cadillac of snowshoe.
[0:09:45 – 0:09:46]
Adam: Is that still a thing?
[0:09:46 – 0:09:52]
Adam: No, they’re the Pontiac vibe of snowshoes, or obviously they’re the Toyota Tundra of snowshoes.
[0:09:54 – 0:09:58]
Adam: I’ve never even driven, I don’t even know if I’ve ridden in a Cadillac, let alone driven one.
[0:10:00 – 0:10:02]
Adam: That analogy is out the window, as they say.
[0:10:04 – 0:10:14]
Adam: The MSR Lightning Explorer, though, I love them, and truthfully, I’ve got more distance on those things than both pairs of skis put together probably this winter.
[0:10:17 – 0:10:19]
Adam: Anybody else out there rocking these things?
[0:10:19 – 0:10:20]
Adam: Because I love them.
[0:10:21 – 0:10:22]
Adam: They’re lightweight.
[0:10:22 – 0:10:24]
Adam: They’re real easy to put them on.
[0:10:24 – 0:10:29]
Adam: They’re easy to adjust, and, like, just get them on perfect, like, real quick.
[0:10:29 – 0:10:32]
Adam: And, yeah, they pair really well with…
[0:10:34 – 0:11:02]
Adam: tall boot or really anything you’re wearing you know but i tend to just go out there with the tall boots on them and off we go so yeah i got a i got a pair of like longer you know ski poles but with snowshoeing sometimes i got these shorter like metal poles that are really good and like softer snow um and when you’re snowshoeing a lot you’re like kind of sunk down in the trail anyways so like a shorter pole is actually a little a little nicer but
[0:11:05 – 0:11:08]
Adam: Um, yeah, they’re wonderful though.
[0:11:08 – 0:11:15]
Adam: Um, you know, they got like the whole outside edge of them is like a thin piece of metal and it’s all got like teeth on them.
[0:11:15 – 0:11:26]
Adam: So even if you’re on like bare ice, they’re got an amazing grip and they’re good in deep snow and they’re good on a, on a more packed trail.
[0:11:26 – 0:11:29]
Adam: I just all, all around real nice.
[0:11:29 – 0:11:33]
Adam: And, um, I’ve had them now a couple of full seasons I’ve had almost on them and
[0:11:34 – 0:11:37]
Adam: They don’t appear to have suffered any wear and tear.
[0:11:38 – 0:11:40]
Adam: They basically look brand new still.
[0:11:41 – 0:11:42]
Adam: So that’s high praise.
[0:11:44 – 0:11:48]
Adam: So maybe in future episodes I will… Not maybe.
[0:11:48 – 0:11:51]
Adam: In future episodes I would like to talk to you about the skiing setups.
[0:11:51 – 0:11:56]
Adam: And I kind of envisioned I would feature the skis earlier in the snow log project.
[0:11:57 – 0:12:05]
Adam: But the truth of this winter is that it’s been a snowshoe kind of winter and getting a little skiing in on the side.
[0:12:06 – 0:12:08]
Adam: But that’s what’s working best for us.
[0:12:08 – 0:12:10]
Adam: So we’re going to keep doing that.
[0:12:10 – 0:12:13]
Adam: And yeah, like I said earlier, it was kind of nice and sunny.
[0:12:14 – 0:12:17]
Adam: Got home with some daylight today.
[0:12:18 – 0:12:20]
Adam: Got out of work a little early and the sun was out.
[0:12:20 – 0:12:21]
Adam: There was very little wind.
[0:12:23 – 0:12:34]
Adam: Yeah, me and Natalie and Arrow and Pike all went out for a nice loop out across the river on the snowshoes and right around sunset.
[0:12:35 – 0:12:36]
Adam: Just magical out there.
[0:12:37 – 0:12:43]
Adam: Kind of went up and did the old red pine Christmas tree loop, which is, you know, pretty reasonable stuff.
[0:12:44 – 0:13:06]
Adam: a leisurely snowshoe and the dog was just pulling like crazy the whole way and um that was one where you’re almost just like you’re working to like slow the dog down honestly so i don’t know if that’s really any good for her but um she seems to enjoy it i mean it’s good for her i’m just saying i’m not sure it’s good for her like endurance racing training wise but
[0:13:07 – 0:13:09]
Adam: I’m not really worried about her on Poplar Lake.
[0:13:09 – 0:13:17]
Adam: Um, she’ll pull me, you know, the whole way and not, you know, not let up any slack on that, on that harness line, but.
[0:13:19 – 0:13:21]
Adam: I’m just wondering how many breaks I’m going to have to take.
[0:13:21 – 0:13:25]
Adam: I guess a lot of it will depend on what the trail conditions are like.
[0:13:25 – 0:13:41]
Adam: Usually, well, not usually, but a lot of times by the middle of March, you either get real soft, slushy, you’re out there in a t-shirt kind of conditions, or it’s done that, and then you get some cold again, and everything kind of flattens out and refreezes and hardens again.
[0:13:41 – 0:13:44]
Adam: And those trails can be crazy, crazy fast.
[0:13:46 – 0:13:46]
Adam: So…
[0:13:47 – 0:13:48]
Adam: You know, got a couple weeks.
[0:13:49 – 0:13:50]
Adam: We’ll see what we end up with.
[0:13:50 – 0:13:53]
Adam: But we’re going to have a good time with it either way.
[0:13:53 – 0:13:55]
Adam: I’m pretty sure Adrian and Mowgli are going to come out and do it.
[0:13:57 – 0:13:58]
Adam: and we’ll probably recognize some other people out there.
[0:13:59 – 0:14:10]
Adam: But Adrian’s a very strong skier, and he’s the one I’ve been out there skate skiing with, and I’m constantly just trying to keep up and wheezing, leaning on my poles.
[0:14:10 – 0:14:19]
Adam: So, yeah, if they show up, it’s going to be tough to compete with Adrian on the skis, but, you know.
[0:14:22 – 0:14:27]
Adam: A lot of it will depend on the conditions because Arrow is five years old now, really in her prime.
[0:14:28 – 0:14:31]
Adam: Got a couple good years here, a prime Arrow.
[0:14:33 – 0:14:38]
Adam: One of these years, I’ll get my act together and we’ll really be a dynamic team out there.
[0:14:41 – 0:14:46]
Adam: Ski jour and snowshoe jour, it’s all competing once a winter.
[0:14:47 – 0:14:48]
Adam: See what you got is fun, but
[0:14:49 – 0:14:55]
Adam: You know, most of the year it’s just a good excuse to get out and try and find new trails to see where they go.
[0:14:56 – 0:15:03]
Adam: Found a new little beaver pond the other day, just following a trail that somebody had groomed and wasn’t really sure where we were going.
[0:15:05 – 0:15:11]
Adam: Came out on this neat little pond, kind of down in a steep little ravine for a beaver pond too.
[0:15:11 – 0:15:13]
Adam: It was a neat little spot, so…
[0:15:14 – 0:15:24]
Adam: Yeah, every winter living out here in the historic mushing district, you end up wandering into new areas that you hadn’t seen before, and that is always a real treat.
[0:15:26 – 0:15:33]
Adam: So we’ll leave it there on the trail report and the snow report for the evening.
[0:15:34 – 0:15:37]
Adam: I wanted to make sure to mention that I did look, and I’m
[0:15:38 – 0:15:45]
Adam: I mentioned this on the
Discord, but the Fantasy Iditarod is live as of at least today.
[0:15:45 – 0:15:45]
Adam: I don’t know.
[0:15:45 – 0:15:56]
Adam: We’ve got five people signed up in the
Tumble Home Pack already, so I always enjoy it, and I try and tell as many people as I can to get on there and sign up.
[0:15:57 – 0:16:02]
Adam: Not that many mushers in the Iditarod this year, so do your reading.
[0:16:03 – 0:16:05]
Adam: Read those musher bios.
[0:16:05 – 0:16:06]
Adam: Maybe check out some social media.
[0:16:07 – 0:16:29]
Adam: accounts and then uh you know spend your gold nuggets wisely uh it’s gonna be fun uh we got a little bit till the race starts obviously yet but uh never too early to get in there and start forming your team i’m sure i’ll only tinker with mine a couple more times yet tonight uh and uh continue that on every day until race start but uh we got that to look forward to and
[0:16:30 – 0:16:43]
Adam: you know, baby’s birthday’s coming up, and daylight savings, and, you know, then the ski jour race up at Poplar, the Iditarod, and that’s just like prime winter once again.
[0:16:43 – 0:16:47]
Adam: I’m a big fan of winter, but February can really drag.
[0:16:49 – 0:16:57]
Adam: It’s usually a pretty gray and still very dark and cold month, and at that point, even I’m, I’ve had it with 20 below, and
[0:16:58 – 0:17:10]
Adam: five days in a row of gray skies, but, uh, March usually turns around and you get a little extra sunlight, a little extra daylight and it warms up a bit and it is just a real delight.
[0:17:10 – 0:17:16]
Adam: So, um, a lot to look forward here in the coming weeks, but yeah, definitely get out there and check out the fantasy.
[0:17:16 – 0:17:17]
Adam: I did rod, uh,
[0:17:17 – 0:17:29]
Adam: I know a lot of people listening to this probably have played in years past, but if you’re listening to this somehow and you have not played, you really don’t need to know anything about the teams.
[0:17:29 – 0:17:32]
Adam: Just pick people with funny names or with funny pictures.
[0:17:33 – 0:17:41]
Adam: Dan Caduce, who’s priced pretty high after a good finish last year, he looks like he put Buscemi in the wood chipper.
[0:17:42 – 0:17:44]
Adam: So you might want to go with that for your team.
[0:17:45 – 0:17:46]
Adam: Kind of intimidating.
[0:17:49 – 0:18:14]
Adam: um so i don’t know i’m looking forward to it it’s um you know it’s it’s a silly game but it’s a lot of fun so uh i want to give a shout out uh i want to give a shout out to the
discord we uh did get up to 50 members and the vip tumble
homie discord uh there is a link uh on the
subreddit for the
discord
[0:18:15 – 0:18:24]
Adam: I’ve been spending more time on there than I thought I would, honestly, and it’s a pretty good little group of like-minded
Tumble Home comrades.
[0:18:26 – 0:18:32]
Adam: And yeah, there’s a gravy beaker emoji you can use to comment.
[0:18:32 – 0:18:38]
Adam: There’s a box of
wine, a little icon you can give to people.
[0:18:39 – 0:18:43]
Adam: There’s a couple different threads on the
Discord for various topics.
[0:18:44 – 0:18:48]
Adam: People were on there talking about hammocks, ground sleeping versus sky sleepers once again.
[0:18:48 – 0:18:51]
Adam: I said time is indeed a flat circle.
[0:18:53 – 0:18:55]
Adam: On one last programming note, I would say…
[0:18:58 – 0:19:21]
Adam: uh over there on the
subreddit our
tumble home of course our
tumble home cast excuse me uh good friend of the show hopalicious has started up a where you going thread and i think that was posted 10 days ago now and uh anyways that’s already got like 55 responses so i haven’t read any of them i just want i did post that i’m not reading them yet we’re going to try and save this uh
[0:19:23 – 0:19:24]
Adam: whenever the loon comes back.
[0:19:26 – 0:19:30]
Adam: And when
Eric returns from his hot air balloon trip,
[0:19:30 – 0:19:33]
Adam: Hopefully he doesn’t get shot down by the United States military.
[0:19:34 – 0:19:47]
Adam: It would be a tragic end to that season of whichever way the wind blows, but I’m pretty confident he’ll navigate his way back, and we’re going to tackle that thread when he does.
[0:19:48 – 0:19:49]
Adam: So thanks to everybody who’s commented on there.
[0:19:50 – 0:19:57]
Adam: If you haven’t seen it, you can go ahead and get on there, and we’ll just use that as the official thread for the season opener, I suppose.
[0:19:59 – 0:20:02]
Adam: But, yeah, I only got one permit so far.
[0:20:04 – 0:20:10]
Adam: You know, we’ll talk more about it on that show, but it’s Kawishui Lake for, like, the end of July.
[0:20:10 – 0:20:14]
Adam: I’m going to go on a swimming and berry-picking trip, me and Natalie.
[0:20:14 – 0:20:21]
Adam: So maybe we’ll get to Baskatong and the old Pagami Burn, see if there’s any berries up there.
[0:20:21 – 0:20:25]
Adam: I’ve never been to any of that, never been to Square, never –
[0:20:26 – 0:20:32]
Adam: Never so much as paddle on the Kawishui Lake itself, so that’ll be a nice summer leisure trip.
[0:20:32 – 0:20:35]
Adam: But that’s the only permit I currently have.
[0:20:36 – 0:20:37]
Adam: What are you guys doing?
[0:20:39 – 0:20:49]
Adam: It is fun to think about, even though we still probably have three months of winter to go and many more miles of snowshoeing ahead.
[0:20:50 – 0:20:53]
Adam: I think that’s a good place to leave it for this episode of Snowlog.
[0:20:54 – 0:20:56]
Adam: My name has been Francois Lacastor.
[0:20:56 – 0:20:59]
Adam: Thank you for being here tonight, and thank you for listening.
[0:21:00 – 0:21:02]
Adam: And I hope you’re having a good winter.
[0:21:02 – 0:21:09]
Adam: Remember, as we always say here on Snowlog, snow takes many forms.
[0:21:09 – 0:21:10]
Adam: Good night.
