As expected, November has been warm and relatively dry so far. Seems like in the Fall if one month is cold and wet, the next one is warm and dry. Probably said this a while ago but really hoping for skiable snow for Thanksgiving. The lake is very close to freezing over. Just need a night of calm and teens. Last night only down to the upper 20's and lake was gelling on the north end so it is right there. John Dee has fired up his forecasts and nothing getting him excited the next 10.

Seems like the kids have been playing football whenever they are all together. Rain, snow or shine--- all good.


Head cook Deb had a birthday on a weekend so we picked her up a sugarbush cruiser from Paramount. Deb does an awesome job.
Not much action from the deer stand over the weekend as far as deer harvesting. Lots of sunrises and sunsets and time to think a lot. Saw a few deer. All but one while riding on the Salsa out to the stand. One did see in stand bolted when I moved just a bit. First time in maybe 8 years I haven't seen some type of buck on opening day. Don't get it when probably a 100 deer the past year have tried suicide missions towards our car but you move one inch on the stand and white flags are a flying. Lot of bird action with swans, ducks, woodpecker and other perchers zipping around. A pileated was soaring through Sunday morning just screeching like crazy about something. You wonder if any other critter can understand what it is saying. Sure was noisy.

Jon and Jens have started hockey, Jake has started ski practice and Jack finally started basketball. Bring on the snow!

The west side of Richwood Road from Richwood to Floyd Lake is hanging on to some nice drifts. If think they have a good chance to make it through this weekend, and be there until April which would be pretty cool. The county groomer grooms the ditches posted below and might possibly be working this white.



In college I would go and ski these drifts not out of desperation but for the love of skiing. If I did it now, someone would probably call mental health.

Deer hunting opens up this weekend. Always a big deal in the area. I just enjoy being out in the woods and will probably be pretty selective. Hope to get out a few times. Should be nice weather for sitting in the stand. Just fun watching deer pass by and other animals and they don't even know you are there. We had the US Fish and Wildlife law enforcement division come down the driveway yesterday and park near the lodge so they could leave their pickup and unload a atv to inspect some hunters up north on the Sugarbush trail. Baiting is a big problem. Kind of like the door knobs in cycling that dope because of pressure to win. Pressure to bag a big buck and put it up on top of the truck and drive back to the cities so better be sure and bait. Interesting talking to the officer. He said one guy called to complain because his neighbor was baiting and the complaint was his neighbor was using better bait than he was and attracting more deer!! Be safe and good luck!

Few people I bumped in to today asked if there was any snow left. Good thing I had my camera along today.


Snow in the morning in the soccer field at the base of Mt Maplelag.

Snow in morning on south end of Little Sugarbush near the Olk residences.
Snow drift on the south end of Flottemechs north 160.
Jonell entering the Callaway post office amongst some snow piles and what not.
Callaway liquor store with some snow pile action.
Nice looking snow drift 2 miles east of Callaway on Jim Anderson's property just above the Buffalo river.
Closer look at that cornice.
Plow dribble intersection of 21 and 14.

Late afternoon at soccer field. Didn't get much above 35 so very little melting.



All this snow melts and finds it way to the Red River which was looking pretty high at the toll bridge in Fargo today.

One of the reasons I wanted to head down to the Red Barn cx race was to see Erik and the Erickson Tree Farm. Erik worked at Maplelag for one winter and he also went to the same folkehoyskole in Norway as I did. The school was a great experience. We were in the sports and outdoor course. Lots of great adventures traveling in Norway including week long canoe trips in boundary waters type terrain, backcountry overnight ski trips in Jotunheimen sleeping in snow caves, and climbing/skiing one of Norway's highest mountains, Glittertind. And trips in Europe for skiing. Erik had even more trips going to Africa I think.

Erik and his wife Shana taking the plunge at Maplelag Y2K.


Saturday afternoon I used the pickup to rollpack and small loop. That was pretty comfy. Warm, radio to play favorite music selections, and cup holder for beverage. Guess the PB can do all that but much noiser.
Fun weekend of skiing and outside fun.

Jake took full advantage of the snow, heading out three times on Saturday including a full moon ski and once on Sunday before the snow was toast. The first classic skiing of the year always burns. Icing the legs in 30ish water temp.
This is one of the best times of the year for the angle of the sun. Always some great lighting when the sun is shining.



Brotherly love. Jon wrapped up tryouts tonight, scrimmaging against a St Cloud team and will be playing Pee Wee A. Congrats Jon. The best part of the scrimmage was absolutely no yelling or screaming from any parents. I couldn't believe how quiet it was. It reminded me of when I played JR hockey in Norway. It was always dead silent at the games. Should be a great year.

Wow, that was a nice quick hitting afternoon snow storm. Yeehaw! Love it. The forecasters blew this one, saying up to an inch accumulation but we scratched about 6 and Callaway reported 8 and Waubun, 13 miles northwest of here reporting 10! Whoever is reporting from those locations, nicely done. Can't ever recall a report from Callaway. Hope it keeps up for November til April. We were going to head to Red Barn cx tomorrow but dicey roads locally and all this new snow to play in will keep us home. Plus Jon and Jens have hockey so plenty going on the home front. Definitely enough to groom but one inch of rain before has the underneath sloshy. Probably will old school it and go up and down Suicide and pack it out on one side and should hold til Monday am. Windy out now. Yikes! Blow down some leaves.

Past weekend we celebrated Jake's confirmation. Most of the family, cousins etc. were on hand to celebrate. First confirmation makes you think about how fast time has flown by since baptism. Jonell had some pictures from the early days with the kids out. Wow. 1 down and 13 to go.

Dinner in the lodge Saturday night after the Mary Kay convention over the weekend.


Pumpkin Run Saturday morning. After a nice sunny day on Friday, Saturday started much of the same before rain moved in again. Jon walked/ran with cousin Madeline. The only two out of the 13 to give it a go. Nicely done. Jake had confirmation stuff and Marco ruled out since he is running sections tomorrow.


The Griffith and Richards boys. Never had an opportunity to get the whole gang. Thanksgiving.


Yesterday I finished the major mowing on the trails. As usual, Bullhead and the eastern trails are the last to get hit. You never know what to expect on the dam crossings. Water tables are up again and with beaver activity etc. there can be channels or water holes. Have been close a few times but lucky not to drop it in like Bob did a few years back.
About this time of year, people start sending photos of deer, ducks, geese and late season fishing shots like the little perch Jonell's brother Ryan caught the other week.
This is the buck taken by Camp Ripley with the monster rack.
The only thing I got to show is our cat that caught a mouse last week. Like I said before, if you are thinking of doing the pet thing before kids. Don't. Just start having kids. Took the cat to the vet last week for examination, shots, pet care etc. The biggest kicker to me is how you can put frontline on the pets and it seems to work well but nothing for humans. (btw, I am off antibiotics and definitely getting better but still have days you know not quite 100%, yet) I went solo and sure wish Jon, Jake or Jonell would of been along to laugh when everyone "lined up" and congratulated me on being a new kitty owner as I walked out. Huh?! Jonell then took the cat in for Dr. snip snip surgery ear cleaning few days later. Cats are never the same after something like that. Oh, they pulled a deer tick off as well but didn't send home any antibiotics. I just glad the four pets we are taking care of don't have agendas like the kids because I honestly don't think we could do it all.

MEA weekend for the kids. Five days off from school. Can't remember much of Wed. other than it was rainy and we enjoyed a rare day of doing not much of anything other than keeping on top of continuous lodge correspondence and watching radar Wed night trying to figure out how much it was going to snow. Jake and I pulled the roller out to get ready for some possible rollpacking Thursday morning.

Took the roller out Thursday am which was a bit sketchy but I live for skiing the sketch. Skiing was pretty good actually, all thing considered, and can remember a lot more hairy days of skiing than Thursday. I always feel skiing in poor conditions makes better skiers, not that I am worried about it. Probably the sketchiest ski of all time was on the east side of the continental divide in Glacier National Park after hiking a ridge up and tele skiing down Spot mountain with Mark Morrissey after the upper slope had been wind swept by record winds the day before and was solid ice and total survival ski just to get off the mountain.

MN. Friday we headed east to Duluth to embark on a Three day tri state triangle. Caught the UMD hockey game. Nice contest. Power play cycle for UMD very impressive. Mike Connolly was impressive again. Hard skater, clever with the puck.

Woke up to sunshine for the first time in what seemed like a week after some drunk tried getting in to our room at 3am of the morning. Called the front desk and was pretty entertaining watching him try to get himself down the stairs.
WI. Saturday morning we headed to Baker Orchard for cx action. Great venue with Cullen family serving up a nice plate of racing action, bonfire going, "dogs",apples, cider, cool barn and Jon tuning up for Sunday's game with H-wood. Jens did the kid race and Jake had a solid race in the Cat 3 race taking 3rd overall.
ND. Church Sunday morning then up to Fargo, ND where Jon had his last football game of the year in the Fargodome.
Team played solid once again winning their fourth game in a row. Jon rushed for a couple tds and pulled in a screen pass in and ran another one in.
Hitterdal, MN. Hitterdal is a cool town. Any store that displays the wheels in the front window deserves a picture. Lot of car time but some fun times and good memories and a nice break from a busy and hectic Fall. Sunday afternoon finally nice weather to catch up on some outside projects and maybe the highlight seeing the boys go two on two on the basketball court with no blow ups.