I like to explore Sax-Zim Bog … often by Nordic skiing.
For a number of years, I have wanted to see Lake Williams, which is north of Lake Nichols. I knew there was a snowmobile trail, and yesterday after the freezing rains quite, I skied into the back country. During the week, snowmobile trails are a great way to get around northern Minnesota. On weekends, I tend to stay off the more popular trails. I did not see a single snowmobile during my mid day ski. From experience I know one can hear the sleds from a long distance away which always allows me to get off the trails before the snowmobiles arrive.
The ski was gorgeous. Although I did not see any owls during my ski, the first 1/2 km was prime owl habitat. At one point I crossed the power line cut. I learned that snowmobile distance signs are very inaccurate. Metal signs stated among other things that it was 2 miles back to Lake Nichols. My Garmin had the distance measured at 2 kilometers. The same sign stated Lake Williams was another 1 mile distant. It was only 1/2 km further through the woods.
Lake Williams is everything you could want in a remote lake. I skied out onto the lake ice and enjoyed the silence. I then turned around and skied back to my car at the Lake Nichols boat launch.
As a fyi … I also had a failed cross-country ski jaunt yesterday. I like to ski into the Bog north of Lake Nichols Road using the small streams in the area just east of hwy #7 where folks search for Great Gray Owls. Wrong move, but I suspected that might be the case. This winter has not yet been cold enough, and when I got downstream of my first beaver dam, I could tell the ice was not thick enough. I turned around and skied back to Nichols Lake Road. The heavy snows and mild temperatures this winter just haven’t formed a thick sheet of ice where mild currents are present (like downstream from a beaver dam).
My ski into Williams Lake was 5.25 kilometers round trip with an elevation change in total of 135 feet … quite easy.
I did take a few bird photographs, but the off and on freezing rain did not inspire me to do much with my camera. However, this image was another Canon SX70 interesting test. While I normally keep digital zoom turned off, and I turned digital zoom on and took this photograph of Snowy a few hundreds yards out in the field. I was not actually at absolute magnification as I wanted the full hay bale and pine tree in the photograph. Thus, I back off the zoom a bit. Digital zoom performed well, but close inspect of the image yields little detail. I guess I prefer to only use optical zoom, and hope my outdoorsman skills can get me closer to my intended subjects. Obviously in a situation like the one presented here, I was as close to the Snowy Owl as possible. I never trespass.
Your e-mail is always greatly appreciated. Thank you very much!
Gudrun
Thanks, Rich – I think you might agree that there is (almost) no such thing as a failed ski jaunt!