Plan B's

I spent the morning packing, repacking, weighing, and sorting through our supply of food.  After a few hours of work (and tasting- to make sure it was all fit to eat of course, especially the chocolate) we now have five cardboard boxes of similar weight organized into: 1 that will serve as a pantry holding enough of each item to last for a few days and the other 4 boxes holding the rest of the food.  The idea is that when we pull into camp, we won't have to rummage through 250 pounds of food to find a bag of raisins or a pinch of salt.

Ice Picks- kinda like retractable claws for humans

Throw rope

Two new pieces of gear showed up today also: a throw bag/rope and a set of ice picks.  The throw rope is the same style used by whitewater boaters and, even though the water is frozen, will serve the same purpose: to get a safety line to a person who unexpectedly ends up in the water.  The ice picks are also used in case of a break through the ice, but instead relying on help from other people as with the throw rope, ice picks allow a victim to pull oneself out of the water and back up onto the ice.  These safety items are a reminder that anytime you venture out onto a frozen lake, there is an ever present risk of breaking through.

Traveling on the frozen lakes means flat and relatively easy travel compared with pulling a toboggan through the woods.  Where the bush is full of downed trees, deep pockets of snow, and hills, lakes and frozen marshes/bogs give you a nice flat surface that, if you are lucky, has been scoured by the wind either down to the ice or down to wind packed snow.  Of course, spending 3/4 of our time on frozen water brings risk, but knowing a few basic principles of ice and how lakes freeze can mitigate much of that risk.  Any place where there is current like at inlets and outlets of lakes or on rivers, where spring water flows into a lake, or in and around pressure cracks all should give you reason to pause and check the ice's thickness.  Bottom line is if you are unsure as to the safety of the ice- check it out by chipping a hole and measuring the thickness- 2"at least are needed to safely hold a person.

Along that thought, we are each planning on taking some ice fishing gear.  The fishing gear is not only a pleasant distraction from the daily routine of life on trail and a (possible) source of fresh food, but it also represents another level of safety in case there is an accident involving thin ice (i.e. losing a toboggan to Davy Jones' locker) or if the weather (extreme cold or heat, wind, heavy snow and/or wind) delays us and keeps us on trail over the 25 days we have packed food for.  Thanks to the nice folks at Anglers All in Ashland Wisconsin for helping us pick out a small and efficient ice fishing kit for this trip.