Our trip began with us loading up our Civic and Andy and Leslie's subaru for our long trip ahead. Our group consisted of Andy, Leslie, Johanna, Bela, myself (Heidi) and Baxter (the dog). Our destination was Ontario Canada for some fun outdoor sports. After a few hours of crazed packing, we were on our way.

The drive up to the border was pretty quiet. Bela was a sweetheart and drove a large amount in the evening. Leslie and I took over and drove through north Wisconsin as the weather set in during the wee hours. After a driver swap and some more time on the road we ended up at the US/CA border. We ended up having to drive back to the US side to dispose of our meat products, including Baxter's food. We also found out at this point that we needed to have Baxter's papers (a fact we hadn't known before we left). A call was made to the Vet in hopes they could fax the papers. We waited a bit (being as we weren't able to leave until we got them) and we gave another call to check on the progress.. well the nice, but not so with it, lady had fogotton which dog she was looking up. Fifteen more minutes later we called back, which she was hoping we would, since she had the wrong fax number. We told her we'd stay on the line until it was faxed...

Finally we were able to continue on. We hit Thunder Bay next and stopped to pick up some food for Baxter. We were a bit hungry and asked for a suggestion for a breakfast place, Hoito was the breakfast place of choice so they say. So following the pet store guy's directions we started our goose chase. We then followed a pedestrians directions, and gave up and stopped at a play it again sports (where hockey was the sport of choice). The guys working there tell us that Hoito is the spot to hit, and proceed to give us much better directions. We FINALLY make it to the reknowned Hoito. Food was ok- not up to par with Denny's, and we decided that one day we may move up and open one to get all the business - haha!

After chatting up some very friendly locals (one lady was 92 and still kicking!) about cross-country spots, we were on our way to Nipigon to settle in and celebrate New Years. Checked into our room at the Birchville Motel- 3 beds so noone would have to sleep on the floor- except Baxter of course!

We had decided we would be cooking dinners 2 nights to save money, so we headed to the grocery before the store closed. Having our supplies in hand, we headed back to the hotel for a night of relaxing, playing games and ringing in the new year (on eastern time :) ) We realized that the little table in the room was not going to be able to handle LOTR Risk so we gave a call to the motel folks... they were slightly confused with us, but gave a call a few minutes later saying they had figured something out for us.. an oval table top. We sent Andy over to pick it up- seeing as how we were grilling up our dinner on my George Foreman grill. Not long after as we continued to grill veggies, we turned on the water kettle, and everything went black. We had blown a fuse - oops! So another visit to the office- i'm sure confusing them once more- and we were good to go again. Finally the day calmed down as Leslie took over Middle Earth right around midnight, and as some of us fell asleep.

New Years Day we slept in a bit, then packed up our gear and headed for Orient Bay- the area of some of the best ice climbing around. On our way there, we drove by some hunters who had shot two moose. We had never seen one before so we yelled to Andy to turn around so we could check it out (OK yes we are kinda dorky but we didn't care). To make things entertaining Andy tried to do a U-y instead of a 3 point turn about and we ended up in a ditch of snow. Well the hunters had themselves a laugh at us, but did later offer to pull us out once they had the moose loaded in the trucks. The guys were really nice and Johanna had a hay-day chatting them up about the aspects of hunting in canada. Johanna was eyeing the moose hearts the hunters had laid on the side, and commented on them and how cool it would be to have one for dinner, dropping the hint that she'd love to take one. We helped them load up the 800+ lb. monsters and headed back to our car to get towed out.

Back on the road, and with a moose heart strapped to our roof, we were on our way once again. The climbing guidebook mentions a mile marker that all the climbs are based from. After driving the road more than a few times we give up and decide to ask some climbers about it later (we didn't want Andy leading anything too nasty- we did want everyone to come back alive). Johanna mentioned that she'd like to wash out the moose heart so we stopped by Gorge Creek (or River?) to rinse it out.

It was a lovely area and since we didn't have much time to try ice climbing that day (after all the driving), we decided to go snowshoeing. With the heart packed up again, we took off over the hill staying away from the water. We crossed some train tracks and headed up over another ridge, where we took a small break for some hot chocolate- thanks to Baxter for carrying it. A bit warmer, we headed back in the general direction of the tracks and back down a hill. Andy, Leslie and Johanna were ahead of Bela and I. As I was walking I heard a creak- the sound of ice straining underneath us. I stopped and said to Bela that I thought we might be on ice. Not a few seconds later we hear noise ahead, Leslie had fallen through the ice into the river up to her waist. Johanna quickly plucked her out and we sent Leslie packing back to the car, Andy following her quickly. We all followed as well at a slightly slower pace. We saw a few more places where the snowshoes had broken through the snow on our way back, and were thankful we didn't have the trail snowshoes- but the longer ones with more float (considering we were the heaviest of the group and might not have been as lucky to get plucked out as quickly). Luckily they had extra warm clothes and she got out of her wet clothes quickly. Needless to say we headed back to our room to warm up and try to dry out the wet boots and clothes. We spent the rest of the night grilling, playing games, and staying warm and dry.

Friday morning we slept in again and geared up for a day of ice climbing. We drove the now familar road to the climbs and sited a nice fall that seemed promising. As we started hiking to it we noticed climbers on it, decided to go anyways, and made our way to the climb. We made a little camp and Andy prepared to lead. It ended up being "Tempest" a 70m 2+ which is what we were looking for. Andy led up with no problem, just a little tired by the time he got to the top and the wish for maybe a few more ice screws and maybe those extra couple of feet he cut off his rope! Bela cleaned with no problem, making it his first ice climb and ice second! The boys set up a toprope and we were off. The ice was great - took the axe and crampons easily. The climb was long, but had a few spots to rest or run on depending on who was on it. The water was still running and we could see it in a few spots- cool yet creepy. We had a beautiful view from the top. It was a great day to be climbing with friends. We finished the day by splurging on pizza and of course some more games in the evening.

(Andy leading and Bela following)



(view from the climb of the valley)

Saturday we decided that we would like to get a head start on the drive, but still get some fun in on the way. So we drove to Thunder Bay and stopped at a rest stop with some ice. Andy set up a top-rope while Johanna got in a final x-c ski and we got ready below. The ice was much harder and the climb much more vertical so we all got a good workout on it. The wind was bitter cold so we didn't hang out very long. We continued on to downtown Thunder Bay got some ok chinese and then continued on our way to Eau Claire to get some sleep.

We got up at a reasonable hour and continued on home, where we were met with more snow coming down. It delayed our arrival a bit but we were all excited to have the opportunity to do some more playing in the coming weeks. We finished the trip sunday night by trying out the moose heart that Johanna had prepared for us (not bad!). I personally am looking forward to doing some more snowshoeing and I am positive we'll be looking for some more ice to climb in the future!