A glimpse of the Northland
Feb. 6th, 2005 07:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
memento1The place where I live is called the Northland. It is my college's name, but it is also the name of the region, encompassing northern Minnesota, northern Wisconsin, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Its defining characteristics are small towns, coniferous forests, and the great outdoors. Today offered a little glimpse of what makes this area so unique.
I spent the morning helping out at a Dogsledding race far up in the Bayfield Peninsula (the little part of Wisconsin extending up into Lake Superior). Our dogsledding instructor told us about it in our last class, so I decided to go and help out. It's a long drive up there, around the Chequamegon Bay and up the side of the peninsula, overlooking the Apostle Islands. Madeline Island, the biggest, is also the closest. In the summer, there's always a ferry going back and forth between the island and the tourist town of Bayfield. In the winter, they cut holes in the ice to prop up small pine trees, and people simply drive across the ice, guided by the row of pines sticking up out of the ice.
I met up with several other college students at the race site. In a group of five, we were assigned to different sleds to help get the teams to the starting point. I estimate there were 50 teams there, and with each team at 6-8 dogs, it was quite loud. We would hold dogs in place once they were hooked up, then help walk the dogs and the sled over to the starting line (a 6-person job, as sled dogs become so excited when they get hooked up, you need one person to every 2 dogs to get the sled to the gate at an orderly speed). Honestly, dogsledding is little more than the fine art of hanging on and keeping a sled upright with 8 crazed motors attached that know no direction but forward and no speed but fast. Once one team was in, we were assigned to a new team, and so helped over 10 teams in the course of the morning. It was exhilerating and fun, and an experience to remember.
On the drive back, I spotted an ice derby going on on the bay. It is just like your regular speed derby, with old, painted cars going round and round a course at top speed, only this one is on the ice of the bay, with only little orange traffic cones to designate the course. You just drive out onto the ice to watch.
These were just things that made me smile today. It's a unique culture up here, and for once I took the time to really appreciate it.
I spent the morning helping out at a Dogsledding race far up in the Bayfield Peninsula (the little part of Wisconsin extending up into Lake Superior). Our dogsledding instructor told us about it in our last class, so I decided to go and help out. It's a long drive up there, around the Chequamegon Bay and up the side of the peninsula, overlooking the Apostle Islands. Madeline Island, the biggest, is also the closest. In the summer, there's always a ferry going back and forth between the island and the tourist town of Bayfield. In the winter, they cut holes in the ice to prop up small pine trees, and people simply drive across the ice, guided by the row of pines sticking up out of the ice.
I met up with several other college students at the race site. In a group of five, we were assigned to different sleds to help get the teams to the starting point. I estimate there were 50 teams there, and with each team at 6-8 dogs, it was quite loud. We would hold dogs in place once they were hooked up, then help walk the dogs and the sled over to the starting line (a 6-person job, as sled dogs become so excited when they get hooked up, you need one person to every 2 dogs to get the sled to the gate at an orderly speed). Honestly, dogsledding is little more than the fine art of hanging on and keeping a sled upright with 8 crazed motors attached that know no direction but forward and no speed but fast. Once one team was in, we were assigned to a new team, and so helped over 10 teams in the course of the morning. It was exhilerating and fun, and an experience to remember.
On the drive back, I spotted an ice derby going on on the bay. It is just like your regular speed derby, with old, painted cars going round and round a course at top speed, only this one is on the ice of the bay, with only little orange traffic cones to designate the course. You just drive out onto the ice to watch.
These were just things that made me smile today. It's a unique culture up here, and for once I took the time to really appreciate it.
