gearing up

Testing our equipment as we prepare for our upcoming trek.

In a couple weeks, I’ll be going with some fantastic friends to the Boundary Waters. Those who know me will not be surprised, unless they look at the calendar. Seems like I’m always saying, “I’m going to the Boundary Waters.” I say it in May, in August, even in October. I’m well versed in canoes, paddles, bug spray, and rain gear. But this will be different.

A few years ago I finished writing my first novel, Death on Disappointment Mountain. The book begins in late winter in the Boundary Waters. I wrote about winter camping, drawing from experiences I’d had in other places. Believe me, I know the struggles of frost on the inside of your tent, or trying to weigh the demands of a full bladder against the skin-shrinking cold you know is coming when you unzip your sleeping bag. Been there, done that.

But not there. I have never seen Disappointment Mountain in the winter. I’ve been there many times in the soft-water seasons. But I’ve never hiked it in snow.

We planned to take this trip a year ago, but if you were in Minnesota last year, you know it was The Winter That Wasn’t. While the lakes did freeze, there was no snow in the Boundary Waters. So dragging a toboggan over a rocky portage was not exactly an option. We shook our heads and said, “Maybe next year.”

I have to say, I’m incredibly excited. Sleeping out in the cold doesn’t intimidate. Like I said, I’ve done that plenty of times. I’m excited to know the Boundary Waters in another face, with her eyelashes frosted and her cheeks deep under snow. I’m excited for the silence. I’m dreaming about wolf tracks on the portage and the hiss of the toboggan sliding over the hard ice crystals of late winter.

And maybe, just maybe, I’m hoping that coming around a corner I’ll discover another book idea in that frozen country. If you haven’t read Death on Disappointment Mountain, I’d love to have you join our trip in that way. Read it and maybe even post a review. There’s also a sequel, Fair Game, that doesn’t involve winter camping, but does follow the same characters into some pretty wild adventures.

Once we’re back from the tundra, I’ll share the highlights.