4/25/13 – Today’s ice report: 15″ of snow, slush and water on top of 26″ of ice. Much warmer temperatures are due to start tomorrow!
Tyler, Leif and Luke went “winter” camping on Alton Lake last night. They hiked out after work in the late afternoon and enjoyed a warm fire and a full moon before sleeping under a tarp.

Tyler filling out his BWCA Wilderness entry permit. Photo by Luke Opel

Tyler and Leif heading up Alton Lake. Photo by Luke Opel

Tyler and Leif gaze at the stars. Photo by Luke Opel.

Cozy by the fire under the moon. Photo by Luke Opel

Alton Lake by moonlight.
It’s been a long time since we’ve heard from Sawbill’s Poet Laureate, Ed Dallas.

HANGING ON

Late April, with its snow-covered fields

and lack of spring green,

has reduced my brisk afternoon walks

into slow shuffles.

Like the snow, I’m hanging on,

waiting for better times to come.

Oh, many will say,

“It’s just Mother Nature playing a little joke on us,”

but I know better.

She’s in cahoots with Old Father Time.

As I shuffle down the road,

their evil plan becomes clear to me.

Mountain-sized snowmen, a half-mile thick at the waist,

plod slowly through Minnesota, Iowa bound.

Their cry “Remember the Ice Age!”

sends the fleeing populous into a panic,

but not me. I’m staying put,

dig my fingernails in,

hang on… adapt,

so the future Dallas-Neanderthal Clan

can have the joy of

hunting woolly mammoths

with a spear.

E. Dallas

April 2013