Sourdough Paddling

It was Sourdough Heaven on Lac La Croix this last week in the BWCA. Our guide Jason,

http://www.boundarywatersguideservice.com/, had been preparing a batch of 100 year old sourdough he split off from friends that originated from Judge Wickersham in Alaska. Since I grew up in Alaska and my mother used to make sourdough pancakes and breads all the time my ears and mouth opened wide. You can read more about his sourdough and its history by going to Jason's website, then over to his blog. Type in, sourdough, in the Search box and you'll easily find all about this wonderful century old batch of sourdough.

This trip was filled with lots of heat and humidity in the BWCA. In fact, most say it was the first week of summer. July was the coldest EVER on record. Swimming was part of everyday and the clear nights let us view amazing meteor showers. Thursday evening we saw at least 100 in just over an hour.

The bookproject is coming along piece by piece. This last week's visit to the famed pictographs on Lac La Croix's Canadian side of the the lake thrilled me. The cliff that the images are painted on is an iconic image in this region. Its been photographed, painted, and published hundreds of times. Rounding the corner of an island and getting that first glimpse of the cliff side, the immediate impact of something you've experience before was spectacular. It was comforting to see it and I can only imagine the early voyageurs felt the same way when this landmark came into view.

Wild rice was prevalent on this trip and should be able to harvest sometime in the next several weeks. It was flowering out now and with the tap of a finger, pollen dust would fly off the flowers.

Another hard fought trip in the books. Several more trips on the horizon. The real bonus on this trip, other than the fine company of my companions, was the trip to the Chocolate Moose in Ely for dinner on the way home. The fresh blueberry pie knocked my socks off. All the blueberries were picked from the area. Geez, I'm getting hungry again!