The Hobo Hoodie

After seeing some of the cool stuff that is made up in Duluth, Minnesota by Empire Canvas Works,  I decided to try my hand and sewing up my own version of the Boreal Shirt.  I found some 100% Russian  wool army blankets at Fleet Farm so I bought two of them and picked up a Anorak pattern from Rocky Woods Outdoor Fabrics.  A little buckskin and a few modifications later this is what I came up with.  The weather has been so nice lately that I didn't think that I would get a chance to wear it until next fall, but good old Minnesota came through once again and I was able to wear it once this week while trying to stay warm at my son's baseball game.

Man Trip 2012

Hoar frost on the Eagle Mt. trail.

Eagle Mountain

More Hoar Frost

I can tell you, but then I'll have to kill you.

The morning after the death march.

Look closely!

Can you see him?

Last day and our only ride up to Tofte peak overlooking Lake Superior.

The first week of March each year, a group of adventure minded gentlemen make their way up to the north shore of Minnesota for what we refer to as the "Man Trip."   This year mother nature decided to drop upon our playground 16" of fresh snow.  Our faithful leader/muleskinner Josh,  keeps us on task with a list of to do's each and every moment of the weekend.  Fat bike riding is the favored task of each day, riding up and down the many frozen rivers that feed Lake Superior.  Unfortunately, the mild winter and sudden dumping of snow only two days prior to the trip this year made for unrideable conditions.  Fortunately, we always bring snowshoes for such emergencies.  This year's man trip turned into an apocalyptic snow shoe adventure.  I figure that I snowshoed about 20+ miles over the weekend and I missed out on the first 8 mile trek up the Manitou River. We did find one really cool treasure along the way and it made for a very memorable weekend non the less.  Here are some of the picture highlights of the weekend.

Enjoy,

The Wood Man

Exploration

We spent most of the day Saturday exploring the river flats south of Hastings, MN..  It doesn't take a lot of effort to find some very remote feeling places within a 25 mile radius of the Twin Cities.  Riding through a little farm land quickly brought us to the Vermillion and Mississippi Rivers bottoms.  The past years flood left some interesting treasures for the days adventure ride.  We stopped several times to fully partake in the alternate activities i.e...boulder throwing, ice biking, log rolling, and even some hobo camp exploring.  All in all it was an awesome day spent outdoors enjoying God's creation and some of man's too.