Wisconsin Winter BOW

The seed was planted at the LA BOW clinic I attended in April of 2008. I had already heard about winter BOW events while at my first workshop in 2007, but a conversation with two women from Wisconsin at the LA BOW made it seem “doable”. It stayed in the back of my mind until last summer when I mentioned it to a college friend.

Jenny and I talk once or twice a year, bur rarely see each other since she moved to Chicago a number of years ago. A few years back she and her husband opened a branch of their business in Boise, ID where she now spends most of her time. Always a fitness and outdoors enthusiast, she jumped on the idea of attending a workshop together, particularly a winter workshop. It all fell into place from there.

Last Wednesday we both flew to Chicago to begin the adventure. Another friend of Jenny’s, Lori, set out with us on Thursday for the drive to Wisconsin. An overnight in Steven’s Point put us in the Treehaven vicinity for the start of the event on Friday morning. Set up like a traditional BOW workshop, each participant signed up for four classes. Both evenings featured a guest speaker with the addition of a raffle and silent auction the second night.

Jenny and I took ice fishing, dog sledding and snowshoe 101. My fourth class was trapping, hers outdoor survival skills. Lori was in a different snowshoeing class along with geo-caching and skijoring 101 & 102. Other options were cross-country skiing, sewing with fleece & fur, gun safety, Dutch oven cooking, and wreath-making just to name a few. I cannot tell you how much fun it all was!! Not a cold weather person, I wasn’t sure how I would handle the climate. Friday the daytime temps were in the low 20s and in the teens on Saturday and Sunday. However, I dressed as they recommended (in appropriate layers) and never really noticed the cold. All of my classes were a total blast, but I think dog sledding was the best. I learned so much about so many things! Even though I still consider myself a warm weather person, I’m no longer intimidated by frigid, snowy weather.

I would love to post dozens of photos chronicling our WI BOW adventure here, but instead I’ll narrow it down to a few of my favorites. Enjoy!


One of our ice fishing instructors, Jenny and another camper. This is the power auger we used to bore holes in the ice.


Here I am setting up a "tip-up". We also learned to set "tip-downs" and spent some time jig fishing in the warming huts.


In the snowshoeing class we hiked two miles through the woods and across a bog. No groomed trails for these outdoors women!!


After learning all about the furbearers of Wisconsin and various trapping methods, we had the opportunity to help skin a badger. Here's the pelt after it was skinned. It still needed to be fleshed out and tanned before becoming an educational tool for the WI BOW program.


Here's Lori skijoring. I had never heard of the sport before signing up for this workshop.

These are our dogsledding instructors. They brought two sleds and 14 dogs to the workshop. Since adding dogs only adds power rather than speed, we just used two dogs at a time. The course was a little slick and, being novices, they wanted us to be able to control the dogs and have a good time. I was proud of myself... I didn't tip the sled over or lose control even once!