A snow- and smile-filled expedition to Ishpatina Ridge!

We’ve just finished up our official first full season of guiding winter trips, and couldn’t have asked for a better way to finish! In the first week of March, we received a great blast of beautiful wintery weather, with cold, clear nights, some beautifully sunny days, lots of wind and piles of snow (20+cm the first night alone!). We even had a temporary 2-day meltdown, which led to lots of drastically changing, constantly interesting conditions! In 8 days we traveled over 60kms across 7 lakes and portages, winding sections of the Montreal River, and the final 3-km bushwhack to the highest point in Ontario! Despite waist-high snow back in the bush, every member of our little group of 6 made it to the top, including first-time winter campers, and 68 years young Louis from Parry Sound!  Congratulations to all participants, and thanks for making our final trip of the season so memorable!

Photos coming soon!

Trail toboggan and anorak in action in Temagami

We’ve been making them for a couple of years now, and we’re happy to finally have these products officially for sale here on the site: our 8 – 12′ long HPDE trail toboggans, our custom leather tumps, and our windprood anoraks!

Check out the store for more info.

Heading Back Home on the Wind-Blown Lakes

Last week we had the pleasure of heading out on trip in Killarney Park with Ontario’s well-loved guidebook author Kevin Callan and his hilarious friend Andy Baxter.  We had a beautiful trip, an amazing group including our youngest participant to date (11 year old Nicole), a challenging hike up the flanks of Silver Peak, and most prominently a unique camp-life experience including snowshoe baseball, tropical vacation advertisements, a snack-stuffing competition and much more!

View the photo album here, and stay tuned for video releases on Kevin Callan’s Youtube channel sometime this week. Kevin completed a CBC interview (by sat. phone) while on trip.  Listen to it here.

En Route to Silver Peak ! (Mid January 2012)

We are off to Killarney Provincial Park this coming weekend for a 4-day hike to Silver Peak with Kevin Callan and a host of others (including our youngest participant to date!).  We were in this area a couple of weeks ago and had beautiful conditions – easy travel on the windblown lakes, but lots of snow in the bush.  We’re looking forward to another wonderful trip this weekend, and 3 more in February and March.

View all the photos from last month’s Silver Peak trip  here.

A great time to be alive!

The winter tripping season kicks off for us in just a few days with some private outings and a nice family trip planned in January. The trips are filling up well and it looks like we will be quite busy from here right through until mid-March.

As a small company, Kielyn and I fill all company roles ourselves: we are the guides, sweatshop labourers, office managers and secretaries all rolled into one (or two). We think that’s pretty great for our guests because you get the opportunity to talk directly to your guides when you phone/ write about a trip. The downside is that while we are out on trip, there’s nobody to look after the office. We get home from a typical trip and our voice mailbox is full (we wish!), if we had a fax machine it would likely be out of paper, and even our 3.8gigs of Gmail space is practically full (of spam). But rest assured, even if it takes a little bit longer we will eventually get back to you. You might want to check the calendar on the right side of the page as well… could be we’re out on trip as you read this.

Our first bit of media. Whoohoo!

The Sudbury Star published an article about Lure of the North over the holidays.  Click the image to the left for a full-size image, or read the entire article on the Star site here.

An early Christmas present for Kie: Sheepskin moccasin liners!

The winter season has officially arrived; now hopefully the weather will take note and start cooperating (cold weather and snow is not too much to ask for Christmas is it?).  We continue to have a great response, and are excited that some Lure of the North goodies (even some trip deposits!) will be finding their way under Christmas trees this holiday season.   We are also visiting family this Christmas, so if we are a little slow on the ball over the next week, please be patient, we’ll be back to work on the 27th.

Another new trailer is up!  This is a 1-minute trailer from last year’s 8-day guided offering to Ontario’s highest point: Ishpatina Ridge.  We are offering this trip once again in 2012 – check out the Guided Trips page for more info.  View last year’s full 12 minute video here.

GBSS "Pursuits" Program, Ready for Winter!

With the holidays just around the corner Kielyn and I have just wrapped up our most successful workshop season to date!  This fall season we hosted over 60 participants in our various workshops.  We feel pretty good as we look back at the season and remember the moccasin and mitten making, snowshoe weaving, crochet instructions and birch bark crafting.  Thanks to everyone who helped make this such a great season!

We are now moving into our ‘tripping’ season, and want to be out as much as possible.  Check out our trips page for this season’s offerings.

A 2 minute trailer from our 40-day, 2010 winter trek is now live. Watch the trailer above, or check out the full video on our media page here.