We’re Baaaaack!

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After our planned spring/ summer hiatus to work on other ‘projects’ (including marriage!), we are more excited than ever to get lured back into cold-weather activities!  After a great first season of operation, we are thrilled to have even more to offer this year.

Traditionally, the freeze-up period of late fall was a time when travel in the bush was difficult and impractical.  So people adapted and used that time to prepare for the coming winter by making camp, laying up the canoe and building snowshoes, moccasins, toboggans and other materials required for winter travel.  Once freeze-up was complete, travelling would recommence in earnest.  That makes a lot of sense to us, so we plan to do the same this year.  That means workshops will primarily be offered this fall, while the winter season will be dedicated to offering guided trips and helping people get out there to use all that new gear!  So if you’ve been thinking about making yourself a new pair of moccasins to use this winter, don’t wait until January, contact us today for a fall workshop.

Our initial schedule will be posted in the next couple of weeks, with more events added as the season progresses.  As always, we are open to coming to you for a private workshop if your numbers warrant.  See our workshop page here for more info, and contact us if this is something you are interested in this year.

EC 2011: Ishpatina Ridge

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Meltdown!An Explorer’s Club expedition before the club was even born!  Ishpatina 2011 was Lure’s very first guided expedition.  These group members certainly had to demonstrate the “explorer’s mentality” to follow a couple of untested twenty-somethings into the winter wilderness for eight days!

With deep snow, lots of slush, and a major mid-trip meltdown, we certainly faced our share of challenges en route to the top of Ontario!

Members (alphabetical): Dave Marrone, Kielyn Marrone, Collin Pollard, Roger Pollard, Jouko Rantala, Stephen Ritchie.

Our “Top of Ontario” tour has become a classic offering that is now on our schedule most years.  Check out our Ishpatina Ridge page to check dates or register.

Finally, check our first two trip videos from this expedition:

The Changing Seasons and Our Coming ‘Hibernation’

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The Changing Seasons in Sudbury

A view of Lake Ramsey from the "flountain".

Winter is tenaciously trying to hold on here in Sudbury, with good ice still on many lakes, and most mornings still dawning crisp and clear. Inevitably, of course, spring will come though.  We are sad to see the end of another great winter, but welcome the changing season with open arms.  We are watching the temperature and Sudbury cliffs closely, and as soon as they are dry and warm enough, the climbing shoes will be out to replace the snowshoes!

We will be kicking back into high gear in the fall of 2011 with many winter workshop offerings (moccasins, mittens, snowshoe making) designed to prepare people for the coming winter, and we are excited to be planning a full complement of winter expeditions starting after Christmas.  Until then, enjoy the spring and summer as we will be doing, and we’ll see you next fall!

Mini-Mocs!

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An unique order out of New York State has given us the fun opportunity to experiment with a ‘mini-moc’ design, and has reminded us that we love custom orders!  Our customer sent us a box of beautifully beaded indoor moccasins, and tasked us to transform them into outdoor winter moccasins by adding a felted wool liner, rubber sole, canvas upper, and beaver fur trim.  Kielyn and I had a lot of fun crafting and Tammy now has 5 pairs of beautiful winter moccasins!
If you have any ideas of custom winter clothing you would like crafted, or modifications you would have to your existing items, we’d love to hear from you.

Another Great Moc Shop!

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The completed mocs!

We have just completed what may be our last moc-shop of the 2010/ 2011 winter season, and it was another wonderful weekend!  We had a group of 8 fun participants and everyone walked away Sunday evening with a creative, beautiful pair of completed winter moccasins!
View the photos here.

If you are interested in our combo felted wool-inner and deerskin-outer mitten workshop this coming weekend (Feb 5/ 6), contact us at: info@lureofthenorth.com.

Thanks to everyone who participated this weekend and made it such a great time!

A great trip!

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A tough portage (and tougher lady!).

We have just gotten back from an 8 – day trip to Ishpatina Ridge in Temagami.  This is the same trip we will be guiding in February.  It was a beautiful trip, and has us both extremely excited to take others out here next month.  There are some great photos available here.