Frostbite Falls, Minnesota is a fictional town created for the “Rocky and His Friends Show.” Rocket J. Squirrel, better known as "Rocky," and his pal, Bullwinkle J. Moose, cartooned their way to popularity during the 1960s. Some folks think that Frostbite Falls is a parody on the real-life town of International Falls, where I am going.
Rainy Lake, shown in these pictures, with its many islands, contains the boundary between the US and Canada; and its shore is where I will spend two months of the winter.
Near Frostbite Falls is the fictional Veronica Lake and an island called Moosylvania, of which Bullwinkle was "Governor." The U.S. claims the island is part of Canada, and Canada claims it is part of the U.S. Bullwinkle vacations in Moosylvania because "after two weeks here, anyplace else feels like Heaven."
International Falls is a border town with a bridge crossing over into Canada. But in the winter, you can cross just about anywhere on the ice. I am confident that as a stranger holed up there for the winter, nobody will suspect my motives as any more than I tell them—that I come to observe, write, snowshoe, experience the dark and cold of a real winter, and become reinvented. They will not, will they, suspect me as accomplice to the “pharmaceutical” trade or helper of undocumented travelers? Everybody believed Bullwinkle, didn’t they?
I look ahead, probably more than any of you, to future tales from Frostbite Falls.
Well, it might be nice... but I hate it when boogers freeze in my nose.
ReplyDeleteJust a little voice from the past reminding you you know a little bit of Winter in the North Country, in Springtime anyway, this episode has haunted me since you wrote it in May-June! And it's a lot worse than frozen boogers...
ReplyDelete"The next morning I looked out the window of the hostel to a good three inches of snow on the ground, and still falling. I wanted to make the twenty-eight kilometers to Lake Louise, a town that’s 400 meters lower in elevation, where I might get warm. Snow collected on my glasses as I rode, and my fingers were getting numb. But once started, there was no option but to keep going. Watching as best I could for bears as I coasted fast on the downgrade. I kept moving to retain warmth. The road was only wet, not snowy or icy, and the air was cold and stinging with flakes in the wind.
It was snowing hard when I approached the town of Lake Louise (not the lake). I had descended in cold snow from 1800m elevation to 1400m and asked a park ranger where I might warm up. He directed me to a cafe, which I could barely see in the snow. By the time I staggered into that café, snow clinging to me, glasses fogged, mind fogged, well, it was quite a ride." ~Sharon Hawley, http://pedalingeast2009.blogspot.com
(That's from your bike trip Vancouver to Winnipeg, in Spring-Summer!) Ah now on to Sharon's Winter! Hopefully snuggled inside, and musing on such things...
Ah, but the two wheels do enhance the wind chill (and thrill). The trick is not to stand still too long, lest ye ol' joints freeze up.
ReplyDeleteHeaven forbid ye ol' joints freeze up. Where would you go to tip back a hot toddy?
ReplyDeleteNot only does Heaven forbid, so do I. This vegetating in the frozen northland has got to stop. Even the grass knows to get moving or get warm. Unfortunate for the downhill cyclist and the everywhere motorcyclist, the toddy enabling legs are forced to grin and bear it.
ReplyDeleteThanks for joining me here on the way to Frostbite Falls, Steven and Kathabela. It promises not to be a hell of a ride.
Now you know the real story about Frostbite Falls !! And its real...
ReplyDeleteYes, now I know the REAL story.
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