Transcripts

BILL HANSEN: We had three days, last week, where our high was 15 below and about 25-mile an hour winds. So anything above zero seems like a heat wave right now.

SPEAKER 2: Tell me about where you live. You're at the end of the Sawbill Trail or on the Sawbill Trail, north of Duluth, north of Tofte.

BILL HANSEN: If you go up the north shore from Duluth, about 80 or 90 miles, you come to a little town of Tofte. And then we live 24 miles straight north of Tofte, in the woods. And we're right at the end of the Sawbill Trail, which is the end of the road, right on the southern edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area.

SPEAKER 2: Well, and I understand you don't even have a telephone line going to your house, a radio telephone?

BILL HANSEN: That's right. I'm talking to you on a radio phone now. There are no power lines and no telephone lines up here. We make our own power and have a radio telephone. Our nearest neighbor lives halfway back down the Sawbill Trail, 12 miles away. And then nearest neighbor after that would be down in Tofte, 24 miles away.

SPEAKER 2: How is winter for you folks up there? Where I suspect you get into town from time to time. I expect somebody plows you out. Perhaps you plow yourself out. What is winter like for you folks up there?

BILL HANSEN: Well, I love winter. [LAUGHS] We run a resort here, a canoe outfitter. And we're very busy in the summer, which is fine. But winter represents our vacation time. So over the years, I've grown to, I've been conditioned to love winter. I love the look of snow and the feel of cold air. We are plowed up by the county. And there is a fair amount of logging activity that takes place just south of us. So the road's kept open for the loggers, of course. So we don't have to plow it ourselves.

SPEAKER 2: But what do you do on one of these days where it gets up to 15 below?

BILL HANSEN: Well, you stay inside, put a lot of wood on the fire. We have a lot to do here. With our running our own business, you're always behind and always working hard to catch up. So finding things to do isn't a problem. We try to ski every day, cross-country ski every day. And when it's 15 below, we usually call that off and do an indoor activity. But it's fun.

Many times, if it gets very cold at night, if it's 40 below or colder, I like to get all dressed up and go out because that's just a beautiful time when the air is so crisp and so clear, and the stars don't even twinkle. The skies are just unbelievable, particularly if there's a full moon. And that's a great time just to walk out on the lake and look around, as long as you're extremely well dressed.

SPEAKER 2: You worry about that, with the incredibly cold temperatures and then the wind chills that come with the very strong winds, you worry about being out rather isolated, probably one of the more isolated places in Minnesota?

BILL HANSEN: Not at all. Because we're completely prepared for it. We never go anywhere in the winter. And the car is without a survival kit in the car. Pack boots, and wool air force flight pants, and a parka, heavy mittens, and we're prepared to survive the worst it can dish out here.

The coldest I've ever seen here is 54 below. And there was a wind associated with that. And even with that, if we were forced to walk, we have enough clothes that we'd stay warm. So I think we're really at far less risk than people who live in the city who are going from home, to car, to building, tend to take that chance of-- I think you're more risk on 35W during a blizzard than we are up here on the Sawbill Trail because we're so well prepared.