GUNFLINT TRAIL, NORTH OF GRAND MARAIS, Minn. _ On a bright March afternoon, a procession of winter travelers moved across the crusted snow atop Bearskin Lake like some human-powered freight train. Three dads, four daughters _ and Gimli, the aging Labrador, out front.
The girls, 16 to 18 years old, chatted and laughed as they marched along, leaning into the traces of sleds they pulled that were loaded with winter camping gear. Their dads _ Bob Feyen, Jesse Schomberg and Kevin Skwira-Brown _ were part of the procession, each towing his share of the gear.
For 10 years now, these dads and daughters from the Duluth area have been making a winter camping trek, nearly always into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness off the Gunflint Trail. The Skwira-Browns _ Kevin and daughters Katherine, 18, and Rachel, 16; along with Schomberg and daughter Isabelle, 18 _ started the tradition when Katherine and Isabelle were just second-graders. A couple years later, the Feyens _ Bob and daughter Hannah, now 17 _ joined the crew.
"Kevin and I had done this before," Schomberg said. "I had a tent and heater. We were talking about it and said the girls could come. They'd have fun. They could bring a friend."
It evolved into a tradition.
"We thought they'd outgrow it, but no," Bob Feyen said. "Last year it was, 'Are we going?' "
"This is probably one of my favorite weekends of the entire year, to be with such good friends in such a nice place," Hannah Feyen said.
