End of the Season

Log Rolling? We're here to kick some butt sawing!

This exciting lumberjack season ended with a contest in beautiful Grand Marais, Minnesota. Hosted by Jenny and Neil Atkinson we competed along the beautiful north shore of Lake Superior in not only log rolling and boom running, but also double and single cross cut sawing, and axe throwing! Now keep in mind, although many of us log rollers call ourselves lumberjacks, most of us have no clue how to handle a saw or axe. Thus, the jill and jill team of Shana Martin and Taylor Duffy and the jack and jill team of Dave Sievert and Shana Martin were quite pathetic. The funny part was that we all took this quite seriously, and were extremely mad when we did not win. Now not only am I going to have to buy a choker (see “Canadaland”) but I am also going to have to learn to saw! I’ll put this stuff off until after surgery…

The log rolling was fun as always, especially with the colorful commentating of Taylor and myself. My head was completely somewhere else and I ended up taking second place to Jenny Atkinson. The pattern continues with Jenny and me taking turns at winning contests. Next one is mine! :)

Sunday we all drove up the Gunflint trail to Jenny and Neil’s beautiful cabin on the lake. We ate probably the BEST pancake breakfast I’ve ever had (this was part of Jenny’s plan, to stuff us all before we had to compete) then warmed up on her enormous boom runs. We had a great morning and afternoon of boom run competition, and with the status of my knee, I was pretty darn pleased with how well I ran. Taylor had an amazing day and took first, but she deserved it. After a fun (and cold!) swim in beautiful Clearwater lake, we said our good byes for the summer and left on our 9 (yep, 9) hour drive home. The sadness of the end of summer was dampened by the enormous bag of Kettle Corn Fiona got for me. If you ever want to make me smile, get me some fresh Kettle Corn, and NOT the microwave stuff.

Once again it wasn’t the competition that made my weekend, but the time I got to spend with my amazing friends. This tournament I was also accompanied by Amber, Fiona, and Amy who made the trip even more enjoyable. These girls make me so proud. Not only are all three of them involved (and excel) in so many other activities, they also log roll because they love it. Doing the boom run on Sunday all three of them fell multiple times. Despite the crowd yelling for them to give up and swim to the dock, ALL THREE of them remounted those darn logs over and over until they finished. And not only did none of them give up, but they smiled and laughed through the entire thing. That, my friends, is what this sport is all about. Not the prize money or sponsorships (although those are wonderful!), or medals and tv time; but the friends we make and the fun memories we create every summer. Sure I had a blast winning this summer, but I also had just as much fun five summers ago when we got kicked off of the go cart track, or 4 summers ago when we all played laser tag and rode the sky coaster. I have so much fun watching the next generation of rollers create the same memories and it means the world to me to see them smile and laugh, whether or not they win or lose.