City of Lakes Loppet

The City of Lakes Loppet was this weekend. It is an outdoor winter activity smorgasbord. Activites are at Theodore Worth park, Lake Calhoun and Lake of the Isles or for some events on all three.

Jenny and I went onto Lake Calhoun Saturday for speed skating, ice biking, skijoring, cross-country skiing and snow sculptures.

The speed skating was on a one kilometer oval of cleared ice on Lake Calhoun. Eight or nine co-ed skaters started at 1:30. It was a 50 lap race! That's 50 kilometers! We saw the start and a few of the laps before we realized that event was going to take a long time.

We headed over to ice biking that was very close by. The course this year on Lake Calhoun was boring compared to previous year's races on the lagoon between Calhoun and Isles. Nonetheless we had fun with another spectator. There is an odd 20 minute the final lap format bit we had fun cheering the competitors.

We then turned around for the start of the skijoring. Skijoring is cross-country skiimg with one or two dogs pulling the skier. The start is fantastic with dozens of dogs and their humans flying past. Most of the dogs were crazy excited to be running at full speed. Others were excited to be out with their humans. Others were distracted by all the other dogs. It all was so much fun.

We headed over to the event village to see the snow sculptures. The photos speak for themselves. We also got to watch the skiers crossing the finish line.

On the way back home we got to see the finish of the 50 kilometer skating event. The two leaders had been together the entire two hours! The skater in second had drafted the lead skater for 49 laps. The lead was out of gas and was easily taken over by the guy behind. I felt bad for the guy who had done all the work but ended up in second.

Jenny and I had a great time.

50k speed skating

ice biking

skijoring

skijoring

this white poodle ran full out the entire race

frozen pizza oven

Liked this snow sculpture

very artsy

Luminarry Loppet

The 2013 Luminary Loppet was back on Lake of the Isles. Yeah!  In the afternoon I went to check out the layout.  The pyramid was set up.

Right after I took this picture a young man came skiing up to the pyramid and crashed into it. Luckily only one block of ice was broken at the bottom.

Here are pictures from the evening stroll through the luminaries and ice and snow that Kay, Christine, Rose, Amy, Brew the dog and I took. The falling snow made the evening even more magical.

Rose, Kay, Christine, Brew

Glowing ice sculpture

Amy in the glow of the ice sculpture

Winter Like and Dislike

Like...

Another year and another City of Lakes Loppet and another Luminary Loppet on Lake of the Isles.

Such a beautiful event and such a great way to celebrate the winter...walking on a frozen lake with thousands of others...all being lit by candles in ice.

And beautiful snow sculptures.  If it is going to be cold and snowy, make the most of it....Minneapolis and St. Paul do just that.

It was also the closing weekend for the St. Paul Winter Carnival.

Dislike...
 The biggest ice damn in 3112 Emerson Ave history.  After so many big snows and only one little thaw, I have an enormous ice damn over the downstairs bathroom.

I've already had leaking into the bathroom.

 Here's how tall the snow is...I'd say that's a good foot and half deep.

And here's about as much as I could get.  This is from Saturday.  Today I discovered more leaking into the bathroom and got more snow and ice off.

I can't reach anymore from the ladder and I'm not about to step onto the roof itself.

Next weekend I'm going to have to open the ceiling in the bathroom and see what damage there is.  May be there'll be a way to add insulation.

City Of Lakes Loppet

The quintessential Minneapolis event...the City Of Lakes Loppet.
1) outdoors
2) athletics and arts
3) winter -- snow and ice
4) Uptown location

Christine and I made it to one of the biking events this year. I thought the bike races were speed ovals but turns out they are agility races on a complicated course with turns.  The bike races are on the lagoon between Lake of the Isles and Lake Calhoun.  Was kind of interesting to watch but not so much.

The loppet gets people out and on the frozen lakes.  It is such a neat thing to have thousands of people out and about on the snow covered lakes.

The highlight for me is the luminary loppet on Saturday night.  There are thousands of candle luminaries made from frozen water.  The luminaries light the course for the cross-country skiers and those of us who just walk it.

There were fire artists.

There was a mystical forest lit with ice sculptures illuminated with candles.  There were candles in the trees. It was so beautiful and not really photographical unfortunately.

There was free hot chocolate...real hot chocolate not the instant stuff.  There were warming fires along the way.  There were snow sculptures.