Photos: Coping with winter in the Boundary Waters

Last night was Dave and Amy Freeman's 112th night in a row in the BWCA wilderness, and they spent it on Wood Lake, where on Tuesday morning temperatures dipped below -15.

When the couple opened up the fly to their tent in the morning, they were greeted by the wild scenes they have been seeing since they began the journey in September. Before the year is over, they expect to travel more than 3,000 miles by canoe and dog team, and visit more than 500 lakes and streams.

The couple consider themselves explorers and educators, and they embarked on this journey as a mission to raise awareness about the potential environmental dangers of copper-nickel mining in the area. They are documenting their year in the wilderness on their Facebook page, the Freeman Explore Instagram and on the A Year in the Wilderness blog.

Here are a few of their winter photos, with excerpts from their social media accounts.

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''The sky was blanketed in stars last night.'' — Jan. 11: "The sky was blanketed in stars last night and the temperature dropped to 26 below. There is something about the cold that makes the stars shimmer and dance. Totally alone in the Wilderness, we reveled in their beauty, torn between the warmth of our tent and the spectacle unfolding overhead. If being surrounded by millions of acres of roadless Wilderness makes you feel small, looking up on a clear, cold, moonless night from our camp on a frozen Wilderness lake makes you feel infinitesimal."
Courtesy Dave Freeman

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Moving to Seagull Lake — Nov. 17: "In the morning we packed camp and moved east into Seagull Lake. Amy and I had not visited this area since the Cavity Lake Fire had burned the area in 2006. It is a beautiful, rugged, haunting landscape full of exposed rock and standing dead trees."
Courtesy Dave Freeman

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''The lake steamed as it cooled.'' — Nov. 29: "This morning ice rimmed the shore of the bay behind our campsite. The lake steamed as it cooled in the 8 degree morning air. The silence was broken by a gentle tingling sound, reverberating from the line where ice meets open water."
Courtesy Dave Freeman

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Photos: Coping with winter in the Boundary Waters

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