Monday, January 20, 2020

Lumberjack World Championship

Now that the weather is cold and ice and snow are dominating the weather forecasts, let's take a look back to a couple of sunny and warm vacations that S and I have taken but I've never gotten around to writing about.

Close to home, relatively speaking, was the Lumberjack World Championships in Hayward, Wisconsin.  We left on a Thursday afternoon and headed through Illinois in our van.  We made it across the Wisconsin state line without the wheels shaking off the van, but with all the monstrous and unavoidable potholes, that's a bit of a miracle.  We stayed the night just into Wisconsin, and made the rest of the drive to Hayward on Friday in time to see the afternoon of competition.

And boy, what a hoot it was!  There is sawing, chopping, climbing, running, rolling, and all kinds of other fun.  Lumberjacks and lumberjills competed in the semifinals on Friday and in the finals on Saturday, with the overall winners and the team relay capping the day on Saturday.  My pick for lumberjill, Martha King, won the overall women's championship!



This video from the 2015 championships is a pretty good summary of all the crazy stuff you get to see as an attendee.  And beers will run you around $4 per, with food being also comparably less expensive than a big league sporting event, so it makes for a reasonably-priced weekend.


We also popped into the Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame and Museum, and unfortunately didn't allocate nearly as much time as we needed for it, since we only discovered the old boats and motors right before closing time!  Also highly recommended is a stop for an enormous breakfast at Tiny's Diner just a little bit outside of town.

The whole weekend was just great, and I highly recommend the trip to all!

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