Keep in touch with your White Birch Village Family
Charlie Takes the Plunge
The weather warmed up enough for Charlie to take the plunge. Charlie fell through the ice last night around 7PM. Too dark to take pictures, so we waited until this morning to capture the event. With the snow falling today and the freezing temperatures in store for the next week he took the plunge just in time before he’d stay stuck in the ice.
Congratulations to Chris and Tami Koening for winning this year’s Ice Out Contest. They chose March 30th at 2PM, which barely beat our runner-up, Guy Morter, who chose March 30th at noon.
Ice still surrounds Charlie, but he did take the plunge.
He’s being pulled under the ice for his trip to the shore.
Up he comes with a face full of ice.
With John’s help Charlie is pulled to shore. He’s grounded and John will have to get his waders on to help Charlie to shore.
As you can see he took the plunge just in time. The snow is falling.
2016 Ice Out Contest
We’d love to have you be a part of our Ice Out Contest. Send us an email at office@whitebirchvillage.com with the DATE and TIME that you think Charlie will fall through the ice. All guesses are due by March 10th. The person whose time is the closest will be the winner and get their name on our Ice Out Contest plaque. If Charlie falls through the ice during the night the date will be credited to the next day. Sue and John will be at sport shows March 1-13, but Scott will be keeping an eye on him for us.
Charlie had some fun going out on the ice this year. He decided that being an ice fisherman was the way to go. Do you think he’ll catch anything?
We’ll begin posting updates when there are changes to the ice. Have fun everyone! Get your guesses into us soon.
Charlie is ready for your guess.
Todd making sure Charlie has all the ice fishing gear he needs to be successful.
Charlie has all the gear he needs to catch some fish.
Chris shaking hands with Charlie. Chris was our winner last year.
Good friends Chris and Rox & Todd and Wendy helped put Charlie out on the ice this year.
White Deer Triathlon
The First annual White Deer Triathlon took place in Boulder Junction on Saturday, May 16th. It was a huge success. White Birch Village was a gold sponsor of the event and John was on the planning committee for it. My sister-in-law Debra Malmgren, who runs in marathons, had never done a triathlon and got a large group together to participate in the race. Her brother, Joe Ritchie, joined in the effort. Team Ritchie had quite a few participants. We would like to thank Ritchie Propane for being the platinum sponsor of this inaugural event, in memory of their son Jeremy. All the hard work paid off for Deb and her friend Jill as they took second place in the kayak team division.
Thanks to my brother, Brad, for sharing all his wonderful pictures that he took during the triathlon as I was holding down the fort at the resort!
The first leg of the race was a 3K paddle across Boulder Lake to Camp Manito-wish. You could either kayak, canoe or paddle board. Kayak’s were the preferred boat.
The start of the race at the boat landing at Boulder Lake.
The day was started with the singing our national anthem.
Strategy planning before the race.
Brian, from Team Ritchie, getting some practice strokes in.
Dan and Taylor from the Aqualand Ale House getting their kayak ready for the COED team division.
Deb and Jill are ready to begin.
Work those arms girls!
The paddle portion of the race took place on Boulder Lake and headed to Camp Manito-wish.
Deb and Jill finish the paddle portion of the race.
Racing out of the water.
The run from the boats to the bikes.
The second leg of the race was a 23K bike ride.
Deb and Jill riding their bikes.
The final leg was a 6.5K run that ended at the Boulder Junction Community building.
Brian was part of Team Ritchie and stayed here at the resort.
Dan and Taylor from the Aqualand Ale House.
Deb and Jill crossing the finish line.
Team Ritchie, who stayed at the resort, includes my sister-in-law Deb.
I love this action shot at the finish line.
The BJ Lions club provided a post race brat party.
After race fellowship.
Awards Ceremony.
Deb is soooo excited that she and Jill took second place in the team division.
Theresa’s last event as the chamber’s executive director. We’re going to miss you!
Docks are in!
The spring ritual of putting the docks in took place in snow showers. It never fails, whatever day we schedule for docks the weather turns nasty. The guys braved the snow and cold temps to get the docks ready for this weekend.
There were snow showers on and off all day.
Lodge dock going in.
John supervising from the boat 🙂
This is usually where someone gets wet. The lodge dock sits in the deepest water.
Beach dock going in.
One of the 78 sections of dock being lifted into the water.
The sun tried to peek out for a little bit.
The loons were keeping a watchful eye on what was happening.
Enjoying a bowl of hot chili after being in the cold water.
We’re ready for you to arrive 🙂
Journeys’ Marathon 2015
The 19th annual Journey’s Marathon took place this morning with the start line at White Birch Village. It’s a fun morning for us. WE enjoy all the activity and seeing the runners get ready and their families here to support them. Be sure to check out our Facebook page as I posted a couple videos from this morning.
7:15 AM the start line banner goes up.
Stretching and warming up for the race in the rec building.
Gathering for the start of race at 7:50 AM.
7:59 AM the race is about to start.
By 8:23 AM everyone is gone.
A beautiful day for canoeing!
Last night after a full day of spring cleaning John and I went canoeing. What a beautiful night it was. The temperature was 75 degrees with wind to keep the bugs away. The water levels are high in the flowage/Bob’s Lake and the water plants haven’t started yet, so we could get around easily. We were entertained the entire time with all the wildlife. Enjoy all the photos.
Water, wonderful water!
We saw several mergansers.
Neat bunch of pine cones.
The beaver dam at the back end of the flowage.
There are a lot of new branches and logs in the dam. The beaver have been busy! That is White Birch Creek flowing over the dam. The creek continues flowing into White Sand Lake.
The view of the flowage from the beaver dam.
Two swans was the special treat of the night. We happened to be out canoeing as they were migrating through.
It was fun watching the swans and goose.
It was fun listening to them trumpet.
An active beaver dam.
The opening to Bob’s Lake with mud hens swimming.
You can tell we were in a marsh with all the red-winged blackbirds flying around.
Looking at the shoreline where the our nature trail is.
We were able to navigate along the shore line where our nature trail is. This is the view of the bog area that you can see from the nature trail.
A muskrat lodge.
The view of the wedding site from the water.
Mama goose laying on her nest.
Great view of the Fish Hatchery. Look at all that water flowing!
Ended with a great sunset from the deck of the Barn.
Getting ready to turn water on!
The snow piles are just about gone. Yipee! But there was one left in the main parking lot that was getting in the way of turning water on. So John decided to help it along 🙂
Last snowbank on the property. Can you guess where it is.
Spring is in the air.
After taking pictures of Charlie today, I took my first hike around the property. What a beautiful day; the sun is shining, the snow is melting and the birds are chirping. It’s time to start getting cleaned up for all our guests to arrive 🙂 We can’t wait to see all of you.
I enjoyed my stroll on the nature trail!
View from bird watch station #4
View from bird watch station #4
View from bird watch station #3
View from bird watch station #3.
There are still a lot of snow banks around the property that need to melt.
It would be a noisy nights sleep in the Fish Hatchery right now with all the rushing water.
View from the pergola.
White Birch Creek is flowing well this spring.
View of the flowage from Hwy K.
The ice is melting fast!
Charlie took the plunge!
Congratulations to Chris Weisenbeck, one of our winter guests, for winning the ice out contest! Charlie has taken the plunge. The spring temperatures today helped Charlie to go swimming.
Charlie breaks through the ice.
After chasing Charlie around the lake in the past, John and Sue got smart this year and tied a rope to him. Made it easy to retrieve him 🙂
Charlie sunning himself so he can drip dry.
Peek-a-boo, I see you.
Even with the 5 inches of snow that fell last night, Charlie has begun his lean. The ice has begun to recede from the shoreline. Some warm temps and Charlie may be wet soon.
Peek-a-boo, I see you.
Snowy hillside.
The snow is pretty on the trees.
The ice is beginning to melt.