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Raven Lake at Wolf Ridge November 10, 2002
We have added the last branches and twigs to our winter food cache. Any day now the lake will freeze over and we'll be stuck under the ice in our lodge until spring. We saw a human guy taking canoes off the lake, and the ducks have gone away. We put a lot of food in our cache. Supposed to be a cold winter, I can just feel it. Hopefully, the ice will not get too thick. We're going to need every little inch of water in this shallow part of the lake to get in and out of our lodge to the food and back.
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Raven Lake at Wolf Ridge December 31, 2002
I forgot how dark it is in the lodge all winter. There are four of us in here, but I can't see a thing. The walls of our lodge must be about 7-12 inches thick, plenty to keep the heat from our bodies in here. The ice on the lake is getting thicker. Not too thick, but thicker.
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Beavers at Raven Lake chewed a hole to get out of their lodge.
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Raven Lake at Wolf Ridge January 21, 2003
It must be cold out there; it even feels cold in here. Must not be much snow on top of our lodge. The snow usually helps add extra insulation... not this year though. The ice on the lake has gotten a lot thicker. We are starting to get worried.
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Raven Lake at Wolf Ridge February 25, 2003
This is ridiculous; the ice just keeps getting thicker and thicker. There is barely any room left between the bottom side of the ice and the bottom of the lake. I have used up most of the fat I stored in my tail for the winter. Things are looking pretty grim; well, they feel grim, I still can't see a thing in here.
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Wolf Ridge Naturalist John Kohlstedt checks in on the beavers.
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Raven Lake at Wolf Ridge March 8, 2003
The hole inside our lodge that leads to the lake has frozen. This is a serious new development. We are going to have to go to plan B; we will starve if something is not done soon. I've decided to chew my way out of the lodge. It seems like a risky thing, but what else is there?
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Raven Lake at Wolf Ridge March 9, 2003
I broke out of our lodge today, and went looking for food. Building our lodge way out on the edge of the marsh where it meets the open water of the lake seemed like a good idea two years ago, but not today. Food seems really far away. The light shines in our lodge now; it's cold. Could things be any worse? Not only are we starving, cold, and getting skinny, but now we have to worry about predators coming in and eating us. This is a very bad winter....
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View inside beaver lodge at Raven Lake. The beaver shown is heading for the hole that leads to the lake.
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Raven Lake at Wolf Ridge March 11, 2003
People came today bearing aspen saplings, carrots, and apples. They stuck their hands and heads in the lodge, flashing bright lights and speaking in excited voices. I thought they were going to eat the two of us that are left, but all they did was shove aspen branches through the hole. They took two of our family that died away in a pink sled. We managed to open our ice hole and get back into the lake. Things may be looking up...
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Raven Lake at Wolf Ridge March 17, 2003
It's gotten much warmer. We are hopeful for spring to arrive. 40 inches of ice must melt and no predators can find us. It will take a lot of luck if we are going to survive. At least it's not dark in here...
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View inside lodge. The beaver shown died during this hard winter. While alive, the beaver used the wood shavings as bedding.
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