Snowkite Festival

This weekend was the Mille Lacs Snowkite fest, which draws kiters from all over the state, as well as some sponsored national riders. This year there was some doubt about both the snow cover at Mille Lacs and the wind forecast, though, so the crowd up there was smaller than usual. I wound up going by myself after a couple other kiters decided to stay down here, rather than risk getting there to find no snow. As it turned out, however, there was plenty of snow to ride on. When I got there in the morning, there was about 2 inches of packed, bonded snow that was great for edging. There was also more than enough wind. In fact, the winds were in the 20mph plus range and people were getting boosts on 3m trainers. I even caught a couple little boosts on my trainer before my arms got tired and Mike and Melissa were kind enough to let me borrow their 10M bow kite. It was a bit overpowered, but lots fun. As the day went on, the wind started peeling the snow off the lake, so that by 4pm there was enough exposed ice to make it hard for me to edge unless I was near shore. Still got lots of good ride time in, though, and got to see some really good kiters throwing some huge airs and sweet tricks. I only had my camera out for about 10 minutes, so there aren't many pics, but they'll have to do.