Pine Knot News - A hometown newspaper with a local office, local owners & lots of local news

I know exactly where I was 20 years ago, pretty darn close to the day. I was standing on the ice in front of our family cabin at Birch Lake, Grand Marais, auger in hand. Jamie was there also; she was being a good sport about braving the cold and chasing some rainbow trout. Little did she know the plump trout below our feet were not my main target.

I fired up the gas auger and pushed hard into its rotating blades. I quickly punched through eight inches as the auger broke through the underside of ice. The timing caught me off guard, and before I knew it, I followed the auger to the surface of...