No Northwoods winter visit or work day is complete without the wonderfully stimulating experience of a 180º sauna and a corresponding dip in the frigid ice hole. Taking a sauna is an integral part of the routine at the Will Steger Homestead. It caps a hearty work day, cleans and relaxes the body, and boosts camaraderie. The sauna at the Homestead is a handcrafted log cabin that stands on a slope on the shore of Pickets Lake. It is heated by a wood stove and has a deck that is perfectly placed for gazing out over the frozen lake or up at the Milky Way. Most newcomers to the sauna experience are a bit nervous about the hot-cold combo. Well, despite a few icy dips, the experience is overwhelmingly a warm, cleansing hour of relaxation. Here's how it works.

Just after lunch a Homestead staff person walks down to the sauna and lights the fire using kindling, newspaper and dried firewood. Throughout the afternoon, someone stokes or adds wood to the sauna wood stove every hour or so. Each time the stoker checks the sauna thermometer in anticipation of the desired temperature of 180°F. Later in the early evening someone makes a 10 foot by 8 foot hole in the ice using 6-foot long ice saws, ice chisels, and axes. The hole is made right at the foot of the sauna dock, where hot steaming people can jump in easily and then exit on the dock ladder. The water is 4 to 5 feet deep and just over 32°F. After dinner the sauna is stoked one last time while people in the lodge wash dishes and relax after the evening meal.

Once the meals settle, people start to make their way down to the sauna. The warm glow of a propane lightSauna and a few candles creates a mellow ambiance in the sauna changing room. After changing, people enter the hot sauna room. The wooden cedar benches are hot and sometimes have too be cooled with a splash of water from a bucket before one sits down with a relaxing exhale.

Chatter fills the room; stories of the day and tales of sled dogs are swapped back and forth. Beads of sweat start to form on everyone's skin. It takes longer to build up a good layer of sweat on the first round. Soon people begin to talk about jumping into the ice hole. Most people make sure the heat is nearly unbearable before exiting the sauna for their first ice hole dip.

Out the sauna door everybody goes, clouds of steam rising from their hot bodies. They carefully descend the 15 steps to the sauna dock and line up at the edge of the ice hole. Some people hesitate at this moment, some shout a silly phrase and jump right in with a splash and a gasp. The others near the ice's edge smile as a person in the ice hole treads water and climbs up the ladder. People issue all sorts of proclamations upon exiting the ice hole. We hear everything from "Whew! cold!" to "Yes, dat's a good one!"

Then everyone ascends the stair case back up to the sauna, their body cores radiating heat and their hair freezing. Back they go into the hot welcoming heat of the sauna with another exhale of relaxation.

This ice hole dip and sauna heat cycle is then repeated several times. Eventually after an hour or so people towel off feeling deeply cleansed and relaxed. It is off to bed for a deep sleep.

Sauna nights are good nights!