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Greetings everyone! From a cold and pretty snowy Keweenaw. Some areas have picked up more than others, but in general less than was anticipated has fallen in the past 3-4 days. It was looking like a decent setup for heavy lake effect snow was in place for Friday. Some areas did get 12″+, but it was a pretty small spot just south of Houghton. Most other places picked up 4-8″ of snow, which is no slacker, but still not the solid double digits that looked like was going to happen. I know I did a bit of head scratching as to why the totals were on the lighter side and then today I got my answer.

Once the sun had been up for long enough today, I jumped on the old computer and loaded up some visible satellite imagery of Lake Superior. What I saw made my heart sink. In the past 3 days, a significant amount of ice has formed on the western end of the lake. I guess it should not be that much of a surprise. We had some really cold temps in December and early January and now are back into the arctic air. I guess I was just keeping my hopes up that the lake would not get much ice on it this season. I snapped a picture of the satellite imagery and enhanced it a bit, by outlining the lake in blue and also outlining the eastern edge of the ice in yellow.

About half of the lake to the west of us now has ice on it. It is not all solid ice or very thick. So a good wind could churn things up enough to get rid of much of it, but it has been my observations that once the ice starts to form, it keeps going as long as the really cold air is in place and that is exactly what looks to happen for the next 7-10 days.

So what does this mean? Well if you are on the Keweenaw or in the other LES belts of the western UP, it means less snow and also colder temps- especially when the arctic air is dumping into the Great Lakes region from Canada. The big lake really moderates that arctic air for us and also produces all that wonderful lake effect. So in essence, we become much like northern MN. We get to experience the full brunt of the arctic air. On the up side, we will also see more sunshine than we typically do because the lake will not be producing the clouds like it does.

For areas of the UP to the east of Keweenaw, little will change. The lake still is pretty wide open there and the snows that fall in areas like Munising, Grand Marais and Paradise all come from the waters east of the Keweenaw. Even for us, the lake is open enough for some snows to fall. As you can see in that last shot, there is still open water and that open water is creating some lake effect clouds and snow. It has been snowing all day today. Not heavily, but still snowing. The bummer part is that it looks like from this evening through tomorrow, the winds would have been quite favorable for the Keweenaw to get hammered with LES and now it will be something less than hammered. It is always hard to tell what the exact impacts will be, sometimes we get a surprising amount of snow with ice on the lake and sometimes not.

So that is my sob story for today. There is some great news for folks in far southern MN, the northern 2/3rds of IA, southern 1/2 of WI, northern 1/3rd of IL, IN and OH and southern 1/3rd of lower MI, as it looks like several systems will roll through in the next 5-7 days and end up producing a combined 8-12″ snows in most of those areas, with the potential for some locales to see 12″+ fall. I am very happy for the snow lovers in those areas. It has been a challenging winter for them, as the snows have been below average and when they have fallen, have not lasted too long. So by next weekend, it looks like some local riding will be had in those areas.

So other than a bunch of ice forming on the western end of the lake, it has been a pretty quiet week up here. I am still nursing a cold. Nothing too bad, but I hate not having my full amount of energy. The Keweenaw Snowmobile Club held its first annual bonfire and cookout and things went very well with that. There was fresh snow on the ground and in the air. Temps were in the low teens, so it was not brutally cold and a pretty steady flow of folks stopped in to grab a bite to eat and also warm up around the fire. We never had a ton of folks there at one time, but from 11 until I left at 4, there was always at least about 2 dozen folks there. It was only suppose to go until 3 in the afternoon, but it seemed like quite a few folks were heading down the trail after 3 and saw the activity going on and decided to stop, so we were able to keep things going longer than we had planned.

It was the first time for the event, so we did not want to keep things fairly simple, but all agreed that things went well and it should be a for-sure event every winter. I am sure some brain-storming will be done to try and come up with more things to have going on and attract even more folks. For those that did stop by, thank you, it was great to see you all!

I guess that about covers it for this week, have fun with the coming snow you folks in the central Midwest!

Good night from the Keweenaw..
–JD

 

After over 2 weeks of not picking up more than an inch or so of snow in any 24 hour period, we finally broke out of our snow slump. Not in grand fashion, but it looks and feels so good to see it snowing again! We did not lose much during the past 2 weeks, but even when the Houghton/Hancock area picked up 4-6″ last Monday, us up north only picked up around an inch or two. We got back into the snow yesterday morning. Pretty casually at the start and it kept up casually for most of the day. Then overnight it picked up, I am not sure of what time, but I do know I heard the familiar sound of the plow going down our street early this morning and I knew we had picked up at least 2″. Typically the will not worry about plowing if we get around an inch or so during the weekend.

By the time I had rolled out of bed, we had picked up around 2 1/2″ of new snow. It was pretty fluffy, but was still wonderful to see. It has since kept snowing at varying rates all day and we have picked up around another 4″ for the day so far. So 6 1/2″ since yesterday at this time and it is still snowing. It is the big beautiful snowflakes that are also very light. Classic lake effect. Not great for building a base, but great in every other way and we already had a decent base. So things will be freshening up and it looks like more snow pretty much every day this week into next weekend, easily double digit accumulations, perhaps we will be measuring it by the foot by the end of the week and weekend, with nice westerly winds. Putting nice fluffy snow on top of the 2-3 foot base we had already will make for some awesome snow play by the second half of the week.

Speaking of snow play, the Keweenaw Snowmobile Club is having our first annual trail side bonfire and cookout. It will be happening this Saturday from 11 am until 3 pm at the Trailside Lodge just north of Calumet. The trail goes right by where we will all be, so no need to worry about figuring out how to get there. We will also have some banners setup on the trail to let folks know exactly where it is. We will have hot dogs, brats, chips, cookies, pop, coffee, hot chocolate and hot apple cider. I will be there the entire time, as will many of our club members. It seems to be getting a lot of press on social media, so it sounds like it may be quite the social event! I sure hope that if you are up here riding next weekend, you will make it a point to stop in and visit. I might even see if I can get a temporary webcam setup for the event!

The list is obviously quite long when it comes to things that made me joyful with the new snow, but among them was to finally be able to get out and move snow! Big Red came back from its second visit to the repair shop on the 19th, but I did not have any real opportunity to move snow since it has been back. I did head out last Friday afternoon to try and scrape some of the mat down on both our driveway and the neighbors, but with limited success. Even though the air temp was 43, the air was pretty dry and the snow had not softened up much.

Today was a different story. I headed out late in the morning to clear the 3-4″ that had fallen new and while clearing, it was coming down pretty good most of the time. That shot was taken after clearing the neighbors driveway and before I headed over to the ice rink. It cracks me up, I think I have figured out how to keep lake effect snow showers going…just clear snow off the rink! It seems like every time I go there, either it is dumping snow while I clear, or it comes down pretty good just after I finish! Today it was coming down pretty good as I got started clearing and we probably picked up a quick inch in the 30-40 minutes I was there. It did let up a bit not long after I finished, which was good, as there was open skate.

Nora, Grace and I decided to take advantage of the freshly cleared rink and “mild” temps in the mid-teens to go and do some skating. Gracie started figure skating classes this autumn and has really come a long way. She can now really get around great and we all had fun playing “tag”. I am still breaking in my new skates, but they are coming along and I think I only need about another 3-4 hours in them before they will stop with their pressure points and allow me to be out as long as I want. Nora is skating great too and it is so much fun to have the whole family together, having fun and getting some fresh air/exercise.

We did get a bit of that yesterday as well. Grace wanted to go outside and play, so Nora and I joined her. Between the lack of new snow and the tiny bit of warm weather we had, our driveway had become very icy. Not so much that the vehicles could not get down it, but awesome for a bobsled or luge run! Gracie initially was trying to slide down some of the piles of snow created by the snow that had slid off the roof, but when I took a look at our driveway and the layer of ice on it, I thought the gentle slope might be enough to make for a fun run on a sled. It took a while to get the push-off and other techniques just right, but she did manage to get some good runs in and here is a video Nora took of one of them.

I also broke out the drone this week and did some attempted flying and some successful flying. I really need to fly that thing more! It is a bit more challenging in the winter, as the cold makes it harder to do all the things needed to fly it, but not impossible. I have been flying it so infrequently, that I really should refresh my knowledge in all the steps that need to be done to properly prepare the drone for flight. But like most males, I forgo the instructions and just get it out and fly it. My first flight was short lived, as it was not in the flight mode where GPS is utilized to keep the position stable. For the life of me, I really do not understand why anyone would NOT want to have the help of the GPS navigation. It does not seem to cause any loss of maneuverability and is quite helpful in keeping the drone steady when not telling it to fly around. Anyway, the switch was off and this was the result. The only damage done was to two propellers. All the rest of the drone was fine. My nerves were a little rattled, but not too bad once I realized the only damage was to the propellers. I did wait a day and then re-grouped, did not read the instructions, but took it for another flight. This time the flight was successful, with no crashes, but was a little unnerving as the wind was blowing and the crash from the day before was still fresh in my mind. The only issue with this flight was that I had the exposure setting for the camera on manual and not automatic, so the video is a bit dark, but at least you can see what the hood looks like in the winter from a few hundred feet up.

So, not much else to talk about for this time. The snows have returned to the Keweenaw and it is looking pretty good for quite a bit more in the next 10 days or longer. The only other picture I have to share with you is the reason why the image from the Woods Cam was not looking so hot. There was a big slab of snow that was hanging from the roof and blocking part of the camera’s view. I went out there today and cleared it back that it is no longer in the way and the view from the Woods Cam is good again!

Until next time…
Good Night from the Keweenaw..
–JD

We are falling further and further behind in the race to set a new record. It is still within the realm of possibilities, but in the record setting year of 78-79, by the end of January they had picked up 262.9″ of snow. Right now I am at 181″, so that leaves 15 days to pick up 82″ of snow. Certainly not out of the realm of possibilities, but with the next 3-4 days looking pretty quiet up here, it only makes it harder to keep up with 78-79. I suppose one can look to February of 78-79 and see that “only” 40″ fell in that month, so perhaps a strong finish to January and a strong February will keep us in the race.

Either way, I am loving this winter! Except for some arctic air shots, it has been nearly perfect to date. Fresh snow almost every day, not always a ton, but enough to have to move from driveways and such, as well as keep everything looking beautiful. Most importantly, nice, fresh snow to play in! The snow banks are getting pretty big up here and the municipalities have been busy hauling away the snow already piled high to make room for more. Last week, Calumet was busy nearly all week cutting back the banks with the snow-go and shooting it into the back of large dump trucks. Those trucks then take it away to a dumping spot outside of town.

I too have been busy with snow removal. Although the fix put into place to help prevent the snapping of the bolts in the augers did not work out too well. I got the blower back last week and went to town on the 8-10″ that was sitting fresh on the driveways Friday morning. The driveway clearing went well, but then later in the day when I was clearing the ice rink the same side that has been giving me problems snapped again. The best option for fixing would be to just replace the parts that have become so worn that they are increasing the chances for the bolts to snap off. However, I am in the midst of the season and do not want to get into that kind of undertaking. Plus, I am not sure how much that route would cost, but I would like to avoid a large expenditure at this point. So plan B is to do the next best thing. That being to drill a new hole through both shafts and weld new re-enforcing buttons onto the outer shaft. That should actually be as good as replacing the parts and if so, I may just run it like that until a new auger and inner shaft is needed. At any rate, the local shop just came and picked up Big Red and I am just hoping to get it back before the end of the week, as it looks like may need it in a pretty big way next Sunday night or Monday. Despite all the issues with blower, it is still WAY better than the old way I was clearing. I just have to spend more time in the heated cab, listening to tunes!

So back to the fun in the sun and snow. I had some buddies come up and arrive in the wee morning hours of Friday and while they slept, I did my morning work and then cleared snow. Upon waking up, one of them learned that there was a family emergency at home, so he ended up renting a car and driving back to northern IL. The rest of the day was spent picking up my sled from having the headlights and hand warmers fixed and then just hanging out with the other friend that came up.

Saturday plans were made to ride in the morning and we kept to them by around 30 minutes! As my riding buddies and I get older, we all find it less necessary to be out on the sleds by the crack of dawn. I do remember those days, even leaving while it was still dark out, but these days it seems like we can get our fill by riding for 4-5 hours each day. We hit the snow around 11:30 and made our way north. Other than it being in the single digits, it was a beautiful day for a ride. The winds were not too bad and the sun peaked its head out from time to time. There was around 8-10″ of fresh snow sitting on top of the 2-3 foot base.

The riding was smooth sailing whether we were on an untouched logging road on neighbors land or trail. The only thing that would have made things any better would have been to have another 4-5″ of fluff on top of the base and to have temps around 10 degrees warmer, but as any snowmobiler knows, you have to stop trying to nail the perfect day and just get out and have fun with what is given to you. To me, just getting out into the woods and exploring was well worth the ride, regardless of conditions. We even found a few fields to play in and I snapped some shots of Ben carving up the snow as well as Keith.

As mentioned, we also rode the trails up here and those that we were on we found to be in very good shape, even for a Saturday afternoon at the height of the season. Here is a shot of trail 132 that leads to Lac La Belle from the west. We ended up taking that trail to the Bear Belly Bar and Grill and had lunch. I recommend the poutine (if that is your thing. Sits perfectly in your stomach on a groomed trail! Bumpy one, well…that would likely be a different story. However, we found 132 to be in as good of shape on our way back as we did on the way in and trail 3 back down to Mohawk was in great shape too, even passed a groomer nearing Phoenix.

Sunday found me nursing a very sore wrist. I damaged it trying to clear the blower at the rink on Friday and it was sore on Saturday, but still in pretty good working condition. The riding on Saturday was enough to aggravate it and on Sunday I awoke to a throbbing and swollen wrist. So that combined with the fact that it was still 6 below zero at 10 am made our decision to not ride an easy one. We did not sit around the house all day. Nora and Grace joined Keith and I of a little tour of the Keweenaw. We ended up down at Eagle River, where we viewed what was left unfrozen of the falls there. The falls were not the only beautiful sight while there, up in the sky, the ice crystals in the sky had created a sun halo. Those are kind of a rarity up here, not because we do not have ice crystals in the sky in the winter time, but because there are usually so many of them you cannot see the sun!

From there we went up to check out the lighthouse at Eagle Harbor, but when faced with a 100 yard trounce through the deep snow, we all decided it was a better idea to head to the Eagle Harbor Inn and have a nice warm late lunch! Good call!

Today I awoke to 7″ of new snow that had fallen overnight, on top of 2.5″ that fell during the day yesterday. It was nice fluffy lake effect snow, but still needed moving. So I headed over to the gas station to get a tank of diesel for Big Red and then headed home to fill ‘er up and move snow. On the way back home, I was treated to the other two visual effects that ice in the atmosphere can have on sunlight. They are a sun dog and ice pillar. The ice pillar came and went and at the time I took the shot, it was just barely visible as the streak of light going straight up from the suns center. The sun dog is very prominent, because it is the bright spot in the picture. I realize that it looks like that was actually the sun, but the sun was actually located just below the cloud tops on the horizon. Those clouds were also producing some beautiful snow showers that have been falling most of the day today.

Blessed is the only way I can describe being able to live here. The Keweenaw is a true snow-lovers dream and this winter is living up to that reputation.

Good Night from the Keweenaw..
-JD

January 15- Came down with a stomach bug last night, so its rest and fluids for this ol’ Boy. Will write when I can. – John

 

It’s been another snowy and cold week up here in the Keweenaw. We have picked up 27″ of new snow since last Sunday and much of the week was spent with temps in the single digits. I can’t really complain too much about the cold, because we have been much warmer than many locales at our same latitude and even warmer than some areas well to our south at times. I am certainly not going to complain about the snow either! It has been the wonderful lake effect variety and has come mainly in doses of 3-5″ every 24 hours. That is a whole lot more manageable than getting clobbered in one storm and then being quiet.

For some reason, the cold this winter is not bothering me all that much. Not that I am enjoying temps in the single digits, but it does not sting like it has in the past. Ever since my open heart surgeries, I really was much more impacted by the cold. I realized it had to come along with the snow, so I did not complain much, but really got chilled quickly. Not sure why this winter is any different than the past few, but it is nice to have my tolerance for the cold back.

Temps look to be significantly warmer this week, even flirting with the freezing mark Tuesday and Wednesday. It will be interesting to see how those temps feel after such a long run of being so cold. I know most locals will be welcoming them. I have not run into too many folks complaining about the snow…yet! but the cold has been a topic of discussion and some discontent. I am not worried about 2 days of temps at or even a bit above freezing, but last years 10 day thaw at the end of January and again at the end of February is still very clear in my mind. So I am really hoping we can keep the wheels on this winter and not do a repeat performance. I will say that the forecast looks quite encouraging. There is the potential for a pretty big winter storm to hit us and much of the Northwoods later this week and then seasonable cold, with the potential for some more system and lake effect snows beyond that into the 3rd week of January.

The warmer temps will also halt the formation of ice on the big lake. Not that there is enough on it right now to cause any reduction in lake effect snow and also its ability to modify the arctic air. The latest satellite imagery shows only some shore ice in place. However, had we kept up the bitterly cold air for another week, that situation could have been changed dramatically. I am really hoping for other areas of the Northwoods of the Midwest to get hit by this potential winter storm at the end of the week. It would be enough to allow for some very good snow play in areas like northern WI and the southern UP.

The snows, cold and wind have created some beautiful scenery up here. Last entry I talked about how much different things looked up here in the lake snow belts than other places in the northern Midwest that had a fairly decent snowpack and that has only been added to this past week. The road crews have been working like crazy to not only keep the areas where we drive on clear, but have been cutting back the banks to make room for more snow to be plowed and also removing the 8-12 foot banks from the corners, so it is easier to pull out into traffic. My own snow removal has been a bit more of a challenge. Early in the week, I had one of the sheer pins for the primary augers snap. That is usually not a very big deal, but this time around, the one end of the bolt decided to get bent over and stuck inside the shaft for the auger. I tried many things, including trying to drill out the bolt, but nothing worked. I was able to keep clearing with just the one side working, but it took quite a bit longer. I am having the tractor and blower picked up tomorrow to be fixed and the timing could not be much better, as it looks like we will be snow free until at least midday Thursday.

One of the biggest snow removal jobs this week was the clearing of the ice rink. It had not been done since the week before Christmas. Some folks did clear off a small patch to skate on, but in other areas, the snow was 18-24 inches deep! It took me 2 1/2 hours to clear it, but when I was done, it felt good to have been able to open it back up. The regular schedule for open skate was suppose to start this weekend and it would have been a pretty big job to clear it with the walk behinds they have. As I was leaving to head home, I could not help but to stop and take a picture of one of the drifts hanging from the roof of the warming hut.

Our roofs had their own fair share of snow on and hanging from them, so it was time to call over some local boys to clear them off. They arrived on Saturday at around 9 AM and were nearing completion when I left around 11 am. As I watched them clear the 3-4 feet of snow on the roofs, I was thankful that it was not me up there trying to do it, but also felt old. It was not too long ago that I was clearing the roofs myself, but for better or worse, those days are gone now.

I did finally get out on my first snowmobile ride of the season Saturday. It only took for us to reach the 150″ mark to do so! All joking aside, it seems like life is much more full of other things that keep me from riding, primarily my family. This is not a complaint by any means. I still have the go-ahead from Nora to ride pretty much when ever I want, but really do not want to miss the activities Gracie is involved in. I suspect that in not too long, Grace will be at that age where independence is more important than me being there for everything and the riding will increase again.

In any case, it was about as perfect a day for riding as one could ask for. The snows were deep and fresh and the skies even cleared to give us beautiful sunshine to ride in. It was two of us, my buddy Skylar and I, but sometimes a smaller group like that is better. At my request, we did not do anything too crazy, so the stuck were pretty minimal, but I still managed a few! It was really nice to be back out on the sled and enjoying the fresh snows of the Keweenaw. Almost all of the snow we have picked up in the past 2 weeks has been lake effect and most of that has come from winds out of the same direction. At one point in our ride we came across a section of forest where all the NW facing sides of the trees were caked in snow, while the other sides were bare. You know you have been getting a lot of snow when it actually accumulates a foot deep on the sides of the trees, just by clinging to the bark!

So I guess that about covers it for this one. Planning on doing some more riding with friends next weekend, so should have some more pics and stories to tell!

Good Night from the Keweenaw..
–JD