Category: Uncategorized

This is that time of the year. The time of the year that every since I first moved up here, I wonder and I hope. Both for the same thing…will this be the winter that breaks the all time record for snowfall? Why in mid-November? Well, if we are going to have a record breaking winter, we cannot accomplish it with simply a snowy month or even two. We need to go pretty strong from start to finish. We are at the start. Although it is WAY early in the game (top of the first inning?), we are off to a good start. Here is is only November 20th and we have already received 33.5″ of snow and have a very solid 10″ on the ground. If it were not for the utterly depressing day we had last Wednesday, we would probably have around 15″ on the ground.

Last Wednesday was plenty depressing. We had around 10″ of very solid snow on the ground to start last week. Tuesday we did have temps rise above freezing, with some melting, but nothing too out of hand. In fact, I actually took my first snowmobile ride of the season last Tuesday, more on that in a bit. Then Wednesday arrived and a fairly steady rain fell all day. It was a very frustrating rain in a couple of ways. First, it fell with temps in the mid 30’s. So just a few degrees cooler and it would have been snow. Secondly, despite the fact that temps were just a few degrees above average and the snow we had on the ground was quite dense, it managed to eat much of it away. So by the time the sun was setting, there were even a few spots where the blades of grass were starting to poke through the snow. About 6 pm, the rains changed to snow and it did come down pretty good. We ended up with 4″ of new snow by daybreak Thursday, but it was a wash. The 4″ new just replaced the 4″ we lost during the day on Wednesday.

The other depressing thing about Wednesday’s rain is that things were just starting to freeze up around here. It has been so wet that there are tons of puddles and in some cases, small ponds out in the woods. Those were just starting to freeze up and even shrink through seeping into the ground. Wednesdays 2/3rds of an inch of rain helped to bring those puddles and ponds back. We did get cold again on Thursday and the freezing started up again, but it was just hard not to imagine the shape of things up here without those rains on Wednesday.

As depressing as Wednesday’s rains were, Friday’s snows were joyous! They were not a total surprise, but we only looked to pick up around 1-3″. It spat snow at us for most of the day on Friday, but with the intermittent nature to the snow and temps hovering in the mid 30’s, it did not accumulate much. Then, about 3:30 pm, it started to snow more heavily and started to accumulate. I fed the pups and then went to Gracie’s ice skating lesson. On the way there, the roads were slick with around an inch of new snow. There is open ice from 4-5 pm and then her lesson is from 5-5:30. By the time her lesson was finished and we all were heading to the truck, there was a fresh 4″ of snow on the ground. About 3 more came down before it let up at around 9 pm.

There has been a bit of settling and a tiny bit of melting, but we still have much of that snow on the ground and is a big reason why we have nearly a foot of very dense snow on the ground right now. The forecast looks pretty good to hold most of what we have, as well as freeze things up. There is not a ton of fresh in the forecast, but quite honestly, with the base we have right now, cold is probably needed more than snow. I wish I could say for sure if our club will be grooming December 1st, but I know that the operators are all busy getting things ready. The big wind storm a few weeks ago took down a ton of trees and there has been a crew out daily cleaning that up. The majority of the machines are all prepped and ready to go, so should there be enough snow, then I am sure Brian will be sending them out to pack it down and also check for any hazards that might need addressing.

Speaking of hazards, we had a doozy on the Freeda Loop. Some beavers had taken it upon themselves to clog up a culvert and let an pond on the upstream side get even deeper. Deep enough that in spring it over topped the trail and washed it out. So this summer we got our ducks in a row and applied for a grant to replace the culvert and re-build the trail. That was accomplished earlier this month, so I accompanied the DNR and DEQ last Tuesday on their inspection. The way the conditions were, it was decided that taking sleds out to the project site would be the best mode of transportation, so the three of us boarded some DNR sleds and hit the trail. It was an interesting ride to say the least! and I was glad that I was not on my sled! Most of what we rode on was snow, but there were also a ton of puddles and mud holes out there, so it was a fun, but messy ride!

We got out to the site and the two agents did their thing. I was a little nervous, as I was the one that applied for the grant and it was my first go around with this. It was also the contractors first go around with doing work for us, so the “greenhorn” effect was at full play. It turns out that there will be a few things that need to be addressed in the spring, but it will be fine to use for the snowmobile trail this season. I am grateful to the two agents for understanding the inexperience involved in this project and being flexible. It was actually kind of fun to be part of the process for this trail repair and I am going to be the one taking the lead on most of our future projects, but it is also clear that I have more to learn! I can also add that the pond on the other side of the trail is still there and it was quite beautiful, especially since it was no longer flowing over the trail!

The rest of my week was spent between doing my regular, daily work, working on the new feature to the website that will be rolled out in the next day or two! and of course the remodel project. That too is very close to completion. At least the utility room. The ceiling is done and the tops of the end walls are also now done and just need to have the finish put on them. There will also be a bit of cove and crown molding to put up (all of which I hope to do tomorrow) and then the final bit will be to add the work table and sink. I hope to get that done on Wednesday, but will not stress out about it. Then it will be into the woodshop to build the new cabinets for the pantry and by the time those are done, I hope the hunters will be out of the woods and there will be enough snow to go play in!

Gracie and her friend Jake made good use of the snow on Saturday by starting to build a snow fort. The snow was perfect for it, as it was wet and heavy and packed in really nicely. They did not get a ton done, but did have an absolute blast, which is all that really matters. I have yet to put the blower on Big Red for the season, as I am waiting for the time to do it as well as for most of our snows to become more easily moved by a blower! So far, most of our snows would have just clogged the chute and been a pain to use the blower with, so I have been using the loader. It was a joy to be sitting in the heated cab, listening to tunes, moving snow with the flick of a lever and watching the kids play in the snow! That last shot was actually taken from inside the cab of Big Red!

Of course the pups are still loving the snow, not only to play in, but they love to use it as their source for hydration! It’s all cute when it is convenient for me to let them out and keep an eye on them as they meander around the yard is search of the freshest snow, but can be a bit of a pain when they keep going to the door, asking to be let out when I am in the middle of something! So the other day, I decided to just fill up their water bowl with snow and see if that might work. It did, at least to some extent. Although they still prefer to go out and eat the snow just like their cousins, the wolves, do.

So the questions that introduced this entry still exist and the answer will not be known for at least a bit, perhaps months from now. It really is not critical that I experience a record breaking winter. In fact, I fully realize that it is a distinct possibility that it will not even happen. However, a snow lover can still dream!

Good night from the Keweenaw..
–JD

Greetings and another apology for not writing yesterday, but I had a very busy week last week and I think it finally caught up with me yesterday. So you got me today instead! As the title reads, things are looking very winter-like around here. I suppose the snow we have on the ground already would satisfy many living further south…even at mid winter. So far, we have already picked up over 22″ of snow for the season and we are not even halfway through the month of November. The ground has been covered since October 28th and even for this neck of the woods, that is pretty unusual.

While I cannot make any guarantees that the ground will stay covered with snow for the rest of the season, I would currently put it at better than 50/50 that it does. We have around 9″ on the ground outside of our house, with a bit more and a bit less in other spots. Most of that came with the lake effect event late on the 8th and into the 9th.  Somehow the general area where we live ended up getting the most out of that particular storm. 11-12″ is what fell. That was more than I was anticipating. My thoughts were for the LES belts of the Keweenaw to see a general 4-8″ with some “pockets” of 8-12″, only I really did not anticipate us to be one of the pockets. Not complaining at all, just a little bit surprised, especially when just down the road in Calumet they got around 6-8″ and even up “nort” in the higher terrain they got around 8″.

The area sure was buzzing on Wednesday with the winter storm warnings hoisted and talk of double digit accumulations. I went to sleep expecting to wake up to around 3-4″ of new snow when I get going shortly after 4. Millie came in around 1 am and woke me up to tell me she had to go outside and go potty and when I let her and Huck out, there was around 2″ on the ground and my thoughts of 3-4″ by 4 seemed pretty good. Well, sometime between 1 am and 4:15 am it must have come down at a pretty decent clip because that 2″ had swelled to 6-8 and it was still snowing fairly decently. Once the sun came up, I went out and took a picture of my truck all coated by the fresh show. For a snow enthusiast on vacation, that is probably one of the most favorite sites they can see while up here!

By the time I had finished my morning work, I was able to go out and clear the snow, most of the heavier accumulating snow was over and while the snow that fell was lake effect, it was early season stuff so it had the density of system snow and is a big reason why we still have 9″ on the ground right now. It was not difficult to get off the truck or driveway, but it did catch me a little off guard as I have not put the blower on the front of Big Red yet. So the clearing of our driveway and my neighbors down the road was done with the bucket and loader. I still have not put the blower on, but depending on how the forecast for the end of this week/weekend goes, I may be putting it on very soon!

We did pick up around 2″ on Friday, so Saturday afternoon I took the pups up into the high country north of us to check out how much snow was on the ground there. As mentioned, they did not get quite as much as we did with the main snow event Thursday, but also had quite a bit more on the ground from previous activity before that Thursday snow.

While not as dramatic as the change in elevation out west and its impact on snowcover, it is still fun to head up into the higher terrain to see what kind of an impact it did have. Once we are into the heart of winter, it is pretty hard to tell the difference because there is so much snow on the ground everywhere. By that time of the winter, the only way to tell is to be able to clearly see the new snow fallen with the event, which can be hard in the uncivilized areas. In any case, it was clear that the higher terrain still had more snow on the ground than did I at our house. I was kind of wishing I had brought the sled to take a little spin around the woods, but was content to watch Huck and Millie bust powder for a while. On the way back home, I did stop at one of the snowmobile trail crossings and snapped this shot of the trail, all ready to go!

Yesterday took me by the site of the Laurium Glacier, so I stopped there to take a picture of it in it’s infancy. Not too impressive just yet, but give it another month or two and I suspect things will look quite a bit different there! Hopefully anyway!

Most of what kept me so busy last week is really not that exciting, so I will not bore you with it. I can say that I have taken on the role of president of our local snowmobile club and we have had an unusually busy autumn with trail work as well as personnel changes. Our trail boss retired, so we were doing interviews for that position. We ended up promoting one of our own groomer operators to the boss position and I have a feeling that more than a handful of you reading this already know him. He is Brian Anderson. Like me, he is a transplant from the Chicago area, loves snow, the region and is passionate about the trail system, so I think he will do a very good job.

I did continue to chip away at the work needed to accomplish the utility room build and pantry transformation. The washer and drier are now in the new utility room and hooked up. That gave me the room to be able to tear up the old vinyl flooring that was there and replace it with the same flooring that is down throughout the house. Gracie was particularly interested in helping me, so when we got back from her piano recital, we both got into our work garb and and got busy on the floors. I was really impressed at how hard she worked and was responsible for getting most of the old tile up, including using the scraper to do so!

So while not yet finished, things are progressing nicely and with a bit of luck, all of the construction work will be done and then I can get into the shop to build some cabinets and shelving for both rooms before Thanksgiving comes. If the shelving and cabinets are not done by Thanksgiving, that will be just fine, but it would be nice to have them done as they will help to provide kitchen storage. For now, I will just enjoy the new flooring!

Until next time…

Good night from the Keweenaw..

–JD

My apologies for not writing last night, but I got caught up in some work in the new utility room and Nora and Gracie returned from a play later than was expected and before we knew it, it was more like bedtime than anything else! The utility room is still not done, but is getting there. A few more pieces of flooring to do, all of the ceiling and then building a work table/utility tub and that will do it. The drier has already been re-located and the washer will get moved tomorrow, then the old utility room will be able to have the new flooring put down. It would be nice to have the new utility room and the remodel from the old utility room into a pantry completed by Thanksgiving, but I am not going to stress out about it. The pace of this project has been much different from just about all of my others, much slower, but it has been way more laid back and less stressful too. It is also turning out nicely and cannot wait to show you the finished product.

So as the title to this post says, it has been quite chilly recently. Much more like the end of November than the beginning, but I don’t mind. We have received several rounds of snow since I last wrote, but I still have not had to personally move it around. In fact, I have been so busy with other projects, I have yet to even mount the blower on Big Red. Not that it is a huge or time consuming job, but I would like to have it ready to blow snow before I have to and waiting this long is really taunting mother nature!

We did have a white Halloween as expected. Not only was there some white on the ground, but a tiny bit in the sky late in the day too. Early in the day, the pups and I took to our woods for a walk. It was a very enjoyable moment, with the sun just rising above the horizon and the ice/snow both on the ground and still clinging to the branches. There is just something about the first few snows of the season that make the woods so beautiful. Perhaps its the excitement of it being one of the first snows of the season. Or perhaps it is how the snow quiets everything down so much more. Or perhaps it is the fact that one can still travel through the wood on foot without sinking up past their knees. Or…perhaps a combination of all of those and a few others. In any case, the walk last Tuesday morning was an extra special one and full of unexpected, yet simple, beauty. For sure another one of those “man am I so lucky to live here” moments, including returning back to the home to see what a beautiful surroundings the house is in.

A little later in the day, I met up with Grace, Nora and some of their friends in the midst of trick or treating in Calumet. I had arrive only about 10 minutes since they got started, but already they had their buckets 3/4 full of candy! How did they make such quick work of things? Well, Calumet had their first annual Trick-or-Trunk, in which they closed off a portion of the main street in down town and let folks park their cars on one side and hand out candy from them. Plus most of the businesses were also handing out candy, so in a very short time, the girls were able to be off to the races in candy acquisition. Grace went has Cleopatra this year. After making the rounds in downtown Cali, they went and hit some of the residential sections and filled up those buckets twice over.

On Friday, I was invited over to the groomer barn to check out some of the maintenance that was being done. Nothing out of the ordinary, but I had never seen all that they do in the pre-season work up on each machine, so it was neat to see the machines all apart and being worked on. One of the first things they do is to remove the tracks, so that they can get all the bearings and suspension components of the track assemblies, plus the interior components of the drive line. Things like the snowplow blade and other exterior components are re-painted and each cab gets a fresh coat of wax. So I left with a better idea and appreciation of all that happens in the pre-season prepping of the groomers.

Another wave of snow arrived Friday night and continued into Saturday. We picked up just a few inches of fresh snow, but it fell on top of an existing snowpack and really whitened up the forest floor. There is also a mini battle that goes on during the first snows of the season. That battle is for dominance of the woods. Many of the berry bushes and some of the other smaller plants are still hanging onto their leaves, as if to try and prolong some semblance of the warm season, while the wet and heavy snow clings to the leaves and does its best to try and defoliate the vines. Typically the first few battles are won by the plants, but eventually the winter will give the knock out blow and command things for the rest of the season.

I had strong suspicions that the snows we received last week were much less than some of the higher terrain did. Web cams in the high country to the south of us showed heftier snows having fallen and a report from a friend who went to some of the higher ground in Keweenaw County also verified deeper snow on the ground, so the pups and I headed up the highway a bit and then off onto a county road and into the high country to see for ourselves. We did not even have to get off the highway and head into the true “high country”, as there was quite a bit more snow at the highway level northeast of us. By the time we made it to the higher elevations, the snow was deep enough that I did not even risk pulling the truck off the road and onto a logging road, so we just parked on the shoulder and walked down the logging road a bit.

I did not bring a measuring tape with my but estimated the depth on the ground to be around 10-12″. Not enough to bury stumps, but enough to give them a nice white hat. Certainly enough to ride in, but I had other things to take care of and did not even think seriously about riding, although some brief, flirting, thoughts sure did run through my mind! It has been such a wet autumn, which was preceded by a wet summer, which had followed a wet spring, that the woods are full of puddles. So the snows are kind of a mixed blessing, pretty to look at, but also not so good for taking care of the wet conditions in the woods. This is not a shot of a path through the woods, but rather a creek, but it does show how much snow was on the ground.

We made our way back down to the highway and just before getting there, came across the snowmobile trail. It was covered in a pretty solid 5-6″ of dense snow and could have probably been ridden as well. There would have likely been a few water holes to traverse and even some plow banks to have to get over. We did get a bit of rain Sunday morning, along with temps in the upper 30’s to around 40, so there was some snow loss since those pics were taken. On the plus side, we have been below the freezing mark for over 24 hours now and look to remain below that mark for the next several days. Ice has already been forming on all the puddles I have come across in my travels today and will continue to form/thicken all week. Not that all problem spots will be taken care of or even hold until winter sets in for good, but it is nice to have some cold temps and no precip occur for a few days to get the freezing ball rolling.

I guess that about covers it for this one, looks like kind of an uneventful week for me, but I am sure there will be something to talk about next Sunday!

Good night from the Keweenaw..
–JD

So pretty boring week, so I guess this will about cover it. 🙂

Unless you were living under a rock, you know that the weather up here has been anything but boring! In the past 8 days, our weather has given us 80 degree temps, 75mph+ winds, 29 foot waves on the big lake and 8″ of snow and sub freezing temps. Not all in one day, but still not bad for a weeks worth of weather!

I have to say that as beautiful as the warm temps and sunshine were, it was kind of nice to get back to weather that is more like we should have this time of the year. While it may not be an every year occurrence to have winds of 75mph+ or over a half of a foot of snow in one storm, autumn storms are pretty much the norm for us this time of the year. This past one just happened to have a bit more kick to it!

The week started innocent enough, with temps topping out around 60 on Monday and dry weather. It did not take long for things to get interesting Tuesday. In fact, areas off to the east of us called off school for Tuesday because of the high winds that had developed in the wee morning hours and were forecasted to continue through the day. Our winds were not too bad early Tuesday morning, but by around 6:30-7 am, they picked up considerably and at around 7:30 the power went out for most areas north of Calumet. I had some errands to do in Houghton Tuesday morning and with the generator providing power to our house, I did not see any reason to have to stick around. As I headed south on the highway towards Houghton and Hancock, I passed 11 electric company vehicles headed north to get power restored. I am not sure if it was one single, large issue that knocked out power, or a multitude of issues, but by the time I got back home around noon, the power had been restored. Despite winds actually increasing in intensity while I was out, and a pouring rain. This area seems to be a bit more prone to power outages, even with the aggressive tree trimming they do in the warm season, but I have always been ultra impressed with how hard the folks work and the conditions they will work in, to get the electricity back and flowing to where it is out and needed.

My afternoon on Tuesday was about as full of things that had to be done as my morning, so I was not able to get out and take pictures of the dance the big lake was having with the winds, but many up here did and posted pictures on the internet. So I have done something that I try to avoid at all costs, using pictures take by others without their permission. So if you see one of your own pictures in this entry and do not want me using it/them, please let me know and I will be more than happy to remove them. However, the ones I am using are so interesting, that I really could not resist sharing them with you all.

The big lake is at near record high levels right now, so that added to the dramatics along the north and west facing shores of of the big lake this week. In Marquette, a person was swept off the rocks and into the water and was fortunate enough to be able to get out with the help of his girlfriend. Two others are suspected of being washed off as well and were not as fortunate, as they have been missing since going to that spot along the lake shore and their vehicle remained there long after the storm subsided.

Here in the Keweenaw, no one was swept away by the waves, but the combination of high lake levels and strong winds caused the lake to climb over her banks and flood sections of highway 26 between Eagle River and Copper Harbor. Lake Superior is big enough to actually experience storm surge when a big blow is going on. Proof of that can be seen in this shot of the lake spilling over the highway in Cat Harbor. Proof that it was storm surge and not wave action that caused that flooding is proven by the fact that Cat Harbor is actually well protected by a rock outcropping around 1/4 mile from shore. That is why there were only small waves seen in that last picture, as they only had around 1/4 mile in which to grow. I am very familiar with this spot along the lake and while I do not have actual measurements of how high above the water line the roadway is, I would have to venture to guess around 4-6 feet. So that storm surge was 4-6 feet+!

Another interesting shot I came across was taken south of the lift bridge and along the shores of the big lake northwest of Twin Lakes where the Misery River dumps into the lake at Misery Bay. Only with the strong winds, the river was not flowing into the lake, the lake was flowing upstream into the river! The wave action did cause some erosion. McLain state park north of Hancock has been dealing with some erosion all summer, due to wave action and the high lake levels. Those problems were only worsened on Tuesday. The last photo I have is reportedly from Tuesday’s storm and was supposedly taken around the Marquette area. I am not too familiar with the shoreline there, so I cannot verify if it was actually taken during the storm on Tuesday, but it is impressive none the less.

Some stats from the storm included a 77 mph wind gust on Stannard Rock north-northwest of Big Bay, a 71 mph wind at the buoy 10 miles NNE of Marquette and a wave of 28.9 feet at the buoy in Munising Bay at 9:30 am Tuesday. I also came across a great video shot by a man named Nick Jensen. I do not know Nick and did not ask for permission to post this link, so if you know him and want to alert him to the fact that I am sharing his video, feel free and he can ask me to remove it if he wants. Anyway, enjoy this video, it is awesome!

For as brutal as the weather was on Tuesday, it was equally tranquil on Wednesday, so Nora, Gracie, the pups and I took to our woods to survey the damage. It did not take long to come across the first victim of the winds the day before. We came across around another half dozen trees blown down, but none of them were big ones, which was kind of surprising. Old Grandad, Big Piney and the Maple Twins all made it unscathed as did one of Gracie’s favorite climbers. We even came across a fresh buck scrape, the sign that the rut is here and we have at least one fella roaming our woods! It was so tranquil and beautiful in the woods Wednesday evening, a perfect autumn evening in the Northwoods of the UP. Sure am glad Nora came up with the idea!

Thursday started out in pretty quiet fashion and then by the afternoon, we had some light rain and sprinkles develop. Those morphed into a downpour later Thursday night that kept up into Friday morning. By around midday, the raindrops began to look a little slushy and it was not long after that when the slush flakes turned into beautiful, but wet, snowflakes! By later in the afternoon, the temps had cooled enough to allow the snow to start to accumulate. It felt really good to be looking out at snow falling again, even looking up and watching the big, silver dollar sized, flakes fall to the ground. So much nicer than rain!

The snow had started to accumulate Calumet a bit sooner and when I drove down there in the late afternoon, the ground was already white with around 2″ of snow. Gracie had skating practice after school, so we did not get home until around 5:45, but there was still enough light in the sky and snow on the ground to allow her to get out and build the seasons first snowman.

The snows kept up all night and we ended up with around 2 1/2 to 3″ of accumulation here, but just down the road a bit, Calumet picked up 8″ of super wet and heavy snow. The snow ended up causing some damage to trees that were able to survive the big blow a few days earlier. Thankfully most trees had lost their leaves by the time the snow flew Friday, or there would have been a lot more damage and probably more power outages to deal with.

Most of the snow that fell Friday and Saturday is still hanging around and we look to get a bit more in the next day or two. So it looks like it will be another white Halloween, which is getting to be more of a tradition than oddity lately. While Nora visited with a friend this afternoon, Grace, the pups and I took to the woods for a little walk. Some rather large and deep puddles kept us from taking the usual paths, but we did find some dry, but white areas to romp around in.

So the season first meaningful snowfall is under our belts. The forecast sees temps warming enough to cause it all to melt by the end of the week. That is fine by me. I would still like to be able to get the leaves raked and the grass cut one last time before winter sets in for good. I am not sure if we will be able to pull that off, but it would be welcomed!

The addition is coming along. I continue to chip away at it a little bit at a time. The heat is going and most of the tongue and groove has been put up on the walls. I am hoping to finish the tongue and groove this week, get is stained/painted and then the floors done, so we can move the washer and drier into the new space and get going on transforming the old utility room into our new pantry! After all, it won’t be long before the snows start to stick around for good and I will be busy moving and playing in it!

Good night from the Keweenaw..
–JD

Boy, I think this past week was the best week of summer weather we have had all season. The only strange thing is that it came the third week of October! For those that came up to the Keweenaw this past week to see the colors, you should run and get a lottery ticket. Not only did you catch the peak, but also were treated to some of the finest weather we can have this time of the year…all week! It was in the 70’s for highs many days and we also had a ton of blue bird skies. Sure does make for a beautiful time to be in the woods. However, if you were putting things off, it’s too late! Some rains and winds and POOF! Bare trees! That last shot was taken just a few minutes ago. It is just amazing how fast the leaves come down once fully changed. So, if you were hoping to come up to catch some late colors, forgetaboutit! At least if you were wanting to see them still in the trees, the ground is a beautiful canvas of autumn colors!

It was a very busy week for me. Nora was out of town Monday and Tuesday, which put some more duties on me with getting Gracie ready for school, to school and then back home. Plus piano lessons and skating lessons on Tuesday. I do have to admit that Nora does a ton more work around here than I just listed, but I pretty much slacked at the rest! No need to over do it!

In addition to all of my Mr Mom duties, I also was busy running around getting prepared for the trail work session and work that we are having done by contractors on our trails to get them ready for the season. It has been a very wet spring, summer and autumn and there are a lot of issues that we are dealing with. We typically have about a half dozen “issues” to deal with to get things ready. Some are as small as fixing a small washout on the trail, while others can be a large as a major re-route. Somehow they all get done in time for the start of the season and we are on track to meet that goal again this year.

After dropping Gracie off at school Tuesday, the pups and I headed out to do some reconnoitering of the trail from Lake Linden to Gay. Most of that trail has been closed due to logging the past few years, but they are done and we are able to have it open up for this season again. It will be great to have it open again, as it is an excellent way for folks to avoid the busier main trail that goes from Calumet to Mohawk and then Phoenix. It also helps to spread the traffic out more, which makes it easier for us to keep that main trail in good shape. The only down side is that when we are not using a trail, we are not keeping up with maintenance. So we had quite a bit of work to do on it to make it safe and passable for snowmobiles this season.

One of the bigger issues were a number of mud/water holes just outside of Lake Linden. Some were rather small, but if left would only get larger. There were a handful of medium ones to deal with. And then there were 3-4 spots that needed some pretty major work, like this one and this one. Its a lot of work to keep our trail system in the shape we do, not only when the snow is flying and folks are playing on them, but in the off season. The frustrating part of most repairs we need to do is that the problems were not created by snowmobiles or our club! These holes all were created by wheeled vehicles going where they were not suppose to. I am not going to get up on a soap box and preach about trespassing or damage done by wheeled vehicles where they should not be. My point is that it cost us time and money to fix these things and it was urgent that we did. Not only because they presented a problem for us once the trails open for snowmobilers, but because the land owners were threatening to close the land to any kind of use, so we had to fix these problems, just to keep the trail open. A frustrating situation and also something that I think most folks do not even know we deal with on a regular basis. Thankfully, for major repairs like those, we are able to get financial help from the Michigan DNR. All of that money comes from your trail pass fees, so anyone wondering where your money for trail passes goes, it is not just grooming…it is EVERYTHING to give you trails to ride on.

The Keweenaw Snowmobile Club in responsible for taking care of over 230 miles of trails in our system. That is nearly double the next largest trail system and in some cases 5-8 times more miles than other clubs in MI have. Without the help we get from the DNR and the snowmobile program, there is no way we could do what we do. I can also say that since taking a very active role in the maintenance of our trails, I have gotten to work closely with several DNR employees and they have all been great to work with and go out of their way to help make not just our trail system, but all trails in MI as good as they can be. So what I am saying is there is a TON of work that goes on behind the scenes to allow you all to come up and enjoy the plentiful snow that falls up here each winter. Almost nothing short of a miracle…year in and year out. Oh, and if you wanted to know what things look like once the work is done, here is an example.

The section by Lake Linden was just one of our problem spots. Another is on the “south end”. The Freeda Loops have really taken it on the chin this summer with the combination of all the rain and all the traffic. The biggest problem was caused when a beaver dam gave way and washed out a section of the trail. I was unable to get out there to take pics, but I have been told that the trail would be impassable for both sleds and a groomer come winter. We did have a contractor go out and look at all that was going to be needed to repair it, but before he could even get there, he had to deal with several spots like this. I reported this info back to the DNR, along with the cost that the contractor quoted us to fix all of them and the DNR was able to dig hard, come up with the money and the contractor will be going out this week and next to fix the washout as well as all the water holes on those loops.

Our club held its annual trail work session this past Friday and Saturday and were blessed with about as perfect weather as we could have asked for. Upper 70’s on Friday and I believe 81 yesterday! Along with that was tons of sunshine and very low humidity levels, so we did not even get overheated working. The majority of the work done during the work session is of a “lighter variety”. Meaning we are cutting back brush, moving anything that has fallen on the trails during the off season, checking signs and also taking care of any “leaners”.

This is probably the 10th or 11th work session that we have had and the work done by previous sessions is really becoming noticeable. For as short a growing season that we have up here, the vegetation sure does tend to grow quickly! So while some areas need to be brushed almost annually, others we were able to drive right past and could see the trimmed brush from work done in previous years. A perfect example of the kind of brushing we do is like this, where the turn ahead sign is partially obscured by some saplings growing in front of it. While one might think the sign is still quite able to be seen, come winter, snow will pile up on those saplings “Keweenaw Kamo” style and can nearly block the sign completely. So we cut back the saplings and leave nothing to block the view of the sign. Certainly not grueling work, especially in the weather and beauty we had this Fri-Sat, but important none the less. Other spots require a bit more effort and fancy footwork, such as this one where a bunch of brush was laying near a mud hole. The brush we took care of and the mud hole will be drained.

Friday had just myself and another volunteer in my truck, so the pups got to ride along. They have been on quite a few of the Friday work sessions. Usually when we stop to do some work, I let them out to romp in the woods. However, with all the water/mud holes this season, they spent more time in the truck that romping. So when we had to travel from one work areas in the Lac La Belle area to another in the Gay area, we made a quick pit stop at one of the beaches to let them do some splashing around and also get a drink of water.

So the trail work session for 2017 is done and I thank all that came up to help out. It may not seem like you all are doing much, but that is because many hands makes for light work. If we had to do it all on our own, it would be a lot of work and a lot of time. So your help is greatly appreciated and I hope you all had a great time! Hope to see you all up next autumn! I also need to put out a HUGE Thank You to Chris and Sue at the Trailside Lodge. They opened up their doors and gave free lodging to all the workers. A huge sacrifice made even huger this year by the fact that they could have easily filled those rooms with folks up for the color show. If you are going to the snowmobile show in Novi in 2 weeks, be sure to stop by the Keweenaw booth and say hi and “atta boy/girl” to them both, as they will be manning the booth for that show.

I think that about covers it for this one. I am glad to have some free time again to resume finishing up my latest project. The water heater and furnace got moved into the addition last week and the furnace just needs a few more connections to be made tomorrow and then we will have heat. It will be coming at a perfect time, as it is going to get colder this week and it looks like much of the Northwoods will even see their first snows of the season fall by later in the week. So be sure to check out the cams later this week, as some could be a nice wintry look. I am getting ready to start the winter forecasts and if there is some snow to forecast for, will be starting them up November 1st, otherwise, will be doing it for sure on Monday the 6th. We’re getting close folks!

Good night from the Keweenaw..
–JD