Cross Country Photos

While skiing with friend, Dianna Bell, we left the normally groomed trail over by Sable Falls and skied on a snowshoe trail toward the sand dunes. When we got to the footbridge going over Sable Creek, we took our skies off and hiked into the dunes. It was such a glorious day -- second in a row with sunshine. That doesn't happen much in Grand Marais during the winter due to the lake effect clouds and snow. There was not much wind so the ice was floating off shore. You can see a couple of rows of icebergs hugging the shore, with the floating ice beyond that. Notice how there is more floating ice this day, compared to a week ago. If we get a strong wind from the north any time soon, it will continue to pile up the ice to form even bigger ice bergs.

Here are a few more photos from my ski trip the other day in the Seney Wildlife Refuge. The first photo shows the color contrast you can get in the woods during winter.



Throughout the Seney Refuge, there are creeks, rivers, and ponds that are managed to provide habitat for wildlife.



Along the ski trail we saw this tree that something had clawed the bark off. Some of the splinters were five inches long. We thought at first that a bear must have been looking for food, but then we realized that bears are supposed to be hibernating in the winter. We wondered whether it has been so mild that a bear woke up from hibernation a little early?



Along the edge of some of the fields the snow is starting to get a little sparse.



In the woods, though, there is still plenty of snow on the ski trails.