Winter Blizzard in Grand Marais

This is the first time today I have had to post a blog update.  I had an early morning appointment at the museum, then I went snowshoeing for my daily exercise. Finally I completed and mailed some paperwork -- not one of my favorite tasks.

The winter blizzard is finally over. Winds continued to pound our town all weekend as well into the night. I did go cross country skiing yesterday, although it was quite an adventure with 40 mph winds whipping up the new snow. I skied all the national park trails, which have not yet been groomed due to the low snow totals. There were sections of trail with fairly deep snow, but all in all they were in fairly good shape.

As I pulled out of my garage, I snapped a couple pictures showing the near white out conditions in front of my house.

In the woods there were protected areas out of the wind.

On trail A there is a snow depth gauge. The official amount on the ground is 6 inches.

This is the area in which the depth gauge is located.

The northwest sides of the trees were all snow covered from the big blow.

I love the white birches on the back side of Trail D.

I checked the web to get data regarding the current water temperatures off the coast of Grand Marais.  The last available measurements were taken on December 20th.  Close to shore the lake's temperatures are in the low 40s.  Off shore the temperatures in the deeper water are in the 30s.

Snowshoe Around My Property

The first blizzard of the season developed in the Grand Marais area yesterday. It was supposed to be a winter storm warning, but as the day progressed the intensity of the lake effect increased. As I look out the window at first light this morning, it is difficult to tell how much snow we received. Winds are sustained at 25 mph, but gusting near 50 mph. At times the snow travels horizontally past my window. In the open mowed area in front of my house the snow is blowing and drifting. I think we received around eight inches of snow last night with another half foot expected today.

Late yesterday afternoon I decided to snowshoe the path around my property. My hope was to humanly groom the path for cross country skiing. As I look outside this morning, I cannot even see my tracks from last night. I'll have to repeat the process once the blizzard is over.

First, the picture of earth from the Dish satellite on the first day of 2012.  Much of the southwest part of North America is visible, as well as more of South America in the lower right portion of the earth.

Here is the view out my front window -- before the blizzard began. 

The intermittent snow we have received this season slides off the metal roof on my house. 

Some of  you who have followed my blog and web page (www.agatelady.com) have seen the snow piled up to the roof line on the south side of my house.  Here is a beginning winter shot with the snow just starting to pile up.

One of the many apply trees on my property.

Some of the apples are still hanging on the trees.

Notice the deer trail down my path.

When we receive lake effect snow, it comes and goes.  During my snowshoe south on the path it snowed for a few minutes, and then stopped again.

Evergreens evolved to at first bend with the collected snow until the wind blows it off.

At the end of my snowshoe, the snow began to intensify again.

When I was down state for Christmas, I was pleased to find out that my son, Jonathan, has turned into an artist.  He is now making these Zen Sand Gardens.  I will soon have some available for sale.  At that time I will post more information.  Here are a couple of photos showing the one he made for me for Christmas.

Here are the agate windows I made custom for my son, Jonathan.

Happy New Year to everyone. Yesterday I took most of the day off and just relaxed. While surfing channels on my newly acquired satellite TV, I ended up watching an episode of Human Planet (Discovery Channel) about people who live at high altitudes. One of the groups featured is the sulphur miners from Indonesia.    These brave and somewhat crazy people are certainly a rare breed of "rockhounds."

They mine inside an active volcano: the Ijen volcano complex in East Java. The largest of a series of calderas is about 12 miles wide (20 km), which has a one-kilometer-wide turquoise-colored acid crater lake. The lake is the site of a labor-intensive sulfur mining operation, in which sulfur-laden baskets are carried by hand from the crater floor. Many other post-caldera cones and craters are located within the caldera or along its rim. The active crater at Kawah Ijen has an equivalent radius of 361 metres (1,184 ft), a surface of 0.41 square kilometres (0.16 sq mi). It is 200 metres (660 ft) deep and has a volume of 36 cubic hectometres (29,000 acre·ft). The pH of the water in the crater was measured to be 0.5 due to sulfuric acid.

Below is a 1937 Dutch map of the caldera complex. This and the next two images were taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ijen.

An active vent at the edge of the lake is a source of elemental sulfur, and supports the mining operation. Escaping volcanic gasses are channeled through a network of ceramic pipes, resulting in condensation of molten sulfur. The sulfur, which is deep red in color when molten, pours slowly from the ends of these pipes and pools on the ground, turning bright yellow as it cools. The miners break the cooled material into large pieces and carry it away in baskets. Miners carry loads, which range from 75 kilograms (170 lb) to 90 kilograms (200 lb), up 300 metres (980 ft) to the crater rim, with a gradient of 45 to 60 degrees and then 5 kilometers (3 miles) down the mountain for weighing. Most miners make this journey twice a day. A nearby sugar refinery pays the miners by the weight of sulfur transported. As of September 2010, the typical daily earnings were equivalent to approximately $13. The miners often use insufficient protection while working around the volcano and complain of numerous respiratory afflictions. There are 200 miners which extract 14 tons per day.

Here are some photos I took from my TV screen.

My favorite new channel is Dish Earth. One of the Dish satellites is parked in an orbit 22,000 miles (35,505 km) above the earth. The average distance the moon is from earth is 238,857 miles (384,403 km), so the satellite is located around 9 percent of the distance to the moon! The live-feed camera on the satellite shows the cloud-covered earth. In yesterday's image you can clearly see the southwestern part of North America, including the Baja peninsula in Mexico.  As usual this time of year, we have clouds over the upper Midwest.

North Country Trail Hike and Ski

During the past two days I have exercised in the Burt Township School Forest. Two days ago I hiked -- with no snowshoes or skies -- from the bridge in the school to the Lake Superior shoreline.  I noticed that although there is not much snow, there is enough to cross country ski (barely). So yesterday I skied from the bridge in the school forest west down the road to the end of what is left of  Lonesome Point. Thousands of feet, probably more, have eroded from this point over the last couple of decades.

There are many ecosystems in the school forest, but I especially like these red pine stands.

Since we have received very little snow, the icebergs are no longer forming.  Friction from the waves has melted what ice tried to form.  In fact, you can still hunt for agates because of the lack of ice.  That could change this weekend.  There is a winter storm watch here in Alger County.  Other counties to the west have a blizzard warning.

This photo documents the first time I have had skies on my feet this year.  It felt good to be out skiing again, even though the conditions were barely tolerable.

Ice is trying to form on the Sucker River.

There sure is not very much snow for this time of year.  I hear that we are down a couple of feet of snow compared to what is expected for this time of year.

At this bend in the Sucker River my kids caught their first brook trout back in the 1980s.

I took this shot from the northeast corner of Grand Marais Bay at what is left of Lonesome Point.  I just love it when ice forms on driftwood.

I took this shot looking east down the beach.

This shot was taken looking west down the beach back towards town.

Here is another shot looking across the bay.

One more picture of Sucker River as I skied back to my car.