Winter has finally arrived

 In the last week we have received over a foot of snow. It is fluffy snow so the wind has caused significant blowing and drifting. I took a break from working on my book the other day and walked around my yard to document the snow starting to pile up.

One of these days I am going to set my Christmas tree on fire. Of course, I will first move it away from the house.

Future agatelady rock shop location.

And here are a few more photos documenting the snow. In the national park along the cross country ski trail there is a snow gauge which read 14 inches on the ground. The snow gauge is positioned in a spot that limits the blowing and drifting so it gives a fairly accurate reading. I have drifts in my yard that are three to four feet deep.

Winter snowshoe and picnic

Work on the book continues to go well. I finished taking most of the photographs two days ago. The only pictures left to take are fluorescent photos of syenite. I will probably take those pictures this evening. As I edit the third draft, I am folding in the pictures and compiling the list of figures with attributions. I hope to have the book ready for my reviewers in the next week!

In the mean time, I have continued getting out with my friend, Barb, on winter adventures three days a week. To preserve time for working on the book, on Mondays and Wednesdays we go on adventures that are no longer than an hour or so. On Fridays, we go on longer adventures which includes winter picnics. We take turns deciding what we are going to do and where we go.

The first picture was taken at Lake Superior State Forest Campground, located east of Grand Marais. This trip was on January 13th. At that point we had not received much snow, so we were able to drive to the campground. I only took one picture since it was getting late. After quickly cooking dinner on the grate, we went hunting for fluorescent syenite (Barb's request). I did not find any; she found one.

The next adventure wherein I brought my camera was January 23rd. We parked the car and snowshoed down the road to the boat ramp at Sable Lake in the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. 

Someone else had cleaned the snow off one of the picnic tables at the boat ramp, so that is where we cooked dinner. I pre-cooked a teriyaki chicken and vegetable dinner. I prepared individual portions in mini-aluminum pans and wrapped both in towels. I used my backpack stove to heat my portion up. Since it was still warm, Barb went for it. We also had Barb's cookies, olives, cheese, grapes, and cashews!

The photo below shows our view of frozen Sable Lake. Although it was ice covered, the ice is still not very thick.

View of the Grand Sable dunes across the lake.

Boat ramp dock.

 Birch trees....

 

 

We decided to bushwacke through the trees so Barb could give her new snowshoes a good test.

 

 

 

 

It got thick in places....but it was beautiful!

 

When we arrived back to our picnic table, a couple of different snowmobile groups disturbed our peace and quiet.

We should have headed back to the car when it started getting dark, but we stuck around to enjoy the sunset. The 1.1 mile snowshoe back to the car was easily done in the dark. We did not even need our headlamps since the snow made it easy to see where the road was.

   

Two More Winter Adventures

Most weeks I am getting out three days a week to get exercise and go on winter adventures with my friend, Barb. Today I will post photos from two of these adventures. I did not take many pictures, but did get a few.

The first series of photos were taken during a hike from the Sable Visitor's Center in the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore toward Sable Falls. We veered off the falls trail and headed back along the cross country ski trail 

Sable River around a half mile above Sable Falls.

Along the trail there are several bridges. One of the bridges was taken out in a flash flood a couple of years ago. Rather than replace the bridge, park staff built stairs down to the creek and back up the other side. This was tricky to navigate in the winter since it was quite icy!

This photo shows the creek that feeds into Sable River.

The next hike was east of town along the Sucker River.

First Cross Country Ski of the Season

On New Years Eve, I met up with my friend, Marcia O'Brien, to ski in the Burt Township school forest. There was not much snow, barely enough to ski on, but we did it! Since I went to Florida last year to work on my golf game, I had not skied for two years -- so it felt great!

After skiing, I drove into town and had to stop to document the evening colors. I could not decide which of the three photos to include so all three are posted.