Porcupine Mountains -- Post 2

First of all, Happy Easter to everyone. I must admit that for the first time in years I have no Easter plans. I am in Marquette right now and after doing a little bit of shopping, I'll be heading home. I cannot wait to tear into the boxes with my purchases from the Quartzite and Tucson shows.

For today's blog posting I will continue with the photo tour of the hikes my friend, Helen, and I did in the Porcupine mountains over the last two days. It is hard to tell exactly how many miles we hiked since we did parts of several trails. I would estimate that we hiked between five and six miles each day.

After we hiked to the bridge, we headed back up the trail. When we passed the junction with the trail to the Lake in the Clouds Cabin, we decided to go and check out the cabin. I must admit that we almost turned around when we saw this sign.

However, I really wanted to check it out to see if someday I would want to reserve and rent the cabin. So we decided to head to the cabin anyway and would turn around if we saw that it was being used. It is so early in the season and we had not seen any one else on the trail that we figured no one would be there. And no one was there......

I think the cabin is the only structure on the lake -- at least as far as we can determine. We couldn't see in the windows well since most of them were too high off the ground for us to look in, but it appears that there are four bunk beds. With the high cliffs all the way around the lake, it is a mild setting protected from the wind -- and beautiful. I definitely plan on reserving the cabin someday soon and using it as a base for day hiking.

From there we hiked back up the escarpment and walked west down the boardwalk. The picture below shows some of the rough steep terrain.

The sun felt so good that we sat on one of the benches and just enjoyed the view for a while. Below are some of the photos I took from the boardwalk.

Then we decided we had to hike some more so we drove a few miles down the road to look for another trail head.

On the side of the road there was an interpretive sign, so I pulled over to check it out.

The sign marks the place of an abandoned copper mine. Next to the sign was a set of steps descending down under ground. I braved the steps and almost turned back when I heard a pulsating sound. I didn't have a flashlight so at first I wasn't sure what it was. I took a flash picture so I could at least use the camera to let me know what was down the mine tunnel.

I didn't walk all the way to the end since the floor of the tunnel was quite wet. The sound was water pulsating out of the barrier built in the tunnel. In the barrier there were holes open to allow the bats to fly in and out. Across the highway is the sign I have in the photo below, which has information about the "Porkies."

A short distance down the road is a parking area for the Government Peak trails. We parked and headed up the hill to the first trail junction.

We decided to head west up the Escarpment trail. Near the beginning of the trail was this sign and evidence of long-ago mining.

And up the trail was. We hiked for around two miles up -- up -- up -- and up some more. What a climb that was up "the back of the porcupine." When we neared the top we saw the first wild flowers of the spring. It is amazing that it is the beginning of April when up at this elevation especially there should be snow -- but instead there are flowers.

Most of the trail goes through the woods parallelling the escarpment, but we didn't get to a good overlook sight until we were two miles down the trail. There we stopped and just enjoyed the view. We could actually see the Lake Superior shoreline west of the park off in the distance, as well as Lake of the Clouds and the Carp River.

After resting for around a half hour, we headed back down the trail and returned to our cabin in Ontonagon. Here is a photo of the rocky shoreline I took driving along the highway.

We cooked dinner and then walked the short path down to enjoy sunset.

To the east of where we were, there was a break wall and lighthouse, probably protecting the Ontonagon River mouth.  It looks similar to the break wall and lighthouse in Grand Marais.

Helen walking down the sandy beach....

Waves dancing with the beach in the glow of the sunset....

While we watched sunset, we watched two fisherman in a very small fishing boat.  We thought they were crazy being out on the "Big Lake" with a choppy surf and cold temperatures.  We couldn't figure out what the pole was on the front of the boat, but then we realized it was an outrigger to allow them to put more lines into the water.

Here is a photo I took looking west, showing the Porcupine Mountains and the peak we climbed.

Later that night I took my monthly full moon picture.  I then superimposed it on a modified version of the above photo.

Porcupine Mountain State Park -- Post 1

As promised, today I'll start posting the pictures from my time in the Porcupine Mountains, located on the western end of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. I had to head this way to pick up my boxes of purchases from the Quartzite and Tucson shows. Thank you Rirchard Whiteman for facilitating the shipment of my boxes back to Michigan. If any of you go to the Tucson Show, make sure to stop by his store front on the north side of town (Red Metal Minerals). If you are in the Ontonagon area, also stop by the store he and his wife own. It is called the "Gitche Gumee Landing." We tease each other about who owns the real Gitche Gumee. You can find out more about his store at http://www.mackinawinfo.com/storage/pdf_brochures/gitche_gumee_landing.pdf.

My friend, Helen, came with me so we could get some hiking in. I stayed Thursday night in Marquette with Helen and her husband, Jimmy. Then Helen and I headed out early yesterday morning. We picked up the boxes and headed for the Porkies, located 15 miles west. Rather than do one long hike, we decided to do several shorter hikes so we could see more of the park. It was a beautiful sunny day with temperatures rising to near 50.

Yesterday we decided to explore the Lake of the Clouds end of the park.

First we stopped and had lunch.  Here are pictures looking both ways from our picnic table, located on the side of the highway.  The whole day we say less than a half dozen cars.  We basically had the park to ourselves.

We noticed that all of the trees are budding out.

Then we headed to the overlook at the Lake of the Clouds.

Some of the interpretive signs.....

Despite the warning, we did not see any bears.

The view......

If you look close, you will notice the bridge in the middle of the picture that is over the river that feeds the lake.  We decided to hike down to that bridge.

Just as is true near Grand Marais, there are trees down everywhere.  The intense wind we have had this past year or so it taking its toll.  This may be one of the bigger "root balls" I have ever seen.  Of course, these pine trees are growing on rock so it is difficult for the roots to gain any foothold.

A ways down the trail we came to a fork and headed right to the bridge.

It was quite a climb down through a rugged but gorgeous forest.

We sat on this cool Copper Harbor conglomerate rock.  It is just one of many different rock types found in the park, as well as throughout the Keweenaw Peninsula.

Here is a map of some of the rock types.

More trees....

Then we finally reached the bridge.

Here are a couple of shots looking back up to the top of the escarpment.

Spring Dune Hike

It has been a while since I posted Grand Sable Dune pictures, so I decided to include some in today's blog posting. Actually I tried to execute a blog posting this morning while in Marquette, but I couldn't get a workable Internet signal. Right now I am in Ontonogon, MI. I'll post more about this trip, including hikes in the Porcupine Mountains,  in tomorrow's blog posting.

Here are a few shots I took in the dunes.  It is a glorious time of the year to be hiking.

Current Lake Superior condition

For today's blog posting, I decided to research the temperature and level of Lake Superior. Currently, the Lake Superior level is about 25 cm (10 inches) below its long-term average beginning-of-April level, and is 12 cm (five inches) higher than the level recorded a year ago.

This past month the level of Lake Superior rose six cm (two inches), while on average it falls one cm (zero inches) in March.

While researching temperature, I found an article about the change in ice cover during the past few decades. Ice cover on North America’s Great Lakes–Superior, Michigan, Huron, Ontario, and Erie–has declined 71% since 1973, says a new study published in the Journal of Climate by researchers at NOAA’s Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory.

The biggest loser of ice during the 1973 – 2010 time period was Lake Ontario, which saw an 88% decline in ice cover. During the same time period, Superior lost 79% of its ice, Michigan lost 77%, Huron lost 62%, and Erie lost 50%. The loss of ice is due to warming of the lake waters. Winter air temperatures over the lower Great Lake increased by about 2.7°F (1.5°C) from 1973 – 2010, and by 4 – 5°F (2.3 – 2.7°C) over the northern Lakes, including Lake Superior. Lake Superior’s summer surface water temperature warmed 4.5°F (2.5°C) over the period 1979 – 2006 (Austin and Colman 2007).

During the same period, Lake Michigan warmed by about 3.3°F (1.7°C), Lake Huron by 4.3°F (2.4°C), and Lake Erie showed almost no warming. The amount of warming of the waters in Lakes Superior, Huron, and Michigan is higher than one might expect, because of a process called the ice-albedo feedback: when ice melts, it exposes darker water, which absorbs more sunlight, warming the water, forcing even more ice to melt. This sort of vicious cycle is also responsible for the recent extreme loss of Arctic sea ice. The increase in temperature of the lakes could be due to a combination of global warming and natural cycles, the researchers said. They noted a pronounced 4-year and 8-year oscillation in ice coverage, which could be caused by the El Ninño/La Niña and Arctic Oscillation (AO), respectively.

Ice coverage on the Great Lakes was just 5% this past winter, the second lowest on record, behind 2002. The lack of Great Lakes ice this winter probably added a few degrees of warmth to the unprecedented “Summer in March” conditions observed in Michigan this year. The National Weather Service in Detroit called the warm March temperatures “perhaps the most anomalous weather event in Michigan since climate records began 130 years ago.” As a result of the lack of ice cover last winter combined with the warmer than usual spring, we can anticipate that areas surrounding the Great Lakes will see an increased incidence of warm spring weather due to decreased ice cover on the lakes.

The loss of Great Lakes ice has allowed much more water to evaporate in winter, resulting in heavier lake effect snow near the shore, and lower lake levels. Lower water levels have had a significant impact on the Great Lakes economy. Over 200 million tons of cargo are shipped every year through the Great Lakes. Since 1998, when water levels took a severe drop, commercial ships were forced to light-load their vessels. For every inch of clearance that these oceangoing vessels lost because of low water levels, $11,000 – $22,000 in profits were lost per day. Hydro power plants have also been affected by low water levels; several New York and Michigan plants were run at reduced capacity, forcing them to buy higher priced energy from other sources, and passing on the higher costs to consumers.

The large loss of ice is also likely to accelerate shoreline erosion because of the increase in open water, and promote more algal blooms. It is uncertain if the Great Lake water levels will continue to fall as the climate warms, since the region is expected to see an increase in precipitation over the coming decades. In Michigan, annual precipitation increased by about 14% between 1895 – 2011, according to the National Climatic Data Center.

Today's Keweenaw Peninsula Lake Superior Water Temperature is: 2.7 °C (37 °F). This is higher than the normal for today calculated between 1981-2005 -- which is 1.7°C (35°F ).  Lake Superior water temperature has been measured at buoys in the lake since the early 1980s. Such a time period is too short to put the data into an adequate historical context but the tendency of the 20+ year record is certainly upward. Records show that there has been a 4+ degree rise in the last 25 years.

Data sources:
http://www.sootoday.com/content/news/details.asp?c=40868
http://thinkprogress.org/romm/2012/03/31/455612/great-lakes-ice-cover-down-71-since-1973/?mobile=nc
http://www.surf-forecast.com/breaks/Keweenaw-Peninsula/seatemp
http://climate.umn.edu/climatechange/climatechangeobservednu.htm