A Husky Coat

O.K. Let's go back north to Miranda's hike last week out to the Copper Harbor Lighthouse. My brother Don tells me that conditions have changed substantially from last week, but I'll tell you about that in a moment. First, this photo is of Miranda's husky-shepherd Capone working his way down a rock-cut on Hays Point, right in front of the lighthouse. Capone is made for winter. He loves the snow and the cold. He even seeks out the drafts in the Davis's Copper Harbor log cabin to get every bit of chill that he can. I believe he could simply curl up in a drift and live for days without any trouble. But he has trouble in summer, when the weather is too warm for his thick coat. Now, what about this week. Don tells me that a hard east wind shifted the ice off CH loose. But that wind was quickly followed by a hard west wind. The ice on the open lake simply loosened more and blew east. It's nearly all gone. Don says that the ice limit is no more than a quarter-mile off shore today. That's not far for Lake Superior. It hasn't gotten cold enough to make enough ice on to stop the ice from shifting around on the winds. That's the way it goes some winters. And it's those winters that you get a lot of snow, when the lake is open and its water evaporate into clouds that drop snow. And that's just what they're getting this winter, a lot of snow.