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.

80 Years of Snowshoeing

Much time has passed since I took Logan snowshoeing a second time in one weekend some weeks back. Here's a shot from that second expedition in the Michigan woods. This is a photo of (l to r) my brother-in-law Tom Valli and his son Anthony (from Okemos) and me. We are standing on a bluff above the Flat River in the Lowell State Game Area. This park in located east of Grand Rapids about 25 miles and north of the city of Lowell, which is west of Okemos some 50 miles. In the photo, I'm giving you a good view of my old-school snowshoes. I bought these snowshoes when I was in college some 30 years ago. Actually, it was my former father-in-law Stan Van Antwerp, who passed away recently, who bought them for me at a garage sale for $5. They are probably a good 80 years old now. They're made of wood and varnished gut with leather bindings. I've been using them all my adult life. They've been excellent tools, and I expect that they will serve me well for the rest of my life, perhaps another 30 years. The modern aluminum-and-plastic snowshoes are certainly very functional, but I love my old-school shoes.

At the Edge of the Drop-Off

Miranda Davis, my daughter, who lives in Copper Harbor year-round, sent me a great shot from a few days ago of the Copper Harbor Lighthouse. She took her two dogs, Gus and Capone, on a walk out to the light across the harbor, which is now frozen solid. The shot has the perspective of someone standing up high on something, even though it was taken from on the ice of open Lake Superior. Yes, she was standing up on something, the ice piles that form first at the edge of the drop-off in front of Hays Point, which this peninsula is called. It's quite shallow a good two hundred yards from shore here. I'd say that at the spot at the bottom of the photo the depth is only about six feet or so. This shelf, made of solid bedrock (and so advisable for ships to avoid), runs east quite a way east of the point before the bedrock falls steeply off into the channel that forms the shipping entrance to the harbor. Remember when you were a kid and feared the edge of the drop-off in the inland lakes your parents took you to. There was a drop-off on Sylvan Lake, outside Pontiac, MI, where my Kilpela grandparents lived for many decades when I was a child and teenager. It was always pleasurably spooky to swim to the edge and then dive down for a peek in the dark murkiness. At this drop-off there is no murkiness. The water is stunningly crystal clear. But I've got to admit that I don't quite get the same chilling rush when I swim or paddle out here, as I have done often over the years. Drop-offs don't scare me much any longer. For a ship's captain, it's the "come-ups" that give one the chills, naturally. Thanks, Mir, my nickname for her, which has spread. I'll post another shot from her soon.

A Dunking

I mentioned Logan's escapades along the Red Cedar River in Okemos last week, and here is the evidence. Log is standing on the ice at the edge of the river. Well, he's no longer standing on it. He's standing beneath it, for right at the edge of the river, at the foot of a short but steep embankment, he went through the mushy ice and hit bottom with on of his brand-new snowshoes, the new high-tech kind, made of aluminum and hard plastic and rubber. I was thinking of the incident as a problem (not enough of a problem NOT to takle a photo, of course), for if I had dunked my old wooden snowshoes (which I will show you in a photo coming soon), I might have had to spend a good ten minutes or more knocking all the ice off them, if not abandoning them altogether. But though Log repeatedly dunked one of the snowshoes he was wearing into the muddy river water, trying to get out, when he did get out, all he had to do was give the shoe a couple of stomps and the ice all fell away. How nice. His other snowshoe went through the ice as well but had found support just above the level of the river on a large fallen branch. We continued our hike for another hour or so.

A Turn in the Red Cedar

Cousin Kev Koski, on a trip around the world by bicycle, asked for more shots of the MSU campus, and I am willing to oblige, bit by bit. First, I should finally put up a link to Kev's wonderful blog, which I encourage all to read:

http://www.kevinkoski.com/blog/

For you Kev, here's a shot I took recently, just a few days ago actually, on campus. Can you believe this scene can be found in the midst of the small city that is Michigan State University. Some 25,000 people live on campus. An additional 12,000 work on campus every week day, and yet another 20,000 students live just off campus in the surrounding city of East Lansing. This is the Red Cedar River, which runs through the middle of MSU and through a couple of very nice natural areas. It mostly follows a straight course, but it does take a couple of dramatic turns in a couple corners of campus. I will give a special prize (what? a big kiss?) to anyone who can identify the location within, say, a couple hundred yards. I know that there are a few readers of this blog who lived on campus at one time or another, some for a long time, though for many it was a long time ago. But that should not be a problem. This location hasn't changed much in 75 years.

Red Cedar Snow-Shoeing

A few weeks back I told you that I was going to take Logan snow-shoeing in the near future, and we did go out a a couple times a couple weekends ago. We've had other opportunities, but, believe it or not, the weather has been downright frigid and dangerously windy. This shot is from a hike we took in Legg Park, which is a Meridian Township park a few miles from our home in Okemos. It's a place I have explored and photographed on dozens of occasions over the years. The boys and I have taken many walks along this river. I even hiked here with Miranda many times in the past. I wonder how much she remembers of those hikes. The Red Cedar River is pictured here. Before going through the MSU campus and meeting up with the Grand River on its way to Lake Michigan, the Red Cedar courses through this park and Riverfront Park next door. Log is standing in his new high-tech snowshoes on a shelf of ice on the river. No need to worry. The ice was pretty thick and the river rather shallow at this location. I will put up a shot of Log's plunge into the river at another location in the very near future.

The Family

O.K., let's conclude this recent series of Copper Harbor photos with a shot of my family. That's me on the left, Captain Ben. Then there is Drew, my wife Marsha, Logan, Miranda Davis, holding her dog Capone, the husky-shepherd, Gus, and then Art, my son-in-law. We are posed at the entrance to the Copper Harbor Marina on the west end of town on New Year's Eve. Winter has gone into full swing since we left a couple days after this photo was taken. The snow squalls have been rolling over Copper Harbor day after day after day, and it looks as though skiing and snowmobiling conditions are downright superb. Head on up for a weekend. Motels are open, and the Gaslight General Store, and the Pines Restaurant, the Mariner, and the Tamarack. I hear the store has an excellent wine selection of you want to add a little romance to your evenings. I'm not much for wine, so you'll have to trust second-hand reports. Lots of winter fun to be had. Don't wait. I'm making myself eager to get back up there as I write this. I just bought Logan a new pair of snowshoes. We're gonna take them for a spin down here in southern Lower Michigan this weekend. I'll post some photos of that soon.

A Stillness on the Harbor

Another glorious winter's day in Copper Harbor. This shot was taken on a sunny afternoon, all too close to sunset, on the trail out to Hunters Point. I was standing just about directly across the harbor from the Copper Harbor Marina. That's the East Bluff in the distance on the right hand side of the photo, and Porters Island in the distance on the left. The Copper Harbor Lighthouse, which is about a mile and a half away, is not quite visible, blocked by that point of land on Porters Island. Again, note the dusting of light snow on the very thin ice in the middle distance of the photo. I'm just about to the end of the photos I have selected from our visit to Copper Harbor over the New Year week. Stay tuned for one more shot from that time.

Caged in Ice

My son-in-law Art Davis was behaving like an animal and caged himself on the Lake Superior shore recently. The roof of the cage was made of an ice cap that overhung a small, shallow cave in the bedrock along the coast. The bars were made of ice formed by the ever pounding waves and ever whistling winds of Superior. My son Drew took on the role of handler trying to subdue the trapped wild beast. But, alas, ice does not make a good cage, and Art was able to break out quite easily. The boys were messing around on a small island outside Copper Harbor. Actually, this outcropping of ancient volcanic rock is now a small peninsula. It was an islet some years back, when lake levels were much higher.

Superior Shoreline

This shot is of an ice cap at the Hunters Point Preserve, on Lake Superior immediately outside Copper Harbor and directly across the harbor from the Isle Royale Queen IV dock. As I've said, the family took several hikes out to Hunters Point during the New Year holiday week. The conditions were perfect for every hike. I see today, however, that conditions are pretty poor for a hike to Hunters, with heavy snow and a sharp wind blowing up in the Keweenaw.

Ice Forming

My Dad, Captain Don Kilpela, wrote to me from Copper Harbor yesterday to say that he had been watching an amazing sight on Wednesday morning. The winds along the Keweenaw Peninsula were amazingly calm on Wednesday. Don said he was actually seeing the surface of the harbor gradually freeze in the morning stillness. He sent me two photos of the event that he took from the Isle Royale Queen IV dock, the first looking west, the second looking north. You can see that the harbor has not frozen much yet, which is quite unusual over all time, but not so uncommon in recent years.

But my, how things can change. From the copperharbor.org web site I copied this shot of Copper Harbor from the Jamsen's Fishhouse next door to the Queen dock yesterday, Thursday, and look how the weather has turned.

Home Is Where the Blizzard Is

Marsha, Drew, and I stopped by our Copper Harbor house while up north over the New Year week. The house is all closed up for the winter, of course, but Marsha had a couple of things she needed to pick up. The shot was taken on New Year's Day, when we had one of those Upper Peninsula blizzards that are localized strikes that can occur anywhere in the region. This day, after several days of perfect winter weather, the local blizzard blasted the Keweenaw while the rest of the U.P. had mild weather. (Downstate, we heard later, had gotten socked with 9 inches of snow the night before, New YHear's Eve. We returned home to Okemos two days later to find all 9 inches waiting to be shoveled out of our large driveway.) This picture is of Drew standing near the picture window in the cabin. You can see the blizzard raging on outside. The temp inside was about 25 degrees. No chance of snow melting off your shoulders inside on this day. We have to be careful not to drag too much snow inside on our clothing, for it will all melt in spring.

Ice Caps

The family took several hikes out to Hunters Point during our stay in Copper Harbor over New Year's week, as you have no doubt surmised from the shots of the Hunters Point Preserve I have already posted this week and last. On one hike we ran across a number of beautiful and fascinating ice formations, such as the one the family is examining in this photo. That's Miranda Davis, my daughter, kneeling on the left, with Drew standing next to her, and then Art, her husband, and Marsha. We were all taking a close look at this ice cap, which Lake Superior had elegantly constructed with its waves and winds. Ice caps are especially nice early in winter. Later in the season, the formations get covered in snow as the lake freezes farther and farther away from shore. In the distance, take note of the last visible point of land. That's not Hunters Point. It's a rocky point in the center of Porters Island, about a half mile from where we stand. Now, here's a close up of some of the icicles hanging from the ice cap pictured above:

Homes

The trail to Hunters Point, which we walked several times during our week up north over the New Year, has many nice views across Copper Harbor to the waterfront of the village of Copper Harbor. This photo is of my 12-year-old Andrew standing on the shore near the trail. In the distance is the center of the village. On the left the arrow is pointing at the Isle Royale Queen IV dock, where my parents live, Don and Betty Kilpela. Their home is above the offices of the Queen IV. This is where I work every summer with my brothers in operating the ferry service to Isle Royale National Park, as our family has done for 37 years. On the right the arrow is pointing at the location of Ben and Marsha Kilpela's house in Copper Harbor, which is a block away from the waterfront and can't be seen through the trees. Note that the harbor was free of ice at the New Year. Also take note of that thin ice shelf extending out from the south shore of the harbor. The paper-thin ice was lightly dusted with snow from one of those brief snow showers that pass Copper Harbor all season long. Drew was searching for artifacts and good stones along the shore. My son-in-law Art Davis, year-round CH resident, has got him interested in collecting bottles and electrical insulators, in addition to all his other collecting interests.

Hunters Point Preserve

There was news this fall about the piece of valuable and beautiful property pictured here, the west end of Copper Harbor (next door to the state marina), which has been successfully purchased to become part of Grant Township's Hunters Point Preserve. The Preserve now extends from the point, in the center of the harbor, all the way west around the end of the harbor, south across the highway, and on up the side of Brockway Mountain just west of town. The photo shows the ice forming onje evening on the shallows at the west end of the harbor the day before New Year's Eve. One of the trails out to the point follows this shoreline. I am a bit of a outdoors libertarian and am loath to sound like a preacher, but we must all work together to keep the Hunters Point park as beautiful and pristine as possible. It's getting lots more foot traffic as a result of all the publicity that came with the fund-raising for and purchase of the property to preserve it from development. But this has meant that the park has been getting some rough use at the hands and feet of some visitors. I encourage you to join together in doing our cooperative best to keep this place as beautiful as it has always been. See this web site for more information on the preserve and its fund-raising activities:

http://www.hunters-point.org/

Ice Overhang

My cousin and good friend Bob Orton is pictured in this shot, standing with my son Drew on the edge of an ice shelf on Sedar Bay, a wide, shallow indentation in the northern coast of the Keweenaw Peninsula about 30 miles southwest of Copper Harbor. My boys and I visited Bob on December 30 at his house on Sedar Bay and took a walk along the lakeshore in the early evening as the sun was going down -- before 5:00! It's was a very nice evening. Not very cold. No wind to speak of. Take note of the way in which the neverending waves of the calmer periods keep undercutting the ice that the lake builds on shore during the colder, windier periods. These ice formations can build far out on the lake in a long cold-snap, and sometimes can be found miles off the coast. But it was only the immediate shore that was encased in ice this night on Lake Superior in early winter. Drew had no fears of the shelf breaking under his weight, for he doesn't add much to the considerable mass of the ice he's standing on. But it is true that the lake will eventually undercut the ice so much that it will break off and fall of its own weight back into the waves. We found many of these large broken blocks being slowly broken apart into even smaller chunks that evening. You can see a couple of these giant blocks that have broken off in the near distance behind Drew.

Snowfall

Logan, my 15-year-old, served as my gopher when we went on that snowshoeing hike along the southside of Lake Fanny Hooe during the New Year week, which I discussed in one of my previous posts. The principal task I gave him was knocking the snow piled on branches, as on these well-laden cedar trees. Can you see Log amid the clumps of falling snow? I need this done to protect my camera, which has too often gotten wet from snow-clumps dropping onto it when I happen to bump a branch. We were going through these cedars because I was trying to get into position from some good shots of the Manganese River, which was tumbling along on the day of our hike, since the temps were in the mid- to high 20s.

The result of the tasks I gave Logan is illustrated in the second photo, in which Log shows off the snow that has collected on his head and shoulders. He doesn't seem to mind the snow piling up on him. He doesn't even seem to notice much, since he has that shaggy head of hair, of which he is certainly as proud as Samson (as I once was of my shaggy mane in the days of my youth). Good job Logan. I was glad you were on duty. I got some good shots of the river, too, which I might post. That will have to come after some other shots I have ready to go up.

Icicles

The weather was, indeed, very nice during our stay in Copper Harbor over the New Year this season (highs in the mid-20s and lows in the teens). Here's a shot of my 12-year-old son Andrew snapping icicles hanging from the eaves of the Davis cabin in town. Art and Miranda Davis, daughter and son-in-law to me, live in the oldest still-inhabited building in the village, built in the 1880s, if I recall correctly. (I am sure Art will correct me if I am wrong, so check the comments to this post if you have doubts.) It has always been strange to me that it can snow so hard for so long in the Keweenaw, such as it did for two weeks in mid-December this year, when the area received about three feet of snowfall. And then the snow-machine will stop because of a slight alteration in the continental weather pattern, and there will be no snow for weeks on end. That was the case just before the New Year, despite the comfortable cold. And now, yesterday, January 8, Miranda reported that there was some light rain in Copper Harbor. That has happened much more frequently in midwinter in the past decade. Something is obviously up with the weather, whether it's something for good or ill. I spoke of this last year on this blog, global warming. The consensus seems even more solid that it is occuring. But I have been reading some articles that make the claim that its results will not be all that terrible. The debate goes on.

Rocks and Winter Waves

Marsha and I took a drive down the Superior lakeshore at the top of Michigan (west of Copper Harbor) just before the New Year. It was a windy day, though relatively warm. We made several stops along the way, but the wind kept us from staying long in any one place. This shot captures one small scene along the shore. It was taken in Esry Park, a Keweenaw County roadside turnout at Agate Harbor, which is about eight miles west of Copper Harbor. The photo fails to capture the sharp, bone-numbing cold we felt on that day. We were bundled tight with the latest high-tech clothing, but still the unusually damp air stabbed at us. As I say, it was even that cold, in the high 20s on that day. It was a fine day to be looking at the ice sculptures that nature creates all winter long.

Snowshoeing

I mentioned in my last post that snowshoeing is on the rise in the Keweenaw, and here's some proof, Miranda Davis and Logan Kilpela on snowshoes on the Kamakazi Trail on the south side of Lake Fanny Hooe just outside Copper Harbor. I never thought I'd see the day when Miranda would be on snowshoes regularly, but she and Art have taken up the envigorating sport with determination. Logan is wearing Art's shoes, by the way, since I didn't bring up my pair for him to wear. It was a beautiful walk along the shores of Fanny Hooe on this day. I didn't make it far myself. I have been hobbling around inside and out because I've had a stress fracture in my left foot that I am trying to heal. But I managed to limp my way along the trail slowly.