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Feb 26-
I'm back, with
pictures and stories. Before I get into things, I got a note from
the folks at the store and they were able to downsize the video that was
played at the ride-in a bit and have a link to it here: www.johndeestore.com/thinksnow.wmv
I'm bit tired, so I
am not sure how long winded I will get. But I guess short and sweet
can be good too. I got lots of riding in this weekend. Probably as
much this weekend as in any other- except for maybe the weekend we were
doing the video shooting. Conditions are still about as good as they
have been all season. The snow is plenty deep and the fresh stuff we picked
up later last week was enough to cover most of the tracks we put in on
Tuesday. I had my good friend from high school Mike come up again.
With the snow so deep he rode the 700 all weekend while I was on the 8.
We both still managed to get stuck more than once!
Actually I figured
with the snow being so deep that maybe we should not go out as just a pair.
It is a lot of work for just two persons to dig out a sled. Three
is better and actually as many as 5 can be kind of nice, depending on the
situation of the stuck sled. Anyway, I got us into a couple of KSE rides
going out this weekend. An afternoon ride on Saturday and an all day ride
today. On Saturday, Mike and I did a little riding by ourselves.
We headed to a field to get in a little carving and for having much practice
at it, Mike is really
getting the hang of it. The spot we were playing in had about the perfect
amount of snow for carving, which to me is at least 18" of soft powdery
snow. After carving for a while we headed over to the gully I was talking
about in the last entry. If you remember, I talked about a creek
that ran through the middle of the gully. The snow was so deep in there
that it was almost like a trap, it looks like just a little low spot in
the snow, but you get into it and all the snow collapses and will just
suck a sled right in. Mike found out just how
well that creek will eat a sled. He was standing in the creek bed in
that last shot, that's how deep the snow is in that gully.
We had a few more stucks
to get out of that morning and I did not want to wear us out before we
even got going in the KSE ride. Plus it was getting towards lunch time,
so we hopped home and had lunch with Nora, dried out and rested a bit and
then headed over to meet up with the KSE ride at the gas station in town.
The KSE ride was lots of fun. Lots of digouts, but still lots of fun. My
arms felt like Jell-O at the end of the day and when I closed my eyes to
go to sleep, all I could see in my mind were ski loops belonging to sleds
that needed to be pulled out! Thankfully they were just visions at
that point and I was able to get to sleep and I do not believe I dreamt
of any sleds that needed to be pulled out!
Today we met up with
Al and his KSE ride at the usual 10 am starting time. Since I do not do
the bookings for KSE and am not even a guide with them this season, I never
know who the clients are they taking out. It turns out that Al's group
for today was Al from the Hiawatha Motor Lodge in Eagle River along with
some of his buddies like Trackside Greg, Groomer John and Jim, as well
as some others who I went ahead and forgot the names of, sorry guys!
It did not take long at all to see that this crew were well versed in how
to ride a snowmobile. We hit some play spots and all were carving their
sleds with excellent results. Here is a shot of Al
(KSE guide Al) carving his big ol' Mountain Cat 162. Plenty of
snow out there for that long track as well as my 159 to lay it over.
There were also two in the group that liked very much to jump and were
quite good at it! Here is Trackside
Greg catching some air. They asked Al if there were any "road jumps"
around and while Al did not have any road jumps, he did know of a jump
on a logging road they might like. Actually what it is is two berms
in the middle of the road with a deep pit in between. The berms are probably
about 15-20 feet apart and from the top of the burms to the bottom of the
pit is is probably about 10 feet, so falling into the pit is not something
you want to do. I will just mention that there are many of these
berm/pits out on the logging roads up here, so if you find yourself out
on a logging road and see what looks to be a nice little hill to do a little
jumping off of, be sure you know what is on the other side of it.
Go into that pit and you will be lucky to get out yourself and your sled
is probably not coming out and I have heard about a sled going in and staying
in until they could get a wrecker out there in the spring to haul the sled
out.
Anyway, we got to this
particular burm/pit and they jumpers surveyed
the setup and deemed it was in fact jump able. So Greg
was first to take a run at it and cleared the far side berm with plenty
of room to spare. Jim
was next and also cleared the jump with plenty of room to spare.
They took turns jumping it until most of the nice fluffy snow to land in
had been beat down and we moved on. I did get some quick movies of them
jumping. Here
is Greg and here
is Jim. They made it look so easy that for a minute I thought
about taking a run at it and then realized I do not jump anymore. I think
it was a good thing that my voice of reason took over. Even if I had made
the jump, if Nora would have found out, she would be selling the sleds
to the first bidder! She is pretty smart in things of that nature
and things of all nature!
After the jumping we
tried our hand at some Keweenaw Boondocking (where you make your own trail).
That was attempted last Tuesday and I wrote a little bit about the results
that day. Today's Keweenaw Boondocking had somewhat similar results. The
snow is a little more setup than it was on Tuesday, but is still deep and
there are the occasional holes that one can fall into, as Al
found out here. I will add that at the same time Al was stuck
I counted 3 other sleds with their rear ends augured in and their noses
pointed to the tree tops! Some were even wise enough not to go into
the thickets.
We got all the sleds
out of the thickets and figured since many got good and stuck on the flats,
that the hills might be a fun thing to try. Al led the way to some of our
play hills and climbed to the top. A few others made the attempt and all
made it. By the time I got my chance the snow was all nice and packed down
and I looked around for a line to take of my own. I spotted one and
headed for the top.
I have been really
happy with the way the 800 has been performing all season long. Lots of
power and that 159" track really has made me look like a better rider than
I am. However, there has been one nagging issue all season as well and
that has been it tends to load up at idle. I have been working on the issue
and in fact on yesterday's ride I never really encountered too many problems.
Most of the time it is not that much of a problem as it clears out once
I hit 1/2 throttle for a few seconds. However, the bog caused by
the loading up does have it's moments when it is not welcomed and my attempt
up this particular hill was one of them. Right when I went to get on the
throttle to build momentum to climb the hill, all I got was a nasty sound
like the sled was trying to clear it's throat and about 6500 on the tach.
Not the kind of RPM's wanted to try and build momentum. I was kind
of hoping that it would clear itself out in time to still make the hill,
but just took a second or so too long. By the time it did clear itself
out, it was too late and all I could do was pray for a miracle. To
make this long story short, I did not make the hill. I did get my RPM's
back, but too late. So here is my
sled nice and augured in on the hill. Had I made it another 6-8 feet
I would have hit a plateau and would probably have been able to gain speed
and momentum enough to make the rest of the hill. I wished I had made the
plateau, but as they say, you can wish in one hand and ----- in the other
and see which one fills up first! You can even see all the crud my
engine was blowing out as I was climbing up the hill (the darker snow on
the right hand side of the trench near the bottom of the photo).
I guess I can be a little proud of my 4 foot deep trench! I tried
another hill (3 times) and finally decided to let the mountain win this
time. That particular path has been tried before and with little to no
luck- at least on the first attempt and probably not in snow like we had
today. So I am not too disappointed I did not make it on that one
and want to thank Mike and Jim for helping me get my sled off the hill
all 3 times!!!
After the hill climbing
we rode logging roads for a while and then got to another jumping location.
I was not even tempted in this spot as the jumps here are either too small
to even draw my attention or WAY to big for me to even think of considering
to try. The big air boys (Greg and Jim) did have fun catching big air and
here is a shot of Jim
climbing to his cruising altitude. I did not capture it on camera,
but one of the jumps that Greg made in that same spot was just as impressive.
Did I mention that those guys liked to jump and were quite good at it?
After that bit of jumping
we headed over to get some food and thaw out for a while. It was actually
about 3:30 and by the time we finished our lunch, it was late enough for
Mike and I to break off from the group and had home. He wanted to leave
late this afternoon to head to Rhinelander to ride with a friend for a
day or two before heading back home. So we made it home safe and
sound. I am a pretty worn out pup, but hope to get in some more riding
this week. Burt's paw is still of some concern to me and hopefully
he will not need surgery. If so, that will put the nix on any riding
I had hoped to do until next weekend when Nora can be with him while he
recovers from the surgery. In any case, I am a tired, but happy boy and
will sleep well tonight.
Good night from the Keweenaw..
-JD
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Feb 22-
The snow is
finally ankle deep up here... If you go in head first! 45" in the past
10 days and 207.5 for the season at my house. Other official measuring
sites are over 240" for the season, which is also the seasonal average
for some of those spots. I recorded my deepest snow depth of the season
so far yesterday morning at 40" and there is about 4 feet up at the property
and easily 5-6 feet in the woods. I cannot even remember a day when we
did not have at least a trace of snow. Monday night we got just hammered
for a few hours. It snowed off and on for most of the day on Monday, but
not much accumulation. The about 7 pm it became steadier and by about 8
pm when I was heading off to sleep, we had picked up about 1/2".
At about 10:30 Burt had to go out so I let him out the back. We have motion
detection lights in the back and when they went off it was like someone
was shining a spotlight right back at me. The light from the motion floods
was reflecting off all the snowflakes in the air it was a true whiteout.
It seemed like Burt was trudging through quite a bit of fresh snow, so
I looked over at the snow station and saw that about 8-9" had come down.
That means that about 8-9" had fallen in just 2 1/2 hours! I know
when Burt came back into the house after only about 2 minutes there was
close to 1/2" of snow on his back.
I tried to get back
to sleep, but was not successful. I was actually hoping that we could stay
in that snowfall rate for another couple of hours and end up with 2 feet
or so of fresh powder by morning. I decided to go into the office and go
through some of the e mail notifications from the General Discussions as
well as see if I could tell how long the heavy snow might keep up. The
LES clouds producing the snow were obscured by higher clouds and the radar
is pretty useless for detecting LES- much of the Keweenaw did not even
have radar returns over it! So it was just up to mother nature to decide
when it was time to lighten up the snowfall. By about midnight the snow
was starting to lighten up and there was 11" new on the snow station. By
about 1 the snow had stopped completely. I was eventually able to get back
to sleep, but it was a short night for me!
So it is deep up here.
Keweenaw deep. If you would like to know how much snow has fallen since
about mid December, here
is your answer. The last time I used the snowmobile trailer was mid
December and I have not moved it or removed snow from it since. I
suppose I will have to pretty soon just to be sure that it does not collapse.
However, it is rated to 1200 lbs and the snow is not that heavy.
By the looks of our roof, it will need it soon. I think I will probably
wait until next week, maybe longer, depending on the weather. If
we get a lot of snow in the next week, then for sure. However, if
we don't get a lot then I would like to wait until the second week in March.
The sun gets to be so strong that it will pretty much melt any new snow
that accumulates on the roof unless we get a huge storm. Plus the snow
does insulate the roof some and I would like to take advantage of that
insulation for as long as I can.
Snows like we
had Monday night and the snowcover we had Tuesday morning are what I moved
here for and I could not pass up the opportunity to play in it. I figured
even if I could not find anyone to ride with me I was going to head off
into some fields and do some carving. My first call was to Brian and he
needed no arm twisting to head out for a ride. So after my work was done
for the day, I met up with him, Matt, Kenny, Chico and another guy who
I had never met before for some snowplay. I cannot break free until the
afternoon, so they had already been playing for an hour or two by the time
I met up with them. Long enough for Matt to blow a belt!
There is an area not
far from Lake Linden where there are some hills and gullies. Nothing
too large, probably about 50 feet from bottom to top, but most of the hills
are quite steep and like just about all the terrain around here there are
trees to have to work around. I'm not going to say the name that we call
this area as it might give it away, and good play spots are like good fishing
holes, you just don't give them out to everyone and in my case in this
journal, that would be just about everyone! Anyway, the gullies were
our first play spot for the day and they were fun. I can remember seeing
these gullies when I first moved here and seeing some tracks in them and
thinking the folks going in there must be nuts! Now they really are
no big deal to me. Just a place to go have some fun for a while,
especially when the snow is deep. Funny how your perspective on things
can change as your confidence level changes. Here is a shot of Kenny
riding up a section of the gully. Oh, did I mention that a creek
flows through the bottom of the gully? Just a little something to make
your run up the other side a little more interesting! When the snow
is deep in the gully it makes hopping over the creek easier, but never
a no brainer. Here is Brian
hopping across the creek. My next shot is of Matt
climbing up out of the gully. Don't know why the framing on that
one was so poor, you can only see about 1/3rd of the hill and Matt is so
far away. Not sure if Matt made that climb either. I think just about
everyone ended up getting stuck at least once.
After the gully, we
headed through some fields a few logging roads and then some more fields.
Then Brian decided to take us on a bushwhacking adventure. No logging road,
no skidder trail, not even a footpath. You just find a path wide
enough to get your sled through and go. It's a fun thing to do most
of the time, but in conditions like we had yesterday it became a case of
"let's get the heck out of here!" quickly. We all got stuck multiple
times. The snow in the woods was very deep and in spots small trees or
even brush was holding the snow up and was super deep and super soft. I
know on one of my stucks, I was riding long when all of the sudden it seemed
like I just fell into a hole. The snow being held up by the brush just
collapsed and when I went to get off my sled I sunk up to my chest. The
sled was pretty much on the level and not stuck too bad, but try working
to get your sled unstuck when your eyes are level with the seat!
Here is Brian giving
us an example of that! I REALLY felt sorry for the guys with
the short tracks! They rode in the back and stayed in our tracks,
but at times the trenches we were leaving for them were 2-3 feet deep.
I think that is why they quit and headed to the bar soon after that little
bit of bushwhacking!
Brian goal was to get
us to a logging road that he had found once before and we
did eventually reach that goal. I was the first one out of the thickets
and stopped to catch my breath, cool off and snap a shot of the
800 taking a break too. Here is a shot of Brian
emerging from the thickets. The snow was not as deep on the logging
road, in fact in that last shot you can see how it is about 1 1/2 to 2
feet deeper in the woods behind Brian than it was on the logging road.
Really strange how the snow is kept from settling so much in the thickets
like that. The "shallower" snow on the logging roads was still plenty
deep and tons of fun. Kenny was running low on gas so he left with
the short tracks and that just left Matt, Brian and I. We played
on some more logging roads and did a bit of hill climbing through the trees.
Both Matt and Brian got stuck and I somehow managed to avoid that fate,
but still got to partake in the fun of walking a hundred yards or so to
Matt's sled to help him out. I think I can say that my heart is doing
just fine. I was huffing and puffing, but did fine. Whoever
says snowmobiling is not exercise has never ridden with us! It stays
light until about 7 pm these days, but Brian needed to get home earlier
than that, so he and Matt split off to go to his house and I took some
fields home to Lake Linden. I do not like to ride in the backcountry too
far by myself, but I took it easy and had I broken down or something I
would never have been too far from a road. Plus I had my cell phone.
I made it home safe
and sound. The ride was a blast and the snow about as good as it gets.
The funny thing is that I am so spoiled up here that this ride may not
even turn out to be one to remember. I suppose we will all remember
our trip through the thickets for some time, but we usually get to ride
in stuff like this several times a year and the best part is all I had
to do was open my garage door up and ride. Sorry, I just had to twist
the knife!
Today, Burt and I took
a ride in the Blazer for our afternoon adventure. He has a problem with
his paw and needs to keep it dry. We have a booty for him, but sometimes
his paw still gets wet, or it falls off, so I decided to play it safe and
just take a quick tour of the region and take some shots of how the snow
has transformed things. This first shot is of the
snowbanks in my neighborhood. That is a Ford Explorer behind the snowbank.
The banks are about as big as I have seen them in a few years. I
know the year I broke my leg they got pretty big too. That year we went
over 300". I'll keep my fingers crossed! Burt and I headed up the
valley and came across an
old log cabin draped in the winters snowfall (fsv).
Makes me wonder how long that has been there and what it was built for.
It really seems too small to live in, but not really designed for storage.
Up the road a piece we came across some mail
boxes that have been entombed in snow, but still functional!
We traveled up the
valley a bit more and came across a
camper that should really have the snow removed from it's roof if they
want it to have a roof and sides much longer. There was about 5 feet of
snow on top of it! I decided to swing by the property to check on
things there. All was well. About a foot of snow on the roof of the shop
and I am not sure if it will need to be cleared again this season. I am
hoping so, because I want to get a video of the process, but don't think
it will be as impressive unless there is 2 foot + of snow on it.
My neighbor up there keeps some heavy equipment on his property and
here is a shot of his
dump truck frosted in 3-4 feet of snow. Burt and I then started heading
back to Lake Linden, but initially took the road less traveled to enjoy
the
scenery a bit more (fsv).
That will be one of our walking roads once we move up to the property.
Lucky, lucky us! We ended up getting on Hwy 41 and I wanted to see how
big the snowbanks were in Calumet. They always have some doozies
and this year is no different. Hwy 41 is starting to get that canyon
effect. I cannot wait to see what they do in a really big snow year!
Heck I can't wait to see what everyone does in a really big snow year!
Maybe I just want to see a really big snow year!!! My last shot of
the day and this entry is of the Laurium
Glacier. No the contest has not started yet. I will get that
going in a few weeks, but thought you all might like to get a peak at it.
Looking good!
So I think that about
wraps it up for this one. It's funny though as I was taking the pictures
today I thought to myself that if I were not forcing myself to look through
the eyes of someone that would be amazed at the snow scenes around this
area, I would just be taking it all in stride as another winter in the
Keweenaw. That is pretty much how everyone up here is taking it. Of course
it's closing in on March and even with a big March the light at the end
of the tunnel for the non snow lovers is growing brighter. That means I
may only have 7 or 8 more weeks of riding left. I better get busy!
Good night from the Keweenaw..
-JD
-
Feb 19-
Well, the first
ever JohnDee.com SnowFest Ride is in the books and I'd have to say that
it was a success. Brian took folks out into the back country Thursday,
Dave
and Lori Sleeman of the Wildlife Refuge Cabins took folks out Friday and
Al and I took folks out yesterday. A lot of the riders opted to stick to
the trails and either went out in the groups they came up with or paired
up and headed out for a day of riding. The weather could have cooperated
just a bit better. Plenty of snow, but Friday was a blizzard up here
with heavy snow, strong winds and very cold temps. Saturday had plenty
of snow falling too, but the winds died down to a more respectable level,
but Saturday was also quite cold, with early morning temps below zero and
daytime highs in the low double digits. I actually was comfortable
all day riding Saturday and with the exception of a fouled spark plug,
did not have any equipment problems. My group of 10 also did not seem to
have any comfort issues and with the exception of 2 sleds having froze
carbs or something to that effect right at the beginning of the ride, did
not have any equipment problems. We even made less pit stops than I thought
we would need to. I think because the afternoon temps did rise into the
low double digits allowed us to remain outdoors for most of the afternoon.
We did ride the trails a bit as well and for a weekend, they were about
as good as it gets. I did not encounter one single trail that was
not in good to excellent condition and in fact the only bumpy part of the
ride was one section of off trail stuff that was pretty bad. To the best
of my knowledge there were no accidents during the ride in event. I did
hear about one pre-ride in accident, but both rider and sled were not seriously
injured. I brought my camera along for the ride, but the combination of
not freshly charged batteries and the cold caused my camera to give up
the ghost, so I was not able to get any shots of the ride Saturday.
The Saturday evening
events also seemed to go very well. Folks
gathered in the Upper Deck Restaurant in the Ramada Inn close to 7.
I gave a quick welcoming speech and thanked John Stachler, Lori Sleeman
and her friend Cathy for all of their help in planning and organizing the
event. After my brief gibbering, we
all got down to the order of eating. There was a salad and rolls, as
well as roast beef, chicken, vegetables, rice, mashed potatoes and gravy,
plus cookies for desert. I saw a whole lot of empty plates when folks were
finished eating so either the food was good or folks were very hungry or
both. I know in my case it was both.
Once dinner was finished,
we moved on to the raffle. The participants in the ride- in were all very
generous and I think we ended up selling about 1500 raffle tickets. We
sold an arm's length for 5 dollars. The total receipts have not been counted
up yet, but there was an envelope with a lot of money in it at the end
of the night! Here is a shot of John
S and an unnamed participant at the raffle bucket. We had a ton of
raffle prizes and while everyone may not have ended up with a prize, I
think there were very few that did not and I also know of several folks
that won many prizes. There was also a
silent auction which was for some of the more expensive prizes donated
to the ride in, things like an Apple Ipod, Satellite Radio and Klim Snowmobile
Gloves. Again, I do not know how much was raised by the silent auction
and I did not really have any firm goal in mind when it was decided to
have this ride in. All I wanted to do was to help out a worthy charity
and that mission was accomplished. I will have final numbers in fairly
soon and will let you all know how much was raised by your fellow JohnDee'rs.
Every participant was given a
long sleeved t-shirt to remember the event by as well. My thanks
to the folks at the JohnDee Store for making that happen.
Before we closed the
event out, I was treated to several very nice surprises. The first
was a video presentation put together by the folks at the JohnDee Store.
It really was a great piece and was all I could do to keep myself together
as all the images of my life in the past 7 years flashed before my eyes.
As if I needed anything else to cause me to fight back the tears, I was
then presented with a
painting done by Lori Sleeman of Baileys. The final surprise
of the night was a
custom ThinkSnow hat that the folks at the JohnDee Store made up for
me.
It was a bit sad to
then announce that the very first JohnDee.com SnowFest Ride in had come
to a close. It was great to be able to meet so many of you that visit
this site and barring any major disaster, there will be a second annual
ride in next year. Bigger and better. In fact as I lie awake
this morning in bed, I came up with a neat activity that would be fun for
anyone/everyone to participate in next year. I do not want to give
up details of the plans for next years ride in just yet. I want to
make sure that they are something that can be pulled off, but I can say
the one detail that will chance is that there will be no limit to the amount
of persons that can register. We kept it small this first one just
so that we could manage it and learn from it, but next year will be open
to one and all.
Before I close I want
to say two things. First, for anyone still wanting to make a donation
to the Make-A-Wish Foundation in the name of the First Annual SnowFest
Ride In, you may still go to the registration page and make your contribution
of any amount through the rest of this month. You will not be able
to receive a t-shirt, but you will have my gratitude and also be helping
to make a persons final wish in life come true. The final thing I would
like to say is thank you to all that made this possible and thank you to
the following for their contributions: Advance Tech Auto Repair, Baraga
County Snowdrifters, Black Bear Cabins, Butch Adams Woodworks, Car Quest,
Copper Country Ford, CrashedToys.com, Curves, Daily Mining Gazette, Dan’s
Polaris, Dreamland Hotel, Everts Motor Sales, 41 Lumber , Green Bay Police
Dept, Keweenaw Automotive, Keweenaw Chamber of Commerce, Keweenaw Motor
Sports, Klim Aggressive Sled Wear, Krupps Mini Mart, Krupps Resort, M&M
Sports, Napa Auto Parts, Pat's Yamaha, Pepsi of Houghton, Ramada Inn, Sounds
& Motion, Superior Snowmobile Club, Superior Travel, Toivola Lunch,
Upper Deck Restaurant, Wildlife Refuge Cabins. There were also some participants
that brought prizes for the auction/raffle and I am very sorry, but I did
not get your information, please forgive me, but thanks!!!
Good night from the Keweenaw..
-JD
-
Feb 16-
Sometimes when
I start out by saying "This will be a short journal", nine paragraphs later
I finally finish up. However, I think I can say with the up most
confidence that this will be a short journal! Even though it has
been 5 days since my last journal I really do not have much to share with
you and not a single picture. I figure those last 4 words probably
got about 50% of the folks to stop reading, but for the rest of you, thanks
for sticking around!
The ride in has officially
started. I have not been down to see how things are going. I really
wished that I could have been there to meet and greet and kick things off,
but I have had to work today. I will probably not get down there
tomorrow either- especially if the weather is as nasty as it's suppose
to be. However, I did check in and things were said to be running
smoothly. It looks to be a chilly ride for Saturday, but not brutal
cold and should be some decent snow.
I guess I can talk
a bit about the weather. We have been getting pretty steady doses of snow
for the past several days. Since I last wrote we have picked up 18.5" of
snow. However, most of that has been the very light and fluffy variety
of lake effect. There are many different forms of lake effect and one type
I call "broom snow" because you can move a few inches of it with your broom
if you had to. Personally, I would much rather have that type of
snow than the wet and heavy type, especially since we already have about
2.5 to 3.5 feet of snow on the ground. When we are early in the season
and trying to build a base, then the wet and heavy stuff is great, but
sure is a pain otherwise. Not even fun to play in because it is too
sticky and too hard to move around in or through. I'd say that we
have about 8-10 inches of very nice powder on top of the old snow right
now, which is almost enough to really have fun in, but about another 6-8
would make things perfect. See how spoiled one can get living up
here. Most folks would give their left arm to have a base of 2.5-3.5
feet of snow with another 8-10" of powder on top, but I can still find
the need to improve things!
It's funny, you would
think that it would be possible for me to get my fill of snow too, but
I just can't seem to. When it is snowing I wish it was snowing harder.
When it is snowing very hard, I don't want it to stop and when it stops,
I get sad for a moment. It does not matter if we have just picked
up 2 feet of new snow, as soon as it stops, there is always this sort of
a let down for me! I suppose I really just want to experience the
"storm of the century" up here. Something like 4 feet in a day or
two. The kind of storm that would even bring this region to it's
knees for a time. The type of storm that you need to move snow in
3 times while it is coming down. The kind of storm that completely
changes the look of the landscape that it hits. The kind of storm
that buries automobiles so completely that you do not even know they are
there. Some of the locals up here speak of storms like that in the
"old days". I always have to take such stories with a little grain
of salt as I do have very accurate weather records (including snowfall)
that date back to the late 1940's for this region and that type of a storm
does not show up in there. The all time 24 hour snowfall record for
this area is about 36" of snow and that happened back in January of 1996.
I actually arrived up here about a week after it happened and in the 5
days that I was here that time in January, they picked up over 40" of snow.
By the time I left, there were vehicles that were nothing but lumps in
the snow and many first floor windows were slowly being covered up.
Who knows there is still some time left in this season and we do have at
least chances for some big dumpings in the near term, so I will keep dreaming
about the big one. Told you this would be short!
Good night from the Keweenaw..
-JD
-
Feb 11-
Boy, is it nice
to be back among the living! Actually what I had was not too bad
from a pure discomfort point of view. I did not have any severe aches
and pains or any bad sore throats or severe chest congestion. What
I did have was incredible fatigue. I mean to the point where I would
be sitting in my chair in front of my computer doing work one minute and
the next be waking up from a quick nap still in the chair- and I had not
even realized I had fallen to sleep! Thankfully I was able to get
all my regular work duties done this past week. One of the good things
about working at home, I pretty much have to be comatose to legitimize
"calling in sick"! Of course that could be considered a bad thing
too as I pretty much have to work through most sicknesses. I did
have a mild sore throat from time to time and also a bit of a headache
from time to time and many times was so weak that my legs would literally
shake while trying to walk or stand. I actually felt like I was coming
down with something for the past 10 days or so and finally Wed evening
it hit and I was down for the count yesterday and Thursday. This
morning when I woke up and stood up out of bed I knew I was on the mend
as my legs did not wobble! I still do not feel 100%, but I do feel
tons better! Thanks to all that wished me well in the General Discussions.
I have no idea what it was I had, but am glad to be putting it behind me.
I am just not one that takes to laying around the house doing nothing all
day very well.
I suppose if I had
to pick a week do be down with a bug, last week would probably been a good
one. Not much going on. I did manage to run some errands Mon,
Tue and Wed to pick up some prizes for the ride in. Thursday and
Friday were spent either doing my regular work or sleeping or watching
snowmobile DVD's. I was loaned 12 of them a few weeks ago and will
be returning them next week, so I needed to watch them and I only have
2 left to watch. Picked up some neat moves that I plan to try when
we are out west next month. Like the 150 foot cornice drops. Yea
right! Those guys are really something what they do on those sleds.
But I think they need to show more of the bloopers just to that folks do
not get the idea that these guys make perfect landings all the time.
Would make guys like me feel a little better about my abilities!
From a weather standpoint
I think it was a good week to be sick as well. Very little happened
in the way of weather. Our weekend last weekend was pretty much a
skunking from the snow. Other areas picked up significant amounts
of snow like the east end of the UP with a foot to foot and a half common.
Even out west in the Ironwood area they picked up around 9-10" last weekend.
All we managed to pick up was around 2-3". The weekdays this past
week really did not provide much either, a dusting here and a dusting there,
but nothing substantial. In fact I think we saw more sun than snow
this past week. Thankfully the temps were in the low 20's for highs
with lows dipping into the single digits. That pretty much preserved the
snow we had. Plus the silver lining to the no snow, but cold temps
is that we are finally freezing things up around here! The Portage
Lake by the bridge is frozen. I will not say that it is safe, but
there is no more open water out there. I have not been in the back
country, but I would bet that the weather this past week has also frozen
up most of the wet areas out there. There are always spots where
the creeks flow all winter, but at least the smaller little low areas should
be pretty well frozen up. The forecast holds some pretty decent snows to
occur ahead of the ride in, so conditions could be about as good as it
gets up here for that. I am hoping the forecast pans out, it sure
would be nice to have ideal conditions for the ride in.
Speaking of the ride
in, things seem to be pretty well set. There are still some last
minute items that need to be taken care of and the event organizer John
Stachler has those handled. One thing I need to point out is that
even though my name is all over this event, I really have not done much
work on it. That is not something that I just pulled by surprise,
when John contacted me about wanting to organize it, I told him that I
could help in some ways, but really did not have the kind of free time
to be able to do much work on it. He has done a ton as has Lori Sleeman
from the Wildlife Refuge Cabins, so they really need to be thanked for
all of their hard work. I am excited to meet all the folks coming
up for the ride in and also raising some money for the Make-A-Wish foundation.
I am hoping that it is something we can pull off in future years and am
already thinking of some things to do if we have a repeat next year.
Don't know if you all
caught this (I'm sure CNN, FOX News and the networks covered it), but Houghton
officially became the "Snow Capital of the World" this past Friday, breaking
3 World records; The largest snow angel (most folks making a snow angel
at one time), the largest snowball fight and also the largest snowball.
They were able to get 4,400+ folks to have a snowball fight and then once
the snowball fight was over (about 2 minutes later) they all dropped into
the snow on their backs and all made a snow angel. They also made a 6 foot
9 inch snowball. The previous record for the snow angel was 1,796
set by the town of Bismarck ND, who I understand are a little miffed that
their record no longer stands. The old record for a snowball fight
was 3,100, not sure by where. The old record for a snowball size
was a meezely 5 feet 4 inches. Of course it is not official until
Guinness recognizes it and it was stated in local paper that Guinness wanted
13,000-14,000 dollars for transportation fees to observe the event.
They must have to fly in from the moon or something, or perhaps like to
make a little on the side...hmmmmm....I'll let you figure that one out
on your own. Anyway, I guess the event was well documented by aerial
photographs and video as well as land based photos and video and every
participant had to sign a waiver. I figure Guinness will go ahead
an verify the new record as if they play hard ball, we have an ace in the
hole. Michigan's Lt. Governor John Cherry was one of the participants
and could probably do a little arm twisting if need be. My only regret
was that I was still too sick to partake in the event. I sure would
have loved to have been part of a world record that involved snow!!!
Who knows maybe next year we will have to set a new one!
The other big event
up here is Winter Carnival at Michigan Tech and the means the snow statues
have been going up the past few weeks. I was really a little worried
that I might not be able to get over to see them this year, but thankfully
I was feeling good enough to get over there with Nora and Burt this morning.
The theme of this years snow statue building was: "Cartoon Art for the
Young at Heart". I think a lot of planning goes into these themes to make
sure that the builders have a lot of possible characters or items that
they can use in their construction. This was the first time that
we have ever taken Burt to see the sculptures and I was a little worried
he might decide to do a little "painting" if you know what I mean, but
he was a good boy and behaved himself. Oh, and I was too!
The first statue we
came across was in the theme of the Grinch Who Stole Christmas".
I have to admit that when I go about trying to take a picture of the statues,
it is always a struggle to try and capture the entire statue yet also try
and capture some of the finer details. So I have some "wide angle"
shots and some close ups. My first shot is actually of the
back side of the Grinch statue. What was on the left I cannot remember,
but on the right he is stealing the Christmas tree by shoving it up the
chimney. The front
side of the statue was even more impressive in details and size.
One of the details that impressed me was the Grinch
playing the horn. Looks like it could have taken a whole day
just for someone to make the horn. The next statue was based on the Flintstones,
a favorite of mine when I was a little boy, that laugh of Barney's would
always get me laughing along with him. I don't believe I found any details
to zoom in on that one, so we'll move onto the next one, which was based
on the Smurfs.
There were some details in this statue that were worthy of some close ups,
like the bowl of
fruit on the table and some
other items on a table, with a vase in the foreground.
This next
statue I did not recognize the cartoon it was based on, Burt seemed
to be more interested in his dad than the statue and Nora was just plain
hiding from the camera! I also did not recognize the cartoon this
next statue was based on, even though each statue does have a little explanation
by them. I was impressed
by it's design though. You must keep in mind that these statues
can only be made of snow or ice. No other materials can be used to
support them, so those wings were standing on their own strength, no internal
bracing. The next statue was another Flintstones
theme, this one with Fred just getting off from work and sliding down
the tail of his brontosaurus excavator. With the folks standing in front
of it, you can also get some sense of size of these things, they are huge!
The next statue was off the Snow
White theme. I don't remember Snow White being a cartoon.
I suppose I just never saw it or perhaps the entry could have been from
an animated movie as well. Does not really matter to me, it was a
neat statue to look at.
This next one I did
not immediately recognize, but once I read the description plaque I was
able to recognize the theme of Inspector
Gadget. That one was at least 20 feet high as the car was life sized.
That leads us to the biggest one we saw today. The participants for this
one always do one of the largest and are always in the top 2 of their division.
I think the one thing that helps them a little is the fact that their front
yard is the building spot, so they do not have far to go to work on it
or warm up. Even so, they always manage to build a very impressive
statue year after year and this
year was no different. I usually have to cross the street to
be able to take in the whole statue and this year was no different!
The theme was Aladdin and not only did the statue have incredible size,
but it also had incredible details; like balconies
complete with chain railings (keep in mind, no internal supports can
be used), a genie
with a magic bottle and a snake
charmer.
As impressive as that
last one was, it was not my favorite. Nope, I saved the best for
last and it was a no brainier for me to judge this one as the
best of the best, king of the hill and nearly impossible to beat.
So I guess that covers
it for this one. It started to snow a few hours ago. Not heavily,
but still some flakes. The forecast looks good for more, perhaps
a ton more and I should be able to be able to get out and enjoy it.
So stay tuned...
Good night from the Keweenaw..
-JD
-
Feb 5-
Busy, busy times.
Some work, some play and some play that is work or some work that is play.
Things have quieted down a bit and I finally have some time to write. I
can say that with the almost week between writings I do have some stories
to share and some pictures to go along, so that is the up side. On
the weather front we have finally seen temps drop to where they should
be this time of the year and it is almost strange to hear the snow crunch
under foot. We missed most of the snow over the weekend. Picked
up a few inches, but fell short of the 6-10 that had looked to be a good
possibility. Best I could tell the air was drier than was anticipated and
thus the old lake just could not pump enough moisture into it to really
get the flakes big enough allow for meaningful accumulation. Further
east they got help from the storm that impacted lower MI and I also heard
that far western sections of the UP did pretty good. We did get enough
snow to freshen things up and the potential for some pretty big totals
are still in the offing, so the weekend's bust is not too much of an issue.
I had a very good friend
from high school come up last week. As most high school boys are
prone to do, we all had nick names for each other and his was Deuce. He
and I had actually been up here on a snowmobile trip way back in the early
90's. Back when this area was still somewhat undiscovered. I can
actually remember riding from Houghton to Copper Harbor and back and being
able to count the number of sleds we saw all day on one hand. Of
course that was during the week, but still, a slightly different scenario
these days. However, we made a trip this past Tuesday and I bet that
I could have counted all the sleds we saw on the trip up and back with
only having to take one boot off!
Yes, I actually rode
the trails all the way up to Copper Harbor and back! That is probably
the first time in 5 years that I have taken the snowmobile and the groomed
trails all the way to the harbor and back and probably the first time in
4 years that I have been to the harbor via snowmobile. So why did
I do such a crazy thing? Well, the 700 needed some breaking in and
I did not want to do it off trail. If something had gone wrong we might
have been in a tough spot to try and get the sled out to a spot where we
could load it back into the truck and bring it home. Plus the mileage
to the harbor and back from Lake Linden is about perfect for breaking in
the motor. So Tuesday afternoon Deuce and I hopped on the sleds and
headed north. At first I was on the 700 and he was on the 800, but a little
north of Phoenix I asked if he wanted to switch and he said "sure".
The 800 is really set up well for off trail, but not a great trail sled,
mainly because of the handle bars being so high. It's really like
you are riding a chopper with big old ape hangers out front. To make
matters worse for sit down riding, the throttle is setup for stand up riding
and so your wrist is cocked at a very uncomfortable angle while sitting.
The left handed throttle is actually a lot more comfortable to use while
sitting than the right, but that is sort of strange and also not advised
for the section of trails where you need to use the brake as well.
The handle bar riser on the 800 is actually an articulating one and had
I been thinking I would have just swung it down into a more comfortable
trail riding position, but alas, I was not thinking!
Anyway, we made it
to the harbor, had a nice dinner and then back safe and sound. The trails
were actually in pretty decent shape, especially on the way up. I had thought
that if they were bad, we probably would not go too far or maybe hop off
on the less traveled trails in hopes of better conditions, but we were
able to ride the main trail all the way up to the Brockway Mountain trail
and then take that into the harbor. Here is a
shot of the main trail near my house Tuesday afternoon and here is
the
main trail just north of Phoenix a little later Tuesday. The Brockway
Mountain trail was in worse shape. I do not have any pictures of the trail
itself, but the whole way up on the main trail, the only thing that regulated
our speed was any twists and turns, while once on the Brockway trail the
bumps did slow us down a bit. I suppose because the Brockway trail
is a very popular one and also maybe because it had not been groomed as
recently. In any case it was not a disaster, but was bumpier.
However, it was also worth it for the view from the top. Here is
the
ever popular shot overlooking Copper Harbor (just to prove we really
did make it) and here is a late afternoon shot looking southwest towards
the trio of highest peaks in the Keweenaw; Praiseville,
Buffalo and Horace Greely (fsv).
I must stay that I had a lot of fun on the trails. Traffic was low and
those that we did come across were really well manered, slowing down while
we passed and also letting us know how many were in their group.
I still enjoy boondocking better, but it was a lot of fun to be able to
shoot up the trails, have a nice dinner and return.
The 700 ran just fine
and the tank of premix was burned up, so it was pretty well broken in.
So on Wednesday we took to the backcountry for some honest
to goodness boondocking. There are places I have been wanting to explore
and learn some trails in and this was the perfect opportunity for it.
We were not able to get to all the areas I want to explore, but I did learn
some new routes and will need to get back to them soon so I don't forget!
It really is lots of fun to explore the unbeaten path. At times we are
riding through an area like in the past picture and in a little bit we
break out into an open area and are granted this
vista. Still quite a few wet spots out there, so in a way I am
glad we did not get dumped on this weekend. This cold will be able to get
to some of those and freeze things up and make it that much better for
when we do get dumped on!
On Thursday we did
some more shooting with Dobson for BTR 5. Deuce came along and was treated
to the crew and their riding abilities. There is also quite a bit of riding
that is done getting from one spot to another, so he did not have to sit
around and watch all afternoon. Friday we took some time off from
riding. Deuce made a few adjustments to his sled and wanted to try
them out on the trail, so he did do a bit of riding Friday morning while
I worked, but then in the afternoon we went up to the property with Burt
for a walk, plus we hooked the property cam back up (Thanks Paul!) and
Deuce got to view the shop and see where the other buildings will be going.
Had a nice dinner at the Dreamland Friday night with Nora and then Saturday
morning Deuce took off for home while I tagged along on a KSE ride.
I decided to take the
season off from KSE to free up some time. They have been very busy this
season, but this is the first ride that I have been on this season.
The temps on Saturday were colder and it was nice to have the crispness
back in the 800. I think I was actually coming down with something during
the ride as I just felt a little weak. I still had lots of fun, but
I just did not feel like partaking in events like pit
riding or rock pile climbing. Matt was the leader and at times
was just taking us through
the woods on no trail at all. I have done that, but have always
waited until spring when the snow is more set up. Never had the courage
to do it on my own while the snow is still pretty soft. The crew we were
riding with were all very good riders and while there were some stucks
(me and Matt included) nothing too ugly and they all knew how to help each
other out, which is always a plus on one of those rides. At one point
we were up in some of the highest terrain around here and the day before
it must have been in the clouds because all
the trees were coated in hoar frost. That one would have made for a
nice full sized shot had it not been for the two flakes of snow blurring
some of the image.
The KSE ride went well
and we were treated to dinner by the group of riders (thanks Dean and everyone
else!). I came home and spent the rest of the evening with Burt and Nora.
Today has been a pretty quiet day. I actually felt even worse today and
even took an afternoon nap (something pretty rare for me). I feel
better, but also plan to get to sleep very early tonight and then take
it easy for a day or so. Speaking of getting to sleep, I think I
need to get ready for that, so will sign off for now.
Good night from the Keweenaw..
-JD
-
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