Heikinpäivä Mid-Winter Celebration!
This past Thursday morning started with a meeting at the Chassell Heritage Center. John Arnold who is the Historical Architect for the Keweenaw National Historical Park came down to meet with me and fellow Chassell Historical Organization board members Ed Kautto and Mat Moore to discuss our efforts to address the final piece of universal accessibility to the Heritage Center which involves getting from the building’s threshold to the first floor. Over the last several years we have done projects which have resulted in an ADA accessible ramp to the threshold connected to an ADA accessible parking area on the north side of the building. We also worked with U.P. Engineers and Architects on the development of a design for a platform elevator to address getting from the threshold to the first floor. The cost of implementing the design as well as its impact on storage and exhibit space caused us to set the project aside to examine other potential approaches such as a stairlift. We would learn from John that stairlifts are not considered to be ADA accessible. While we could pursue such an approach, a stairlift would not result in achieving our goal of universal accessibility. We re-examined the impact of a platform elevator and started looking at options for both storage and the impact on exhibit space. The feeling is that there are ways we can approach these challenges to make a platform elevator work. There are some grant opportunities that we can pursue in conjunction with funding we have raised to get this project moving. I will update you on these as we go along.
Thursday afternoon Julie and I drove up to Calumet to ski on the Swedetown Trails. There is no question that this is by far the latest point in the season that we have put in our first ski of the season up there. We started off skiing together and enjoying the views of the snow-draped trees.
I then headed out to ski the Bear Loops. As the temperatures warmed, the snowsnakes in the trees started dive-bombing the trail and the surrounding forest. Coming back through the pine forest above on the Greenstone Loop, I had a few close calls in what seemed like skiing through a shooting gallery. Loud thuds abounded as the snow fell to the forest floor from the tops of these tall trees.
Friday morning we got in our swim at MTU’s SDC and I squeezed in 2,000 yards. The rest of the day was focused on communications related to the SPARK grant projects.
Saturday morning we were up in Hancock for the Heikinpäivä Parade where we would participate with the Hancock Trails Club. Below is Julie with our friends Carolyn, Wolf, Jay, and John as we gathered in preparation for the parade.
Our friends Jeff and Mary carrying the sign for Big Louie. Mary also happens to be a 4th cousin of mine by way of our Karjalainen ancestors from Kuusamo, Finland.
Heikinpäivä is a mid-winter Finnish-American celebration in Hancock that takes place annually in January. With over 30% of the area’s population having Finnish background (of which I am one), this celebration has been an awesome way to reinforce the culture and to share it with others. After the parade, we stopped in at the Finnish-American Heritage Center which was recently acquired by the Finlandia Foundation.
We enjoyed both reindeer and salmon soup along with Karelian pies and rice pudding for lunch. We ran into several friends during lunch and spent some time checking out the tori market. We missed the wife carrying contest while having lunch, but we enjoyed watching several people brave the Polar Plunge.
Just for the record, I was crazy enough to do this several years back out on the canal.
On Saturday evening we went to a dinner party at our friends Denise and Jeff’s place where we enjoyed excellent conversation and an amazing dinner.
Sunday our hiking group met up at the Boundary Road Trails just off the north edge of Chassell Township for a snowshoe hike. Thirty-one of us were there which has to be record number. We snowshoed around 3.6 miles. You can learn more about this really nice trail system on Facebook at this link. Consider supporting the effort made to keep up these trails!
Space is limiting me on the number of photos, so maybe more of those next time. In the meantime, you can check out my GoPro video from the snowshoe hike on the Remote Workforce Keweenaw YouTube channel at this link:
Do you embrace winter and have the ability to work remotely? Consider locating in the Keweenaw where you will find ubiquitous natural beauty, no congestion, and lower crime! Not sure? Come UP for a workcation to check it out! Learn how at Visit Keweenaw at https://www.visitkeweenaw.com/plan/trip-ideas-itineraries/workcations/ Visit Remote Workforce Keweenaw at https://remoteworkforcekeweenaw.com. Learn about those making the decision to locate here by following the Remote Workforce Keweenaw Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/RemoteWorkforceKeweenaw.