Ice Fishing on Portage Lake and Skiing Relentless
This past week would have an interesting start for us as Julie and I would serve as models for a Visit Keweenaw shoot performed by Aaron Peterson Studios. We would pass on our swim and meet up with them at Maasto Hiihto for a cross country skiing shoot starting at Swedetown Creek at Kuparisilta and the adjoining boardwalk. After two hours of shooting and grabbing a quick late brunch at 5th and Elm in Hancock, we would head down to the waterfront in Hancock for the next shoot at Takka Sauna. If you haven’t been there yet, Takka Sauna has a cool set up with great views of the lift bridge and Houghton! Our next shoot would be at the Hampton Inn in Houghton where we would enjoy awesome drinks and dinner at the Observatory. A strong lake-effect squall moved in which made it difficult to see the Quincy Smelter and impossible to see Mont Ripley across the water. Dinner would consist of beef wellington and crab-stuffed salmon which was photographed and videoed at length before we finally had the opportunity to enjoy them. After some shots in one of the rooms, we then headed outdoors in the heavy lake-effect snow for shots along the waterfront and downtown.
The lake-effect snow overnight created a beautiful scene looking out toward the lake.
I would make the drive on a snow-covered US 41 that morning to Michigan Tech to make a presentation.
At the invitation of David Miller with the Keweenaw National Historical Park, I presented to Professor Hristova’s Digital Communications class that is working on creating digital learning resources (lesson plans and classroom activities for 4th-grade classrooms) for a program called Copper Traces. I discussed the Chassell Historic Trail on the site of what was the Sturgeon River Lumber Company and Worcester Lumber Company that operated along Pike Bay in Chassell from 1888 to 1902 and 1902 to 1928, respectively. I discussed the partnerships that resulted in the trail between the Chassell Historical Organization, MTU, and the Chassell Township Schools and the opportunity to have students further populate the Keweenaw Time Traveler developed by MTU’s social science department which has been integrated into our trail’s interpretive signs.
After catching a quick lunch at home, I met up with Steve Spahn to groom the Chassell Trails. I had checked in with Jim Tervo earlier and he suggested a strategy of rolling the trails twice and then setting tracks. We had at least eight inches of snow accumulated on the trails since grooming the previous Friday afternoon.
Wednesday we would get over to MTU to resume our swimming schedule and I would put in 2,500 yards. Afterwards, I would drop Julie off for a PT appointment and then stop at Festival Foods (which has a pretty extensive hardware store) to get an Avalanche roof rake. I would then spend a big part of my afternoon raking the snow off the cabin’s roof which was starting to accumulate to over two feet in places.
That evening, I would be back in Houghton for the Visit Keweenaw Snow-Venture Press Reception at the Observatory which was a welcoming event for media guests that they had brought into Houghton. I had a number of very interesting discussions that provided me the opportunity to share what we have going on with the Remote Workforce Keweenaw initiative and to share my social media information which could prove helpful in their capacities. At 9:00 p.m. I would move right along with them from the Observatory to dessert at the Carnegie Museum where I would continue discussions up until 11:00 p.m.
Thursday would be a big day for the Spark Grant as the bid opening occurred for the bathroom renovation project at Centennial Park. DP Construction would be the only bidder and their bid came in at a reasonable amount. A special meeting of the Chassell Township Board will be scheduled for Monday to approve the bid. Also on Thursday, the land swap would be closed on for the township to acquire the property immediately south of the township’s off-leash dog park. This property is an important piece related to our preliminary engineering study for the park that envisions locating a marina on the waterfront from this location. I would reach out to the EGLE ahead of submitting a pre-application meeting to discuss potential permits needed to develop the site.
Thursday afternoon I would get out on the ice in my friend Eero’s shack to do some long overdue ice fishing.
The timing turned out to be excellent as I would reel in two keeper pike. One at 24.5” and one above at 28.5”. You can see my GoPro video of the action on the Remote Workforce Keweenaw YouTube channel at this link:
My friend Eero is a master at cleaning pike. He offered to clean any keepers I caught so I took him up on the offer. Eero pickles the boney portions from the cleaning that ultimately dissolves the bones. Julie does an excellent job of preparing pike so we had Eero over for dinner that evening to enjoy the catch along with wild rice and squash.
Friday would start out with a swim at MTU which allowed me to get in 2,500 yards. That afternoon we would drive up to Calumet for a Valentine’s Day lunch at Keweenaw Coffee Works (their Bleecker Street Bagel is outstanding). Julie needed to make a few stops around town so she dropped me off at the Swedetown Trails before coming back to meet me later to ski.
The grooming conditions were excellent so I headed out to ski Relentless. This black run offers a number of fun to ski hills! The freshly groomed conditions made them a blast to ski! You can get a feel for it on my GoPro video on the Remote Workforce Keweenaw YouTube channel at this link:
Once Julie returned we took on a much more mellow approach and enjoyed the snow-painted forest.
There is a really cool stretch on the Greenstone Loop through a snow-covered pine forest that I captured on video with my phone since my GoPro video was dead. You can see it on Threads at decompressu. I would end up covering 7.5 miles across my two skiing adventures and we would also see quite a number of our friends while we were there!
We picked up another seven to eight inches of fluffy lake-effect snow overnight and into this morning. Steve Spahn and I would get out there to groom it at 10:00 a.m. today.
With limited wind, the forest was absolutely gorgeous!
It looks like I will have enough light to get out there to ski it now! So until next time, if 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.