More Trail Grooming and a Major Hurdle Cleared

We would start the week with a couple doses of meaningful snow which would call for more trail grooming on the Chassell Classic Ski Trail. Ahead of this Julie and I would get over to MTU to swim on Monday morning where I would cover 2,500 yards. I would then meet up with Jim Vaught at the grooming shed. Jim would lead with the John Deere Gator pulling the 5-foot Ginzu with the knives down and I would follow on the Polaris with the 3-foot Ginzu with the knives down slightly and setting tracks.

Getting ready to cross the High Bridge with the Polaris chasing Jim on the Gator

Heading into a stand of snow-covered hemlock

Picking up branches before going up the hill going into Dean’s woods

A burst of lake-effect snow after grooming the Marinette Street extension

Ben Garbacz’s story would appear in the Daily Mining Gazette which picked up our recent discussion about the brook trout restoration project on Hamar Creek. You can see it at this link: https://www.mininggazette.com/news/2025/01/chassell-township-seeks-to-restore-trout-habitat/

We would pick up at least another five inches of snow going into Tuesday so Jim and I were back out to groom that afternoon. With more snow having fallen during the day, I got in touch with Jim Tervo and arrived at a strategy that would involve rolling the trails first behind the Gator and then grooming with both the Gator pulling the 5-foot Ginzu and the Polaris pulling the 3-foot Ginzu setting tracks.

Jim with the John Deere Gator pulling the roller

You might remember that time when Steve and I had the problem with snow sticking to the roller behind the exhaust from the Gator. That snow had a lot more moisture content. This snow was cold and dry so sticking was no problem at all.

Laying down fresh tracks on our second pass over the trails

Jim and I would be out on the trails for three hours. When I returned home, our friend Sue was over and had brought an awesome pea soup to share for dinner.

I periodically will allow myself to get wrapped up in a streaming series like The Lincoln Lawyer. This past week I binge watched Landman. I have to say that Taylor Sheridan made a great choice in selecting Billy Bob Thornton to play the role of Tommy. Thornton makes Tommy a very compelling character to follow.

Binge watching can make for a short night’s sleep, but I rolled myself out of bed at 6:30 on Wednesday to get over to the pool with Julie to get in my 2,500-yard swim. Afterwards while running errands in Houghton, I was taken by this view toward the Quincy Mine. It had been our first meaningful sunshine in a few days and the dark sky behind the mine and hoist house added nicely to the composition.

After returning home I would finally pull out the snowblower that my daughter and son-in-law had given to us in the process of moving to a warmer climate. We were scheduled to be a stop on the Sauna Tour on Sunday and cutting a path to the lake seemed to be good idea for a test drive. I would not be disappointed.

After having lunch, I would get out for some ice fishing in my friend Eero’s shack. Even though I only had one bump while I was out there, I was able to get a lot of thinking accomplished.

Thursday I would drive up to Calumet to pick up the township’s new ice rink sign from Copper Island Printing.

I would then go over to the Swedetown Ski Trails and put in an 8.8-mile ski which included the Bear Loops.

At the junction of Mama Bear and Papa Bear, I would meet up with Todd who had recently retired to the western U.P. from Wisconsin and who had earlier in his career worked in the recording industry. Talking to him seemed to really speed up the ski. One takeaway he offered was that his UPS driver had observed quite a few remote workers in the course of his deliveries.

Back to Chassell after my ski, I squeezed in a quick shower and dinner before heading over to the Forestry Building at MTU to make a presentation to the Wetlands Club about the Chassell Historic Trail. The club’s faculty advisor Rod Chimner had reached out to me about the possibility of the club putting together informational signs for the trail about wetlands. After providing my presentation, we talked about potential content for the signs and these will be worked on by the club’s members between now and March.

Friday would be an extremely mild day in the Keweenaw with the temperature getting up to 41 degrees in Chassell. I would start the day by completing a 2,600 yard swim at MTU. I would then get some fantastic news from Keweenaw Economic Development Alliance Executive Director Jeff Ratcliffe that the Michigan Economic Development Corporation had approved the LOI for the Chassell Mercantile project (twenty-two one and two-bedroom apartments with 2,000 sq.ft. of commercial space) in downtown Chassell. With the Revolving Loan and Housing TIF already approved, this means the project is positioned to move forward. I called Dan Palosaari and he sees the site clean-up starting in the March/April timeframe. The good news would not end there as I would also hear from Andy Powers with the Michigan Department of Transportation that the auction had begun for the first 1.3 miles of rail removal in the rail corridor to the south of Chassell.

Saturday would see a return to sub-freezing temperatures. After the thaw on Friday, the re-freezing had produced some less than desirable conditions on the Chassell Classic Ski Trail. I touched base with Jim Tervo and his recommendation was that we run knives down behind both the Gator and Polaris with a follow up pass with the Polaris with the knives down and tracking.

The strong winds from the cold front moving in the night before had littered the trail with branches so there was some stop-and-go involved with this first pass. We would also learn that knives down on a drifted hill will put us to work digging out the Gator.

We had enough new snow to mix in that I was able to lay down some great tracks that resulted in excellent skiing.

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