Skiing the Baraga Plains
The Peter Wolfe Chapter of the North Country Trail sponsors a hike each month within its chapter which runs from M-64 south of Silver City to Long Lake to the west of Craig Lake State Park. Taking advantage of the abundant snow, the chapter scheduled a snowshoe/ski on a segment of the trail located on the Baraga Plains to the northwest of Alberta. Over 20 of us showed up with perhaps a few more cross country skiers than those on snowshoes. The temperature was mild (near 40 degrees) and the sun was shining!
We accessed the North Country Trail by way of a two-track trail heading south from the Baraga Plains Road. Once we picked up the trail, we skied in about 2.5 miles in a westward direction. There is a black spruce forest in this area that beautifully held onto the recently fallen snow!
The trail followed a two-track leading to an area that has been recently logged which made for even easier skiing.
You can see my GoPro video from the ski at this link to the Remote Workforce Keweenaw YouTube channel:
The quick start to this season’s snow base was quickly wiped out by three extremely mild days on Monday through Wednesday. The nice thing about it was that it re-opened the shoulders on US 41 for some decent running! I was able to slip in a 10k on Monday and we had nice road running conditions on Sharon, Gunlach, and Pilgrim on Wednesday for a 5.5 miles run with the Keweenaw Running Group from MTU’s SDC.
Our mild weather came to an abrupt end on Wednesday night and throughout Thursday as a cold front roared in which at times on Thursday morning neared hurricane-force gales. There was talk of waves exceeding 30 feet in height on Lake Superior! One of our tall firs along the yard fell as a victim to the storm. The tree hit the power line to the township’s sewer collector and pulled it down like a drawn bowstring. Amazingly, the line was not severed and continued to deliver power to the pump. Equally astounding was how one remaining part of tree that we took down a couple of years ago held up the power pole and kept it from snapping off. Unfortunately, UPPCO’s priority was with all the the power outages related to the storm, so it was uncertain as to how soon they would be able to make it out to address the situation.
It was Cham Deschaine to the rescue to take apart our fallen fir and relieve the stress on the powerline to the township's sewer collector pump! The same day response in the high wind and snow while the ground was still thawed will likely result in saving a few of our cedars that flipped upright when Cham got to the point of cutting the fir at the stump.
While it is sad to lose this beautiful fir and a couple of nice cedars it crushed, we have quickly added to our sauna wood supply and now have quite a few cedar boughs for sauna vihta!
Finally this week, Early Bird Construction worked right through the less than inviting weather on Thursday and completed the framing of the garage. By Friday, Phil even had a chance to start work on the fascia and soffit.
Do you embrace winter and have the ability to work remotely? Would you value living in a place with ubiquitous natural beauty that has no congestion? Consider locating in the Keweenaw where you will be surrounded by amazing places! Follow the Remote Workforce Keweenaw Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/RemoteWorkforceKeweenaw and visit the Remote Workforce Keweenaw webpage at https://remoteworkforcekeweenaw.com