Winter Adventures

We had a bit of a cold snap this week in the Upper Peninsula! The temperature got down to as cold as -39 degrees F. in the U.P.’s interior at Amasa on Friday morning! Our reading was at -17 degrees F. here in Chassell. We bookended the cold weather this week with a couple of interesting winter adventures starting with a snowshoe hike on Sunday. We drove just over 45 minutes to the southwest to pick up the North Country Trail at its crossing on US 45 to make the 1.3 mile trek to O Kun de Kun Falls on the Baltimore River. These 2.6 miles overall would be our first toward our #hike100NCT in 2022!

This portion of the North Country Trail is reasonably level and has received recent significant federally funded improvements with new boardwalks and trail surfacing. We found the forest wearing many reminders of the recent snow! The excellent trail made for a quick snowshoe hike to the upper falls which is a place you will want to look at closely. It is easy to get caught up looking at just the waterfall.

If you go down to the river and look along the bank, you will find ice curtains hanging from the sandstone ledges!

A lot of the ice picks up the Ontonagon Valley clay which gives the Baltimore River its brownish color, but you will find clear ice mixed in as well. It is worth checking this place out during brief thaws in the winter and closer to spring as well because the character of this place changes throughout the winter and early spring!

Farther downstream, you will reach O Kun de Kun Falls where the river has a direct drop over a more erosion resistant shelf of sandstone. During the summer and in some winters you can climb up behind the falls. The access is sealed off by ice so far this winter.

Tremendous caution must be taken at the falls as water continues to rush behind the ice curtain in front of the falls and the ice beneath the falls is not safe to cross. Definitely plan to wear snowshoes or spiked Yaktrax given the significant amount of ice! Be sure to cross the bridge below the falls and follow the trail along the river if you plan to take a closer look from the opposing bank.

The spray from the waterfall coats many of the surrounding trees and cliffs creating a wide array of ice sculptures and curtains. These will vary from year to year depending on the wind at the time the falls freeze up. These will also see variation in the spring when the freeze-thaw-freeze cycle is going on.

My GoPro batteries died on me on this hike…surely from over use. To give you a more action oriented look at this hike, I have a GoPro video I shot on a hike on January 1, 2021, that you can view on the Remote Workforce Keweenaw YouTube channel at this link:

Monday was spent knocking out a variety of appointments and cranking out meeting minutes in my role as Secretary for the Keweenaw Nordic Ski Club board of directors, but passing through Houghton in the course of the day created the opportunity to stop in at the MTU Trails to squeeze in a ski along the way!

Tuesday started with an awesome sunrise which was clearly of the “sailor take warning” variety!

The snow moved in and fell with authority! I chose to spend the day ice fishing in my friend Eero’s shack and do Chassell Township Planning Commission work.

Armed with an ice fishing pole in one hand and a smartphone in the other, I spent a good deal of time reaching out to fabricators about the opportunity to bid on the gangway and canoe/kayak launch to be attached to the headwall on the notch excavated this past year on the northwest side of the Sturgeon River bridge over US 41. The deadline for bids is 3:00 p.m. on February 5th. I only had a couple bumps during the day, but no fish. I did catch a minnow dip net that Eero had dropped in the hole three weeks earlier!

On Wednesday the lake effect snow continued to fall lightly. After digging out the driveway, sidewalk, and decks, I started sizing up the snow load on the roof of the house. With a roof pitch that is not steep, I get up there to shovel once the snow depth exceeds 18 inches. Sure enough, I had all of that over much of the roof and places where it was nearing two feet. After climbing up there with my extension ladder, I spent the next three hours shoveling it off. An important thing to keep in mind is that you absolutely need to keep your furnace exhaust clear and you want to keep your bathroom exhaust fan vents clear so you do not form ice dams around them.

Friday brought the coolest adventure of the week in more than one way. The day started with a low temperature at approximately -17 F. In the U.P.’s interior at Amasa, the lowest temperature in the 48 contiguous states was recorded with a reading of -39 F. I headed out that morning with my friends Jay, Mark, and John to cross country ski at the Porcupine Mountains. Driving along Lake Superior shortly before we arrived at the ski area, we were still taking temperature readings on Jay’s truck at -11 F. On the flip side of the cold was the clear blue sky with bright sunshine which would help to bring the temperature into the teens by afternoon.

We took the chair lift to the top of the hill to pick up the Triple Trail.

We skied down to the Log Camp Trail past the warming hut to the East Vista. The view over Lake Superior and to the east toward Ontonagon was spectacular!

We continued on along the Log Camp Trail to pick up the River Trail which we took southward to the Union Spring Trail. We cut off on Trail #3 to the Crosscut Cabin where we ate lunch out of the wind and in the sun next to the compost toilet.

After some deliberation, we continued westward on Trail #3 through a beautiful old-growth hemlock forest to the Union Spring. This is a must ski trail if you go to the Porkies in the winter!

Before you return to the Union Spring Trail, you ski over a beaver dam!

We then skied eastward on the Union Spring Trail and then back northward on the River Trail. Once you pass the the junction with the Log Camp Trail, strap on your seatbelt because it is an awesome downhill run from there to the Nonesuch Trail! The trail was new snow that had been freshly groomed that day, so the conditions were perfect. I would be less inclined to ski this trail in hardpack conditions with my crosscountry skis.

I was able to get a couple of new GoPro batteries ahead of this adventure! You can enjoy the video at this link to the Remote Workforce Keweenaw YouTube channel:

Today, the lake effect snow machine was back in gear! Julie, Jennifer, and I headed over to the MTU Tolkien Trails to take advantage of the conditions. We skied the entire 7.3k system under big bursts of lake snow along with moments of sunshine! It was a great time to be out in the woods!

Check out the GoPro video from today’s ski on the Remote Workforce Keweenaw YouTube channel at:

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 can enjoy an outstanding winter lifestyle where you will be surrounded by amazing places! Learn more by visiting: https://remoteworkforcekeweenaw.com Learn about those who have made the decision to locate here by following our ongoing series of vignettes at https://www.facebook.com/RemoteWorkforceKeweenaw