I went for a super nice 5 mile hike after work today. It got fairly cold last night and our high today was only about 38 degrees so the snow on the trail stayed nice and firm. This made for great hiking (I did have to wear yaktrax on my boots though). I was thankful that the snow was hard and not soft, because the snow depth still ranges from 15 to 20 inches. I never would have done this hike today if the snow was soft and slushy. At any rate, the trail I hiked was the Middle Falls Trail in Grand Portage State Park. I arrived at Middle Falls just in time to catch some really nice clouds over the river.
I'd been sort of saving this image to post, because I was hoping to get some better ones (by "better" I mean more of an open sky with less clouds). Of course, better is subjective and I do really like this photo with the stars peeking through the clouds. But now all the ice is gone so there isn't a chance of getting any more photos like this until next winter. This is a pile of ice that was built up near shore just north of 5 Mile Rock near Grand Marais, MN. I had photographed this location a few times during the day and knew it would make a good spot for some night photos.
The sun has been shining more and more lately and I've been loving it. Most of the ice is gone now from the lakeshore and soon we'll be seeing green again! Here are some cool clouds I saw over the lake the other day as I was driving to Grand Marais.
I took these pictures a week ago... this ice is all gone now. It sure was pretty while it lasted. Now we're in the midst of seasonal change once again. We saw the temperature reach 50 degrees on Saturday, but it's still getting cold enough to freeze overnight.
A recent afternoon/evening snowshoe hike led me to this beautiful view. I snowshoed for an hour to get to this spot just in time to see this nice view of the sun poking through the clouds. A week earlier I had been standing on top of that ridge watching a pack of wolves playing down on the ice of Wauswaugoning Bay. What an amazing place to live. Forever grateful :-)
Barely two weeks ago the winter conditions were pretty much perfect. We had a lot of snow and that snow was of a good quality for winter activities. Then we got a bunch of rain. That was followed by a slight dip in temperature, enough to turn our snow hard and crunchy. Now we've got temperatures that are warm enough to make what remains of the snow a soft, sloppy mess. Where there isn't snow, there is mud. I know, I know... most people don't like winter and are ecstatic at the thought of summer coming. I love summer just as much as the next person, but I also love winter. And I wasn't quite ready for it to be over yet. Here are a couple of photos of one of my snowshoe trails back when the snow was awesome. On the up side, soon it will be time to break the ECR (my bike) out of storage and start riding again :-)
The snowshoeing has been pretty great lately, mostly because the temperatures have been milder and it's starting to feel like spring! We've been experiencing more blue sky too which is nice, especially after a very long winter with lots of cloudy days. Here are a couple of photos from one of those recent beautiful days.
