A Little Slice of da Harbor...: Snowing and Blowing

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Snowing and Blowing

Ha! I knew the arbutus threat would work. Just hours after I posted about searching for springtime flowers, it snowed. And snowed and snowed and snowed! I shoveled twice the first day it started and three times the second day it continued.

It was all mostly fluff, however. We call it champagne snow because you can blow on it, and it just poofs into the air. We were hoping it would settle a bit, but today is soooooo cold! Weather Underground says it "feels like" -17 F with windchill. These are not UP temps!

With winds from the WNW at 25 mph, I'd love to sail across Lake Fanny Hooe again, but I want to keep my nose, fingers and toes! (Look at me being sensible for once.) I have been scouting the ice out there and watching the wind because lots more people want to parachute across with us. Maybe it's because that Para-sledding video made the TV6 News out of Marquette! I don't know who put it on there, but that just makes it that much more exciting for us!

So far it's snowing on and off today. If you would like to keep a detailed eye on the snow up here, I have added John Dee's website to my "Harbor Links" on the left column. Go to his snowfall report and check out his other weather stats. He is on it!

Thus far Mount Bohemia is predicted to open January 25th. Feel free to visit their link on the left if you are interested. I'm ready to shred some pow.

Oh, and with this snow, a few friends and I wend sledding down Brockway Mountain Drive. You know, that first steep curve on the way up from Copper Harbor? Yeah, you can really get rippin' down there. Good thing I figured out how to steer the sled! Now we just need windshields, so we don't have to squeegee our faces on the way down.

If this snow keeps up, we just might have a real winter! Keep your fingers crossed.

1 comment:

AnonymousJanuary 17, 2013 at 10:54 PM
Wow! Minus 17 degree windchill is and amazingly low temp for the area. As the grandchild of Calumet and Marquette mining families I've heard the stories of the incredible snowfalls. My Calumet people said the temps were never a big problem...it was keeping up with the snow removal. Happy to hear you've been getting snow. Southeast Michigan where I am has bare ground with some of the grass actually looking green but the frigid temps will be here starting tomorrow - no word on any snow yet.

I really enjoy reading your blog and I'm looking forward to another visit to the area this spring/summer. Can't wait.
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Unofficial Overview from a Resident's Point of View

“If you’ve never been there, you wouldn’t understand” is a quote printed above an outlined picture of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula on a t-shirt sold in gift shops in the area. Some people cock their heads in bewilderment of what this could mean. Well, if you’ve never been there (to da U.P.), then you wouldn’t understand.

It’s simple really. Where are you guaranteed to see more trees than people on any drive or walk? Where can you sit in a bar in April and know everybody’s name? Where can you wear flannel and Carharts anytime of the year without a flinch from a passerby? Where can you end most of your sentence with the colloquialism eh, eh? Where can you go to truly get away from the civilized world? If you answered “da U.P.” to all of these questions, why, you must have been there.

Michigan’s Upper Peninsula makes up one third of the state’s land mass, but only 3% of its entire population. It’s no wonder the average number of people per square mile is 19.3. Nineteen people per square mile! Its lack of inhabitants combined with a plethora of wilderness, unique geographical features and an abundance of water is a big part of what makes the U.P. so unique. In fact, it was included in the Sherman Travel worldwide “Top 10 Places to Go in 2005."

And unique in itself, at the most northern tip in the Keweenaw Peninsula sits the little village of Copper Harbor. “Tops in Michigan,” “the beginning of the road” and quite frankly, the hardest place to leave once your soul has found its peace. It’s the least visited and most revisited place in America. Returning visitors make an appearance at least once a year, no matter what gas prices are. And when they’re back at home, they dream of their next visit to the end of the world.

Why would people want to return to a place where their cell phones don’t work and they can’t get a Big Mac for at least 54 miles? Once you drive through the one and only blinking stop light in town, you are 99% guaranteed not to see any authorities. The town can take care of itself for the most part, and people respect each other and each other’s property.

To the local residents and the handfuls of returning tourists (of which some have been adopted), Copper Harbor is the only place where they can be themselves -- completely and shamelessly (at least until the next morning). Fashion does not exist, but comfort is a must. Possessions mean nothing, but attitude means the world. Loitering is encouraged, and talk is ceaseless. Fresh air is plentiful, and serenity is down the block on Lake Superior’s shore. Ahhh.

Only 90 people can bear to live there year-round (good thing because the post office only has 130 mailboxes), but the population peaks around 250 in the busy summer months when people reopen their business or their summer home.

Copper Harbor and the rest of the Keweenaw Peninsula average 270 inches of snow each season. Whether it falls consistently throughout the winter or all in one dump, it’s guaranteed to fall if it isn’t drilling sideways. Only four businesses stay open through these long months because sometimes, there’s just nobody there.

U.S. Highway 41, which runs all the way to Miami, Florida, begins in Copper Harbor, and yes, it gets plowed the whole way up. A half mile north, six miles east and five miles south of this landmark puts you in magical Lake Superior. I know it’s magical because I’ve caught myself and many other people staring, mesmerized by its pure vastness, undulations and crashing waves.

When you can enjoy every breath of Lake Superior air, wear clothing soley for funtion and not mind seeing the same people day after day after day after day, then, my friend, then, you’ll understand.

A Little Slice of da Harbor...

Copper Harbor, That is!

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Snowing and Blowing

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Unofficial Overview from a Resident's Point of View

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