Tuesday, February 19, 2013

24 Hour Turnover on Hunter's Point

Winter is in full swing today!

However, we did have a lovely day or two earlier this week.  Here is one for you.  Enjoy the color and sunshine... it doesn't last long, as you'll see.

Sunny day from the Harbor Haus dock

The two most memorable outdoor events of the week happened yesterday and today.  Boy can the weather change in 24 hours!

Yesterday Steve, Tiki and I went to Hunter's Point because the temperature was so lovely -- about 30 degrees.  A breeze blew from the southeast making the journey surreal.  The drifts were opposite of what they usually are!  Here is what we saw on the way.

The sign drifted in from the south

A beauty of a drift!

Crossing "The Gap" to Porter's Island

Steve and Tiki on Porter's

I haven't been on Porter's Island since May of 2011.  It's a liberating feeling there, even though it's so close to the rest of da Harbor.  

We laid on huge ice formations and watched the ebb and flow of Lake Superior.  We ducked under icicle caves.  We saw icicle prisons made of huge ice bergs surrounded by icicles.  We watched the ice break up on the Harbor side.  It was magical, I tell you.  So why don't I have pictures of all that stuff?  Because Steve's and my cameras both ran out of battery power!

I remember the moment Steve told me his camera died.  I thought, "Whew, good thing mine is all charged up."  But next time I checked, I had one blinking bar.  Yikes!  The irony of a photographer and a blogger on such a gorgeous day and such a seldom journey running out of camera juice.  Hopefully we still have the memories in our brains!

Today I woke up to the sound of pounding wind.  Thirty mile an hour winds with gusts up to 50 from the NNW sure changed things in a hurry!  All the towns south of us got pummeled with snow... a foot and falling was the last report I heard.  Here it just blew our bootprints over within half an hour.

Even Mount Bohemia was closed today due to the high winds.  So I had to find something else to do on a gusty day off.  

Aaron, Steve and I drove down M-26 because we knew the waves would be rockin'.  After busting through drifts on the road, we parked and hiked to Devil's Washtub.  As you watch the video below, be grateful you weren't there getting pelted with the ice pellets from the waves.

Waves at Devil's Washtub

Good Lord.  Youtube turned it yellow on me.  The sky was certainly gray instead, but you get the idea.

Then we went to Hunter's Point to see how much the shore changed.  Here are a few shots.

Trees turned icy from the waves

Waves rolling in

Walking back to the truck
(note Steve's jacket covered in ice... he got splashed!)

Our goggles thawing on the defrost vents

It's hard to say how much snow we actually got here because it blew all over the place.  I mean, we have a four foot drift on the back porch!

With all this snow, and Bohemia closed today, it's going to be wicked tomorrow.  Oooh, I can't wait.  Good thing my snowboard is freshly waxed!

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