Copper Harbor Playground

It's snowing!  SNOWING!  For days.  I love it.  Hello, Winter!  Glad you made it to da Harbor!

In this snow, I've been playing.  I've been cross country skiing twice and gone on a wonderful snowshoe with friends since I posted last.  Tomorrow I plan to snowboard at Mt. Bohemia.  Yes, the snow is so good, I'm going on a Saturday!

The world is my playground.  I can go where I please on whatever gear is most suitable for the conditions and my imagination.  Well, some fine folks in Copper Harbor also want to create a playground for the school kids, families that come up in the summer and all the babies that are being born around here.

TV 6 News did a nice blurb on this project the other night.  Click here to watch that video.

They also have a website where you can keep updated on their progress and donate to help them reach their goal.

So if you're ready, come out and play!

A Snowshoe with You!

This post contains FIVE VIDEOS for your viewing pleasure.

Yesterday I went for a snowshoe on my double lakeshore loop.  And guess what, you came with me!!!

I took a video in five different spots along the way of this 2 1/2 mile (give or take) stretch.  So you can see all the wonders I saw without getting cold or sweaty!  My special guest, as always, is Mr. Butters.

All the links are below.  Best if watched in order from top to bottom.  Enjoy!

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4 

Part 5

Shreddin Some Pow

It has been snowing almost consistently for about 48 hours.  Yesssssssssssss!!!

That made me want to go snowboarding at Mt. Bohemia.  Yesterday was the first time I've gone since they opened 6 days before.  Aaron and I got there right away for first chair.  The snow was glorious, and I made lots of runs down the front side before I even went to the back side in the Bear Den.  And the snow was even better back there!!!

I rode by myself for most of the day, but I almost prefer that (although the chair ride up gets a little chilly!). All in all I made 16 runs down in the time we could be there.  Made lots of turns, took a couple diggers, shivered my buns off and saw some friends.  It was lovely.

Now I'll just wait for a few more inches to fall and all the weekend tourists to go back home.  Then hopefully I can do it again next week!

My Book is Almost Ready...

To my delight, the UPS man pulled over and handed me my book while I was on my way to check the mailbox for it.  I told him he made my day.

It really turned out nice.  I wish it was all ready to go, but you know (or maybe you don't know) how you can always notice more mistakes in text when it's on paper instead of on the computer.  Oh yes, I found some of those.  So they shall be corrected, and that shall take more time.

In the meanwhile, here's a picture of me being ecstatic with my first printed copy of my book, Little Slices of da Harbor.

My book and I.  So happy together.

I'll let you know the moment it's ready to rumble.  Thanks for your patience!

LET IT SNOW ALREADY!!!

Attack on Fort Juniper

I did all I could to make sure no one found my secret hideout.  It is not visible from the trail, and I always cover my foot tracks when I leave.  

Whenever I go back to work on Fort Juniper, I always tell it Thank You for still being there.  Yesterday my gratitude was premature.

Yesterday's melting roof tops, slushy parking lots and blue skies told me the snow would make impeccable packing.  I took my big red shovel, a window for the north wall, snacks, water and a PBR to the site.  I knew I would be there all day.

I was a little hesitant at the fact that I would have to bust down part of my north wall in order to install the window at the proper height, but I knew I could rebuild that section quickly enough.  When I got there, however, I realized someone already busted that wall for me.  Mr. Sun was the culprit.

The attack from 40 degrees and too much sun on Fort Juniper.

So at least I was mentally prepared for the damage.  That part of the wall was going to come down anyway.  This also taught me a valuable lesson about building snow forts.  As I stared at it in the sun, I knew I had to redo all the walls twice as thick and twice as dense.  Mr. Sun would NOT ambush Fort Juniper again.

I got busy right away and reinforced everything.  I even changed the floor plan.  I honestly surprised myself with how quickly I worked, but I knew that the next day would bring more cold weather, so I had to build as much as I could that day.

But construction was efficient.  Instead of packing on handfuls of fluff, I was pressing on shovelfuls of solid snow.  I used quite a radius of ground snow for material.  This is how I left it.  I know, I didn't even get the window in yet!

After the rebuild.

I know, it doesn't look that much bigger, but hey, it's tougher!

As the winds turned colder, I packed up to go home.  I was soaked anyway.  On the way I took a loop around to Lake Fanny Hooe and caught this sunset.  

Pink skies over Lake Fanny Hooe.

The snow has been melting for the last two days, but today we got just over an inch.  I have only three words for that: LET IT SNOW!!!

Up and Down the Mountain

It's a beautiful day in da Harbor with patchy sun and temps in the 30's.  Although, a beautiful day in da Harbor would also be 20 degrees, white skies, 15 mph NW winds and snow falling an inch an hour!  I'll keep the latter on my wish list.

I just got back from Fort Juniper.  Since the temps rose, I thought the snow would be nice and packy for building.  However, the air is still dry, and my snowbricks were crumbly.  Oh well.  I laid in it for a while and listened to the wind blow in the trees.  It's a pretty calm day, but the breeze sounds nice.  The lake is also beautifully blue and calm today.

Mt. Bohemia is forecasted to open this Saturday.  Then my friends and I can take the chair lift up!  Throughout the week, we have already skied it up pretty good by skinning up and skiing down.  

I have only done this for two days since 1) I am not that great of a skier... I'm a snowboarder!  So the way down often uses as much energy as the way up.  2) Have you ever climbed Mt. Bohemia?  It's hard enough in the summer with boots, let alone skis on your feet and a backpack on your back.  But maybe I am just a wuss :)

It was fun, though.  I definitely learned a lot, and my legs are getting stronger.  Thank goodness for my patient friends!

Me and Tiki half way up the front side.

A Wintery Collage

Happy 2012!  Make it a good one!

Today I saw an ermine running along the snow bank.  Duce saw it too, and he chased it through its tunnel in the snow and right up a cedar tree.  I took a couple pictures, but he was so snowy white that he just looked like a snowball in the branches.  Cute and quick little guy.

I did some more work on Fort Juniper today.  My goal is to build up the north wall first since that is where the coldest winds blow from.  It's coming along, all right.  It was so nice to lay in there on such a windy day and not get pelted by what's blowing!

Other than that, I took a few wintery pictures yesterday that I thought you might enjoy.

Five inches of snow on Fanny Hooe.  Looking toward East Bluff.

Compare this to the picture in "Skating Rink.")

A panoramic view of the snowy trees on Fanny Hooe.

Superior's shoreline looking west from inside the Harbor.

I particularly like the bank of clouds behind this freighter.

Ice on the west end of the Harbor.

Let it snow!!!