We recently had our friends Glen and Stacy come up to visit from downstate. They had never been to our beloved Keweenaw before so we decided to show them why we call this place home and take them out for some of our favorite winter activities.
They made the 10 hour drive up from Rochester, MI on Thursday and were exhausted from all the time in the car so we just laid low, had some chicken for dinner and called it evening early.
Friday dawned clear and warm, one of those amazing days that seem so few during winter around here. We headed to cliff drive to take them out snowshoeing. The sun was great but the warm spell turned the snow wet and heavy. We climbed the couple hundred feet up the ridge and enjoyed the huge vistas of the peninsula. On the way down we took the opportunity to do some sliding. While powder is always more fun, sliding down the steep hill on our snowshoes was a blast. It was Glen’s first time snowshoeing and the combination of great weather and a scenic hike made for a fun trip. We came home, changed and headed down to Houghton for pint at the Keweenaw Brewing Company and sauna in one of the MTU’s dorms.
Saturday was even warmer and sunnier so we made our way to Hungarian Falls to do a little ice climbing. The beautiful weather is a double edged sword when it comes to ice because, while it is more comfortable to be outside, the ice melts and becomes, well, water, which is wet and sometimes impossible to climb. I hiked to the top of the falls to drop our rope while they snowshoed up the valley to the base of the ice. The ice was soft and soaking wet. There were spots where water was spraying out of the ice. Neither Glen nor Stacy had done much climbing but did great despite the less than stellar conditions. They both topped out on their first trips up and looked like naturals. We all got in 2 or 3 climbs and were starting to get uncomfortably wet so we headed home. A bunch of friends came up to Calumet for a potluck dinner and we spent the night enjoying some great food and company.
Sunday morning was another beautiful day. The weather could not have cooperated more. One nice day up here seems like a treat, three seems like a miracle. Hannah and I were excited to go snowshoe Bare Bluff. We hiked it in the fall and it was probably the nicest hike in the Keweenaw. We got a slow start and drove up toward Bete’ Grise only to find Smith Fishery Road impassable. This was a disappointment and forced us to change our plans. We drove down to the Bete’ Grise Preserve and hiked out to the lake shore. It is an awesome view and it was crazy how little ice was on the lake. From there we drove up to Copper Harbor and down toward Eagle Harbor enjoying the cool ice formations and beautiful shoreline along the lake. We stopped at Esrey Park and walked around a bit checking out some of the amazing ice that was quickly melting on the rocks.
It was great having Glen and Stacy up and it was just the excuse Hannah and I needed to break out of our recent adventure funk. It was cool to play tour guide and show someone new to the area all the things we love, plus they were great company for all of it.
Monday rolled in dark and cloudy; more of a typical winter day. We said our goodbyes and they headed home to the lower peninsula, I headed to Indiana to cut down some trees for work and Hannah worked in the lab even though she had the day off of school for MLK Day.
You can see more photos from the weekend at http://picasaweb.google.com/asuperioradventure/Fall2009Winter2010#
One Response
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JKal Says:
sweet pics man, nice post