March 14-
I'm back already! I
figured that the storm we just had really deserved more recognition than I gave
it yesterday. There are several ways that I could tell that it was really a
monster of a storm, even for this neck of the woods. The first was the fact that
in the nearly 7 years I have been living up here, yesterday was the first time
that I had ever heard all the plows were pulled off the roads in Houghton and
Keweenaw Counties. You know it has to be bad when those seasoned professionals
declare it unfit to be out in. I heard that there were cars off the roads
all over the place up here. See, even Yoopers can have problems driving in the
snow! The second sign to me it was a monster was that in the entire time I have
lived up here I have taken the local paper and yesterday was the first time that
it was not delivered. The third sign was that yesterday was the first time I
have ever started out on a walk, got the 200 feet to the end of my block and
turned around because it is too nasty out. The winds yesterday afternoon were so
strong and it was snowing so hard that at times visibility dropped to zero. I
was worried that someone trying to get home would not see us and would run into
Burt, Nora or I, or all three. Plus you had to try and walk where a vehicle had
been down because the snow was well over a foot deep on the roads and the snow
would just pelt you in the face. So yesterday it was actually too nasty to even
take a walk and that has never happened before, we are all pretty tough when it
comes to the weather elements. I sure was glad that the storm hit yesterday
instead of next Monday. That is when I am flying out west to Wyoming!
Would have been a real bummer to be snowed in and not be able to get out there
on time!
Things quieted down a bunch
today. It was still snowing and blowing pretty good early this morning and with
the roads still in pretty rough shape so school was canceled for everyone, which
also meant that Nora had the day off. Ever since taking the job she has hoped
for a snow day. She loves her job, the folks she works with, but still was
hoping for that "snow day". There have been some near misses, with a
storm back in February actually being bad enough that it could have been
canceled, but the storm did not get going until around midday. Another storm
happened on a weekend and thus school was already out. Anyway, Burt and I
enjoyed having Nora home with us today. She rewarded us with a nice special
breakfast and lunch and helped out some with the clearing of the snow.
I actually had cleared the
driveway for her when she was coming home yesterday afternoon. The trusty Ariens
ate through the 14" of snow like a hot knife through butter, but when I
woke up this morning it looked like I had never even touched the snow on the
driveway. Here is me
clearing a path out to the road early this morning so that I could haul the
garbage out to be picked up today. The snow on the driveway was that which fell
from about 4pm yesterday until this morning, after I had already cleared the
14" off yesterday afternoon. It was blowing around so hard overnight it was
difficult to get an accurate measurement. The snow on the snow station was only
about an inch deeper from when we went to bed, but then there was about 6"
more on the ground near the snow stick and about 12" new on the driveway. I
decided to go more with the snow stick accumulation as the driveway may have
just gotten blown in. So my official depth for the storm was 19", but
that could have been a little conservative. There were other reports of totals
in the low 20's and Painesdale just a bit south of Houghton reported 32" of
new snow in the 24 hour period ending 7 am this morning and had a depth of
48" on the ground at 7 am this morning. That was not the deepest depth
around these parts though. That honor went to Phoenix Farm with a 55" on
the ground reported as of this morning. That is just 5" shy of 6 feet
of snow on the ground on the level- truly ankle deep...if you go in head first!
Unless we have a really big thaw happen in the next few weeks, I bet we will be
taking our last ride of the season deep into April this year.
The previous picture really was
me just making a path out to the end of the driveway so I could haul the garbage
out. I went back inside and finished my morning work and then had breakfast
before venturing back out to finish clearing the drive way. Here is a shot
of me finishing up the
driveway this morning. The banks are Keweenaw deep again in my neighborhood
as well as everywhere else. Burt and Nora joined me in helping clear the
driveway. Burt loves to
flop down in the snow. I call it a Fosbury Flop as in the kind of flop a
high jumper does in track and field. I can actually ask him to do it and he will
oblige me. When there is a few inches of snow on the ground he will do it and
make snow angles. The funny thing is he does it several times during the course
of a walk and Baileys never did it. Of course after rolling around in the snow, a
labrador has to shake himself off.
It actually worked out pretty
good Nora having the day off. We were able to get an early start on our planned
snowmobile ride. I swapped out the old belts for the brand new ones and we were
able to take a nice ride up to Phoenix, stopped in at the Vansville for a Diet
Coke and then headed back. About the perfect distance to break in a belt. Plus
the riding speed was perfect too. Mostly 30-40 mph and occasionally up to 50-55
on the straight aways. Nora
did very good, it being her first ride of the season and about 3rd or 4th
ride in her life. The trails south of Mohawk were actually not groomed yet. Not
sure why, perhaps a mechanical problem. It was not an issue for most of the time
as just a few sleds had been down and things were not bumpy at all. In fact it
was a little like riding the backcountry with just
a few tracks and all the deep snow on the trail. The trails did get a little
rough where they went through or by an open field as the drifts were pretty big
in spots and the grooming would have been welcomed to flatten them out. I like
drifts, they are fun to launch off of, but not when they are packed down by
other sleds and basically just big moguls. Two groomers come out of Mohawk and the
trail that we rode north of Mohawk to Phoenix was in great shape. With
the storms big totals in the past 24 hours, Jerry (Vansville) had to call out the
heavy artillery to move the snow around his lot.
We did not spend too much time
warming up and taking a break as we wanted to get home in time for Burt's
feeding time. On the way back we came across some
rather large drifts building up off the side of the trail where a field
ended in a tree line near the trail. There is a bit of a hill where the drifts
are formed, so they are not 20 feet high, but I would venture to guess at least
10-15 feet high. Wonder how long those will be lasting? Speaking of lasting
drifts, tonight I will be starting up the contest to tell when the "Laurium
Glacier" will be melting. For those of you new to this. The Laurium Glacier
is not an actual glacier, it is a giant snow drift that forms on Hwy 26 just
south of Laurium and up the hill from Lake Linden. The contest I have in the
General Discussions is to guess when the last bit of snow will finally melt
there. Past dates are located in the "Firsts and Lasts" link found in
the Historical Weather section of the site. So look for the "Official
Laurium Glacier Contest" post in the Misc section of the General
Discussions board and place your guess. Here is a
shot of the Laurium Glacier taken this evening.
That just about covers it for
this time around. The "Clean Snowmobile Challenge" is taking place
today and today was actually the day for the endurance ride to Copper Harbor and
back. I hope to be able to get over to see them and share some pictures with
you. There are actually two electric snowmobiles this year. They cannot travel
the full distance to the Harbor and back, but still a neat idea and I would like
to see them. Hope I can get up there and get some shots to share with you.
Until next time...
Good night from the Keweenaw..
-JD
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