Hunt For Icy Stuff

Headed up to the Keweenaw yesterday in hopes of some big ice on the rocks, not much yet. I think it’s been to warm until the past few days for a good ice build up.
The weather was really crappy north of Calumet. The was either light freezing rain falling or a few wet snow.
Also, I couldn’t fly the drone too much, one due to the freezing crap icing up my rotor blades, and two… there were too many eagles hunting along the shore and they were eyeballing the drone.
Today I woke up to 2 fresh inches of snow, then at 7:00 AM the lake effect machine kicked in.  By noon I had 7.3 inches and the sun came out, so it was time to shovel and clear the driveway.

Icy Islands

Freighters in the Bay

After defrosting the car from an inch of snow on top of an inch of frozen rain and graupel mix,  I head to to store for a few groceries.  On the way I noticed three freighters in the bay taking refuge from the storm.  Knowing I wouldn’t be able to get much of a photo from shore to include all three, I decided to fly the drone up from the house and see what I could get.

From left to right, John J Boland, John G Munson and Cason J Callaway.

Freighters on Keweenaw Bay

Freighters on Keweenaw Bay

Interesting Weekend

What a weekend, from Autumn colors to strong storms and power outages.

Friday I headed into the Keweenaw to check the colors out. In most areas there, they are at just about peak color. I drove straight up to Copper Harbor then down along the coast. Didn’t go up to Brockway Mountain due to way to busy with tourons. I took a few nice photos, and a video I quite like. Then headed home.
That evening, Friday, some thunder storms came rolling through… Yikes! These storms were the strongest I’ve ever seen in person. Also, most the area lost power, mine was out until Sunday morning. I lost two large trees out by the road, but that’s quite minor compared to what happened in L’Anse… They got hammered on.
Saturday I thought I might as well go out and about, no power at the house. Well, as I drove out and down my road that’s where the mess started… downed trees everywhere. I counted nine trees in just under a mile on my road and two snapped power poles. Once I got into L’Anse, holyshit! Must have been hundreds of trees either up-rooted or snapped in half, and they were everywhere, along with downed power lines. I continued on up to Big Erick’s bridge and then out Black Creek Rd and drove around on some two-tracks for a while. Then came home to a still powerless house.
Today, Sunday, I got woke up to a bright light in my eyes, it was the ceiling light. I have power again. Just before sunrise, I drove out my road to see what had been done, not much. The trees are still across the road, but there was two power service trucks parked. A little later I made a quick run to the hardware store, the trees are still down and the trucks are still there, but no-one working yet. There has been one of the snapped power pole replaced, but lines are still hanging very low.
Also this weekend, a couple of “friends” came to L’Anse to see the colors and stuff. They said they’d be getting a hold of me, yeah right. They called once where to go in the keweenaw and they would be getting a hold of me later. Nope. It’s is now 12:30 Sunday Afternoon and not a word. Fuck Them.

I have quite a few photos, some I’m photos now, others I still need to process them and then post later.

First some of the trees down by the storm…

Now Photos and video from the Keweenaw…

Now a couple from the two-tracks…

Quick Rain Storm

I have always kept an eye on the weather, and knowing there could be some popup storms today I watched the radar most often. A little before 4:00 PM I noticed a few clouds, checked the radar, and sure enough a nice little storm was heading my way. What did I do? I grabbed my drone and headed up into the sky. In one direction, to my southwest, was a storm coming, and in the other direction over Keweenaw Bay, bright sunny skies.
After the storm passed the sun came out, so I grabbed the drone again to hunt for a rainbow. Sure enough, there was one, though not a real strong one but still pretty cool.

Incoming Storm

Keweenaw Bay Before The storm

Rainbow

Keweenaw Bay with a hint of rainbow on the right

Flower from my wildflower patch

Hummingbirds and Sunsets

Not much has been happening, just work mainly. The other day I tried taking a slow motion video of some Hummingbirds with the drone. I set the drone up on the front deck railing, went back in the house and sat there triggering the drone to record. After splicing and merging all the clips, I ended up with about 30 seconds in real time footage, but taken in 1080p at 240 FPS, it lasts 6 minutes. I’ll have to try this again sometime.
I also took a few different sunset photos with the drone flying up from the house. The first one is about 15 minutes before the second. Both photos are looking across the road from my place. The creek is Six Mile Creek and most the land is Six Mile Creek Preserve, part of the Keweenaw Land Trust. The land around the preserve is DNR land.
More info here…
https://keweenawlandtrust.org/protected-lands/six-mile-creek
Just after landing the drone rain started falling.

Happy Thanksgiving

My Thanksgiving will be mostly work, work to clean the driveway, and work under the Subie. Yesterday during the storm I drove out to see what was happening on US-41 as it rounds Keweenaw Bay. During this drive I came across a smallish tree down and across my road, this tree had also brought down the power lines and snapped a power pole in half. Anyway, I saw a couple tracks crossing the tree, so, so did I, and without any problem. I went to the end of my road, parked and went to the shore for some photos of Lake Superior washing up rocks across the road. I went back to my car and made a call to report the downed tree and power pole, and within just a few minutes the fire department were coming down the road. I turned around and followed them to the point of where the tree was, talked to them for a few, then the power company showed up. I needed to get out of their way so I crossed over the tree again, well this time I heard something and bam I heard a loud sound somewhere under the Subie and it’s now making a loud sound from the exhaust system, somewhere. I checked it quickly when I got home, but things felt tight, so today I need to drive it up on the ramps and find the issue.
Before I can get to that work, I need to finish clearing the driveway. I started it late yesterday, but couldn’t finish it due to excruciating pain in my leg, and I mean fucking excruciating pain.
Now to back track a bit in time to yesterday’s snowstorm. It was quite a good storm, but with it being so warm, the snow is very wet and heavy. I lost power a little before sunrise, called it in and waited. Once it was light enough outside, I noticed lights through the trees at my closest neighbor’s house, then I saw my power line was sagging and almost touching the ground. I went out to check things out. I walked behind the quonset and saw the problem, a huge tree had fallen and brought the line down. I called again to report what I found, and the crew were right over. After about 2 hours of them working, I had power again. Ah, but only about 10 minutes after the power crew left, boom, there went the power again. I checked things out again, but didn’t see anything here. I didn’t know where the issue was until hours later when I drive out to check the waves and US-41.
In the mean time, I called Spectrum to let them know their line was still hanging and almost touching the ground. They told me they can’t come out during the storm, bullshit. Oddly enough though, I still have cable and internet. They said they would be here Friday afternoon to look at it. Their line is fucked, it’s hanging behind the quonset and hanging low from the quonset to the house, if fact, I have to duck under it when walking back to the quonset.
So anyway, the storm brought 10 inches of snow here, and there are reports of around 2 feet in other areas with some people still without power. I guess I was lucky being without power for only about 8 hours.

So with that all being said… Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Rocks being washed over US-41

Power line down across the road

My lines

Snowy Pines in my yard

Slate River and Snow

Woke up this morning to find about 3 inches of fresh snow had fallen over night. The snow is mostly gone now with the sun shining and temps up in the upper 30s.
Once it got bright enough this morning I grabbed Eli and we headed off to the Slate River in hopes of more snow to go along with the waterfalls. Well, there wasn’t any more snow out at the river than there was at home, but it was still nice. We weren’t out there few long because the sun started to break through the clouds and that’s no good for photos of waterfalls and snow, so we headed back home, though we were still out there a couple hours.
Once we were home I heated up some left-over pizza for my birthday dinner, yes it was early but I was hungry.

Oh, and today I join the 60 years old club. Fucking hooray.

Slate River

Slate River

Keweenaw Drive

Headed out early this morning for a drive around the Keweenaw. As I got closer to Houghton it became quite foggy, and the fog didn’t let up fully until I reached Lac La Belle. Along the way I saw a two-track that looked interesting, it went along side Thayer Lake, but right after a bridge crossing a river there was a sign that read “Road Closed”. Bummer! So I carried on toward Gay and up the coast. I stopped at one of the roadside places to get some photos of the fog along the shore and to let Eli out for a bit. Eli really enjoyed walking and exploring the shore on his own. I also went out toward Smith Fisheries Road to get some Lupine seeds. Then up to Copper Harbor and did a quick loop through town and then up to Brockway Mountain. I can back down the same way as up because I wanted to drive along the west shore of the Keweenaw, I just love it through there. I stopped at a spot close to the shore and we got out for a walk about on the rocks. At this same spot there was a bench, I sat there for about 45 minutes just enjoying the bug free cool breeze on the shore of Lake Superior. After that, drove on home.

I’m posting this privately to keep record for myself. I guess all my posts will be this way from here on. I feel really sad.

Brunette Park – Eastern Keweenaw with a bit of fog.

View From Brockway Mountain

Spot Where The Bench Was

Thayer Lake