North Shore Waterfalls: Stay close to shore

Signs warning Gooseberry Falls visitor

Just in the last few days, the waterfalls of the North Shore, from Duluth to Grand Portage, have shed their curtains of ice and are starting to roar. Record late snowfall will feed these falls for weeks to come as the woods slowly release their snowy load.

River ice from the Gooseberry pushed up against an old cedar

The ice on the rivers must have just broken up in the last week. Along the banks of the Gooseberry River today, foot-thick chunks of river ice were piled up against the ancient cedar trees that hold the banks against the milky flood. 

Unfortunately for us fans of waterfalls, it will be tough going to see these torrents up close. The snowpack still reaches all the way to the lakeshore. At Gooseberry Falls State Park, where at least a foot of snow is found in the woods around the visitor center and much more inland, signs warn visitors to the most popular falls to use ice cleats (and "CAUTION"). 

How do I know?
I decided this morning to check out one of my favorite North Shore waterfall hikes. It's Hike #17 in my book Hiking the North Shore: 50 Fabulous Day Hikes in Minnesota's Spectacular Lake Superior Region. It's a three-mile hike that runs up one side of and down the other of the Gooseberry River, bringing you to all five of the park's main waterfalls.

Upper Falls, Gooseberry River

It was easy going on the wide paved path as far as Upper Falls, the blocky fall right above Highway 61. Then it got snowy. And slushy. And wet.

Andrew on Fifth Fall Bridge

Slippy through the slush along the southwest bank, I made it all the way to Fifth Falls, where I crossed the river on the incredibly scenic footbridge. The northeast bank of the river had more sunshine on it and was a bit less snowy. And a bit more muddy. It was tough going.

Other parks, same story
This pattern of snowy slushy hiking on North Shore waterfall hike is true all the way up the shore. The snow gets deep fast as soon as you head inland from the lake and from Highway 61. Another favorite waterfalls hike, the Split Rock River loop on the Superior Hiking Trail, is probably deep in wet snow along the west side of the river.

For the best waterfall hiking on the North Shore this week, stick close to the lake and on well-used paths. If you have cleats for your shoes, strap them on; last thing you want is to slip off the well-packed trail down the gorge and into the just-melted river water rushing away.

Broken up river ice below Middle Falls, Gooseberry River

In Gooseberry, the basic trail around Middle and Lower Falls is in decent shape. People were strolling around in shorts and sneakers, despite the warnings. The famous Middle Falls is as scenic as anything else in the park. The stacked-up pile of broken-up river ice near the base of the falls shows the power of the river at break-up. At Cascade River State Park, the short loop around the lower river is good for hiking, with some mud and some occasional ice spots.

So you should definitely go check out some North Shore waterfalls this week or next. By the time the great hiking trails dry up, the waterfalls might have dried up too.

Bonus season: Take another lap

Are we near the "Finnish" of the North Shore ski season?

It's been an amazing month for skiing on the North Shore. Just when you think the big thaw is around the corner, another 5-6 inches of snow comes out of nowhere, the temps drop below zero, and the groomers carve out another perfect ski trail. The snow pack is still building up. The snow is like January, the sunshine and long days are like March. 

Sally and I have been out skiing every chance we get. On Saturday, we skied at Piedmont here in Duluth. Sunday we drove north to Boulder Lake. Both days we decided to ski one more lap, one more bit of trail that on any other day we would have skipped.

The ski season will end. Even with today's snow, the season could end next week. For now, it's carpe diem and take another lap. 

Where to go for the snow
Where is there still good skiing on the North Shore? The short answer is "everywhere." But as temps rise and the crowds thin, you'll want to head to trails that are committed to grooming. Here's where you'll find the best late-season North Shore skiing this year:

• Sugarbush Trails (Tofte and Lutsen area), especially the Moose Fence area up the Sawbill Trail and the Onion River Road.
• Boulder Lake
• Tettegouche State Park
• Central Gunflint Trails (click here for some great wintry photos)

A N'ice time on the North Shore

Recent cold temps on the North Shore have brought back one of my absolute favorite parts of living along this freshwater sea: jagged colors of ice and thick wafting clouds of sea smoke. Turns out that even though it was 14 below on the Park Point beach this morning, I could still use my little digital camera to take a few pictures.

Climate change has meant that Lake Superior water is warmer than ever. Even with temps at double digits below zero in mid-January, the lake water resists that final nudge to ice. The lake water, about to finally freeze, moves slowly, thickly, but still it would rather evaporate into heavy clouds than turn solid. 

It's a cold snap
I'm not the only one out shooting shoreline photos in the cold. Grand Marais photographer and kayak guide Bryan Hansel has been busy..and cold...this winter. If you're on Facebook, I highly recommend "liking" Bryan's photography. You'll get nearly daily photos from the North Shore, including a lot of great shoreline ice photos in the last month or so. Bryan is also teaching a course in Lake Superior winter photography. This year's course is full, but with enough names on the waiting list he might run another session. Travis Novitsky of Grand Portage is getting some great shoreline shots as well; do check out his "waterfall" photo for a Lake Superior scene you've never seen before. 

Explore on your own
Come on down to the lakeshore almost anywhere now and you'll find dramatic, one-of-a-kind ice formations. Park Point is easy to get to; just go across Duluth's Aerial Lift Bridge and drive five more blocks to the beach access parking lot at the "S-curve" of Franklin Park. Up the shore, check out Two Harbors' Lighthouse Point, the beach at Gooseberry Falls State Park, or Artist's Point in Grand Marais. 

Jay Cooke: Enjoying park in pieces

Jay Cooke State Park is a sprawling North Woods landscape etched in intricate detail by the St. Louis River. This last summer, the river rose out of its banks in Duluth's 500-year flash flood and gouged the park into pieces. The park will never be quite the same. But with a few detours in mind, park visitors can still have a great Minnesota State Park experience.

Long story short, the flood cut the park up like a Thanksgiving pie, into four big pieces. It was cut north from south, and west from east.

From Minnesota DNR

The flood closed off the park entirely for about three months. Now,  the entrance from the west (from I-35 through Cloquet or Esko) is open again. If you think of the cut-up pie, you can easily reach and explore the upper left (or northwest) quarter of the pie.

The park has a great map available showing what's open and closed.

Open and easy to access now:

• Park visitor center
• Park campground (featured in our book Camping the North Shore), including the great camper cabins
• Hiking trails around the visitor center, including the CCC, Forbay, White Pine and Thomson trails

Other trails are open but more difficult to access. 

In our book Hiking the North Shore, we feature two hikes in Jay Cooke State Park. Hike #1 is Silver Creek Trail and Hike #2 is St. Louis River Loop. Those trails themselves are still in good shape, except both hikes require crossing the Swinging Bridge. With the bridge closed, you can still hike down the south side of the St. Louis River from Thompson starting on the Munger Trail, then do the Silver Creek Trail loop and return the way you came.

Looking ahead
Plans for the 2012-13 winter cross country ski season are still being worked out. There will definitely be ski trails groomed in the area around the Visitor Center. Our book Skiing the North Shore describes the following trails that will be open: CCC, White Pine and Thompson. The Oak and Triangle trails reached off the East Palkie Road should also be open and groomed. Then there is hope to open some of the trails on the south side of the St. Louis River using local access points; more details to follow.

The park plans to have the Swinging Bridge open again in late 2013. That will allow hikers and skiers full access again to the trails. The massive blowout on Highway 210 will have a new bridge by 2014. Two years from now, Jay Cooke will be all put back together again. Until then, enjoy the park all that you can!

Duluth's Amity Creek after the flood

When the great floods of June washed over Duluth, we all thought it was the end of our hiking trails as we knew them. I'm happy to report that many if not most of Duluth's hiking trails are back. 

Compare the photo above with this video from the storm:

 It sure helps that, after the flood we've had two months of below normal rainfall. Duluth creeks are all but dried up.

I took the poodle out for a walk around Amity Creek last week. There's a great short walk from the playground area of Lester Park up one bank of Amity Creek, across the footbridge above the falls, then back down the other side. Download the map from the City of Duluth and follow the green trails to "The Deeps".

As you walk along the banks of Amity, you can definitely pick out signs of the storm. Debris is still wrapped around branches easily eight feet higher than the current water level. Freshly compacted dirt shows in a few places where the trail washed away and eager crews have put it back in place. 

But the tall white pines still stand, and the city's improvements from a few years back are looking great still.

Flood recovery still has a long way to go. Volunteers are still needed for important projects including trail repair. But if you've just gotta get out for a hike, Duluth's trails are ready for you. 

Three things you have to do before summer is over.

Fall is on its way. North of us in Ontario the aspen trees are already turning.

Here are three things you could do on the North Shore, but if you can’t get down to Lake Superior, do these things anyway. They’re like in the frozen lake after a sauna...an experience you need in order to set your clock to the season.

S'Mores stand at the State Fair

One: Go to a festival. 
You just have to get somewhere where you can get shoved around in the crowd and buy some greasy food. Most of the big North Shore events are over. But there’s still the Lake County Fair this weekend (and the Silver Creek Ukelele Carnival nearby!). In the Twin Ports, check out the Dragon Boat Festival over on Barkers Island. If none of those meet your schedule, you’ll have to make the drive to the Minnesota State Fair.

"Homegrown" tomatoes in our backyard this evening

Two: Eat a homegrown tomato.
Even more than the perfect ear of sweet corn, the perfect fresh tomato sings in a perfect pitch of summer. Like the old song goes, “Only two things that money can’t buy, that’s true love and homegrown tomatoes.” There are farmers’ markets in Duluth and Two Harbors. Yes, you’re buying them. So maybe the song is wrong. 

On a rock off the Duluth shoreline

Three: Swim in a lake. 
Cold nights are already starting to cool off the smaller lakes, but Lake Superior is still as warm as it gets. Here’s where you really need the North Shore and Lake Superior. Smaller inland lakes can get rather green and dank this time of year. Down on Park Point or at Brighton Beach, the water has cleared up since the big June flood and it’s crystalline now.

North Shore funky blues

Organic blueberries ready to be picked, Shari's Berries, August 7, 2012

We went to Shari's Berries this week to pick blueberries. While it was raining heavily in Duluth and all the way up the expressway toward Two Harbors, as soon as we turned up Homestead Road and away from Lake Superior, we drove out of the rain. Typical Lake Superior "funk" (and I don't mean the musical style, just the cool, gray moist lake-effect so-called weather)

The gray funky feeling stayed with us for berry picking. Shari herself met us at the gate and immediately started apologizing for the picking conditions. Maybe you want to come back Saturday, she suggested. Maybe the berries will have ripened up some more. Maybe it won't be raining then. "Production's down about 40%," she had warned on her phone message before we even got there. Finally, "Are you okay with the horses?"

But we persisted through the funk, just like we'd driven through the rain; after all, we'd already committed half a workday to this, and we NEED a few gallons of blueberries in the freezer to get us through a winter of muffins and pancakes. So we headed out with our gallon ice-cream pails (thanks to our teenage sons for emptying those out for us).

Compared to scavenging for wild blueberries, the picking was fantastic. No poison ivy, handsome horses snorting, and the berries were 2-3 feet off the straw-covered ground.

Compared to a normal season at Shari's or other pick-yer-own farms, it was, well, about 40 percent down. Very few places you could plop your rear on a bucket and pick a few quarts just within arm's reach. It's nearly impossible to fill a gallon bucket picking just one berry at a time, so we were almost strolling through the bushes to find clumps of berries together. 

An hour and a half later, we'd each filled our buckets. These lovely organic berries were only $2.50 per pound and will fill out a lot of Sunday breakfasts and school lunch muffins. 

We left with our treasure, feeling pretty good about ourselves, drove back down Homestead Road, and sure enough it was still raining by the Lake. Funky.

Go on, pick your own berries
There is still picking coming up at Duluth-area berry farms. Call Shari about possible picking this weekend, (218) 834-5221. Blackbirds and Blueberries, near Cloquet, will have some weekday picking dates coming early next week. 

Music to pick by
How about the track "Funky Blues" from Charly Parker?

Beachcombing after the flood

The great flood of June 2012 is still receding, and we are just now grasping the full scale of its impact. While most of the attention is rightfully on the washed out roads and thousands of moldy wet basements, the trails enjoyed by North Shore hikers, bikers and nature enthusiasts have also suffered greatly. More details to come in a future post.

Five days now after the rains, the first big chunks of debris have arrived on the Park Point beach here in Duluth. It's a tragic treasure hunt, sorting through all this stuff that was, until very recently, someone's backyard tree, someone's dockside ornament, even someone's dock or home. 

I walked the beach from the "Tot Lot" at 12th St. to the Aerial Lift Bridge this afternoon and found mostly sticks and logs, but also some funky personal items. A kids sandal. Two different empty bottles of UV Vodka. A foam toilet brush. The most bizarre was a stuffed cat with a straw hat tied into a willow bedframe. 

Perhaps most telling were the lily roots. Looking like sea anemones at low tide, these freaky plants had obviously been scoured out of the mucky quiet river bottoms where lily pads thrive. The tuberous lily roots then spent the last five days sending out sprouts out looking for light to grow and new muck in which to grow. They weren't finding any on the beach

It was an amazing storm. Even along the shores of Lake Superior, the clean up will take some time.

Freaky early spring in the North Woods

Alder catkins at Bear Head Lake State Park. March 24, 2012. Note open water.

It's March, and the frogs are calling outside Ely. The ice is off all but the biggest lakes. Nearly every sign of spring is coming a full month early. It's as if winter never happened, which is sort of true.

Leftover lake ice stack on the shore after break-up, Bear Head Lake.

Finally by the end of February the weather got as cold and snowy as a typical late November...and then on March 1 we jumped right past winter to weather more like May.


Of course the lakes opened up early; they hardly even froze. Of course the snow is all gone; we hardly even had snow on the ground.


The woods are already drying up. Streams are already running low. It's freaky and I just don't like it.

It's not THAT warm

After a lovely late winter snowfall and a fine Tour Duluth cross country ski experience, record warm temps rolled into the North Shore area and have thrown local folks in a tizzy. Last weekend, spring-hungry Duluthians were out doing the bizarre. Out past the ice piles left by the Leap Day Blizzard, two guys in a canoe drift alongside the Park Point beach, right where one year ago the ice volcanoes were still blowing. It's not THAT warm.

Although about half the Park Point beach is still covered in blue-ice boulders, there was enough sand for at least one person to stroll barefoot. It's not THAT warm.

 This was a little more like it. Duluth's Lakewalk was full of strollers enjoying the sunshine. Maybe it WAS that warm; I sure enjoyed my walk.

Just to remind us here on the North Shore how long we've got to go before it's really spring here, there's been a poof of wind off the lake the last few days. Lake Superior water is about 38 degrees, so it's a cool poof. And as the Twin Cities reaches freaky high temps in the 80s, we are still a pleasant 45 here.So even if it is THAT warm somewhere else, it sure isn't here.

The great lake swirl: WAY better late than never

What an amazing day we had on Saturday here in Duluth. The meteorologists got it all wrong in the right way. What started as a forecast of an inch or two of snow overnight turned into the biggest single dump of snow we've had in over a year. 

Apparently, two air masses ran into each other over the western part of Lake Superior and the resulting lift sucked the moisture out of the open lake water and turned it into snow. Lots of snow. Snow that fell all day. We shoveled three times just for the joy of shoveling. Meteorologists, at a loss for words, called it a "lake swirl." Over a foot of fluffy snow fell over places in Duluth.

Here are the forecasters trying to figure out what was happening:

UPDATE...A VERY INTERESTING SITUATION WAS SHAPING UP ACROSS THE NORTHLAND DURING THE EVENING. IT APPEARS THAT A "LAKE SWIRL" HAS SET UP AT THE HEAD OF THE LAKES. HAS ALREADY BEEN A GOOD COUPLE INCHES OF SNOW ALONG THE HILLSIDE OF DULUTH AND INTO THE SUPERIOR AREA. HAVE NOT SEEN A SWIRL LIKE THIS FOR MANY YEARS PERSONALLY. FROM PREVIOUS RESEARCH...THE SWIRLS TEND TO SET UP WITH WE HAVE WEAK OFFSHORE WINDS AT THE HEAD OF THE LAKE...CREATING CONVERGING WINDS IN THE BOWL LIKE TIP OF LAKE SUPERIOR.  CONCERNED THAT WE COULD SEE SOME IMPRESSIVE SNOWFALL RATES OVERNIGHT. WILL NEED TO WATCH FOR POSSIBLE AMOUNTS JUMPING OUT OF THE ADVISORY CATEGORY INTO THE WARNING CATEGORY IF THE SWIRL CONTINUES TO JUST SIT THERE. ...WENT FOR 5 TO 7 INCHES THROUGH SATURDAY MORNING...AND WILL WATCH VERY CAREFULLY FOR THE POTENTIAL FOR HIGHER AMOUNTS.

It's early March in what had been a nearly snow-less winter, so our sense of the season was all thrown off. Not sure what to do, Sally and I headed for the Hartley ski trails. It was perfect conditions for snowshoeing, much less so for cross country skiing. In fact, I think we got passed by some snowshoers. But it was lovely and amazing just to be out in the midst of a big dump like that. I love this place. 

Three little words to warm a skier's heart

No, they aren't "I love you." Or "Time for bed." 

It's "Winter Storm Warning."

Here's the latest from the National Weather Service.

WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 AM CST MONDAY

SNOW ACCUMULATIONS...STORM TOTAL SNOWFALL AMOUNTS WILL RANGE FROM 5 TO 8 INCHES...WITH 6 TO 10 INCHES POSSIBLE OVER THE ELEVATED TERRAIN NEAR LAKE SUPERIOR FROM FINLAND TO TOFTE TO GRAND PORTAGE.

Even though it's five words long, the phrase "elevated terrain near Lake Superior" is a total heart-melter. That puts me right back in to the amazing ridges and trails, from Tettegouche through Sugarbush all the way to Pincushion Mountain.

Let's go skiing.
Groom those trails.
Eat more pie.

In search of February ice at Shovel Point

View from Shovel Point, February 1, 2012

I went for a lovely walk yesterday out to Shovel Point, along the rugged shoreline of Tettegouche State Park. Mine were the first human footprints in the meager snow, along with a rambling deer's, a scattered squirrel's, and a deliberate fox'. 

The view from Shovel Point looking west is classic North Shore. Palisade Head looms in the distance. Cliffs and coves stud the shore. 

But there was something very important missing: the ice.

It's February, the freezing month. In a "normal" North Shore winter, the water of Lake Superior is finally cold enough this month that it can really freeze solid. Normally the ice starts in the little bays and coves, then on one dramatic cold and calm night it covers the lake as far as you can see. If we're lucky, a succession of cold days freezes the ice hard, and mere mortals can take off on the ice and down the shoreline.

Shovel Point observation deck

It was the same story at the far end of Shovel Point, at the dramatic observation deck perched on the storm-washed shore: no ice anywhere to be seen.

I love the feeling of walking out onto frozen Lake Superior, of gingerly stepping below tall cliffs, of feeling the thrill of a pile of ice slabs sliding underneath like well-greased cookie sheets. The lack of ice on the North Shore this year hits me nearly as hard as the lack of snow. Goldarnit, it's February, it's supposed to be freezing out here.

Save the skiers...from themselves!

Nordic skating on Lake Superior from http://www.nordicskating.org/superior/mileout.jpg

Recently I wrote here about how delusional skiers are. They are over-the-top optimistic about the poor cross country ski conditions here in Duluth. 

But maybe it’s better that they stick to the trails and suffer than get out for the really wacky alternative stuff.

Skiers are giving up on the forest trails and want to go ice skating. But when you've got wild trails in your blood, you can't settle for a city ice rink. So skiers are buying special nordic skates they can attach their ski boots to, then having a great time on the Bay. Check out the pics and the gear at NordicSkating.org.

Biking down the St. Louis River by Hansi Johnson

Other frustrated skiers are using their mountain bikes to run down the frozen rapids of the St. Louis River in Jay Cooke State Park. 

A colleague of mine can’t find enough snow on the lakes for kite boarding, so he’s hoping for enough wind to go surfing. In Lake Superior. In January.

We need some snow. Save the skiers from themselves.

Skiers are delusional

I went skiing at Duluth's Piedmont trails last week, first thing in the morning on the day that The Big Thaw began. There was just an inch or two of snow on the trails, not enough for a classic track but enough to cover most of the rocks and sticks. I skied all 5 kilometers and left thinking, "Hmmm...not bad."

Must have been those feel-good endorphins speaking. It was bad. It was awful. Mid-January and there's not enough snow to set a track? Who was I kidding?

The Big Thaw has continued for five days now. Skiers are still finding snow, and they are either hugely optimistic or totally delusional. Here's a sampling from SkinnySki.com today:

"Only one part of the trail was basically unskiable" (regarding Boulder Lake trails)

"We saw some stubble, but really not bad at all." (from Central Gunflint trails)

"Enough rocks and roots present to make it an exercise in situational awareness" (about Snowflake trails) 

If you want to ski and actually would like some snow that is not awful, head up the North Shore to Tofte and ski on the Onion River Road. Or head inland to the Flathorn Gegoka trails. 

Yes, a bad day skiing is better than a good day at the office. And after all that time sidestepping logs and seeking out tracks deep enough to hold a Hot Wheel, you deserve to be proud. Delusional, but proud. 

The sun came back!

We made it through the longest night of the year. Last night, the sun (sol) stood still (stice) Thanks to dozens of bonfires and some drum circles along the shores of Lake Superior during the night, the sun did finally return this morning, right on schedule. 

The sun rose basically in the east, of course, but it rose 23.5 degrees south of east, the furthest that way it gets all year. Watching the sun rise over the cloudy horizon this morning from Park Point, it came up over Wisconsin. 

In the summer, from our view in Duluth, the sun rises right up out of the long end of Lake Superior.

Okay, that's the solstice, the first day of winter. It can start snowing now. Anyone got a drum circle for that?

Desperate times, 2011 edition

The winter of 2011-2012 is off to a slow start. Nature has not provided much snow to the North Shore area. I've chronicled desperate times before in this blog, from back in 2008, when we weren't skiing until late December and I biked on the beach and ran screaming down ski trails. I'm grumpy now, wanting to get out on real snow on a real trail.

The Duluth Denfeld Hunters Nordic Ski team has been skiing on snow for two weeks now. Thanks to the generosity of Spirit Mountain, the Denfeld team has been able to practice and race on the man-made snow of the slopes. 

It was a bizarre scene this week at Spirit when Denfeld hosted their annual ski race. Drizzle all day had turned into a heavy layer of fog perched right at the top of the hill in Duluth. Driving into Spirit there was just a dusting of snow in the woods. Then you walk out toward the racecourse and suddenly there's two feet of snow on the ground. There were more cross country skiers than downhill skiers, and those skinny skis stuck out in a ski world more about wide skis and wider snowboards.

The course started right by the chalet and went uphill. Skiers disappeared into the fog and dark. Less than a minute later, they zoomed out of the fog straight down the ski run, snowplowing or step-turning to make the big curve around the chalet. 

Although it was desperate measures for these desperate times, the foggy hilly race was  a lot of fun. The Denfeld boys took second place, behind the mighty East High School. It was actual real skiing at a North Shore ski area. Despite all that, I'm still grumpy. Maybe next time they'll let me on the course.

Great Duluth skiing ahead...just need some snow

Blue blob over MN means cooler temps.

There is a great season of cross country skiing ahead for Duluth. Despite major budget challenges, the city is receiving twice as much money as last year from the state for ski trail grooming. The Duluth XC Ski Club has taken over management at the Spirit Mountain Nordic Center. 

White space over MN means average temps.

The long range forecast still calls for below-average temperatures and average precipitation, which add up to more snow.  

Now we just need some snow.

The fog flowers of the North Shore

Tall Lungwort, Piedmont Ski Trail, Duluth

It's been a cold and foggy spring by the shores of Lake Superior. That's been tough on vegetable gardens and bike stores. But it's been great for at least one perfect North Shore wildflower. A flower that NEEDS the cold. It NEEDS the fog.

If you NEED some inspiration to get out and explore the foggy North Shore, look no farther than the tall lungwort, a.k.a. northern bluebells. 

Tall lungwort (Mertensia paniculata) is found all around the cool, moist shores of Lake Superior...and nowhere else in the eastern United States. The only other place it's found in the US is in the western states, on the cooler, wetter sides of the mountains there. 

Tall Lungwort, Tettegouche State Park

Ecologists call these North Shore flowers a "disjunct" population, separated from the main group. Lake Superior provides not only the cool air but also the moisture. If you're a fan of The West and mountains, here's a bit of the western Rocky Mountains right here for you.

It seems like every other wildflower on the North Shore is running at least a week late in the blooming calendar. Not this flower; it's right on time. 

Imagine those first little green growths of lungwort emerging from the damp North Shore soil, sensing cold and fog and saying, in its little plant voice, "PERFECT! Let's grow."

Inspired? Might as well make the best of this North Shore fog and cold, just like this flower does. Poke your head out the door and into the fog and just say, "PERFECT!"

Summer is on the way...from Arizona

Yes, it seems like winter is here to stay. People are still skiing on North Shore ski trails. Dry, fresh snow just fell on Sawbill Lake. But I can tell you, summer is happening, only it's a thousand miles away.

I just got back from a week in Arizona, in a little town north of Phoenix. We did some hiking and some hanging out by the pool. Temps were in the high 80s every day. The cacti were blooming like wild. The ocotillo plant, normally a dried-up stick of a shrub, was covered in green leaves and blooming a flush of orange-red flowers.

The biggest blooms were on the saguaro. Saguaro are those super-tall cacti with the arms sticking out and up. They define the Sonoran Desert sort of like how the white pine define the North Woods. 

So North Shore folks who have had bit too much winter, take heart. The seasons are changing; the earth is tilting toward the sun. The maple woods will fill with spring beauty. The loons will return to our lakes. Sometime before August, you'll actually feel hot.  

Summer is on the way.