Adventures in the Keweenaw

The long sun filled hours of summer are coming to an end and rumors of the last days of Lake Superior being warm enough to swim are fading fast.

The windows of opportunity to swim in Lake Superior are short and sometimes nonexistent so when I heard tales that some of the lakes 30 quadrillion gallons of water being in the mid 60’s to low 70’s I had to find out for myself.

I tossed the camping gear in the back of my car and drove the 3+ hours to the East side of the Keweenaw Peninsula. I set up my tent and then set out for a snorkel and a swim a surprising 50 minutes until my bones and joints began to ache from the cold.

Becoming a human solar panel, I recharged and warmed up on the sand under the sun before I made myself a nice dinner that included cucumbers and tomatoes from garden.

As I ate a full moon began to rise up out of the lake where it had been sleeping all day. I started a campfire and watched as the moon and stars filled the sky.

The chortle of Sandhill cranes wakened me to the fact that now the sun was rising out of Lake Superior where it had been sleeping near me all night.

The sun was shy as it started its day surrounding itself in a vapor of fog.

I was not as shy as I forgo a still damp and chilly swimsuit but still wrapped myself in a beach towel I had been using as a pillow and headed out for a morning plunge.

I had not seen or heard another human since I had arrived at the campground so I figured my nakedness would go unnoticed.

I scanned the beach to make sure I still had the place to myself, dropped my towel and jumped in and swam out to meet the sun.

Hunger and cold reminded me that it was time to get out and come up with something for breakfast. I edged myself out of the water and up onto the sand shoreline and tried to shake myself off like a wet dog and that’s when I heard clapping.

I looked up to see a middle-aged couple standing on a grassy bank above the beach applauding and the woman informing me “that is very brave.”

I’m not sure if she meant swimming in the cold water or being naked or both?

I gave a shy wave as I grabbed for my towel and when I looked back up the couple was heading back into the trees.

The rest of my camping trip was less action-packed with just more swimming and snorkeling, reading and napping in the sun enjoying what was left of summer.

The Friendly Skies

I spent time traveling in the past through the present.

The past was a 1929 New Standard D-5 Biplane, and the present was two weeks ago.

I had gone past the grass airfield with a sign out front reading “Biplane Rides Today” a couple times this summer every time thinking – I should do that!

I woke up early to the sun rising through a cloudless cerulean sky and nonexistent winds and I thought this was the morning for a Biplane ride. I grabbed my cameras and drove the 30 minutes to the grass airfield.

With the exchange of some money, we were off down the grass runway and up over the town of Manitowish Waters.

Then we circled over the cranberry marshes.

Then it was off to enjoy the friendly skies and local topography and lakes of the area.

Then it was time to head back to the grass airfield.

And the thumbs up from my pilot after another successful landing.

Now what for the next adventure?

Patience?

My brother informed me that he was going to be out of town for the day so would I mind letting his dog out. I arrived waking the old timer from his nap and after a large yawn he got off his couch, had a good stretch and out the door we went for a pee and a walk.

After our walk we both enjoyed my brothers garden – the dog appreciated a good roll in the recently weeded dirt and I searched for cucumbers, tomatoes and zucchinis to “barrow” along with admiring all of the flowers.

The flowers also enticed bees and hummingbirds; I considered this to be a great time to get the ultimate hummingbird photo.

Hummingbirds can flap their wings 50 to 200 time per second – could I get my patience to last longer than that?

The dog was taking a nap in the shade as I set up a lawn chair and waited for the hummingbird’s cameras at the ready. They put on a show of flying acrobatics that had me trying not to frighten them as I tried to focus on their rapid voyage through the air.

I will have to try again these are not the award-winning photos I had hoped for, but it was fun to be a part of a hummingbird’s day and to practice my patience.

A tree falls in the water …

I am not sure exactly when it happened but the centennial of time white pine was reaching for the sky last fall.

The white pine had been there so long that it just blended in and was just a part of the background of nature.

On my first trip to snorkel here this summer I looked out from my put in point and I noticed something had changed in the framework that encircled the lake.

Time and winter storms had brought down the pine snapping it off at its base and now instead of pointing to the sun it reached out horizontally pointing across the lake.

Now the things that lived in the lake noticed the pine and made it their home.

Fish lived in its branches like birds had done just a year before and toads hung rings of their eggs off the dying needles, and you could even find an intrepid photographer.

On the right track

We could hear the sounds of the trains in our minds and imagine how little the views had changed since the first train passed this way in 1888.

My brother and I rolled down the southern half of an old railroad grade now the Bearskin Trail on our bikes through woodlands past springs, creeks and streams on a pleasing summer day.

Flowers bloomed that we know not their names, but they didn’t seem to mind.

A stop for a swim at South Blue Lake helped ease the pain and aches of an extensive bike ride that we would do again.

To see or not to see

Summer is at full tilt in northern Wisconsin, and I found myself on very short walk that if I stopped and lingered that I could see things that I would not have seen.

Find a spot to delay time and see what you did not know there was to see.

Old Boats

Went on a photo quest to the Minocqua Antiques Boat show to see if I could capture the mastery of style and craftsmanship of old wooden and fiberglass boats that had lovingly been restored and preserved to time remembered.

I determined to not photo the extensive whole of these works of time but instead to show the flair of their elements of shape and form that might be missed looking at the complete vessel you may even be able to find this intrepid photographer I one of the photos?

Woo wooo woooo let the owls out.

Spring a time of beginning and I got the opportunity to photo a family of Bared owls.

A baby owl looking out into this unknown world from a hollow of a tree as the mom keeps an eye on me and what I am doing I wonder what they think of me?

Also this time of year pan fish are nesting protecting their eggs so that they can hatch.

The bass’s eggs have hatched but it is still protective of its fry.

Spring has Sprung

The energy of spring has formed flowers to emerge all around.

The bees and bugs are busy and getting busy?

An eagle rests.

And then the rains of spring roll in and interrupt the reflections on the water.

Here from There

On May the 4th 2022 I took my new knee out for a walk.

Even though it had been a long cold winter I was surprised to see that Star Lake was still frozen over as I turned down the road to the Trampers trail.

Snow was still hiding in the shade on the trail and in patches along my hike.

The sun of spring still had not brought out the buds on the trees or caused the grass to green but gave hope as I positioned myself to enjoy its warmth.

Patience is what I was being told to practice with my knee replacement recovery and also the recapture of summer. By May 14 2022 I could detect that spring could be delayed but not stopped.

I could no longer hold out my want to test my new knee in the water. The air temperature was a record setting 88 and the water temperature was a not so inviting 58 degrees when I entered Bass Lake. As I was getting my fins on two loons popped up out of the water to welcome me back and then disappeared below the surface of the water.

I endured for forty minutes in the brisk water my hands and feet throbbing from the chill of the water while my shoulders began to burn from the heat of the sun.

Like the plats on land the plants in the water were starting to reach for the warmth of the sun and as I photo’d them a sun fish checked me out from above and I made it from here there here

Air dweller

I am in the middle of my recovery from knee replacement and I have not kept up on my blog posts. The ice is still on the lakes of northern Wisconsin but it is showing signs of withdrawing and hiding until it is recalled and reruns next winter. With my limited mobility I think of all the places I need to return to and places I need to checkout and photo.

My mind deliberates on the fish I come across on my snorkeling adventures and I wonder what they think of me and why I am there, or do they just think “look an air dweller what is it doing here?”

Pan fish and bass seem to be the most curious of the freshwater fish I come across they stop their routine and examine me and will look me strait in the eye.

Muskies the largest fish in the fresh water lakes of northern Wisconsin are loners and I will sometimes catch them out of the corner of my eye shadowing me and when I turn to photo them they tire of me and easily disappear into the surroundings.

Perch try to camouflage into their environment keeping their distance while keeping an eye I on me.

Crappies are a shy fish that when we encounter each other they are gone as soon as I see them.

One of the wariest fish is the trout and of all my years snorkeling I have only chanced on them one at a time as they dart past into the safety of the deep.

This past fall was the first time I was astonished to see a school of them pass right in front of me making me wonder if I am the fun house mirror of the things I see.

Summer Dreams

My thoughts drift over an ice and snow covered lake in the middle of March in northern Wisconsin.

Aspirations of a not so far-off time when a warming sun hangs in the sky longer and I can get back to this same lake and snorkel its unfrozen waters.

Where tree roots and fallen trees take on the appearances of mythical beasts waiting for me to snorkel by and photograph them.

I can spend my time exploring favorite spots to see how time and the seasons have changed them since I was there last year.

Or I can adventure off into bays I have not yet explored and photographed.

Until nature reminds me who is in charge and tells me when it’s time to go.

No sign of spring

Hello from a winter wonderland

As of Sunday there has been no sigh of spring.

Winds blowing fresh snow early in the week have made for new back drops for the sun when it materializes to make intricate shadow illustrations.

Shadow Tracks

Early February in northern Wisconsin not a cloud to be seen and the temperature is 7 degrees above zero Fahrenheit. The daylight hours are getting longer but the sun still rides low across the horizon making long shadows on the snow. Dressed like a polar explorer the cold can still be felt as you travel through it and breathe in the arctic atmosphere.

 Erratic Paths of footprints of animals I cannot identify are easily seen in the snow. Where are they going and why or are they out for a walk enjoying a cold sunny day in February just like me?  

Turtles

The fall of 2021 was a mild one and saw me snorkeling in the lakes of northern Wisconsin up to the end of October. The water and the air were not only warm enough for me but also turtles. I would have figured by that time of year the turtles would have been burrowed down in the mud hibernating and waiting for spring and they probably thought the same of me.

There are many stories of turtles in First Nations folklore from north America was created on the back of a turtle to turtles are associated with healing, wisdom and spirituality.   

 We crossed paths often in the fall of 2021 and I hope they imparted some of their wisdom on me if not I enjoyed there company.

All of the photos below are of the Painted turtle – all except one – can you find the snapping turtle?

Happy Holidays

Wishing that you take time to slow down and enjoy the life around you – get out for a walk and see what nature has given you.

The making of Thanksgiving pumpkin soup photo exposition

First Snow

Snow had gracefully dusted the ground and trees like powdered sugar on a donut reminding me that winter would again return to northern Wisconsin.

The lakes had not yet iced over but small puddles did and they trapped air in geometric shapes on their surface.

Snow landed on the tops of brush that high water had broken off to give the manifestation that snow mushrooms had sprouted out of the lake.

The snow filled in the spaces around needles of the white pine turning them into tiny winter Sputniks that orbited their planet trees.

Birds nourished themselves on suit and seeds preparing for the long winter. 

Shapes and reflections materialized on the surface of the lake on this cold and cloudy day that had chaperoned this first snow.

Boo! blog

This Halloween when you find yourself on the road to nowhere

And you cross the boundary from real to surreal

You happenstance on the oracle of past and future

Who guides you through the windows of actuality

Remember to brush and floes those teeth after eating all that candy.

Courting the Muse

As a photographer / artist inspiration is all around me but I cannot always find it and as the saying goes – I can’t see the forest because of the trees.

I must open my mind and my camera lens and court my Muse appreciating that I might not find the picture I am looking for but discover the photo that opportunity gives me.

On a recent fall day driving aimlessly the back roads in the western part of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula I crest the top of a hill to discover a phantasmagoria of falls delight.

I park my car and ramble around this panorama camera at the ready.

Also in my drive I find an old mining town now a museum and photo the fall colors mirrored in the old windows.

I enjoy the trees around me as I thank the Muse for allowing me this happenstance of life and beauty.