Due to record rains and runoff this June, Chequamegon Bay and Lake Superior was turned red by runoff of clay and debris. Rainfall amounts not seen in decades if ever. It took weeks for the bay to clear. Much damage to shorelines and beaches, roads and property.

Winter slowly leaves the lake...

A perfect clear day yesterday gave a excellent view of Lake Superior from the daily satellite fly over.
Still some ice on the eastern side of the lake and a bit near Thunder Bay Ont. and in a bay on Isle Royale.
Just a fantastic view, I find these things inspiring and now want to drive around the lake!

Winter has arrived

A picture is worth a thousand words. This shot from the cam at Northern State bank
in Ashland shows the frozen Chequamegon Bay on Thanksgiving Holiday weekend.
Winter has arrived!  A huge snow desert waiting for the ice fisherman on a sunny day.

Where is the deep snow?

That time again!

The wonderful Lake Effect snows dumped on Northern Wisconsin and Upper Michigan. These shots provided by UW Madison are so interesting. No shortage of snow this November on the south shore.

Annual Fall Color Touring

It's mandatory in my life to do Fall Color Touring each fall in Minnesota. No wildlife was seen this year, not a moose or even a deer. But plenty of nice color on the back roads. I wonder if anyone can guess this road?

BIG Leisure Craft

Not  sure who was in the harbor last night but it was a massive leisure craft!  You don't see a boat like that everyday in Grand Marais.

Fishermans Picnic weekend time again!

Time again for the summer time big Festival. Great fun! 

Northshore fun in June

The rivers are still flowing strong on the Northshore due all the rain lately.

A bit of fog as well on these humid days. This shot taken at SugarLoaf Cove.

Always amusing are the toilets on the Superior Hiking Trail. You can joke about them but when needed after miles of walking they look pretty good.

A memorable Memorial Day Weekend

Ice in Duluth

Slowly Lake Superior gives up her icy grip.

Mother of Lakes

In keeping with this weekends Game of Thrones theme, the Mother of all Lakes is still keeping
her icy grip on the Northland and refuses to yield. Even the Ice Road in Bayfield over to Madeline
Island is still open and just set a record for longest period of time open in history. A ship took nine days to cross the lake with aid of a ice breaker. Normal time is mere hours, perhaps 24-30 hours depending on the ship. When will the ice go out this year? 

The never ending winter of 2013-14

But there are positives such as spring skiing into April and a incredible waterfall season when it all melts sometime next June.  And a new hobby of mine, finding snow on Memorial Day weekend
on hikes. I'm guessing we shall find snow again this coming Memorial Day holiday.

Who got the big snow?

It's Fourth of July in February!

Bayfield has a unexpected boom this year due to the Polar Vortex. You can walk to the Sea Caves this year. Thousands are coming to the area to do just that. It's a influx of tourists not normally seen in February. Motels are full, restaurants are busy. The Chamber of Commerce said it's a 5 million dollar boom. There are visitors from all over the world. Word of mouth and postings on Social Media are fueling the interest. Stories on the Weather Channel and Nightly News. Pictures in Newspapers around the Midwest. The above shot taken by the National Park Service shows just hundreds of people treking to and from the caves. I did the trek in the 90's and it was never like this!


We have some real gems right in our own backyard.

Apostle Island Sled Dog Race Feb. 2nd in Bayfield.

http://bayfield.org/aisdr Ice Caves are also open! Park at Meyers Beach parking lot north of Bayfield off of HWY 13. This doesn't happen every year!

Frozen lakes and the Flame....

The boundary waters lakes are all frozen up solid and ice fishing is in full swing. I really enjoy the weather satellite shots provided by UW Madison. On a clear winter day you can see great detail. You can still see the burn scars of the Hamm Lake fire and the Pagami creek fires. Look close and you can see Artist point at Grand Marais. And to think it was just fall a short while ago and we were wave watching there.

Also the subject of the Duluth waterfront came to mind recently and the buildings that once were on the shore. I recalled the Flame Restaurant that was razed in the late 90's. I looked up the history
and found quite a interesting story. Even a bit entertaining with what a supper club was in the early days:

Duluth’s Flame Restaurant — a fixture of the town for over fifty years — started as a humble one-room barbecue stand on London Road, opened by Jimmy Oreck and Alex Zurovsky during the heart of the Great Depression. A year later Zurovsky dropped his end of the bargain, leaving Oreck and his wife Ruth to run the stand, which they turned into what would be called “the Northwest’s finest Supper club.” The Art Deco-inspired Flame Building on London Road boasted large picture windows that looked out over a garden of “trees and shrubs, a waterfall, trout pool, and stuffed wild animals.” It also had the town’s first custom-made semi-circular booths, strolling musicians, a cigarette girl, and a dwarf doorman decked out in a red uniform.

Charlie Kassmit managed the Flame, and he and Oreck did their best to make the experience unique. Coffee was served by “The Sultan of the Second Cup,” a man wearing a turban and curl-toed shoes. Meat cooked slowly over a rotisserie that was enclosed with glass and the Flame was famous for its pop-overs made fresh by Ruth every day. At first it could seat just thirty patrons, but Oreck added wings and — after Prohibition was repealed — a variety of bars and lounges, including the Rooster Room, named for the Flame’s logo, a flame red cockerel.

When fire claimed the Flame in 1942, Oreck moved the restaurant to 110 West Superior Street. Meanwhile he purchased a grocery warehouse along the harbor. The three-story fire proof building originally housed the Duluth Marine Supply Company, a grocery retail firm specializing in selling foods to Lake Superior vessels. By 1936 Duluth Marine Supply had moved; the building remained a grocery warehouse until Oreck bought it and hired architect Harold St. Clair Starin to convert it into The Flame. The new Flame sat four hundred diners. Its semicircular terrazzo dance floor was framed with “inverted Roman-like columns flooded with multicolored lights.” The Flame included a glass stair tower and many windows that looked out over the harbor, including five twelve-foot windows in the dining room that created a “wall of glass.”

But Oreck wasn’t happy with the building because of compromises made due to war-related shortages. In 1955 Oreck moved the business to Superior Street, reworked the old Flame, and by 1956 was back at the Fifth Avenue building along the “seaway,” as Oreck called the waterfront. Oreck sold the Flame to a Memphis developer in 1971, and the restaurant closed in 1973. The Anchor Inn rented the building until 1982. In 1983 Micky Paulucci of Grandma’s Restaurants reopened the Flame in its Fifth Avenue location, but it closed just eighteen months later. The vacant building was demolished in 1998 to make room for the Great Lakes Aquarium

Cold air returns and makes sea smoke on Lake Superior.

The live cams this morning shows something that occurs when the cold air is above the warm lake water. Sea smoke! Winter is here with the new snow and sea smoke.

One picture sums up the week

This pretty much says it all for Minnesota's Arrowhead this week. No other words needed....

Looks like the holiday season

Looks very holiday like this morning on Grand Marais harbor on the live cam.
The Canadian high pressure brought some cold temps and a dusting of snow. The ski season starts next weekend at Lutsen.