Winters Last Big Hurrah

As I sit here and write this down for both you and myself, I think that my partner and I have accomplished a lot this winter. We didn't realize it when we went hiking this weekend that this would be the last official winter trip. We did discuss the places that we wanted to see through out the winter months and what goals we wanted to keep and things to do and see. Its hard to believe that we accomplished everything that we had discussed and imagined.

Like we start off any of our adventures we mapped and planned and made alternative plans for just in case type thing. We so much wanted to get pictures of blue sky with the bright newly fallen snow. One can really never the know the true beauty of that scene unless viewed in person. With another snow storm being forecasted for evening we wanted to take advantage beauty that was laid before us and we found ourselves in Wisconsin waterfall territory. Our drive seemed uneventful showing no promise of sunlight until we made it half way through the state of Wisconsin. After that it was blue skies all around us and stayed that way for the remainder of the day. We both thought man this is going to be some kind of great day.

The first place that we decided to stop at was Pattison State Park. We had been there not long ago and the falls there were completely frozen looking to the naked eye but you could see the running water beneath the ice. Today was not much different . Big Manitou Falls had a large open area that I could see water racing threw the small opening. The river below Big Manitou was open more and was free flowing throughout the gorge. Up at the other end of the park where the lake is the dam was open and flowing with force. A very nice sound after the winter ice muffles.

The gorge area was divine. You could look out and see for miles nothing but forest, farms and blue sky and white glistening snow. We had wanted to see Little Manitou as well but the park had not plowed out that entrance and I was not going to climb over a pile of snow and become buried up to my chest in loose powdery stuff oh no. So off we go to the next adventure of our mapped out day.

Our next stop of the day was at Superior Falls in Michigan. Superior Falls is off of Hwy 122 north of US 2. The US 2 and Hwy 122 junction is in Wisconsin, but you will cross into Michigan. About 1/2 mile past the Michigan border turn left on to the gravel road that leads to the parking lot. There is a sign saying "Superior Falls". Northern States Power operates the Superior Falls Hydro plant and keep the area open to the public The area around the falls is completely fenced in so no rock climbing here. We had to climb up some icy snow covered rocks to get a nice view of the frozen falls. We determined that Superior Waterfalls deserved another look in the spring when running at its best. We walked over to the overlook area and saw some amazing sites of the coast line of Lake Superior. The ice there was jammed up against the other creating nice geometrical shapes. The snow that was directly below us was like an eddie. The cliff lines were red with that well known lava rock that we love so much.

With that beautiful picture in our minds we wanted to explore other unknown (to us) waterfalls. We found our way back to Hwy 122 going south to a small town named Saxon, Wisconsin. We followed the directions till we came to a road by the name of Sullivan Fire Rd Lane. The road looked like the snow plow hadn't yet been there to clear out the main entrance to Foster Falls. The road down to the falls looked like it had a dusting of snow layered on top. Would we be able to make it down to the falls that we wanted to explore for the first time? We decided to take a running jump at the small snow pile. I backed up my 4X4 which had yet to fail us in the deep snows and mud that we had encountered on our many times out exploring. I floored the accelerator and we were off. Have you ever heard that saying that your off like a herd of turtles? That's what we were, turtles; not going anywhere.

My god I couldn't believe it, we had sunk down into the melting snow.. Both AAALynx and I were frantic as there was not much traffic on Hwy 122, so we started to dig out the snow. Thank god AAALynx did put a shovel in the bed of the truck. As we were shoveling our way to China, a group of snowmobilers pulled up along side of us. The four gentlemen were so kind as to help try to get the truck out of the snow. They shoveled and pushed and pushed and shoveled, but frame of my truck was hung up on the frozen ice chunks.

One gentleman said that we would had never made it down to the falls anyway since what we thought was a small dusting was so deep that his snowmobile was stuck in it. We both thought that we were going to be sleeping in the truck over night at this point. One of the gentlemen that had stopped with the snowmobile group actually went out onto the highway and stopped a motorist and asked that they take us into town so we could call for a tow truck to come get us out.

They drove us into Saxon, Wisconsin dropping us off at a place called the Bear Trap Inn where we called a tow truck. The truck showed up in about a half hour and said that these kind of calls were common place at that time of year with the melting and refreezing of snow making deep snow piles look very small. When we arrived we saw the snowmobilers going back along the road to home. We could never thank them enough for all the help that they did for us that day.

All this commotion used up only one precious hour of the days sunlight. In Upson the map showed there to be another waterfall. After driving around their park and seeing it was not plowed out decided that we would just mosey on down to Potato Falls and see what exciting pictures we could take there.

Next we travel to Cooper Falls even though we had been there with in the last several weeks with hopes to retrieve a memory stick full of precious pictures that we lost there. We did see that the water falls were flowing faster and more furious. With the snap of the camera a few times we decided to head off to Potato Falls.

Potato Falls didn't let us down. Even frozen it was still a beautiful site to see. The lower falls was open more so you could now see the flowing water from beneath it. With the warm temperatures of the day the snow had been melting and made big mud puddles and slides. What had yet to thaw was still in sheets of ice on the walk ways. We did go to the over look to take some pictures but do you think a little bit of mud would stop us from getting a better view? Oh no it didn't. Down the small incline we went slipping and sliding most of the way. Slide too far and one could end up in the gorge. This vantage point gave us an unobstructed view of the gorge and the falls below. What a site to behold. By now the sun was starting to sink and we decided it would be here that we would try our hand at taking some sunset shots.

Man, I don't think I have seen so many stairs since our CR Magney days! Going down wasn't the issue but remember when you do go down you have to climb and climb all the way back up. Once at the bottom of the stairs the Upper Falls proved to be worth the trip down the steps. Still mostly frozen it glistened in the fading sunlight. Seeing the coloration in the sky we hiked back up the 125 steps to the top and waited for the grand painting of the sky above. We were not disappointed here at all. The sky once blue now had reds and oranges and magenta's with the hint of purple. With those pictures taken we headed off to the city life once again, ready to do it again the next weekend.

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