Winters Last Big Hurrah

March 12

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 damn 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 did have to climb up some icy snow covered y rocks to get a nice view of the frozen falls. We did determine that Superior Waterfalls deserved another look in the spring when running at its best. We did walk 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.

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