No Show

January 9th, 2024

My partner failed to show for our first of the year Nordic ski trip. Her name is Snow and it appears she dumped me. I think she ran off with another guy to New England. So, what do you do when there is not enough snow on the ground to ski and you are in Upper Michigan at Ironwood?

You can hike to water falls. On our first day, we took short hikes to two waterfalls on the Montreal River in Wisconsin. Both were not far from Saxon Harbor on Lake Superior and were both short, easy walks.

On the second day, we drove north to Black River Harbor. We walked across the old suspension bridge there for a view of the river outlet and Lake Superior. Then we worked our way upstream to a series of falls in the narrow valley and gorge of the river. Each hike was relatively short but started on the bench above the river before declining steeply to the level of the falls. There were wooden stairways downward. They were, however, covered with a couple of inches of snow. So one had to be careful to avoid a slip. The longest stairway was 200 steps, with another of 150 and two of about 75. Overall, we only walked about 3 miles, but we descended and re-climbed the equivalent of a 43 story building.

The falls dropped or cascaded over conglomerate ledges spaced in a 4 mile section of the lower river. Ice and snow coated the edges of each drop, and the water, being stained brown with tannin from the upstream cedar swamps, made each fall look like root beer.

At the upper most fall, we spotted a long otter slide on the island split by the sides of the fall.

It is an abnormal year when there is so little snow at the western end of the U.P. In past years, due to the “lake effect”, snow depth could be measured in feet. So far this year, the ski and snowmobile contribution to the area economy is non-existent. Of course, we have months of winter left.