Grand Marais Winter Scenes (sort of)

Even though I've returned from the Grand Canyon hike, I'm trying to keep up the exercise routine. Normally the brunt of winter grips Grand Marais in February. But for the second year in a row, most of the winter's storms have tracked south of the U.P. We have had a lot of wind,which breaks up the icebergs only to have the smaller pieces of ice reform into a new generation of iceberg. Below are pictures of the icebergs located just west of Grand Marais. There is a photo from the bluff and from lake-level, looking both east and west. Other than the ice hugging shore, there is basically no snow on the beach. You cannot get to the high water mark to look for agates due to the icebergs, but the rocks up the beach left over from the fall storms are exposed.






West of the Sable River's mouth, there is a second row of icebergs that somehow managed to weather the last storm with high winds. As everyone knows, more of an iceberg exists below water, so in some cases the icebergs get caught up on the sand bars.



On a snow shoe along the Sable River and to the Ghost Forest in the sand dunes, I took the following shots.





As many of you know Grand Marais won the Reader's Digest contest to receive $40,000. Their photographers were here the other day to take pictures of the community. We were originally supposed to assemble by the anchor, then at the marina, but finally they had us meet in the school gym. Not everyone from town showed, but there were at least 200 people. I am excited about us winning the money, but I am not hopeful that it will make much of a difference since the final cost of fixing the bay will run closer to $9,000,000, according to the Army Corps of Engineers. The contest winnings represent less than one percent of what is needed. Some say the publicity will help -- and it may -- but the financial obstacles may be difficult to overcome.