By 8 am this morning, people have braved the cold temperatures and had hiked over two miles to see the ice caves which opened today after the ice pack was determined to be thick enough for visitors. In the summer, kayakers will paddle through the arch opening (when the waves aren’t not too high) but for a brief period during some winters, hikers can walk through the opening instead.
Winter Sea Arch
A friend of mine was planning to see some waterfalls on the Hawaiian island of Kauai today, but others will be visiting much colder waterfalls tomorrow when the ice caves open this weekend on the south shore of Lake Superior. The icy waterfalls will not be flowing like those in Hawaii but some frozen ones do have water flowing inside or behind the icy layer. And some brave adventurers will crawl through narrow gaps in the ice to see the flowing water.
Icy Waterfall
I am watching one of my naughty squirrels sitting in the bird feeder right now and the birds are complaining. I complain when those same squirrels keep peeing on my porch screen and I can five yellow streaks right now. The gray squirrels are the trouble makers and so far the black squirrels just eat on the ground.
Good Squirrel
A small hint of purple in the sky and long shadows as the day ends on cold winter Wisconsin day.
Winter Evening Approaches
There is white stuff blowing around but it isn’t the white fluff from sow thistle blossom carrying weed seeds around, but just cold snow flakes.
Blowing White
Even if a flower managed to jump up through the frozen ground and snow, it would freeze rather stiff this sunny morning since it was -18ºF so no pretty flowers to look at for a while yet like these Viola tricolors, also called Jack-jump-up-and-kiss-me or Johnny jump ups.
Johnny Hasn’t Jump Up Yet
When I woke this morning, it was -13ºF outside so even though it is sunny out, I don’t think I will be wearing shorts and swaying in the breeze in the hammock on a Sunday afternoon.
Waiting for Sunny Summer Day
The below normal February temperatures this year is allowing some ice formation by the sea caves again, for the third time this year. And if the winds don’t blow the ice pack away from the cliffs, the caves might open in a week or two for visitors again but at the moment there are too many thin spots to walk safely on the ice like last year.
A Walk on the Ice
The night brought a new coating of snow so many of the critter tracks are covered over with the blowing snow. But there are definitely squirrel tracks coming from the trees to my bird feeders and to my porch which they decorated my porch screen again with yellow pee – both this morning and yesterday morning. They better quit doing that as it is too cold to keep washing the screens.
New Coating of Snow
The bird feeder this morning looked like a busy airport and it may need air traffic controllers to route the birds in. With a very cold start of the day at -18ºF, the birds (and squirrels) are trying to fill up on seed.
Air Traffic Controller Needed
