Tech Trails

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Click the photo to see it on Flickr.

These two photos come to you from the Tech Trails, Michigan Tech's world class ski, mountain-bike, and hiking trails. The top photo is on the Isle Royal loop (named for the mine which used to own the land). The bottom photo is snow near the Hobbit Loop. The Hobbit Loop is just one of several similar loops set off in their own part of the trail. Others are the Troll loop, the Ent loop, the Elf loop, the Dragon loop, and -- of course -- the Ring loop, to which they are all attached.

Sisu Skifest Fire

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The Lovely Sarah and I volunteered at the Sisu Skifest again this year (I also volunteered last year and posted a photo for my 365 project). The Skifest takes place at the ABR ski trails in Ironwood, Michigan. The race actually ends in the middle of Ironwood's downtown, on streets specially covered with snow. It's quite spectacular to see skiers poling around the corner of a road, right in the middle of town! This photo shows the sides of the custom-cut metal fire pits which are used for the race. This one was right in the middle of main street!

Colorful Snow

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Campus, lit by sunrise and sodium-vapor lights -- a beautiful winter combination, as it turns out!

35/365 - Bob Barker on Ice!

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Today -- on the Michigan Tech Campus -- Bob Barker hosts the Price Is Right -- in snow and ice!

This is a detail from a much larger snow sculpture -- built over the course of a month at Michigan Tech's Winter Carnival. All statues were completed last night, and judging was this morning. And yes, it's really hard to get a natural looking face carved in ice!

33/365 - Statue Building

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As some of you may know, I'm a graduate student at Michigan Tech, which is located in the way, way, WAY north end of Michigan. One of the things that makes Tech unique is our Winter Carnival, held early each February. One of the main features of Carnival is the snow statues. Statues fall into two categories: all-nighter (built in one night -- tomorrow night!), and month-long -- like this one, made over the past month, by students just like me. They're amazing. This statue is still being built, and I'm planning to document it over the next few days. If you click through to my Flickr page, you can mouse over the photo to see the notes -- they'll help understand the scale of this statue!

25/365 - Standing in the Snowstorm

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Today's photo is dark, grungy, snowy, and wet -- just like the world outside. We had a nice mid-winter thaw, but now it's time to face up to the fact that we live in a massive snow belt. It's shovellin' time!

23/365 - Central House

You can order a print of this photo from David Clark Photography.
The Central Mine was, in its day, a spectacular copper mine. It was the second mine in the entire Copper Country to turn a profit, and not just any profit -- it paid a dividend in its first year! It survived from 1854 until 1898, when it finally closed -- exhausted.

Nowadays, the town of Central is almost totally abandoned. There are a few seasonal residents, and even fewer permanent residents (about 2, to be more exact). This is one of the few houses which is (seasonally) occupied.

Mr. Snowman goes to church

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This snowman is the lone parishioner of the very historic Central Mine Methodist church.

Central is an old mining location up in Keweenaw County. There are a few permanent (or seasonal) residents, but otherwise most of the town is abandoned. Some of the buildings are restored and cared for by a historical society. This church -- one of the original buildings in town -- is the site of the yearly Central Reunion, in which the descendants of former citizens return for a church service, pasty dinner, and general good times.

22/365 - The Lineup

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For those who aren't from such a snowy place, here's a peek into my world -- the world of daily snow removal!

This photo shows my arsenal. From left to right:

• A standard shovel (for scraping the driveway, small amounts of snow)
  
• Snow blower (currently out of commission)
  
• Another standard shovel
  
• Road salt (for melting ice and preventing build-up)
  
• Small shovel for ice
  
• The mighty Yooper Scooper (a huge scoop used for moving large amounts of snow all at once)
  
• Pickaxe and standard axe for ice removal
  
• Cheap extendable shovel, and
  
• Garden shovel
  

With 6+ months of winter, it pays to be prepared!

16/365 - Mount Baldy

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Saturdays are great fun for me -- either I'm down in Wisconsin visiting the lovely Sarah, or else I'm out exploring the Keweenaw! Today was one of those exploring days. I took a snowshoe trip out to Mt. Baldy (formally called Lookout Mountain), up near Eagle Harbor in the Keweenaw. Mt. Baldy is a Nature Conservancy preserve, and a beautiful one. It's also 3 miles (one way, uphill!) to the bald top of the big hill.

This photo is from the very top, where only a few hardy trees and lots of low ground cover grows. On the left is beautiful Lake Superior, which hasn't frozen yet.

After this, I turned around and hiked another hour and a half back out again!

9/365 - Encouragement

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Only a short post today -- this photo comes from the Sisu Ski Fest, where I was a volunteer at an aid station today. One of the duties of an aid station is to encourage the skiers -- usually with bells and yells. One fellow wore this bell around his neck, so that everywhere he went, he was constantly encouraging everyone!

6/365 - In its native habitat

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This week's Digital Photography School 365 assignment for this week is to show my camera equipment. So -- here it is -- my beautiful Nikon D40x, in its native habitat. That's my favorite Nikon 10-24mm lens on the front. (The photo was taken with my crappy fixed-focus camera-phone, which accounts for the awful image quality.)

Yes, it really is half-buried in a snowbank. After this photo, I shook it off, took it inside (not bothering to wait to acclimatize it!), and snapped a few photos. It worked like a charm.

For those of you who try to treat your cameras with kid gloves, never taking them into even slightly poor weather or nasty situations: I do things like this on a pretty much daily basis. My camera is slung around my back for every hiking, snowshoeing, and camping trip I make. I've face-planted it into the snow without a lens cap, gone in and out of warm houses into 0 degree weather, used it in heavy rain, taken it down rocky hillsides and been hit with stinging tree branches. This low-end camera has survived them all and works like a champ.

Don't let your fear of hurting your equipment get in the way of taking great photos!

5/365 - Snowshoe Overlook

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As I was out snowshoeing today, I thought I'd show the world a bit more of where I am, and what I do (besides photography, of course!). So, I took this twist on the stereotypical "photo of my feet" self-portrait.

I took this shot while relaxing at the top of the Robbins Mine's rock pile, overlooking the beautiful Keweenaw Peninsula. The Robbins Mine was a copper mine in the late 19th century, eventually owned by the extensive (but always unprofitable) Phoenix mining company. Today, the mine consists of just a few ruins, and a large rock pile (which provided this lovely view). The Robbins is private property -- it's owned by a friend, so I had permission -- so please don't trespass!

3/365 - Steps of Snow

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Today's photo is the scene which I saw when I arrived home Houghton today. My trip home was not exactly on the fun side of things -- nearly 10 hours of snow, wind, blowing snow, lake effect snow... anything you can imagine that involves snow! Then, when I arrived home, we found that the people we'd hired to plow the driveway over my vacation had not done their job.

Today's 365 thought: although I took a number of photos along the way, I couldn't do much when the weather forced me to keep driving (at 35 mph) with extreme caution. This is definitely tough! While not the best photo technically, I hope that this does evoke a certain feeling of despair in you, as it did in me. Happy new year! ;)

For Sale

Property for sale in Centennial Heights -- cheap!
This lovely sign is exactly what it looks like: a "For Sale" sign stuck in the middle of the utterly collapsed wreckage of a house. I'm not exactly sure what is for sale -- the timber? All of the junk? The entire lot? If you're interested, head up to Centennial Heights for a look!

Orange! Blue!

Snow fence, snow, and sky.
Snow fences are always a surprisingly bright and cheery part of winter around here. This one is near one of the entrances to the Tech Trails, cheerily guarding us from blowing snow.

Respect the Past: Advice for Explorers

Good advice.
It's a joke that we often make about hiking in the Upper Peninsula: "It just isn't a hike until you've seen a major kitchen appliance." Sadly, it's also very true. Even in the middle of (what feels like) nowhere, miles from the nearest town or even a house, any deep ravine will inevitably contain a rusty refrigerator, a broken-down sofa, or maybe a toilet.

In the last year or so, new signs like this one have popped up all over the Quincy Mine lands, reminding people to respect these ruins. I like the signs quite a bit, because they make it clear that we (as visitors) are still welcome to explore the ruins -- just don't be stupid about it!

To that end, here is some advice -- both positive and negative -- for explorers (especially in the Copper Country).

• Never leave any garbage -- large or small -- behind. Even pack your meal garbage (wrappers, left-over food, etc.) so that animals don't get hooked on "human food".
  
• When exploring ruins, never deliberately move, remove, or modify any part of the ruins. That includes removing artifacts (metal, tools, etc.), moving masonry or stonework, taking souvenirs, etc. It also means don't stand or climb on anything which may break!
  
• Don't put graffiti on anything! -- duh!
  
• Do report obvious damage or intentional destruction to someone appropriate -- the property owner, or sheriff's office, usually.
  
• Do respect signs, especially "No Trespassing". If you contact the property owner directly and explain your intentions, you can get permission (and avoid problems!).
  
• Have fun! Exploring and discovering new places is still tremendous fun, without the need for scavenging or looting. Enjoy!
  

Snowy Apples

Still hanging on...
This was a great year for apples. Every tree I found was practically killing itself under the weight of its fruit, and many trees still have apples barely hanging on.

This photo comes from the yards of an old farmhouse, squeezed between two long-abandoned railroads. Its fields are slowly filling in with apples and ash trees, as the first real snow of the year finally falls!

Hungry Squirrel

It's so CUTE!
This is an older photo -- one I use in many places as my avatar. This is a cute little red squirrel which lives at the Seney, Michigan rest stop. This rest stop is at the start of a very long, very flat, very boring stretch of highway. Lots of travelers stop there, throwing away their fast food bags. This is one of a family of squirrels which lives very large off of those leavings.

Full Moon Swing

A lonely swing under a winter full moon.
Here's one from the archives: a lonely swing at McLain State Park, under the last full moon of winter. Kyle and I headed out there one weekend to see what we could do with light painting, long exposures, and a full moon. We had a lot of fun, and this was one of the results.