Never Do This

With all the recent coverage of the polar vortex, and frozen lighthouses, a lot more people are making the trek to the shore of Lake Michigan this winter. The lakeshore in winter is amazing - like an arctic mountain range seen from above. For those people who want to get a better look at the frozen lake, this looks like the perfect way to do it. However, what these people don't consider before venturing out onto the ice, is that this is perhaps one of the most dangerous things to do on the shore of Lake Michigan in winter.

The frozen mounds rise 15 or 20 feet above the surrounding surfaces. This is created by waves crashing into the floating ice that collects along the shore called shelf ice. Like a shelf, is not attached to the ground - in this case, it's floating on the surface of Lake Michigan.  The ice certainly appears stable, and solid, yet this is deceiving.  Cracks, thin spots, faults and holes are often intermixed with the mounds, and covered by drifted snow.


The pounding water undercuts the edges of the ice, and the underside is not consistant, but riddled with air pockets. These defects can lead directly to the 33 degree water below the ice, with no way of climbing back up.  Not only is the water unbearably cold - It's difficult to breathe when your body is immersed in very cold water due to contracting muscles.  Even worse, you may instinctively inhale or gasp when you hit the icy water, and drown.  Once through the ice, it's completely dark, and chances are, you will be swept away from the hole by the moving water. Holes such as the one shown in the photo below, are often hidden by a thin layer of snow or ice.





The people shown in the photo above are probably 200 feet off shore on Lake Michigan, where the depth of the water could certainly exceed 8 feet.  If they were to fall through the ice, they would have little or no way to escape without rescue assistance. Even falling off the edge into the water could prove fatal.

Please, no matter how tempting, do not venture on the ice.

Winter Reflection

Walking along the ice and snow covered pier across the river from the St. Joseph, Michigan lighthouse on a rather warm, winter afternoon. Even though the harbor was locked in by drift ice, the river was still liquid, providing a great surface for reflections of the lighthouse. It snowed for the next several days, I'll have to head back to check out how the lighthouse appears now.

Silver Beach Locked In

Ice collects along the shore of Silver Beach, the public beach in St. Joseph, Michigan. Dozens of people walked along the shore to view the icy lakefront, and many decided to venture out onto the ice - a very dangerous thing to do. What seems to be solid ice, is often riddled with holds and thin spots leading directly to the frigid water below. Some visitors also walked onto the snow covered piers to get a closer view of the lighthouses. Seen in the distance, they appear to walk on the water past the lighthouses.

Advancing Ice

On an unseasonably warm winter day, pancake ice and drift ice gather at the confluence of Lake Michigan and the St. Joseph River. While temperatures climbed high to melt the snow, the ice was thick enough to withstand a couple of days of warmth. Temperatures are expected to drop to near zero in the next day or two, helping the ice to grow once again. Dozens of people walked along the frozen beach and piers to get a view of frozen Lake Michigan; a few even ventured out on to the shelf ice. Luckily, nobody fell through the ice into the freezing water.

Merry Christmas

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas!

Before the Snow

A cold walk over the dunes of West Beach, before the arrival of the season's first snowfall. The conifer forest is still green, while all of the Marram grass and other ground plants have gone dormant, and turned a drab brown. This trail allows people to experience full dune progression in just one mile. From beach to bare foredunes, Marram grass covered dunes, to conifer forest, Oak Savanna to forested rear dunes. The trail is a bit easier than others, since the steep dunes have boardwalks and stairs. Still, with hundreds of stairs, it can be a strenuous climb for some. By now, this areas should be covered in about six to eight inches of snow; I'll need to check that out soon.

Winter's Arrival

Winter weather arrived this week, with cold temperatures and the first measurable snowfall of the year; the perfect backdrop for an antique sled. I was asked by a friend of mine to photograph her beautifully decorated antique sled outside an historic home. Brings back memories of the sled we had when we were kids.

Backlit Blowout

The morning sun bathes the dunes in warm light, while the air temperatures were in the 40's. This dune has a rather large blowout in the center. A blowout is an area with no vegetation to hold the sand in place, so wind and weather erodes it. While I believe this is a natural process, the National Park service wants people to keep off of the dunes so they can recover. By the number of footprints in this blowout, it's not working. While I respect the "keep off" order, I have doubts about it. It seems that if the path to the top of a dune is blocked off, people simply walk around it, creating much more erosion as they stomp and kill the marram grass next to the path. Now the path is larger, and eroding more. For what it's worth, I think the existing paths should become trails, and people should be allowed to walk on them. Providing they stay on the path, erosion would be kept to a minimum. Instead, visitors will ignore the signs, and blaze new trails, further eroding the dunes.

Coming in Waves

To get to this part of the beach, we enjoyed walking on the rocks placed there to prevent erosion. More of a rock climbing excursion than a walk on the beach. At times when the lake is just right, we've been able to walk in front of the rocks, without climbing, but that's usually when the wind is blowing offshore, pushing the water toward Wisconsin. Of course, we could have simply walked on the street to our left, but what fun would that be? As we rounded the curve of the shoreline, this was our view. Nothing special - due to the industry on the horizon - yet the manner in which the waves lined themselves up prior to pounding the shore attracted me. More like the ripples in drifting sand, or cultivated rows in a farmer's field, than water hitting the beach; perhaps hurdles between the start and the finish line. In this cold weather, definitely hurdles.

Crawling Out

A leaf, moments before a wave washed it off the beach by a large wave. Autumn this year arrived late, but ended quickly. The beaches of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore were covered in leaves from the Oak trees atop the dunes last weekend, many carried to Lake Michigan by wind, others by small streams. This particular leaf appears to be crawling out of the water like a crab or crayfish.

Evening at the Fulton Windmill

Built in the Netherlands, and shipped to Fulton, Illinois, "De Immigrant Windmill" stands nearly 100 feet tall, on the bank of the Mississippi River. The working windmill was assembled by Dutch Millwrights who travelled to Fulton for this express purpose. While the authentic smock windmill is only 13 years old, it is fully functional, including wooden gears, and two millstones. Bilinga wood was used to construct the windmill. Bilinga is a clear wood (very few knots)that resists rot and insects. In conjunction with the Windmill Cultural Center, a local museum displaying Dutch artifacts, the windmill teaches visitors about Fulton's Dutch heritage, and the industrial methods of the past.

Running Through the Dappled Light

On our way back to the car, the boys ran under a canopy of autumn gold and green, filtering the sunlight, creating a multitude of shadows on the ground. The running figures strobed as they passed in and out of the patches of light. Mississippi Palisades State Park

Rolling Countryside

A landscape more familiar to that of Kentucky, the rolling hills of the Galena, Illinois area are beautiful all year, but a real treat in autumn. Rust and yellow leaves dot the fields, along with plenty of cattle, hay and barns.

Fall at the Palisades

A bright, crisp Fall day was the perfect excuse to drive out to the Mississippi Palisades State Park. Fall color seems late this year, and it looks as if we arrived at the peak of color here in northwestern Illinois. Following a track between the Mississippi River, and the tall, stone cliffs known as palisades, a train rounded the distant bend moments after we arrived at the lookout point. The trees here turn a rust color in Autumn, and they put on quite a display for us in the early afternoon sun. This area of Illinois was not covered in glacial ice during the last ice age, so the ancient cliffs and canyons remain to this day. We encountered so many breathtaking autumn views along the roads of western Illinois, unfortunately, I was unable to capture many of them as I drove along. I need to find a chauffeur so I can point the camera out of the car window!

Peering Into the Past

A few leftovers from times past can be found on the grounds of the Chellberg Farm. Now part of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, the farm is used to demonstrate early Indiana farm life. In addition to the farm, a few miles of wooded trails wind through the property - perfect for autumn hikes.

Golden Canopy

The Chellberg Farm is known in the Spring for it's Maple Sugar Days, where the Maple trees are tapped for their sap, and volunteers demonstrate how the sap it turned into Maple syrup. The woods are full of Maple trees, and Autumn is the perfect time for a hike through a golden forest. The colors seemed to be at their peak last weekend, and the dappled sunlight brought out the best in the leaves. Chellberg Farm Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore

Colorful Hills

The woods surrounding the Chellberg Farm are glowing with yellow-green leaves, creating the perfect backdrop to an autumn hike. In a few short months, these Maple trees will begin producing sap for Maple Syrup production.

Converging

The canyon walls, stream, and trees, all converge in the distance - at the confluence of the stream and Vermillion River. A rainy day at Matthiessen State Park made for some difficult photography, but the moisture, mud, and dim light were overcome by gear, persistence, and high ISO!

Harvested

The field of a small farm between Hollowayville and Princeton, Illinois is ready for winter, harvested just a few days ago. The morning rain left a blueish haze in the distance, creating a painterly look to this landscape.

Bend of the Vermillion

After getting wet by the rain, it didn't matter much to simply walk through the stream to avoid the deep mud on the trail. We arrived at the confluence of the stream and the Vermillion River, and decided to hike the bank for a while. Chris crossed the river to find out what was beyond the bend, since the slippery rocks in the foreground make if very difficult to hike on the near side of the river. He's on the bend of the river, giving a sense of scale to the area.