Friday, November 23, 2012

Grand Sable Dunes Hike --- Post 2

For those of you who live in the U.S., I hope that you had a great Thanksgiving.  In Grand Marais, we had the last "Indian Summer" day.  Today there is a dramatic change in the weather.  The snow has started as has the wind.  It will be a wintry day with temperates in the 20s, winds near 40 mph, and who knows how much snow.  We will receive somewhere between 6 and 16 inches depending on the lake effect snow making machine.  This snow fall total amount prediction has changed significantly over the last 24 hours.  We'll see....

Today's posting will include the rest of the photos from my dune hike the other night.  Come along with me as I continue on the trail from Sable Lake north toward Lake Superior.  Notice how much variation there is along the way....


I have never before seen so much pine sap that oozed and hardened at the end of the branches...


 

 






When I got to the area below and checked the time, I realized that I was going to run out of daylight.  So I decided to turn around and head back rather than head lamp it out.


But instead of taking the same trail back, when I arrived at this fork I took the right fork instead.


The picture below is for my grown sons, Kevin and Jonathan.  Around a dozen years ago one Christmas they asked me to snowshoe into the dunes with them.  When they asked me to bring my camera and I saw that they had their skies, I wasn't sure what they were up to.  Once we arrived at this spot in the dunes -- I found out.  They positioned me next to the ridge in the middle of this picture as they climbed to the top where this picture was taken.  Not only did they ski down, but when they hit the ridge they launched and performed various aerials.  I had no idea that my kids were able to perform these acrobatic stunts on skies.  I must admit, I missed the first picture since my heart was down in my toes. 


The rest of the hike back to Sable Lake was along a ridge line....




I decided to get my heart rate up a bit more before the end of the hike and climbed up this dune.  Here is a photo from the bottom...


 ... and from the top.


Next stop -- Sable Lake.





The sand bowl below is an area that my kids and I used to have picnics when they were kids...



Some lichen along the trail...

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