This year the ice caves at Mawikiwe Bay on Lake Superior went
viral. The Apostle Islands National
Lakeshore had record visitors, businesses in the whole Bayfield peninsula
had an amazing windfall, and visitors were both pleased and amazed. The last time people could visit the caves on
foot was about five years ago if memory serves.
No one knows how long it will be until the climate cooperates once again
to allow foot traffic out that way.
Although five years seems like a long time, it's nothing compared to the
exceedingly rare appearance of the Houghton Falls Ice Tables.
No one knows how long it's been since the tables last
appeared. They are created by a perfect
storm of miserably cold weather and big dumps of snow. This combination causes the culvert under the
old Ashland to Bayfield railway to plug up with ice and snow and raises the
level of Houghton Creek precipitously.
The newly formed pond than promptly freezes. This condition was noted by the GreenThumbChef
as she strolled along the path a week or so ago. Alarmed, she notified the crack team of
culvert unpluggers at the Town of Bayview.
A crew of thawing professionals, led by the town chairman Mr. Charly Ray, arrived on the
scene and fired up a steam unit to thaw the culvert before it washed out the
entire road bed. Success was achieved,
the water dropped, the rail bed was saved, but the ice remained. It not only remained but remained in spectacular fashion.
The pond that was created by the plugged culvert was over a dozen feet deep in many
spots. The water all drained out and
left large plates of ice, almost a foot thick, some the size of a car. But the really spectacular thing was the ice
that was supported by two or more trees.
It left an entire outdoor patio's worth of tables and benches, all made of ice. I visited the site yesterday with my
faithful hound, Monk. Word must have gotten out because for the first time in my experience there was a car parked on Houghton Falls Road, overflow from the 8 car lot
at the start of the trail. My guess is
that the BART shuttle from The Snug, Patsy's Bar, and points north and south
will start next weekend. I would also
suggest having Washburn Ambulance on site because the whole area is full of
foot thick blocks of tilted ice, major concussion country in my opinion. If I had been thinking and brought a couple
beers it would have been the perfect afternoon, high forties, sunny, and a
frozen bar to keep the beer cold. Alas,
forethought was not my strong point that sunny afternoon.
My guess is that the tables will be melted by next weekend given
the warm spring weather, although they are kind of 'down in the hole', away from
direct sunlight. This weekend, typically
the start of mud month, was anything but.
The ice road from Bayfield to Madeline Island is still intact with a
solid three feet of ice. RangerMark and
I were the only skiers at Valhalla on Sunday morning, where there was literally
a four foot base. Sunday night featured
some rolling at the salt water pool of the Bayfield Rec Center. This was preceded by an exciting Badger basketball win Saturday night which sent them to the Final Four, a game I watched at Patsy's
Bar while nursing a Widow Maker or two.
Plus I got all our fruit trees pruned without climbing up a ladder. The four feet of
snow in the yard gave me just enough elevation to make a ladder unnecessary. Say what you will about this winter but the
delayed spring ain't so bad at this point from my where I'm sitting.jpeg)
