Sunshine! and Panorama Point Snow Pit

Howdy Everybody!

The sun is out and the temperatures are soaring: 49 at Paradise today! Come out and ski in your shorts.



This week's snow pit was dug just below the bathrooms at Panorama Point. Except for the surface, the top 100 cm of snowcontains6 layers that are all the same hardness and temperature and a mixture of rain crust, ice crust, and rounds. There was about 5 cm of heavy snow on top of a rain crust as of yesterday afternoon. By noon today there was a good 5 cm of slush on top.



Stabililty tests for the snow pit were as follows:

ECTX

CTN

STH @ (15cm) Q2



The weekend forecast shows a drop in the freezing level (finally) and somesnow headed our way!

More Tractor Work

Hay Dogs

Attach of the Birds

Everyonce in a while we have a big flock of blackbirds come in to water.

Devil Track River Adventure

What a great day. Hiked up the Devil Track River for the first time (I know... one of those things... I've livedin CookCountymy whole life and never gone up there before!), got a LOT of cool new pictures, then headed into Grand Marais and had a late lunch, pizza at Sydney's Frozen Custard, WOW was that ever good! The strawberry banana smoothie made the meal unforgettable! THEN saw a CRAZY COOL storm front come over Grand Marais with some freaky clouds and a lot of lightning. AND last but not least, an awesome double rainbow over the lake as we drove back home to Grand Portage!










Devil Track Riverwas such an amazing, mind-blowingly beautiful hike that I myself can't believe I had never done it before. I had so much fun photographing the many bends and cliffs along the river. We spent almost 6 hours on the river and I could have easily spent 6 more that day. Each curve in the river revealed views even more interesting than the ones we had seen just moments before. Jessica commented that she felt like she was in a different state :-)I can't wait to go back and explore it some more!














During our hike we saw a lot of cool and interesting trees, but one stood out from the rest as being by far the most fascinating. On one bend in the river this large cedar tree was protruding out from the bank and upon closer inspection we realized that the trunk itself was no longer touching the ground at all! This large tree is holding on by nothing more than its roots... due to erosion the soil between the trunk and the bank had all washed away. It was a mesmerizing tree and even had small colonies of ferns growing on some of the larger roots.



















After our hike we headed in to Grand Marais and when we arrived in town the weather was absolutely perfect for a late summer/early fall day. Virtually no wind, sunny sky and lots of "popcorn" clouds. A couple of hours later a storm front moved in from the west and before we knew it the sky was dominated by this huge wall cloud that was rolling in overhead. Lightning flashed every few seconds as the storm approached. There was an eerie calm that preceeded the storm, but once the "wall" was over us, the wind hit shortly after and then the rain came. It poured for about half an hour, the wind blew and the lightning flashed. As we drove back home we were following the storm and were treated to a nice display of lightning ahead of us while a rainbow floated out over the lake to our right. By the time the sun went down everything was calm again.

Ecola Park

Looking out across the little bay toward the mountains that hide the town of Seaside which was hit by hard storms this winter. It is kind of a neat sight to see all the rocks sticking up out of the water. No wonder there were so many shipwrecks along the Oregon Coast.

More traditional Greek villages in Lesvos: Vatousa and Antissa

Greece is a favourite summer holiday destination of ours and we have become regular visitors to the mediterranean islands in the past years. In Lesvos Island last summer we did a lot of island village expeditions with our rental scooter. Dutchman and I sped on the highways, took the small country-island roads, the tiny narrow village streets and even the off the beaten tracks.



One of the many lovely villages we visited were Vatousa and Antissa in the eastern part of the island.



Vatousa









This traditional village looked so nostalgic from the main road. It reminds me of a place with secrets. Pandora’s box? Elegant, beautiful from a distance yet eerie.







Antissa



Not very far from Vatousa is Antissa. It’s a much bigger town, has more facilities, as well as a thriving local community of old men hanging out in the village square in the afternoons.



This is very typical in the Greek Islands to see men of age gathering together, playing cards, backgammon or whatever games they get their hands on, and drinking coffee. While the older women get some afternoon fresh air by sitting outside their house’s doors.











Here we lost our way (lots of one-way streets!) as we navigated the scooter through the village centre. I like it that the village square is very cozy. The trees have definitely given a different ambiance to the whole place.



Then a local man driving a white Hilux pick-up car came to our rescue. He knew we were lost as we were going around in circles. He motioned us with his hand to follow him. Just before we reached the intersection that would lead us out of the village, I managed to take a picture of him. He has this wide grin across his face as he waved his arm approvingly at us. I hurriedly shouted, ‘Efcharisto!’



Greek people in the islands are very helpful and friendly!













We cannot wait to go back again this summer to the Greek Islands!