» ice world
I'll get to the good part eventually, but the worst part of this trip was that after Kai and I finished our day long journey while not having a proper meal all day, we looked forward to doing some extreme eating at the Wendy's which was about an hour away. Or, it should have been an hour away, if we didn't get stuck behind some truck that insisted on going 45 MPH. So, we are starving by the time we pull into the parking lot and then we notice that there is a bus in the parking lot. NOOOOO!!! please don't tell me that some high school team has stopped here ahead of us and the line will be overflowing the corral! Yes, the line was full of high school students, and then 3 old people. Pure torture. We were getting close and all of the old people ordered seperately but one was very short so I accidentally ended up placing my order before her. I blame the Wendy's employer for making eye contact with me and then prompting me to order, and for the old person for being so short, effectively out of my field of view.

Imagine single digit temperatures, constant blowing wind, snow squalls, and nothing but ice for miles. This is apparently not everyone's dream vacation, which explains why my venture travel company "Arctic Getaways" failed, but personally, I have a hard time thinking of any place more appealing. You might think you have to go all the way to a polar region to see such a thing, but no, every winter, the Great Lakes become a world shaped by cold, ice, wind, and waves. Note that I am not suggesting everyone should run out onto the lake ice in the winter, ice on the Great Lakes poses many dangers. You can often enjoy many ice formations from shore.

Prior to this trip I only had a vague awareness that there were some small cliffs in the "thumb" area of Michigan. I was looking for some photos of ice on Lake Huron when I came across a photo of Turnip Rock. I was dumbfounded that such a thing existed and I had never seen it before. The reason for this is that these cliffs are privately owned. However, since all of the Great Lakes shoreline is publicly accessible up to the high water line (a vague marker) and I knew there was thick ice in the area due to the cold winter, I figured it would be easy to get a look at Turnip Rock by skiing to it on Lake Huron. In the summer you can check it out by kayak (see my trip report or the Tip of The Thumb Heritage Water Trail site for more info).

Read more...

Kai on the "Thumbnail" with Turnip Rock in the foreground.

Pack ice and a pressure ridge of blue ice near the lighthouse. The ice is stacked up on the reef that sits just under the water here. There was open water a few hundred feet to the east of the reef.

So you all know Michigan is shaped like a mitten, but do you also know that at the tip of the thumb there is a rock formation that looks like a fingernail?

A pressure ridge on Lake Huron.

The Port Austin Lighthouse. This lighthouse sits on the end of a rocky reef that lies just under the surface of Lake Huron. The platform is 30 feet high and the lighthouse tower is 60 feet high. It would have provided an amazing view I'm sure but the stairway is raised and locked (the lighthouse is currently in the process of being restored after being overtaken by birds and weather for many years).

The Thumbnail. Looks more like an index finger to me but...

The sort of ice people dream about. Well, I do anyway!

Ice bound.

Kai.

Broken, and re-frozen. At first I thought this spot (near the lighthouse) was open water, but no, turns out it was all frozen solid. The water is not very deep here.

Part of the iced over lighthouse platform, about 2 miles from land.

In some spots, the ice was so clear you could see the lake floor below. It was kind of freaky when you could see rocks 20 feet under you. The white streaks are from blowing snow.

A pile of blue ice.

Kai approaching the cliffs.

Ice piled up along the shoal near the lighthouse.

A large ice volcano.

Left: Birch trees and Turnip Rock. Right: Behind a cliff icicle.

Frozen fish (brown trout).

Left: Clear ice reveals the lake floor, about 10 feet below us. Right: Ice chunks frozen together.

Exploring the ice.

Sunset.

As we started towards the lighthouse we couldn't even see it due to a snow squall, but eventually the weather cleared, although the wind never stopped.

I've never been happier...except on my wedding day, if Megan is reading this (Photo by Kai).

An icicle overflowing onto a tree.

This is one of the mysteries of our exploration. What are those white things on the horizon? Huge icebergs? Ice covered rocks or small islands? Some kind of man-made structures? This could haunt me until my death.

The cliffs are severely undercut, creating caves, like this (Photo by Kai).

Pressure ridge.

Patterns in the ice.

More slabs of blue ice.

Me below the lighthouse (Photo by Kai).

These are our tracks. My GPS batteries died near Turnip Rock so there is some missing data in that area. 8.1 miles total.

Video of the lake ice and blowing snow as we neared the lighthouse.

This is a wide angle view of the cliffs, Turnip Rock is on the far left and above the cliffs you can see some rich people have built some houses.

View Kai's Photos