I’ve never been one to let the weather dictate my activities. Changing weather patterns are an immutable fact in wilderness travel and, as such, acceptance is generally a better strategy than cursing, fighting, or running from them. I guess that’s why I found myself back in the slop again this weekend, an amalgamation of sleet, snow, and freezing rain. “A wintery mix”, the meteorologists had forecasted, as if it were some delightful blend of the best the season had to offer. Skiing conditions had been glorious earlier in the day, with deep untrammelled powder, but now things were deteriorating rapidly. As I plowed through the heavy, wet oatmeal snow, it clung tenaciously to skis and poles, slowing progress as I pushed towards my chosen campsite for the night.

Miraculously, my wife had given me a weekend pass even though I had been out in Ontario for 4 days last week and would be travelling for work next week. I was only in hock for a week of bedtimes with the girls (we usually alternate) and a night out for my wife. Fair enough. I had made the nocturnal drive to Pictured Rocks, arriving not too long past sunrise to give myself a full day for trekking. I parked on the snowy Chapel Road, skied in to the trailhead, and took off on the Mosquito Falls trail.


Ski conditions were perfect at first, with about two feet of fresh powder snow on the ground. I initially followed in the path of a lone skier until her tracks veered off onto the Chapel River trail, leaving me to break tracks through miles of beautifully untouched snow. I marveled that I should be the only one to have travelled this route in recent days, but I didn’t have to wonder for long. As I approached the Falls, the route became twisted and narrow, with numerous steep ups and downs. I was just in my baselayer and windshirt at this point, but between the exertion and a few falls in deep snow, I was starting to get pretty damp. I tried not to be too disappointed when I reached the sign marked Mosquito Falls. After all of that effort, the river was completely frozen over with not much to look at but some pretty blue ice.


Continuing upriver, I came to the main falls, a little better but not much. I crossed the river above the falls and soon lost the trail in the deep snow. After wasting precious time trying to relocate it, I ultimately decided to cut cross-country in a west-northwest direction until I hit the cliffs. Crossing a frozen creek, I intercepted the remnants of an overgrown logging road heading in the right general direction and life was suddenly good. I was coasting downhill through perfect snow with wide sweeping turns and loving the ride. The logging road eventually connected with the Mosquito Falls trail and soon I was at Mosquito Beach.


I was thrilled to see that an ice shelf had finally moved in. I’m not ashamed to admit that I am something of an ice junkie, and I had been hitting the Superior shoreline as frequently as possible since winter had first set in, hoping to get my fix.


Checking out a huge ice volcano, formed as a result of powerful waves that undercut the ice and force water up through the crust.


Ice formation at the shelf’s edge


Rock and ice


Ice covered cliffs northeast of Mosquito Beach


Entering the petrified forest past Lover’s Leap, created by spray from waves battering the cliffside


Looking out over the tortured landscape




Trees stunted and twisted by years of long winters


An icy portal


Caves beneath the Rainbow Ice


Pancake ice on Lake Superior. These are formed as random collisions and compression by the waves pile ice and slush onto the rims.


Obsidian ice cliffs


A trail of pancake ice leads to Indian Head




A study in perseverance


Atop Grand Portal Point


Singing in the Rain, a yellow ice formation resulting from minerals in the sandstone


The morning’s navigational challenges and the afternoon’s sloppy weather conditions prevented me from covering as much ground as I had hoped. Still, as the rain intensified, I was all too happy to make camp for the night, huddling snugly under my tarp as I waited for the hot dinner and drink that would soon be ready.


Post trip thoughts: I much prefer exploring new places over returning to familiar haunts, but Pictured Rocks holds a special place in my heart. While it would have been easy to sit this one out given the expectation of “bad weather”, one could argue that these same conditions contributed to a trip that was fresh and new precisely because of the weather and the changes that it wrought. The route I followed on this trip overlapped significantly with one that I took just a few weeks ago, so I’ll let you be the judge.





-------------------------------------------------
Some other trip reports by Ike Jutkowitz


http://tinyurl.com/Coastal-Trail-in-Winter
Lake Superior Provincial Park, January 2013

http://tinyurl.com/Anatomy-of-a-24
Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, January 2013

http://tinyurl.com/North-Country-Trail
Porcupine Mountains, Trap Hills, Sturgeon River Gorge, September 2012

http://tinyurl.com/Negwegon-Pure-Michigan
Negwegon State Park, September 2012

http://tinyurl.com/crgb5fh
Packrafting the Islands of Yakutat Bay, Alaska, August 2012

http://tinyurl.com/Bike-Hike-Paddle
A self-propelled exploration of Michigan’s Manistee River, May 2012

http://tinyurl.com/cl67blp
Saving Sophie and a Trip Gone Badly, Greyson Highlands, March 2012

http://tinyurl.com/PR-in-Winter
Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, February 2012

http://tinyurl.com/Tahquamenon
24: Tahquamenon Falls, January 2012

http://tinyurl.com/Nordhouse
Nordhouse Dunes: Where the Wild Things Are, December 2011

http://tinyurl.com/acftwt8
Failure to Launch: A Misadventure Along the Michigan Shore to Shore Trail
Huron Manistee National Forest, November 2011

http://tinyurl.com/bfmt9qn
From Past to Present on the Northville Placid Trail, October 2011

http://tinyurl.com/Situk-Lake
Tongass National Forest, Alaska. August 2011

http://tinyurl.com/Shipwreck-Coast
SUL on the Shipwreck Coast, May 2011

http://tinyurl.com/ac5dgmp
Mount Mitchell Masochist’s Trek, Mountains to Sea Trail, March 2011

http://tinyurl.com/Hoist-Lakes
Huron Manistee National Forest, February 2011

http://tinyurl.com/coz8nqo
Black River and the Porcupine Mountains, North Country Trail, October 2010

Edited by Ike on 03/06/2013 08:57:26 MST.

Killin it lately Ike! Your pics are looking really, really good.

No cheese spread this time? :)

There's something special about seeing a familiar place in unfamiliar conditions. Some of the best adventures I've had are in places I had been to many times before when I wasn't expecting to have an adventure at all.

Great pics. I love the ice volcano. First time I've heard of such a thing.

Good stuff Ike. You hike in some very surreal winter land.

Wow, great pics.

Top marks Ike :-)

Dude, do you ever get tired?

Do you walk around in your BC boots or bring a change of footwear?

Can you post a close photo showing how you attach your skis to your pack, please?

Another awesome trip, thanks for sharing!

Pretty out of worldly pics. Its the same place but sometimes you get into the groove with that familiar place.Gotta say the campfire and hamburger stand look pretty inviting after all that snow and ice.

You're on fire Ike! Another great set of shots from your overnighter.

It's fun to sometimes go back over the seemingly familiar and give it another look. A change of seasons, the aftermath of a storm, etc; there's so many ways a familiar place can change, sometimes drastically in even a short period. I recall a particularly pretty stretch of creek along a trail I hike a few times each year. I stopped one time and took a nice long exposure shot of the creek winding it's way through a thick stand of alders. A few months later I went back and this same beautiful shaded stretch had been obliterated by a microburst wind storm that blew through and snapped all the trees off halfway up their trunks like toothpicks. It looked more like a war zone rather than a peaceful creekside scene. That stretch will probably never be the same in my lifetime which makes that initial photo now a little more meaningful to me. Anyway, just food for thought.

I'm liking all the detail shots, especially the pancake ice... looks almost like a bunch of amoeba.

You've got an otherworldly landscape there in the winter. Looks like a unique place for a trip.

Simply breathtaking Ike,
Thanks for sharing!

@ Andrew
+1 "There's something special about seeing a familiar place in unfamiliar conditions."

Great shots, Ike! I especially like the closeup of the pancake ice.

"Dude, do you ever get tired?"

Yeah, man. I work a pretty demanding job, and at the end of the day, I still need to be at my best for two little girls who value playtime with their dad. I do all the cooking for the household and most of the cleaning. On weekends, I usually go into work for a couple hours, do the grocery shopping, then take the girls out to a park. Tiring as hell.

On the other hand, the time I get to spend in the backcountry is a gift. If I ever fail to use that time to its fullest, or worse still had the bad taste to complain about any part of it, I hope someone would have the sense to beat me with a carbon fiber trekking pole.

"Do you walk around in your BC boots or bring a change of footwear?"

Depends. I hate boots. If the trip is mostly about skiing, as this one was, I walk in them when circumstances dictate. If I'm just going to be skiing up a snowed in road, hiking a shoreline or trail, and returning via the same route, I'll stash skis and boots and hike in trail runners. I would never carry the boots. For what it's worth, I have the lightest boot in the alpina BC lineup. Not great for downhill control, but more comfy to walk in.

"Can you post a close photo showing how you attach your skis to your pack, please?"

No real trick. The HMG compression system provides a very stable platform for skis. I vary the height based on overhead clearance.
The bindings provide a raised surface for the straps to grip. Hopefully this shows it.



Thanks everyone for the feedback.

I loved the pictures and the trail write-up. It inspires me to spend more time out here on the shore in Latvia and not cry over my beer that there are no mountains around.

Beautiful job Ike, there is something about old places seen in a new light.

Thanks for the response and photo.....I'm gonna play around with attaching skis to my Exos 58 this weekend.

Imposing, beautiful, and stark photos. I particularly liked the color and composition in the added "beefcake shot" of you and the skis...you should blow that up and frame it for yourself.

Thanks for sharing,
Tom