Fall Fantastic: The recent blows, rains and storms may have changed the landscape, but many points around the Lake have been logging beautiful autumn forest so far (like in the Ken Harmon photo of Oberg Lake in Minnesota). Minnesota’s DNR has a color finder feature on its website that this week shows the North Shore as 50-70% peak color. Michigan’s UPTravel color report noted mainly 30-50% peak for the week, with Alger County only getting into the color at 10% (lots of color left there to see, it seems). For the Apple Fest this weekend in Bayfield, Wisconsin, you can see 30% peak color as you drive into the region. If you had the foresight to book a stay, the coming week is expected to yield peak color, reveals Bayfield.org’s fall color report. Ontario Parks, perhaps the best way to get a one-stop picture of fall colours (yup, switched to Canadian there) along the broad Ontario shore, notes nearing-peak viewing from Thunder Bay to Sault Ste. Marie at 20-40%, with Lake Superior Provincial Park hitting its best fall moments.
Beautiful Bountiful Bog: Pioneer Public TV out of Worthington, Minnesota, did a "Prairie Sportsman" segment on the Sax-Zim Bog, featuring photographer/naturalist Sparky Stensaas (a regular contributor to us). The 27-minute episode is nominated for an Emmy, one of those to be announced tomorrow in Bloomington. Besides the bog, the TV crew takes a trip though North Shore streams to find beaver dams to see how they affect brook trout, and visits a museum that showcases the work of western Minnesota taxidermist Charles Hanson. We particularly enjoyed the conversation with one Eastern visitor who was inspired to make the trek to northern Minnesota because his New Hampshire friend had a Sax-Zim Bog bumper sticker. Birders find many of their owl life list entries in the bog, Sparky explains, because it hosts nine species of owls, “more than anywhere else on the continent.” Read about the great gray owl, a permanent resident of the bog, in our February/March 2019 issue.
Belated Birding?: Speaking of birds, photographer/birder Scot Stewart wrote an interesting piece for the Mining Journal of Marquette that talks about a delayed migration in that region of the Big Lake neighborhood this year. "There seems to be a slight air of tardiness across the Upper Peninsula so far this fall," Scot writes, noting in his Oct. 5 piece that a few sandhill cranes were still hanging around on their way south. He details 15 species in a wave of migrants seen on the Stonington Peninsula (southern U.P.), including a variety of warblers – Canada, Wilson’s, blackpoll, black-throated blue, magnolia and chestnut-sided – "all species long gone from most locations in the U.P. Other late sightings included a pair of eastern phoebes, a least flycatcher and four blue-headed vireos."
Sweet Ride: Apostle Islands Cruises recently introduced the newest member of its three-boat fleet. The 65-foot catamaran Archipelago joins the other boats to provide tours of Apostle Islands National Lakeshore. Apostle Islands Cruises, in Bayfield, Wisconsin, started using the catamaran vessel this summer for its Sea Caves & Lighthouses Tour, Express Grand Tour and Evening Grand Tour. According to the boat’s captain, the new vessel's cruising speed of about 21 knots (24 mph) can trim about 45 minutes off the length of the classic Grand Tour, which normally took three hours and 15 minutes. (The Express Grand Tour with the Archipelago is about 2.5 hours.) Editor Konnie LeMay and Managing Editor Bob Berg recently cashed in the Apostle Islands Cruise tickets they got at the Gales of November silent auction last year (notice that little plug for the Nov. 2-3 event that Konnie's helping to organize?). It was fun to see Captain Dave moving the vessel away from the dock, using what looked like a video game controller. The cruise along the lakeshore mainland sea caves was gorgeous last weekend, though many of the passengers sported parkas. The Archipelago has a capacity of 150 passengers and features an open upper deck, a heated cabin, large windows and handicapped-accessible facilities. If you still want to grab a tour, you can. The company offers its popular Grand Tour past Raspberry and Devils Island lighthouses, daily through Oct. 21; the Sea Caves & Lighthouses Tour on the weekends through Oct. 21; and the Evening Grand Tour on Fridays and Saturdays through Oct. 21, weather and the wave whims of the Big Lake, of course, always permitting.
Flood Rising? Michigan Tech Will Have an App to Track That: "When flood waters rise, more data helps better predict and monitor changing conditions. And soon there will be an app for that," Allison Mills writes in the opening of her story about Michigan Technological University's involvement in a five-university project to create an app to gather information, analyze it and alert urban communities of dangers during flood situations. Computer scientists and hydrologists are pairing on the effort to create an "Integrated Flood Stage Observation Network (IFSON)." Such an app would have been useful right in Houghton, where Michigan Tech is located, on Father's Day this year during the mass flooding, captured on a drone video by Adam Johnson of Brockit Inc. in Hancock.
State of the Big Lake: More than 200 researchers and tribe and government representatives are expected to gather in Michigan Technological University in Houghton this week to bring the latest Lake Superior scientific research and what it means for people across the Lake basin. The State of Lake Superior Conference, Oct. 9-12, is hosted by the International Association for Great Lakes Research. Two evening events are free and open to the public: the Lake Superior Lakewide Action and Management Plan is Tuesday, 6-8 p.m., providing an overview of threats to Lake Superior and steps being taken to protect and restore the Lake. A group of four regional kayakers who call themselves “Four the Water” (and who stopped by our offices on their way around the Big Lake this summer) will share stories from their water-borne Lake Superior Circle Tour, including their citizen-science monitoring of microplastics. The second is Scientific Challenges of Developing a Plan to Protect Buffalo Reef on Wednesday, 5:45-7:30 p.m.
Happy Thanksgiving No. 1: Monday, Oct. 8, is officially the first Thanksgiving celebration of the year around the shores of Lake Superior, when Canada celebrates its Thanksgiving Day. (Our second, of course, comes with the U.S. Thanksgiving Day on Nov. 22 this year.) In anticipation of the food-stuffed holiday season that these two feasts usher in, we’re linking you to Beth Dooley’s “Recipe Box” story about all manner of pies with an emphasis on local harvest. To read Beth’s homage to our two Thanksgiving celebrations and for her Squash & Leek Gratin and Canadian Tourtière (leftover meat pie) recipes, pick up the October/November issue of the magazine currently on the newsstands. Yummy.
What If It's a Packers Baby?: Any baby born this Sunday (or on any Vikings game day) at the St. Luke's Birthing Center in Duluth gets the chance to go home with a game-day gift pack that includes an embroidered swaddle sack (like the one worn by the infant born there Sept. 27). St. Luke's partnered with the Vikings football team as part of a statewide program. Of course, the natural question in this border town, just across the bay from Superior, Wisconsin, is: What if it's a Packer-backing baby? We suspect the attentive staff at the birthing center will be sensitive to team spirit from both Twin Ports.
Photo & graphic credits: Ken Harmon; Pioneer Public TV; Bob Berg; Konnie LeMay; Adam Johnson/Brockit; Mette Nielsen; St. Luke's