BigSnowPage.com

Greetings and welcome!

It looks like it is time to put a terrible winter season to rest and head over to my summer blogging home at Silvercliff.com/scindex .

I would like to thank everyone that visited the site this year. When it did snow we smashed previous hit count records by more than double.

I especially want to thank the people that generously hit the tip cup and donated to the cause. I couldn’t do this without your support. Some of you were very generous and that really helped in what was otherwise a terrible winter for snow, for work, and gas prices. It was great to have a flurry of donations come in right before the last snow, which financed the Florence ride. Thank you very much to all that sponsored and donated to the Big Snow Page.

This season was very unusual with the lack of snow, the lack of bitter cold, and the rude and abrupt ending. I was expecting a wild ride with a lot of snow and cold, but the La Nina and Arctic Oscillation had other ideas. The La Nina sent storms that dumped snow on the west coast and the Rockies, and left us with weak played out storms. The AO kept the really cold air up by the north pole, and the northern  jet stream along with it. The end result was one of the worst seasons in my time, but at least you could find a ride to the north & west.

This March has been a very unusual one for me. Usually I starve in March and April, but this year I have so much work that I can’t keep up. Believe me, that is not a complaint..

Now the warm weather has Kosir’s opening the rafting season three weeks early, adding to the chaos. We start rafting this Saturday. I went down to the river today and it is cranking pretty good. Thankfully our watershed is from up by Crandon where they actually had a little snow this year.

At any rate, things are starting to change quickly and I am going to wrap it up here and start blogging on the Silvercliff site a couple of days a week. Thank you to everyone that visited this year, and a huge thank you goes out to the people that supported me financially. Thank you all very much.

Have a good summer and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Greetings and welcome!

The warm weather continues.. Today we are only up to 66 so far, a paltry 29 degrees above normal. The NWS is looking for a high of 74 for both days over the weekend, though there is a minor chance of showers and thunderstorms tonight into Saturday. That does not look like an all day rain, more of a chance of a passing shower or storm.

The ground is firming up in the driveway and in the back yard. The only places that still hold patches of snow are the south banks by the pond, the treeline in back and one sheltered spot in the driveway. Those probably won’t survive tomorrow.

There are still some people parking cars at the ends of driveways and walking in because of the frost-out mud. Most of those have shaded driveways. The sunny ones are mostly passable.

Chris asked if there were any frogs sounding off in the pond yet. I heard a few croakers this morning, but no vreep vreep of the Spring Peepers.

Yesterday I had a first for the year when I went over 24 hours without the wood burner running. My last fire was Wednesday night a little after dark, and I started it back up last night about midnight. It was only down to about 66, but I warmed it up anyway.

I don’t know about up in the rapids, but at the bridge by Kosir’s the Peshtigo River has blown out the ice. It is running at about a +15 right now. When I went past Caldron Falls Flowage yesterday it had water on the ice and it was looking distressed, but that has not melted down yet. They also have not dropped the level yet, which they sometimes do to break up the ice or make room for a rush of melt water.

This Saturday is St Patrick’s Day. So far I have seen parties at Fisher’s Camp and the Curve Inn. At the Curve it is also the owner’s birthday, and I heard something about karaoke, but I am not sure about that. They will be giving away some corned beef while it lasts.

The warm weather is expected to last a while. Looking at the GFS I only saw one day out of the next 16 that stood a chance of being about normal for temperatures. There are a few chances for rain, but no chances for snow.

The mosquito count is up to three. I had another one try to feed on me after I filed my report Wednesday. Hopefully those were the mother ships, I killed all three.

While the warm spring was a bad thing for snowmobilers I am not mad about the fast transition to warm weather or missing out on a month of the mud season. Another week like this and I might be able to start cutting firewood, doing Spring yard clean-up, and spending more time on outside projects.

The next question is when the world will start greening up. Normally it really gets going the first or second week of May. Maybe that will come early too.

Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Greetings and welcome!

The abnormal weather continued today. Athelstane Weather marked a high of 75, breaking the previous record of 59. It was a beautiful blue sky day outside.  When I watched the noon news the weather guy did not show any days in the coming week with a high temperature under 60, and some were close to 70. That is pretty good considering that our normal high/low is 37/15. Note that I referred to it as abnormal weather, not unusual. Normal +38 degrees is beyond unusual.

As you probably saw, they closed the ATV trails yesterday. That put an end to riding the trail north of Brandywine and Parkway Rd and the north trails up in the county forest even if there were some snow to play in. Those trails will be closed to all until the frost-out is over and the ground firms up. Normally they re-open the first Friday in May. This year we have a fighting chance of opening early, but it is a big county, and the deep forests up north still take time to thaw out and firm up.

I have also seen where the towns are putting the road ban signs up. The road ban is a slang term for weight limits that take heavy trucks off of the road in spring when the frost is coming out of the ground and the road base gets mushy. At that point loggers, excavators, and cement companies get a little hiatus while the roads firm up.

The principal is the same with closing the ATV trails. When the frost is coming out of the ground the sandy soil turns to about the consistency of thick waffle batter. Having heavy trucks on the road or ATVs on the trail when it is like that would do a lot of damage.

The ground is in a wide variety of states of drying out. Some places still have snow patches and all of the frost below is intact. A lot of sunny spots are actually starting to firm up a little. That is unheard of on March 15th.

When I drove over the Peshtigo river yesterday by Kosir’s there was a channel open along one side of the river and it was starting to run pretty good. The day before it was lifting up the ice, now it had made a channel. This morning word came from Rapids Resort that the river was really flying. I checked the gauge and it is running at about a +15″. If the ice in the rapids were open that would be some prime rafting. In my almost dozen years here I have only seen that happen this early once before, the river opened up and rose about St Pattie’s Day.

When I went down Landing 11 Rd yesterday the last patches of ice on the road were reduced to puddles. Considering that it is pretty sheltered in places, that is significant. That road has a good base so it wasn’t too deep with frost mud, but I wouldn’t judge the rest of the back roads by that. Most are probably pretty ugly.

I saw a lot of cars parked at the ends of driveways in the past couple of days, indicating a lot of soft ground and driveways. Mine isn’t too bad, I sink in about 2-4″ in the usual soft spots. Some years it is axle deep on my truck and I get to walk in too. I could go for it, and might even enjoy it, but the fun ends when you need a truckload or two of gravel to fix the road.

As I was sitting on the back step this morning taking in the warm sunny day my eye wandered over to the wood shed. To my amazement it is still about 1/4 full. To have that much wood left is stunning. I actually got an LP furnace this Fall because I was sure that I would be out of firewood by about mid-February. It is still sitting in the other room waiting to be hooked up, and won’t be this winter.

We never had the big cold blasts in January, we never had the big cold blasts behind the storms, and unlike last year, the heating season doesn’t look like it will reach well into May. It was the worst snowmobile season that I have seen, but people can’t be mad about their heat bills.

One last item, I have seen the first mosquitoes. I killed one hovering by the windshield on the way to Lakewood yesterday, and tonight one landed on me while I was doing the dinner dishes. She got swatted too. That is pretty unusual for March 14th, but so is leaving the house open for most of the day.

That’s news from sunny Silver Cliff. Have a good night and thank you for visiting!

RJB

NOON UPDATE

Word just came in from Marinette County that all ATV trails are officially closed for the spring thaw.

From: John Scott, Forestry and Parks Administrator
Subject: ATV Trail Closure
The entire Marinette County ATV Trail System will be closed to
all vehicles effective immediately (March 13, 2012) until
further notice. This closure is required to protect the soft
trail bed from erosion damage caused by ATV’s and other vehicles
during spring breakup. ATV trails will re-open when conditions
warrant. Another press release will be placed in the paper when
the trails are re-opened.

They usually reopen around May 1st.  We will keep you posted.

RJB

Greetings and welcome!

This has been an unbelievable season, so I guess it shouldn’t be surprising when it has an unusual ending. The weather has been incredible the past few days.

First of all I should put this in context. Our normal high right now is 37, and our normal low is 15. Sunday when it went to a high of 68 or tonight when we are having a low of 41 is not normal. Not even close. Neither is the week ahead with highs ranging from low 60s to upper 60s, and no low temperatures below 35.

According to my rule of variability, a variation of 1-15 degrees above or below the normals is common. Fifteen to 25 degrees is occasional, and 25-30 degrees is unusual. Over 30 is very rare. We are having a couple of weeks of weather in the unusual and very rare range. Sunday’s 68 was normal + 31 degrees, and we have a couple of days this week that could hit similar numbers.

The melting has been amazing. Most of my back field is bare, along with most of the yard. Sheltered spots still hold snow, but that has been reduced significantly too. It is about as close to seeing someone flip a switch and ending the season as you could get. To  go from snowmobiling on ample snow on a 20 degree night on Tuesday to 68 and sunny on Sunday is head spinning.

Driving to Lakewood yesterday I established that a dedicated rider could probably still find plenty of snowy spots in sheltered areas and deep woods. There was still snow in the forest and on unplowed roads, but it looked pretty sloppy and frequently punctuated by muddy sunny spots. Farther north is probably better and could still hold a ride, but it might get a little messy.

The weather yesterday was a pinch of everything Spring. We had a couple of decent waves of rain come through, including some nice downpours. On the way to Lakewood, about 12 miles away, I hit a variety of conditions. I started out with a nice sunny day here. I hit fog about the county line, and 4 miles later it was fog and a downpour. Four miles after that the rain let up a little, and a few miles later the fog lifted, the rain stopped, and the clouds parted, leaving a sunny day. The big backlit storm cloud was huge and dark blue and looked a little menacing.

The ditches and low spots that flood were getting full. The river by Lakewood golf course was running pretty good, and I even have a little water in my pond. The Peshtigo has not gone out at all yet, but the melt water is lifting up the ice. The Townsend Flowage and Waubee Lake still have ice, but it is white and there are puddles on top.

The sunny spots in the driveway and gravel roads are muddy. They are at various stages of the frost coming out of the ground as the melt water sits on top, and yesterday we added some rain. It is a strange mix of mud and the remaining ice layer in sheltered spots.

Late last week I was driving halfway in through the muddy stretch and walking the rest of the way to the house with ice cleats on my shoes as the daily freeze/thaw made the driveway one icy and steep climb. After a couple of days of that the ice broke down enough to get the truck in, but I am still driving in frozen ruts.

Since it snowed my time has been seriously in demand. Usually March is very slow and quiet, but again, not this year. The snow came and there was snowplowing and related stuff, work at Curve & Rapids, snowmobiling, computer and web site work, on and on. It has been unbelievable, and not unwelcome for the most part. There are still a lot of things to wrap up with snowmobiling, people to thank, and articles to write. I am going to keep hammering away at it. For now know that you guys have my appreciation and thanks.

Have a good Tuesday and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Greetings and welcome!

With nothing but 50s and 60s for high temperatures as far as the eye can see, it is pretty obvious that the snowmobile season is about over. The fat lady isn’t tuning up, she’s already breaking the glass..

http://youtu.be/dIVfbylUU-M

The last couple of days have been cold with cold nights. Friday we only hit 33 and it was 19 overnight. The world of slush has turned to ice.

If a guy was dedicated he could probably go north of about Benson Lake Rd and find places to ride at least a little. There is also the Central UP, which saw a lot of lake effect snow the last two days, and Squib says to go out west in Thursday’s comments.

I might be done riding but I have quite a bit of snowmobiling related business to wrap up, so I will be doing at least a few more updates.

As far as the great meltdown goes, like I said above, the last few days have been cold. The sun has had it’s way with the usual spots, and many of those are bare and some are even soft as the frost comes out of the ground. The surviving snow and ice in sheltered areas is frozen up hard.

The hill that featured the slush ruts last time is solid ice. The ruts behind that picture are where I wiped out and got stuck are deeper, and those are ice too.It is nasty so I have been parking by the neighbor’s house and walking in with ice cleats on my shoes.

I could sweat it and get some salt & sand, but in a few days none of it will be there anyway. The high temps the next 7 days are 55,59,52, 60,65, 58, 58, and six of them look partly cloudy to sunny. Monday looks like rain. Between that and the overnight low temps above freezing nightly, we will probably see a lot of snow go away in the next week. Good bye snow, hello mud season.

BTW- There is an Iron Snowshoe Associate Member’s meeting at the Curve Inn tomorrow at 10am.

I am at the end of a long day, so I am off to saw lumber. I will be back soon. There are a lot of people to thank, topics to cover, news, and stuff to wrap up. For now, have  good Saturday and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Greetings and welcome!

The melting yesterday was really something. We lost a lot of snow. Here is my picnic table that had 16-17″ of snow on it last Wednesday…

The driveway got plowed down to the ice base Tuesday. Yesterday that base turned to applesauce slush that threw you around. I got out, but not back in. It looks like I will be walking in and out for a few days. The pictures really don’t do it justice.

That is what a day of 55 & sunny did for us.

Today isn’t so bad. We are at about 36, but the sun is out again. Tomorrow looks about the same, but Saturday and Sunday we are looking at mid-50s again, Saturday with full sun, Sunday with a little rain. Monday we are looking at low 50s, Tuesday, 60, and Wednesday mid-60s.

While you can still find forest roads and sheltered spots to ride, I don’t think we are going to be riding system-wide any more.

I got word this morning that Iron Snowshoe closed trails south of Hwy C.

The end of the season is so depressing.

The sun is in the news today. Yesterday we had an X Class solar flare, an X5.4 to be exact. There are three classes of solar flares, and X is the biggest. An X5.4 is a pretty significant event. Between that and the smaller solar flares we should be seeing some northern lights over the next night or two, and they might even be visible as far south as IL and IN.

Our friends from Kosir’s Rafting are down in Milwaukee this week and weekend for the sports show. If you bump into them say hello. It is almost that time.. we start rafting in 5 weekends, on April 7th. Rumor has it that they are giving some big early bird discounts if you sign up at the sports show.

That is pretty much the news of the day. Have a good Thursday and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Part 2

Greetings and welcome!

It is a cloudy day outside, and a very warm one. As I mentioned below, Athelstane Weather marked 53 degrees today. No matter how you slice it, that isn’t good. There is a LOT of melting going on. Snow piles are shrinking fast and the trails are turning black from the dirt in the snirt remaining after the snow went away.

It took a couple of tries to get back into the driveway from my service call, what was a packed 6″ base yesterday is applesauce today, and it was giving the truck a pretty bad time even in 4wd. Places that I was plowing yesterday are mud today, especially the sunny spots. The March sun is wicked, even through an overcast.

Tomorrow and Friday we will get a little bit of a break from the 50s, but they look like sunny and 35-40º days. Saturday and Sunday look like sunny and 50+.

While you might be able to find places to ride in the deep snow of some back roads or sheltered areas, and maybe some trails north of Benson Lake Rd or Hwy 8, I don’t see us getting another good weekend in on the trails around here this weekend. If the melting this week doesn’t do it the 50+ and sunny over the weekend probably will.

Unless we get a nice surprise, it might be time to drop the curtain on one of the worst seasons in my time here.

That’s news for today. Have a good Wednesday and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Part 1

Greetings and welcome!
Yesterday was the ride it ’till ya break it tour. I didn’t break it per say, but it will definitely need some work before I go out again.

I went out riding with some friends yesterday afternoon. We hit trails in Athelstane, Silver Cliff, Goodman, Dunbar, and quite a few up in Florence County. Our leader guessed at about 140-150 miles, and it was probably that or a little higher. My final tally was about 19 gallons of gas. At a low end of 8mpg and a high end of 10, I’d guess at 150-190 miles.

We rode a wide variety of conditions. Some trails were pretty beat up, some were nice. I’d put it at about 60% decent and about 40% getting choppy. Not many had seen grooming in the last day. The low end was Iron Snowshoe between here and Brandywine and some stretches up on the trail north that probably hadn’t been groomed since Saturday night. Those were (ahem) a little rough.. The nicest were the trails the Blue Ox groomed Monday.

The RXL did ok, but it came up with a heat related bog that would come and go. My guess right now is that I have a coil breaking down on one cylinder. I am sure that it will need some carbides and maybe skis, there was some ugly bare road getting to the trails  and a few stretches along the way.

It was a hard day chasing a couple of guys on new sleds on my old 92, they could fly through the whoops, I got to enjoy them a little more up close and personal.

One guy spun a crank bearing up by Florence, ending his day. Thankfully it was only about 2 miles out of town, so it didn’t take much to tow it to where we could fetch it with a trailer.

It was a heck of a day out of the trails, and I couldn’t have done it without you guys and your generous donations. Thank you very much!

Today we have a warm but cloudy day. I just checked Athelstane Weather, and they are showing 53.4. Yuck.

Ed asked if the trails officially close the 15th. Most do, but they can be open as late as April 1. Usually they aren’t because the March sun can eat 6-10″ of snow by noon at the end of the month. If we had another barnburner storm like last week’s, they could be open later than the 15th, but that it up to the clubs and county alliances.

Well, I have to run to go on a service call. I will stop back a little later and finish up here.

Have a good Wednesday and thank you for visiting!

RJB