2017

Wednesday August 23rd, 2017

Greetings and welcome!

We had a bit of a humid weekend last weekend. Thanks to moderate temperatures it was not too bad, but you could see the haze in the air. This picture of Thunder Mountain from about 12-15 miles away shows just how much humidity was in the air.

Monday we had a cold front come through with some scattered storms. Some of them brought some pretty good downpours, and about 1/2″ of rain by my guess.

Now that the cold front has passed we are enjoying lower humidity and some very comfortable temperatures. At 12:30pm Athelstane Weather is showing 68ºF coming off a low of 50 overnight. If I got to write the script our whole fall would be like this until about a week before gun hunting.

Anyway, we are looking at temperatures right around 70 for the rest of this week and into next week. There is actually a hazardous weather outlook for north central WI for a chance of frost tonight. We are expecting to see about 40 for a low, but it could go into the upper 30s.

There is a chance of rain over the weekend. Right now the NWS is holding it off until early Sunday morning. The GFS model guidance has it coming in a little sooner, but with it having to overcome dry air, Saturday night sounds pretty reasonable. There is again a chance of showers Sunday. I am not seeing heavy rain, but there is a good chance of showers, especially from noon on. Keep in mind that this is a 4 day out forecast, so take it as such.

The summer of record whitewater continued last weekend. Usually the river is low and rocky at this time of year. Last Saturday it was up to +8″ a great level any time of the year. The people were having a blast with awesome flips and crashes.

The normal flow is about 200cfs for last Saturday, and the river was running at 600. We are down to 400 today, but the graph has leveled out as far as falling. The rain Monday will help, but that will be about it for this week.

I am optimistic that we will still be in the fun zone ( Above 300cfs) for this coming weekend, and if so I will again be out on the river taking pictures. The watershed is flush with water, so I’d be surprised to see it go below 300cfs. It is hard to believe that the river has not gotten down to zero at all this summer! I have never seen that in my 27 years on the Peshtigo.

Last weekend when I was down by the river I ran into a lot of mushrooms. There were brown ones, bright red ones, and the big white ones that push up big clumps of soil when they emerge. There were also some that I don’t recall ever seeing before. The pitch black one was unusual. The white ones that have translucent stems and what looked like a flower were new to me. They were only in one small area, but there were about a dozen of them.

While I was at the grocery store Sunday I grabbed a few event posters with my phone. Here are the ones that I have seen so far..

Looking around for more events-

Sat August 26- Pour Haus in Lakewood-  Rebel Ride benefiting the Wabeno-Laona School District. Drawings for a UTV and a generator. (Link)

Marinette Co Fair- August 24-27, 2017 Wausaukee (Link)

Sat Aug 26th-Caldron Falls Bar & Grill- Live Music By Fahrenheit 420 (Link)

On the personal side-

I am loving this cool weather. I am very much looking forward to tackling firewood and other pre-winter outside chores now that the weather is a little more moderate. It has been a busy summer of self-employment, so it will be a long list. It is also just about flashlight season, and I am planning on ramping up the focus on the flashlight business once the rafting pictures come to an end, probably after Labor Day weekend. You will be hearing a lot more about that soon.

In the meantime, it is time for me to hustle off and go and make a living.

Have a good week and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Friday 8-18-17

Greetings and welcome!

Just a couple of quick updates..

First up the weekend weather looks very nice. It will be a little humid and on the warm side in the low and mid-80s, but you will get that in August.

The TV weather guy and I agree that there will be a slight chance of a storm popping up and a better chance of it as Sunday progresses. My model guidance shows a little precip possible in MN and downstate, but nothing around here. Likewise the NWS is showing no precip chances. My thinking is that with moisture in the atmosphere and a warm sunny day it wouldn’t be a reach to see a storm or two pop up. Sunday night into Monday there is a much better chance at rain.

I will again be taking rafting pictures at Kosir’s Saturday. The river has usually long dried up by now, but this is not an ordinary year. Today the Peshtigo is running 552cfs and about a +6 or +7″ level. The normal median flow for today is 187cfs, too low to run without hitting a zillion rocks. We are breaking records at 552cfs, a very fun level for both rafting and tubing.

One last item… I got a note from one of the guys that did a lot of work to see the stretch of Parkway Rd from Hwy C south to the town line opened to ATVs. He wanted to remind us that the speed limit is 35, and 25 in the corners. I was past there Wednesday and it is well marked. It is a very controversial stretch and it won’t take much to screw it up, so please observe the speed limits and be on your best behavior while passing through.

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

RJB

Tuesday August 15th, 2015

Greetings and welcome!
We had a little rain yesterday. It didn’t look like much earlier in the day but later the storm dropped anywhere from 1/2″ to 1″ of rain. The wet summer and summer of unbelievable whitewater continues.

The Peshtigo River is usually low enough to be pretty much un-runnable at this time of year, but it remains at awesome levels. Normally it would be at 200cfs, and we are at 485, it is rising, and the watershed got hit with the rain yesterday, so I don’t see it going down much before the weekend. To sweeten the deal a little we have a decent chance of rain and thunderstorms for about Thursday. Rafting and lazy river tubing will be good this weekend.

Tuesday is a little early to pin down details for weekend weather, but let’s give it a look. There will be some rain in the area Saturday, mostly in the southern half of the state. The GFS is showing a chance of rain popping up Saturday afternoon, but it is nothing organized. My take is be ready for a possible rain shower or storm, but don’t change plans over it.

Weekend events..

There is a gun show Saturday from 8-2 at the Crivitz Village Hall with the Crivitz VFW.

Trump Lake Pavilion (Near Wabeno) will be hosting a walleye fundraiser Saturday Aug 19th. Thee will be meat and tool raffles, a silent auction, and a kids sawdust pile.

The Hidden Bear ATV Club will be having a meat raffle and fundraiser at Animal’s Bear Trail Inn On Hwy 64 & T (about 4 miles west of 32 & 64)from noon to 6pm Saturday. Meat raffle, 50/50 raffles, and they are also having a big cash raffle.. $100 a ticket, 175 tickets sold, and 25 cash prizes including a top prize of 4 grand. Yeehaw!

The Oconto Co fair is this weekend in Gillett. (Link)

St. Mary’s of the Lake Annual Parish Picnic Sunday in Lakewood (Link)

Next Thursday-Sunday 8-24 to 8-27 is the Marinette Co Fair in Wausaukee (Link)

Dirt Bag Paddlers’ Frank Fest- A big party with raft & kayak races Sunday on the Menominee River. (Link)

Yesterday I posted a whole bunch of fall events on the Caldron Falls Bar web site. Take a look. (Link)

That is it for me today. Have a good week and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Friday August 11, 2017

Greetings and welcome!

A couple of weekend updates..

The weather forecast for the weekend remains ideal with sunny skies and temps in the mid to upper 70s. Low temps are expected to be around 50 for both nights. There is no mention of rain in the forecast until about next Wednesday. Could it be true?

The sky watching will be very good this weekend, at least for a couple of hours a night. We are at the peak of the Perseid Meteor shower tonight. (LINK)  The bad news is that the moon will be very bright. Moonrise tonight comes at around 10:20 p.m., and on Saturday night  it’s at around 10:50 p.m.

I did a little star gazing on the front step last night and was rewarded not just with a sky full of stars, but quite a few shooting stars from the meteor shower. It was a good show. When the moon first rose it threw a beam that lit up my work shed roof like something inside was glowing. As it rose the shadows changing and increasing areas being lit was an interesting show too.

Tuesday night the town board did approve the ATV route on Parkway Rd from the Red Pine BP at C & Parkway south to the Stephenson town line. It will open Wednesday the 16th. This is a hugely important trail link and it came with a lot of opposition. It will be well watched.

There is live music tonight at the Caldron Falls Bar & Grill in their outside Pavilion with the band ‘Subject to Change’.

We had some fairly heavy rains come through the area yesterday. The USGS gauge says that is was about 1/2″, but I am sure that some areas had more.We had some small hail, but no severe weather.

That rain hit in the perfect area to make the Peshtigo River jump quite nicely for weekend rafting and tubing. We were at about 350cfs, still in the fun zone, but this afternoon it is back up over 500cfs, about a +6″ level and it is rising. The central and upper watersheds got hit pretty good, so I expect increased water levels for 2-3 days at the least. The median flow for today is 202cfs, a pretty rocky ride. The summer of spectacular whitewater continues!

Last but not least, tomorrow is the Silver Cliff Picnic & Parade. The parade starts at Boat Landing 11 Rd & Hwy C at 10am and proceeds to the picnic grounds at Hwy C & I, or Parkway North. The picnic starts at 11am. They have done a lot of work at the picnic grounds in the recent past and the word on the street is that it is very nice. Stop in and see what’s new!

Have a good weekend and thank you for visiting!

RJB