NorthernDestinations.com

Thursday Maypril 6th, 2010

Greetings and welcome!

We have had a little weather since the last time that we visited. Tuesday night a storm came through that got destructive about 100 miles south of here. When it first got here it was one where it was a distinct line. Here by Hwy C I could sit on the picnic bench 5 minutes after it rained. A mile south the roads were wet. Later a few lines of showers finally made it through the area. There was also a line that came through yesterday that added a little. It was not a lot of rain, maybe 1/4-1/2″, but it will help the world get green. It should really set off some changes.

The weekend weather looks somewhat different than my ideal forecast, but it could be worse. The late week storm that I told you about on Tuesday is just a little behind schedule. The way that the models show it this morning the main storm will go a little farther south than expected. That will help reduce rain chances for tonight, but we are expecting rain Friday. Eventually it is shown forming a second storm behind the first, and that one bull’s eyeing us Friday night and Saturday morning.

The place where it gets interesting is that the second storm will bring some unseasonably cold air with it. The maps are showing it as cold as -9C at the 850mb level as close as Lake Superior late Friday night. The NWS has the low in the low 30s. That is deep cold for this time of year. Combined with the moisture from the second low pressure area, yes ladies and gentlemen, the possibility of snow comes into the picture for Friday night and Saturday morning. The morning weather showed it mostly between Eagle River and about Hurley, and 2-5″ possible. It also showed a fair band of snow coming over us. My guess is that we may see some slushy accumulation, but not much. It looks like mostly rain, but the line is close, and that is a tough dynamic to predict. It could easilly go the other way.

Saturday should clear up as the day progresses. There are winds in the 15-25mph range predicted along with highs in the upper 40s. Campers will want an extra blanket for Saturday night when there is widespread frost expected and lows in the high 20s. Clear skies and cold air behind a front will do that at this time of year. Sunday looks a lot better with clear weather and highs in the mid-50s. Our normal hi/lo today is 63/37.

So the weekend doesn’t look perfect for weather, but it could be a lot worse. Right now it doesn’t look like the precip will linger long into Saturday morning. I remain a little skeptical of the snow chances, but it is what is indicated right now. I am also skeptical of dramatic forecasts. Eight times out of ten it isn’t as bad as expected and people who stayed away based on a forecast miss out.

Today is the first day in a while that it hasn’t been windy. The TV weather said that 6 of the last 10 days had winds over 30mph. Yesterday Athelstane weather recorded a gust of 41, and that is on board with nearby stations. It would have been a good week to have a wind turbine.

Tuesday was firewood day agiain, and what a day. I went to a friend’s house where he was clearing a bunch of big basswood. We loaded the truck and trailer heavy with big trunks and really made a load of it. My old truck was -not- happy, and I’m still feeling it too.

I love the part about making a couple of weeks of heat in one day. Basswood isn’t oak, but it works good for early and late season when oak is too much. I have to guess that we covered heat for two or three weeks in November in that load. I like my firewood. It is the Gold’s Gym of the northwoods, being out in the woods is great, and the heat saves me a bundle.

That is about it for now. I expect to be back before tomorrow afternoon with the latest weather updates.

Have a good Thursday and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Tuesday May 4th, 2010

Greetings and welcome!

The rain came mostly on Friday and wasn’t much anyway. The weekend turned out nice except for the wind. It was windy both days and some gusts had to go over 30. Thankfully it was also mostly sunny and in the 70s.

Here’s one for the guys in Burlington.. It was so windy Saturday that I saw tree stumps get uprooted and start rolling across the field..

Saturday we headed up to the Menominee River with Kosir’s to video a little rafting. The river was low, but that river is still wild at low levels. There were a few good wipe outs and some great runs, and one kayaker that took a little bit of an ugly swim. I will see about some video later. If you are not rafting up there you are missing out.

Sunday I was on a mission to goof off. We headed up to a couple of little lakes in the Nicolet to see how spring was progressing. The leaves are starting to come in on the trees, and most of the hardwoods are showing green. The trilliums and marsh marigolds are in bloom and very common. The grasses are greening up, as is the underbrush in the forest.

I told Chris that she should take a good look, it will be 6 months before you can see that far into the woods again. In a couple of weeks it will look very different as the underbrush comes in.

The lakes were coming right along. The water is obviously warming up and the first lilies are up. Levels on seepage lakes and rivers remain low. According to the DNR, the spawns are ahead of time and while bass and panfish aren’t up on the beds yet they are heading that way.

The drought continues. While Tennessee saw 12-14″ of rain out of the last storm and disastrous flooding, we saw less than 1/4″ Friday. I would love to see a storm stall over us right now, but maybe not to a disastrous extent like they saw there.

We should see an increasing trend in our precip. The El Nino is continuing to break down, and eventually the mid-latitude blocking high pressure that cursed our winter and spring should break down too.

I am not a big fan of the rubber band theory in weather, though I’d like to see it. The rubber band theory says that since we are behind in our rain, we should be due, and it will snap back with equal force in the other direction. It would probably be best if we didn’t make up for a 6 year drought in one week or month.

I see it more like weight loss. It took 5 years to add the extra pounds, it won’t be going away in a week or a month. A gradual change is the most likely outcome.

We do have some history of storms lining up over us and camping long enough to really add up. It happened a few years ago in July or August where the heavy thunderstorms came down a line like they were on a rail, and the Pesh watershed saw 9″+ of rain in one night. The same thing happened downstate not so long ago when there was so much flooding. It happens, but is of low probability.

There used to be a fairly regular pattern of a cut off low pressure area camping over us for a week or so in mid-May, and bringing 2-4″ of rain. That hasn’t happened in a few years, but hopefully will return.

The other likely source of bigger rains come to us when leftovers of a tropical storm or hurricane eventually finds it’s way up the Mississippi River Valley and into our neighborhood. Often they too get cut off and sit over us for a few days. Again it is a low probability event.

We have had abnormally low hurricane activity he past 4 years, and struck out again there. This year might be different, the ACE Index is expected to be a good bit higher than recent years, bringing increased probability of more hurricanes.

I do think that it will bounce back, it just most likely won’t be in one night, or week. I actually think that we are under way with the changes, and that they will increase with the El Nino break down and resultant AO changes.

In the short term, this week we have a couple of chances for rain. Tuesday night into Wednesday there should be some rain, followed by a cold front and temperature drop. That one is a more northern storm, and of moderate intensity.

There is a bigger southern storm expected for Thursday-Saturday morning. That shows some promise of actually measurable rainfall, the second time in a week! The latest GFS shows it clearing out just in time to leave us a cool but sunny weekend. We will want to watch the timing on that one as it gets closer, but it looks ideal now.

This is Mattie. He is two and ran away from the Wheeler Lake Area on 4/23. If you have seen him, use the little tab on the left to contact me and I will put you in touch with the right people. There is a reward offered.

A quick reminder as summer gets closer.. Kosir’s is again offering non-whitewater tubing on the Peshtigo River, and canoe or sit on top kayak rentals for exploring Caldron Falls Flowage. Of course they still raft on two rivers with whitewater, but the flat water options open opportunities for families that might have youngsters that are too young to paddle the rough stuff, and the masses that simply are more inclined to the relaxed pace.

Last year the flat water tubing and kayaks were a smash hit, and I think that it will continue to be very popular as people look for low cost outdoor fun  things to do on getaway weekends and vacations. Personally I think that it’s great. It is fun, cheap, outdoors, wet, and almost anyone can do it.

Speaking of fun cheap and anyone can do it, I hear that the Big Bear Outpost will be opening back up this coming weekend. They have all sorts of camping supplies and carry-outs as well as that super delicious hand dipped ice cream.  The owners’ son Matt will be running it, initially on weekends, and more once summer rolls around.

That is about it from here. Have a good Tuesday and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Thursday April 29th, 2010

Greetings and welcome!

Remember when I told you that the weekend wouldn’t be a wash-out? I finally got one right. It looks like there will be one pretty good line of showers and storms coming about midnight Friday night, a cloudy day Saturday, and a cooler day Sunday with a minor chance of rain as a second storm passes south of us.

Look for temps in the 70s Friday and Saturday and high 50s Sunday. It has been a breezy week, and that will continue through the weekend.

It is the opening weekend of inland fishing this weekend, and people are pumped. The El Nino winter and spring has lakes free of ice and water temperatures well above what they normally would be right now.

It is also a full moon today. That and the storms in the area should help the fishing along. The forecast for Saturday is cloudy and in the 70s, with the wind being the biggest challenge weather wise.

This would be a good chance to remind people to go and grab their fishing license ahead of time. It used to be a tradition for me to be standing in line at Fleet Farm that Friday night, wishing I would have done that ahead of time so that I could get out of town. That is a lost tradition that I don’t miss.

The spring greening is coming right along. Next week it will probably be time to start cutting grass. A lot of the trees are starting to fill in a little bit, and the maples are well on the way to making helicopters.

This week was a fun one for me. I decided that I was getting too soft in the middle, and that it was time for a spring workout regime. Firewood has been my friend again this week, and I got three days of hard work in. It feels great, and I am looking forward to more. The picture is from a poor perspective. It is hard to tell, but that pile is chest to shoulder high and about 25′ long.

As you can see I have a lot of little stuff along with the splitter logs. Usually I will take any branches bigger than a coffee cup. Those I take out in four foot lengths and process later. That adds up to a lot of little cuts, so I made a new firewood stanchion. I fill it up with logs and cut a lot at once. The first load in the new set up made 68 pieces of proper length firewood in 3 cuts.

It works pretty good, and I made it 100% out of scrap or recycled wood. It isn’t a revolutionary design or anything, I have been using that method for years. The reason that it is news is that I made a new one, and I thought I’d show it to you to help some of you with your ideas.

Slug sent an E-mail that let us know about their Kentukey Derby Party this weekend.

We have a Kentucky Derby party at Bear Point Yacht Club every year this time when they do the run for the roses. The ladies wear their finest classy hats. Mary my bartender can even talked into making a mint julip most years. Saturday we will have great snacks, plus meat and seafood raffles. So if anyone wants to join in come to Bear Point Yacht Club hwy 180 Wausaukee for the fun Sat 1:00  till after the races are over.

Here are more events for the weekend..

The merchants in Athelstane had a ribbon cutting ceremony last week commemorating their takeover of Old A Rd going north out of town. Instead of Old A, it is now Northway Drive. The town taking it over permits ATVs and SUTVS to use that road as a trail, and makes access to town businesses  a sure thing. You can now get to the Nimrod, the Brown Jug, and the Country Mart by trail.

At the same time Jabber at the Firelane Bar has been clearing a spot for an ATV park & ride lot next door to the bar. It is good to see the town and businesses embracing ATVs like that. The Athelstane club, the Near North Trail Riders,  now has 56 miles of trails and full access to all town businesses. It would be good to see other towns get on board with this too.

After my workouts this week I was ready for some happy hour last night. I stopped at Firelane, and it was fun. Afterward I was driving home in the bright moon, and I decided to find a remote part of the county forest and see what was stirring.

I parked and remained very quiet. It didn’t take long before the woods came back to life. At first there was a pack of wolves sounding off. They moved along and about a half hour later a big pack of coyotes was making a lot of noise. Eventually they moved along and later more wolves started up. The moon was bright as can be, and there was a lot going on.

Those same wolves have been in the news a lot lately. Marinette, Oconto, Forest and Oneida Counties are either in the process of passing or have passed resolutions to ask the DNR to bring the wolf population in line with management goals. At the same time the DNR is trying to revisit their management program, again to try to bring numbers in line with management goals.

The challenge comes at a federal level. Because the wolf is a federally protected endangered species, they can not use lethal control. The wolf management unit is nationwide, so as long as one state has numbers under goal, they remain untouchable across the country. It is a hot and very emotionally invested issue on all sides. How it ends, nobody knows.

Well I am late yet again getting this posted, so I am going to run along. Have a good weekend, good luck fishing, and thank you for visiting!

RJB

Tuesday April 27th, 2010

Greetings and welcome!

Last weekend was a fun one. The weather turned out on the cool and cloudy side, and the rain didn’t amount to much, so it wasn’t bad for playing outside in April. It did get pretty windy at times for sure, but we came up a little short on some of the more extreme gust predictions.

Pretty many people went rafting, and they had a fun time. They were pretty fun afterward in the Rapids Resort too. Thanks to all that made it a great night.

The big news this week is that fishing opens Saturday. Since it is May 1st, it is also as early as it can open. Some years that would be a problem with ice still on the lakes, but thanks to El Nino, this isn’t one of them. All lakes are ice free and water temps are above normal for this time of year.

Trout fishermen have been asking about stream conditions. They are low. They are not seeing any surface water and are running strictly on the base flow of always there water from the springs that feed them. Again a warm spring season has streams ice free and the ground firm and free of frost in all but the most secluded creek bottoms.

Seepage lakes are also on the low side, some as much as a foot or two. They will also be ahead of normal for water temperature. My visit to Lake X late last week did not have the lillies coming in quite yet, but it wouldn’t be long.

Long time visitors know that I am a believer in moon phases and the solunar tables. This weekend looks pretty good in that regard. The full moon is Thursday, which should put a positive bias on fishing for the weekend. The solunar majors are fairly well timed this weekend too.

Marinette County ATV trails usually open this weekend, but opened a week early this year. There were a few 4 wheelers around up by Highway 8 Friday and Saturday, and Saturday afternoon I saw more around here.

The rain last weekend spared us and let our outdoor activities go on, but it did not help the drought. Fire danger remains very high, and depending on things like wind, temp, and humidity, we could go red flag under the right conditions. It is really really dry. Burning permits have been canceled across the board. You can still have a camp fire, but use extreme caution.  In the short term it will probably get worse before it gets better. Later in the week both temps and wind are expected to pick up.  From Thursday on we could see some relief as a storm comes our way with a good chance of some rain.

Over the next day or two we will have cool clear days and temps a little under 60. The clear skies will bring cold nights below freezing. About Thursday we should start seeing warm southern winds in advance of a storm system that will influence our weather into next week. Friday should bring a chance of rain and maybe a thunderstorm. There will be a hit and miss chance of rain over the weekend.

The storm system for the weekend is a fairly complex one. It is not being shown as a constant rain, but rather a line of rain here and there. I am not going to pretend to be able to pin down the timing of  weekend rain on Tuesday morning, but it does not look like a washout. Check the GFS and see what I mean. Unsettled and cloudy weather usually bodes well for fishing, and with temps in the 70s expected, it could work out well. The TV guy was even talking bout 80s for Friday in Green Bay.

I mentioned that clear skies will bring temps below freezing overnight. We could see that again tomorrow night. I know that the nice weather has people wanting to garden already, but danger Will Robinson. We can expect frosty nights for a month or so yet under the right conditions.

Yesterday was a nice day and I wanted to do something outside. A little behind on my spring shape up program I decided that it would be a jumbo load of firewood. This time I kept the saw chain out of the dirt and we both pooped out about the same time.Yes I could bring two chains, but I am not in that good of shape yet. I’m working on it..

I made a nice big load of big heavy oak that had the truck grunting a little to pull. The trailer is still loaded. I came home and fell asleep in about 10 minutes. No happy hour, no dinner, just three hours dead out. I woke up feeling 90. It was a great workout, and that is just what I was after. Enough wood to heat my house for a couple of cold weeks next January was a nice fringe benefit, as was an afternoon in the woods.

On the way to my firewood spot I checked out a new place with some big dead oak. It was a real honey hole and easily accessible for the truck & trailer. It also sported a pretty sizable bear den just off to the side of the patch. I couldn’t tell from the drive by if it was active or not, but I do plan on returning to scout it  a little closer. If it is abandoned, fine, if not I will leave the area alone. That might be a good job for that Carl Zeiss 60x optical zoom on the new camcorder.

Last week I picked up a little Sony camcorder to hopefully use for the rafting. It wasn’t the nice HD one that I wanted, but the economy isn’t exactly booming around here right now. It still seems pretty nice, and I made a YouTube video on Saturday of 12 Foot Falls. You can find that and a rafting video on YouTube under RiversportDigital, or click the imbedded movie in Saturday’s Report. Hopefully there will be a lot more like that coming.

That is about it for now. Have a good week and thank you for visiting!

RJB