Artist Point

Strong Northeast winds this week created good size waves. The lower temperatures caused the spray from those waves to coat some of the vegetation along the shore in downtown Grand Marais.

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Frozen in Time

It is always fun to photograph the different shapes of ice.

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Grand Marais Sunset

We also had another beautiful sunset over the harbor.

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Grand Marais Sunrise

Very similar sunrise the next morning taken from the other side of the harbor.

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Skiing the Cascade 001

Northern Wilds is a free monthly magazine with stories about everything outdoors. Their office is located in Grand Marais and in their last issue they published a story about river skiing along the North Shore.

It brought back a lot of fond memories. When we were younger a group of us would get together to ski several of the rivers.

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It all started with a trip down the Cascade River with Sam Cook in the early 80’s. Sam was the outdoor writer for the Duluth News Tribune and he wrote a great story about the adventure. I still have that issue of the paper.

Most of these areas are inaccessible in the summer. Skiing through these pristine rock gorges is when you see them in their full splendor.

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If you can get your hands on the January issue of Northern Wilds you can read more about skiing the North Shore rivers and what safety precautions you need to take.

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Skiing the Split Rock

One of the other rivers that we skied every year was the Split Rock with its lichen covered rhyolite cliffs. Each river has its own unique geology.

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Skiing the Back Country of Tettegouche State Park

Along with river skiing we would ski the backcountry in Tettegouche State Park. In March and April when the snow would be firm from thaw and freeze cycles, we would ski from lake to lake through the maple forest climbing to several of the overlooks.

During the early mornings you can ski right over the top of the snow gliding through the mature forests and frozen lakes. At seventy three I can’t do challenging backcountry skiing anymore so I am glad I have the memories and photos to look back on.

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