| Waiting
for the Soft Water Spring Training for a Wayfarer Cruiser? by Robert Mosher (W3445) ... |
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Finally the ice is gone
from Lake Lansing. The Township puts all the picnic tables
out to block the boat ramp for winter, then plows the snow up to them
as soon
as that is melted. And once that is cleared away, the boat could go
in. I also have a
few boat repairs that need warm weather to do.
While waiting for the
water to soften up
enough to go sailing, I took advantage
of the weather. You may remember my nephew Jonathan from "In the
Land of Heated Toilet Seats". Well, he and family come over from
Japan
March first.
  We
headed up to Grand Island off Munising on the Lake Superior shore of
Michigan's Upper Peninsula (A above). As with
many northerners, we had the power to walk (ski) on water. Once
across the
Bay we built a snow cave using the natural resources we
found.
The
snow was very light this year so we could not dig a snow
cave. The local game warden warned us a heavy wet snow of 12 to
18 inches
was coming, one that could collapse a tent, or even a snow hut.
So you will
notice from the photo below that we strengthened our snow hut by
incorporating a picnic
table.
Lake Superior had created a pressure ridge of snow. My first attempt to cut it failed. The snow was mostly useless for building and the only thing I could think of was using the picnic table structure to support the snow. After a while I became frustrated and made another attempt to cut snow blocks out of the pressure ridge. This time I found the right spot, and the shelter was completed quickly.  The next day I
introduced Jonathan to Ice Climbing. This proved a real
challenge for him as he had never climbed anything before. Things went
fairly well until he was half-way up the climb and looked down. Then
he remembered he is afraid of heights.
 In the end, the heavy
wet snow never showed up and we had two good nights of
camp fires and food. In two years when Jonathan comes back - in
August 2013 - we
will go sailing.
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