This is the second of three installments with pictures from a major winter storm in Marquette in the first week of March, 2020. My prior post’s pictures were taken the day before the storm arrived. The next day, March 5th, it started snowing in late morning and by mid-afternoon was coming down very hard. Of course this was the day I was having my Mother’s belongings moved out of her apartment at Mill Creek. That’s Murphy’s Law for you.
After completing the move, I drove out to Noquemanon North TrailsTrailhead on the Big Bay Road (County Road 550). It was about 5pm and the snow was coming down very hard. I’ve tried to capture it but it is really something you need to see in person. Click on any picture to get a full sized version.
Very heavy snowfall
The snow was coming down in big flakes and accumulating quickly.
This isn’t about the pandemic, although it was well under way when I took my trip to Marquette in early March. It is the first of three planned posts about my time in Marquette, specifically sites around the city before, during, and after a blizzard that came through on March 5th of this year. Click on any picture to bring up a full-sized version.
I’ll begin with a shot of the iconic Marquette Coast Guard lighthouse. Build in 1866 and still active today, it is a symbol of Marquette.
The iconic lighthouse at the Marquette Coast Guard Station
I was down at McCarty’s Cove which, in more clement weather, is a popular swimming and beach spot. Not too good for swimming when covered in ice.
A life guard tower seems out of place amongst all this ice
We went out to The Other House in mid-May and the weather was wonderful. Here are some photos from a nice afternoon time on our time there. This panorama is looking down the driveway to the southeast. Click on an image to see the full-sized image.
Looking southeast down the driveway
The light was ever-changing as the clouds moved by.
Our eucalyptus, cypress, and arbor vitae
The rock rose was in bloom.
A rock rose by the observatory
This panorama takes in most of the property, looking down at the house from the observatory.
The squirrels have built quite a home for themselves.
The entrance to yet another massive squirrel hole
The tree and rocks on Bunny Hill is a favorite subject of mine.
Looking southeast from Bunny Hill
A red bug makes its way across the driveway.
A bug makes its way across the driveway
Finally, the orchard enjoyed the nice rain we had in April.
I took a trip to Upper Michigan at the beginning of March and, with the assistance and company of my high school friend Jim, we visited my late parents’ rural home at Conway Lake. Conway Lake is about eight miles from Big Bay, Michigan, and about 35 miles northwest of Marquette, Michigan. The house has always been knows as Camp. For me, this is a proper noun as it is the proper name of a place.
Camp is located on property acquired by my stepfather’s father in the late 1920s (or early 1930s, I am not sure). The land had been recently clear cut so what exists today is a well-kept second-growth maple forest. The land is surrounded by the Huron Mountain Club, an exclusive club formed in the 1890s and that included members like Henry Ford. This makes it even more remote than it already is.
Jim and I headed off in mid-afternoon from Marquette, heading up County Road 550 to Big Bay. Jim lent me a pair of modern-style snowshoes which are really amazing — lightweight and easy to walk in. When we got up to the Conway Lake east road, we were very pleased to see that it had been plowed. From the Huron Mountain Club Road to Camp is about 1.5 miles. That would be hard even in modern snowshoes. It turned out that my parents’ neighbors had plowed the road all the way to their camp so we were able to park the car not far from the driveway to Camp.
The turn-off to The Point from the east Conway Lake road
One image processing note: The dehaze function in Lightroom does a great job eliminating the complete washout of snow, allowing you to see the needles and sticks in the snow.
The walking in the snow was not easy. I am not sure we would have made it to Camp where it not for the fortunate plowing that had been done. We walked the couple of hundred yards to Camp and found it in good shape.
Camp was built bit by bit starting as a one-room hunting camp that my stepfather built after he returned from WWII in the 1940s. The original room is now the kitchen. One of the best decisions he made was to put on a metal roof which will last through many winters and at the steep pitch, sloughs off the snow.
After a brief inspection of the buildings, we headed out onto the lake to look around. In early March, I would expect the ice to be about two to three feet thick. We weren’t going to fall through. We noted someone on a snowmobile tending his tip-ups for ice fishing. A tip-up is a device that lets you put a line into a hole in the ice and raises a flag when a fish takes the bait. No sitting over a hole, just be warm and use your binoculars or a quick snowmobile ride to see if you’ve had a strike. Here is a panorama looking southwest from Camp. Click on the picture for a full-sized version.
My Mother passed away on February 29th, 2020. She lived a long, full life. We will all miss her.
Jane Drury waves outside her home at Mill Creek in Marquette, Michigan.
What follows is her obituary, published in The Mining Journal and on the Fassbender, Swanson, Hanson funeral home website.
Jane Moore Drury, age 91, of Marquette and Big Bay, died peacefully on Saturday, February 29, 2020, at UP Health System – Marquette, in the loving care of her family
Jane was the only child of Edward Kenneth Moore and Helen Norris Moore. Born December 15, 1928 in Cincinnati, Ohio, she also spent part of her childhood in St. Louis, Missouri. She attended Mt. Healthy High School in Cincinnati and subsequently earned a bachelor’s degree in English at Ohio State University.
When settled in Washington, D.C., Jane was introduced by a mutual friend to her second husband, Alfred Charles Drury. Jane had always welcomed the idea of a large family, and with her three children, joined Al and his five children. Alfred and Jane had one son together, bringing their total to nine children. In addition, Alfred’s step-sons, Jon and Arthur Casanova, were also included in this new family union. All her nieces and nephews, grand- and great-grandchildren as well as children-in-law have benefitted from her mothering.
Jane and Alfred left Washington and relocated their family in Okinawa in 1970 when Alfred was stationed at the US Embassy in Saigon, Vietnam. They returned to the US in 1972 and acquired Alfred’s childhood home at 414 East Hewitt Avenue in Marquette. For over forty years they split their time between Marquette and their camp on Conway Lake near Big Bay, interspersed with extensive travel in the US, Mexico, and Britain. They commissioned two sailing yachts and cruised the inland waterway of the eastern US, the Florida Keys, and the Bahamas.
After Alfred’s death in 2013, Jane moved to the Mill Creek Senior Living Community where she lived very happily in an independent living duplex with her beloved cat, Sam. She entered the assisted living section of Mill Creek in January 2020, agreeing that it was needed and easier, but noting that it was the first time since 1950 that she did not have her own kitchen.
Jane will indeed be remembered for the hospitality of her kitchen. There was always room for one more person and there were always cookies of great craft and variety in the cookie jar. Jane loved experimenting in the kitchen and was an excellent baker and cook. Her meals brought family and friends together for many pleasant moments.
Jane was a steadfast and loyal friend who kept up with those she loved for decades. She cared deeply for her community, volunteering to read to children in the Powell Township School in Big Bay and as a member of the Community Presbyterian Church of Big Bay. She delighted in her work at the Peter White Public Library and sharing her latest discovery from Snowbound Books. Her kindness and gentleness, as well as her sharp intellect, insight, and good judgment, will be missed by one and all.
Jane is survived by her children Arthur Casanova, Kit (Chester) Schlei Buczynski, Stephanie Hazel Drury McPherson, William (Catherine) Kenneth Schlei, Hazel Letitia Drury Flaska, Andrew (Danielle) Moore Schlei, Abigail Faith Drury, and Alfred (Melanie) Cooper Drury, 18 grandchildren, and 18 great-grandchildren. She was pre-deceased by her husbands Alfred Charles Drury and Norbert Anthony Schlei, and her children Jeanne Drury Tape, Jon Casanova, and Letitia Ann Drury.
For Thanksgiving last year, we traveled to Marquette, Michigan to see my Mother and family friends. From Tuesday though Thanksgiving in the last week of November, a good-sized November storm came through. I had a chance to take some pictures, and that is the subject of this post.
On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, as the storm was gathering, I bundled up and headed out toward Presque Isle, a wonderful part at the northwest end of Marquette. Just outside the entrance to the park, I stopped by the Lake Superior & Ishpeming Railroad (LS&I) ore dock, the remaining operational ore loading facility in Marquette. As I arrived, I spotted a ship heading out on to Lake Superior beneath an ominous sky.
An ore boat heads out on to Lake Superior as a November storm approaches
The ore dock, built in 1912, is 1,250 feet long, 60 feet wide, and the top is 75 feet above the water. It has 200 pockets for ore pellets, 100 on each side each with a capacity of 250 tons. Believe it or not, it sits on 10,000 wooden pilings. The ore boat Saginaw was tied up at the dock and loading ore.
The Saginaw loads at Marquette
The LS&I have a retired locomotive parked by the dock. It is impressive.
A diesel-electri engine on display near the ore dock
From there I went into the park and stopped to check out the break wall. Note the gate closing it off. It is a nice walk in the summer, but one needs to stay off in the fall and winter. In spite of the ominous skies, the lake was relatively calm.
Back in November, I noted that some branches on a nice, big pine tree by our house in Lake Riverside were looking a little yellowish. My worst fears were realized when we got out to the house after Christmas and these branches were clearly dead. You can see the dead needles on the right side of the right hand tree.
You can see the dead needles on the right hand side of the large pine
With the tree right next to the house and partially over the roof, I knew that I needed professional help. I had some hope that the tree might be saved, and if that wasn’t possible, I needed a tree service to take it down safely. Consulting with our local Facebook group led me to Cherry Tree Service. Chris and Roger came out and sadly confirmed my fears that the tree needed to come down.
We scheduled the work for January 1st (they are dedicated) and they showed up in the morning with their equipment. They set up quickly and got to work. Here is a time-lapse video of the tree removal.
Reduced to branches and small chunks, the tree was removed. Looking at part of the trunk, you could see how fast the tree grew when it was young and how that growth slowed as the tree became larger.
The tree grew fast when it was young but slowed down as it got larger
Within about an hour, the tree was nothing but a stump.
All that’s left is the stump
Chris has a remarkable stump removing machine that quickly ground the stump into mulch.
This hydralic marvel grinds down the stump
After a couple of hours of work, all that was left was a mound of mulch and dirt.
All that remains is a pile of mulch
It was almost as if the tree had never been there. We will miss its shade and the character it provided to the property.
Following up on my earlier post on Nashik, we headed out on Saturday morning to visit Anjaneri Fort, a historic and religious place on the road to Trimbakeshwar. Anjaneri Fort is said to be the birthplace of the Hindu god Hanuman. Hanuman is a major figure in the Hindu epic Ramayana. Anjaneri was Hanuman’s mother and gives her name to his birthplace.
It was about a 45-minute drive from our hotel to the turn off the main road. We headed up sharply, through a small village, and into the area managed by the Forest Department. There was a small entry fee. We arrived at the parking lot below the impressive cliffs of the Trimbakeshwar Range. This is the view from the parking lot.
The shear cliff towers above the parking lot at Anjaneri fort
At this point we confirmed what I had read on-line: Cameras are not allowed. My new Sony RX-100 M5 had to stay in the car. All the pictures in this post were taken with my Google Pixel 2, most using Adobe Lightroom Mobile.
It was somewhat warm and humid as we made our way up the stairs clinging to the side of the steep cliff of the ghat. I’d brought Gatorade this time to be sure I didn’t overheat like I did a week earlier in Thane. The stairs are in decent shape and you ascend quickly, passing others who are coming down.
The stairs cling to the side of the cliff
Having driven up a fair amount to reach the parking lot, the view of the countryside is quite impressive. This year had a very generous and long-lasting monsoon and the countryside was brilliantly green. This is a view of Anjaneri Lake from the path.
Anjaneri Lake is full from generous monsoon rains
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Back in October, on my first morning in India, we had plans to go to Yeoor Hills, on the north east side of Mumbai near Thane for some sightseeing. Always wanting to win the fight against jet lag quickly, I was up early Sunday after arriving after midnight the night before. I was greeted by a hazy but pretty sunrise outside the window of my hotel.
Sunrise seen from the Grand Hyatt
I was up early and in the car heading for Thane at 8am. Our first stop was the Golden Swan Country Club in Yeoor Hills. This 9-hole course is nestled in the hills on the east side of Sanjay Gandhi National Park in the northern part of Mumbai. We hit a few golf balls as the rest of our little Sunday outing group arrived.
The driving range at the Golden Swan Country Club
Our next stop was the Mandapa Forest Bird Watching zone. We were there for a short trek, not for bird watching. After driving down from Yeoor Hills, we went north a couple of kilometers before turning back up towards the hills. We went from busy offices to residential to the end of the road against the wooded area at the foot of the hills west of Thane. There was an entrance fee for non-residents (they will check the prefix on your license plate or ask for identification) but it is well worth the cost. You go from the city to the jungle in a very short distance. Views of the city below are remarkable.
Thane seen Mandapa Forest bird watching zone
The story continues below the fold. At the end of the week we visited Nashik, a city 100 miles (160 kilometers) northeast of Mumbai. Here is a teaser photo to encourage you to click on “continue reading” to see the rest of the post.
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