Revisiting Cedar Lake

 Loreen Niewenhuis is an author, adventurer, and dynamic speaker. 

She has completed a trilogy of 1,000-mile journeys exploring the Great Lakes and has authored three books about these adventures. 

To learn more about her work, or to engage her as a speaker, go to 

http://www.laketrek.com/great-lakes-speaker/

One of my favorite places to kayak is Cedar Lake just west of Traverse City.

Loons nest there, so by returning to paddle the little lake I get to see them keeping the eggs warm, swimming with young chicks, then watching them feed the chicks as they get as large as the adults. 

And there are many turtles there. 

This one is a particular friend:

And lots of frogs, but they were too busy to pose for photos.

Mammals of Isle Royale

 

Loreen Niewenhuis is an author, adventurer, and dynamic speaker. 

She has completed a trilogy of 1,000-mile journeys exploring the Great Lakes and has authored three books about these adventures. 

To learn more about her work, or to engage her as a speaker, go to 

http://www.laketrek.com/great-lakes-speaker/

While the moose and wolves on Isle Royale capture  most of the attention of visitors, there are other creatures living there.

If we exclude bats, there are only 11 mammals on the island:

moose, wolves, beaver, muskrat, otter, fox, short-tailed weasel, red squirrel, deer mouse, snowshoe rabbit, marten

Pretty sure this is an otter (above and video below)

Master engineer, the beaver.

The most vocal resident on the island, the red squirrel.

Me and my hiking pals (April, Zan and Julie)

We found this recently killed bunny along the trail. Note the blood on the leaf.

We didn't see any fox this year, though they left scat along many of the trails we hiked.

Wolves & Moose of Isle Royale

Loreen Niewenhuis is an author, adventurer, and dynamic speaker. 

She has completed a trilogy of 1,000-mile journeys exploring the Great Lakes and has authored three books about these adventures. 

To learn more about her work, or to engage her as a speaker, go to 

http://www.laketrek.com/great-lakes-speaker/

My recent week hiking on Isle Royale was wonderful. While the famous wildlife study based there had been paused this year, the island opened to hikers arriving by float plane and private boaters in late June.

I joined some friends to hike the island and we saw several live moose, saw some moose bones, and came across many wolf tracks...including those of pups.

Wolf pup track (left) and adult (right)

[dollar for scale]

Female cow moose

Moose!

A grand bull moose in the woods:

And moose bones:

Zan and Julie discuss kill

April, casual in field of bones

This moose had two broken ribs that had healed in the past

Isle Royale 2020

 

Loreen Niewenhuis is an author, adventurer, and dynamic speaker. 

She has completed a trilogy of 1,000-mile journeys exploring the Great Lakes and has authored three books about these adventures. 

To learn more about her work, or to engage her as a speaker, go to 

http://www.laketrek.com/great-lakes-speaker/

In this year of quarantine and shut downs, the longest-running wildlife study was also paused. Moosewatch volunteers usually gather in May, June and August to hike Isle Royale under the direction of scientists to find and gather moose bones for study.

I've hiked this expedition five times, and last year was the leader of the first all-women team. My team was already set to hike in May when the pause button was pressed on just about everything.

And, yes, in the scheme of things, this was a small thing to cancel. Lives -- too many lives -- have been lost due to the mismanagement of the response to the pandemic. Jobs have been lost. Lives disrupted. 

When Isle Royale National Park announced they would be opening for seaplanes and private boats in late July, I took the opportunity to schedule some time there with friends from Moosewatch. 

It was an opportunity to be immersed in nature, to unplug from the news, to recenter myself.

Here are a few photos from Isle Royale 2020:

After hiking 50 miles (L>R Me, Julie, Zan, April)

Blueberries on the Greenstone Ridge

View from tower on Mt. Ojibway

On tower (Zan, April, Julie)

Sunrise, Moskey Basin

Adult and pup wolf tracks (dollar bill for scale)

Butterflies

Thimbleberries

ground squirrel

why they're called thimbleberries

Sunset, Lake Richie

Lake Richie, like a mirror

Merganser with chicks

Between the Lakes

Loreen Niewenhuis is an author, adventurer, and dynamic speaker. 

She has completed a trilogy of 1,000-mile journeys exploring the Great Lakes and has authored three books about these adventures. 

To learn more about her work, or to engage her as a speaker, go to 

http://www.laketrek.com/great-lakes-speaker/

I continue to paddle the inland lakes in the Traverse City area. These lakes funnel water to nearby Lake Michigan. The health of these smaller lakes impacts the health of our Great Lakes.

This week I paddled Green Lake and nearby Duck Lake. In between these lakes is Interlochen Center for the Arts and Interlochen State park. 

'Interlochen' means 'between the lakes.'

These two lakes are quite large and semi-developed along the edge. 

There is plenty of room for loons and ducks to paddle, for blue heron to fish along the edges and for turtles to paddle the depths.

Here are some photos:

Ice on the Great Lakes

On February 14, the Great Lakes had 68.3% ice coverage. Lake Erie is the shallowest Great Lake and always freezes faster than the other, 
deeper lakes. 
In the NOAA image below, the darker the area on the lake, the more complete the ice coverage.

Lake Michigan is unique. It is deeper than Lake Huron, and prevailing winds tend to break up the ice that forms on edge of the west side of the lake, then move it across to the eastern shore. 

Ice on the Great Lakes

 This has been a frigid winter with polar vortices, snowfall breaking decades-old records, and widespread ice formation on the Great Lakes.

Lake Michigan was just over 93% covered with ice on March 8, setting a new record.

Ice near Chicago

Overall, the Great Lakes were just over 

92% iced over on March 6, 

not quite breaking the record.

Windrow ice near Chicago

The lakes are dynamic, so the ice breaks up, gets pushed around, and then stacked near the shore making elaborate formations.

 Close shot of windrow ice

Peak ice coverage for each Great Lake this year:

1. Lake Erie – 96.40% on March 6, 2014
2. Lake Huron – 96.30% on March 6, 2014
3. Lake Superior – 95.74% on March 5, 2014
4. Lake Michigan – 93.29% on March 8, 2014
5. Lake Ontario – 61.52% on March 6, 2014

Some reports stated that Lake Ontario has less ice coverage due to its volume-to-surface-area ratio, but this ratio is similar to Lake Michigan's which had higher ice coverage. I think it's more likely that the inflow from the Niagara River disrupts ice formation at the western end of the lake. The river also carries dissolved minerals from upstream into Lake Ontario which depresses the freezing point of the water. Another consideration is the effect of industrial and municipal usage and return of water at the western edge of the lake which may increase the temperature of the water. One additional factor may be the retention time for Lake Ontario which is only 6 years compared to Lake Michigan's 99 years. This means that the water in Lake Ontario is moving much faster than in Lake Michigan.

More information on ice on the

Great Lakes HERE.