The 1,000-Mile Great Lakes Adventures

Showing posts with label ice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ice. Show all posts

Sunday, March 22, 2020

Waning Ice on the Shores of Lake Michigan

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/




There was very little ice on the surface of the Great Lakes this winter. 
And now, in late March, the only ice I saw on my lakeshore walk today (with social distancing due to the coronavirus pandemic) 
persisted on trees and roots that had been splashed by waves.

The result was sculptural...







jagged...


and told the story of wind and waves.



In this time of necessary isolation, it was lovely to wave to passing lakeshore strollers, to give a smile, to remember that we are in this together.

Wednesday, January 23, 2019

Ice Formations along Grand Traverse Bay

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/







Winter changes the Great Lakes.
Many people think that ice just forms on the top of the lakes, sealing the lower liquid for a time. It can do that, but it is also infinitely more creative. 

Water transforms, coats, blows, and freezes.

Below are a few photos taken on a single day along the shoreline of Grand Traverse Bay in Traverse City.

Just look at what nature created:


Frozen spray locked these milkweed seeds in place


Ice balls form around grasses and reeds along the shoreline...


...then the weight of the ice snaps off the reed and the ice ball floats away


Buddy ice mounds hanging out along the bayshore


Ice volcano


Melded ice balls locked in sheet ice