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Archive for the ‘General’ Category

Some crazy, warm weather has hit the Munising area as well as the rest of Upper Peninsula of Michigan. For the last several days, the temperature has been hovering about the freezing mark and yesterday it drizzled/light rain for most of the day. The rain has stopped, momentarily, but is forecasted to start-up again later in the day. The good news is the winter-like temperatures are suppose to return tomorrow and for the extended forecast. As expected this warm-up has affected our snow but there looks to be hope tomorrow. Out at Valley Spur, they’ve been grooming the cross-country ski trails daily and are reporting the trails are still in decent shape despite the warm weather.

Don’t forget, next Saturday (January 8th) is the annual Valley Spur Ski Bash. This cross-country ski event features two race lengths (12k & 24k) and two skiing styles (classic & freestyle). The race gets started at 10:00am and it should be a great time. You can register for the event online by visiting the Valley Spur website.

We’d like to wish everyone a safe and happy New Year! We hope to see you around Munising in 2011!

The unofficial Yooper holiday of the opener for the firearm deer season kicked off this morning and what a great morning it was. The weather was perfect as the temperatures were near or below freezing and some areas had a light dusting of snow. The forecast is looking nice for the rest of the week with much of the same and no major warm-ups.

You may be asking yourself, “Why is this a Yooper holiday?” Although not a federally recognized holiday, for generations, Yoopers and non-Yoopers have been venturing in to the Upper Peninsula wilderness in search of the mighty buck. On the opener and for the rest of the 16-day hunting season, you’ll find businesses closed and families keeping their children home from school as they head to “camp.” Besides the actual hunting, spending time with family and friends at camp is a great experience. You typically eat, drink and laugh a lot while you’re at camp and worry about sleep when you get back home.

As for the actual hunting, there’s something about sitting in the woods for several hours and blending in with nature. It sounds dull but it’s actually pretty cool. Watching the wild animals interact with each other and hoping to see the monster buck will keep you on your toes.

Good luck to all the hunters and check out this website: www.deer.fw.msu.edu to keep up-to-date on the hunting season.

Walkway leading to the Veteran's Memorial in Munising

Today is Veteran’s Day and I’d like to take a moment to thank all the veterans and active duty for putting their lives on the line so we can continue to enjoy our daily freedoms. Also, I offer eternal thankfulness to those that made the ultimate sacrifice to protect our nation’s values. Without your sacrifice, our many freedoms would have been stripped from us. On a personal note, I’d like to thank my relatives who served this country as well as my brother who’s currently deployed to Iraq.

Locally, if you’d like to take some time to pay your respects, Munising has a beautiful Veteran’s Memorial located next to Bayshore Park. The Memorial pays tribute to all those that have served this great country and features some of the names of those who have served locally.

Thank you veterans!

A couple weeks ago, famous rock musician, and Michigan native, Kid Rock and his film crew visited the Munising area to film video clips for his upcoming music video, “Born Free.” Well, yesterday the music video was officially released on MTV! Most of the music video features shots from the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore including Miners Beach, Miners Castle and Sand Point. I think they did a great job of capturing the area’s beauty and we’re very fortunate to have all of this in our backyard.

Here’s the video:

As you probably heard on the news (and labeled as “Fall Fury” on The Weather Channel), the Midwest got hit with a pretty big storm and the entire Upper Peninsula took part in the action. The last couple days have been extremely windy and rainy! The wind continues to gust outside but the High Wind Warnings have been called off. Many areas saw lots of trees fall, which caused localized electricity outages. The storm moved in from the south-southwest so Lake Michigan and Lake Superior saw their share of big waves. Buoys located in the middle of Lake Superior were reporting waves as high as 16 feet!

A couple interesting points about this storm:

• The storm was said to be very similar to the one that sank the vessel the Edmund Fitzgerald back on November 10, 1975.
• It set a new record for the lowest barometric pressure for a non-tropical storm. At 956 millibars (the previous record was just above 962 millibars), it is the type of pressure that one often sees in a Category-3 strength hurricane!

Here were the peak wind gusts for a couple spots in Alger County:

• Munising: 51mph
• Doe Lake: 47mph
• Grand Marais: 68mph

On Lake Superior, Rock of Ages (just south of Isle Royale) had a wind gust of 78mph! Holy Wah! View complete list of Upper Peninsula peak wind gusts.

In other news, this Sunday is Halloween! For those looking to trick-or-treat on Sunday, the hours will be from 5pm to 7pm in Munising. Be safe!

Have a video clip or photo of the storm? Please share it with us and we’ll post it on our blog!

There was quite the buzz last week as parts of the U.P. finally saw some snow in the air. Most areas just saw snow flurries while spots to the east had enough to cover the ground momentarily. Although the first snowfall was a bit later than average, the snow will definitely be here before we know it. Make sure to visit the Explore Munising Weather & Forecast page to see the latest weather conditions and snow depths.

Speaking of cold weather and snow, the Alger County Parks & Recreation Fitness Center is great place to visit during the winter months to maintain your health and well-being. Located at 109 West Superior Street, in downtown Munising, they have an impressive fitness center to exercise and stay fit. The Center offers daily, weekly and monthly passes so no matter how long you’re in Munising, you can continue staying in shape and follow your regular exercise routine. The Fitness Center has treadmills, ellipticals, stationary bikes, free weights and a universal machine. They’re open from 6am to 10pm, 7 days a week. For more information, please call (906) 387-5636.

Treadmills at the Alger Parks & Rec Fitness Center in Munising

Universal machine and other equipment at the Fitness Center

After 5 years of road construction, County Road H-58 is officially paved from Munising to Grand Marais. Today, the Alger County Road Commission, MDOT, the National Park Service and other dignitaries celebrated the completion of the paving project with a dedication and ribbon-cutting ceremony. Besides the 19 miles of road paving, the project also included a new bridge over the Hurricane River, which is almost completed as well. They anticipate all work to be done by October 31st. If you were ever lucky enough to drive on H-58 when the 19 miles wasn’t paved, it was not a fun drive. Between the chatter bumps and dust, this newly paved road will be a smooth, enjoyable drive from Munising to Grand Marais. With the paved road come faster driving speeds, so please be careful and drive the posted speed.

As for other news, the weather has been great over the last several days. We’ve had clear skies and temperatures near 60 degrees. I just heard on the radio that, on average, we typically receive our first measurable snowfall by yesterday (Oct. 14th). It hasn’t happened and the forecast isn’t showing any signs of it either. Myself, I’ve already started to plan for it by doing a tune-up on the ol’ snowblower. You do not want to be without one when the snow hits!