Enjoying Snow

About a month ago my wife and I purchased snowshoes.  The purchase came after we borrowed snow shoes of a neighbor.  After snowshoeing at Lake Kegonsa State Park one morning we figured our knees and hips could take the different movement associated with snowshoes, so that afternoon we went to REI,  Dick's and back to REI and purchased our snowshoes.  About the same time we purchased our snowshoes there was an article in the Wisconsin State Journal  (Jan 28) which provided an outlook of what to expect with our changing weather and climate.  Given what the article noted, it seems as if past trends tend to more snow at least for part of the winter, which means if we want to live in a northern climate we ought to get out and better enjoy the snow.

Feb 21, Devil's Lake

Warmer, Wetter and Snowier, is the expectation.  The news article noted that, as we enter a new decade, weather data will be updated to have weather data from the last ten years (2000-2019) replace weather data from 1980 to 1989.  In 1980, Cheers, Family Ties, Magnum PI were some of the favorite television shows for at least part of that decade.  The 1985 movie Back to the Future is perhaps a commentary on the weather data.  Without getting into a great amount of detail, the last decade was warmer than the 1980's.  For example in 1980 the average daytime high for December was about 29 degrees, in the 2000's that jumped to 34 degrees, and even worse, and this corresponds to weather data I had learned about while still working, is the night time highs were more than seven degrees warmer.  With the warmer weather it means less snow.  The past two Decembers had little snow.  We had more snow in October 2019 than we had in two months later in December.  Halloween was colder, and had more snow, than Christmas Day.

Feb 21, Devil's Lake

Yet snow has come, and this year and last year after little snow Decembers and first part of January  snow falls and amounts picked up after mid-January and has continued.  Unlike last year, where the snow was followed by a day of warm and then extreme cold, this year even the extreme cold has been bearable.  Take this past week where the low one night in the area was -7, with a daytime high near 16.  As of Friday, February 21, our snowfall is 5.5" above normal, and for the season 13.5" more than normal (and this with a little snow December).  2019 was the wettest year on record, and the 2000's had an average of 8" more of annual precipitation than did the 1980's.  The wet and cold weather in late October 2019 made things difficult for farmers, football and bio-solids.  (The new data will be added to create the "normals" next year.)  The yearly average in snow fall. according to the new normal is expected to increase by about 2.1".

Feb 21, Devil's Lake

Way back when I took my college weather and climate course I learned that warmer air holds more moisture, perhaps this is why we are likely to see more snow, as the temperatures are warming, but it seems that December will become the new November, meaning that you are not taking a sleigh ride to Grandma's house on Thanksgiving or Christmas, but could do so on Martin Luther King, Jr, or President's Day. heck maybe even on St Patrick's Day.  Or if weather like last year continues you could do a sleigh ride near the end of April. We have not had a white Christmas since 2017, although two non-snow Christmas' does not necessarily a pattern make, but the way the temperatures for December are going a brown (green?) Christmas may be the new normal and 50 years from now people may wonder what a white Christmas looked like.  Of course, warmer temps mean heavier snow to clear.

Devil's Lake 

While we may not have snow for Christmas, the next couple months of winter, per the prediction are to be snowier.  Hence, why we need to enjoy the snow, and why we bought snow shoes.  We went snowshoeing  three times this past week--Lake Kegonsa State Park, Viking County Park, and Devil's Lake State Park.  At Viking the high for the day was about 18, but little wind made for a pleasant excursion. Devil's Lake on Friday, the temperature was about 16 when we started on our two hour voyage, but was about 30 when we completed at 12:30 pm.  To me the temperature could be in the single digits and if the wind is low, it can be pleasant.  Strong winds can make for a negative experience.

Lake Kegonsa State Park

I guess hills can also make for a negative experience. Before I get into the hills, let me say a few things.   I used to cross country ski a good amount when I was young, before marriage. I bought my first pair of skis  in my freshman year of college (although I first skied in high school)  and would ski the Kettle Moraine area, and around the UW-W campus and the nearby parks.  Later, when working, I would take a Friday off and would meet my brother Joe and we would travel to his home near Conover and cross country ski Friday, Saturday and Sunday. One Friday we were skiing and I broke my hickory wood ski when it hit a tree at the edge of the trail; into town we went to get a new pair, and of course they no longer had the old hickory.  I still use my same shoes, but one of my old bamboo poles broke when my son was using it, so I have new aluminum poles.

Devil's Lake, Feb 21

Anyway, back to the hill.  When I was either dating my wife, or after we just were married, I got my wife to try cross country skiing.  Now, I have no real recollection of this story, so I have relied on her story since it is highly ingrained in her memory, perhaps more so than the birth of either of our children.  What turned her off to cross country skiing, she says, was a hill.  She says it was not your typical little hill, but a big hill (although I wonder if the hill is not unlike a fish in that it has gotten bigger in her mind than it really was).  I made her, yes made her, go up a really big hill.  It was the first major thing to do on her first major outing on cross country skis. In cross country skiing there are two ways to get up big or steep hill (assuming classic skiing) side step, or do a V shape waddle up the grade.  Being bright in her mind, she is pretty sure the location of the turn off was Anvil Lake near Eagle River. She still has night mares about this experience.  I guess Tom Hovel is where fun goes to die.   As she was a down hill skier, perhaps going down hill first would have been more fun.  That experience still sticks with her to this day, and I am sure it will be a story she will tell when I am long gone.  Our oldest son heard the story as we traveled to Lake Kegonsa on February 15 to cross country ski and snowshoe. I am not sure if it was the first time or the fifteenth time he heard the story.  This is to her as piano lessons were to our youngest son.

Devil's Lake

Lake Kegonsa, where I skied on February 15, was basically my first time doing any relevant cross country skiing since probably the Anvil Lake experience. Focus changed, and I could not get my wife to ski again.  I don't recall when, but one time after Anvil Lake I got out the skis, I recall it being Super Bowl Sunday, and went skiing in the back yard, where I promptly fell going down the short, but steep hill in the backyard.  On Wednesday following I had such terrible back pain, I could hardly move my legs, so off we went to Urgent Care.  They asked if I had fallen recently, and I said well not recently.  My wife said yes, you fell on Sunday.  I said yeah, but that was a few days ago.  Turns out the fall tightened back muscles three days later.  In any event it was nice to get out to ski once again on Saturday the 15th.  I did fall twice, once on purpose going down a hill with a curve and my sore left knee was not quite cooperating.  The second time was a fall after having just gotten up from the purposeful fall and started back down the course. My wife was snowshoeing off to the side of the ski trail, and when we met up with her she asked if I had fallen, and gave the location, near a campsite we used last June.   No my back did not tighten up Tuesday. 

Lake Kegonsa State Park, Feb 15.
No, those are not leggings, or leg warmers
They are gaiters.  

Because my wife will not cross country ski again, we decided to try snowshoeing.  We have found this winter sport can work for both of us.  That is a good thing because it is quite nice being outdoors on a beautiful winter day.  At Devil's Lake we saw three other persons on the Grotto trail, and none on the group camp trail.  The Grotto trail was a pleasurable snowshoe experience with snow untouched but for the path, and looking up the bluffs on one side of the trial you see large boulders, tops covered by snow,  a few deciduous and evergreen trees mixed in and the large outcroppings of Baraboo quartzite rock against a cloudless blue sky.  To the other side was mainly a deciduous forest with long shadows of tree branches and trunks overlaying the white snow.  It was made all the better as I was snowshoeing with my wife.  Now the question is, could I get her back on a pair of cross-country skis?

 Images by Toni Hovel or Tom Hovel