Looking north, towards the Cloquet River
Discernible snow on October 11th? I can’t remember, in my nearly 58 years of kicking about NE Minnesota, when there’s been appreciable snow on the ground this early. But, photos don’t lie and there you are! I’ll leave it to the scientists and science haters on the House Committee on Science and Technology (isn’t it funny that we have a bunch of guys and gals from one side of the aisle on that committee who disavow the age of the Earth, dinosaurs, mastodons, and yet, supposedly serve the interests of science?) to debate why it’s snowing in NE Minnesota when the leaves haven’t even fallen off the trees. I’m not smart enough to guess the cause. But it happened.
Looking east.
Looking west.
Maybe, as they say on “Garage Logic” global warming is all a bunch of mysterian hooey, which is a polite way of saying it’s bull shit. (Or, if you’re a Joe Biden fan, malarkey.) Or maybe, just maybe, there’s something to the whole notion that we are doing something weird to our atmosphere and hence, our climate. None of us, of course, will likely live long enough to know who’s right and who’s wrong in this debate but it sure is a curious thing to wake up a few days after stream trout season has closed to see a blanket of white across the fields.
Whatever it’s source, the pristine covering was, to this old downhill and cross country skier, a welcome reminder that sometimes, we actually get real, non-man-made snow, in our “neck of the woods”. I’m hoping for a big snow year, whatever the cause, so that once I heal from my upcoming shoulder surgery, I can take to the woods and the hills and enjoy our winter.
Really.
Mark
