10/16/11 TAMARACKS TURN GOLD WHILE A BIG SHIP WAITS OUT THE GALE

A HINT OF THINGS TO COME

WAITING IT OUT

Sunday, 8:00 AM.  46 degrees, wind W, light to moderate.  High clouds are moving in at a good clip, the barometer is down again and my left wrist, that I broke twenty-some years ago,aches, so we may get some rain by tonight.
    Although the peak of fall color in the Bayfield region is certainly now past, there is at least one major color event yet to come; the turning of tamaracks (Larix laricina, in the pine family)needles from green to gold and then bronze until they finally fall and this “evergreen” reveals itself as deciduous, and bares its branches for the winter. Whole swamps, riverbanks and even hillsides will turn brilliant gold, and one will be amazed at how prevalent these conifers reveal themselves to be in the north.  A deciduous conifer rather defies both convention and some evolutionary logic, but more on that when I have time for some research and a more proper analysis.
    Gale force westerly winds and rain the last few days have not only driven the leaves from many trees, they drove a thousand footer off the shipping lanes to seek shelter in the lee of the bluffs of the Sioux River and Onion Creek watersheds.  The big laker (or possibly an ocean going ship)  has been parked off Van Tassel Point for the last two days. It is a self-unloader, and might be carrying grain from Thunder Bay, the largest grain port in the world, or iron ore.

    Anyway I will theorize that the Soo Locks, at Sault St. Marie at the east end of Lake Superior, are very busy and the big ship is loitering here rather than chancing to wait in the open lake in rough seas. There is a web site, www.shipplotter.com, from which one can track Lake Superior traffic in real time and obtain name, location, destination, tonnage, etc. for each ship,  but  my computer will not support it (and,as you probably know, I am not a “techie”).  All ships over 300 tons and all passenger ships are required to have an Automatic Information System which regularly broadcasts its name, location and other vital information.  These broadcasts are analyzed and the information posted by Ship Plotter.

    This is a busy day.  The Town of Russell annual Turkey Shoot (no turkeys are shot anymore, it is just a target shooting competition) starts at 10:00 AM and lasts until 3:00 PM, at which time the Brewers and the Cardinals play their last game in the National League Central Division playoffs. They are tied two games each, and the winner goes on to the next level.  There is also a Packer football game, but we are baseball fans.