A couple familiar locations from the archives today and a lesson about a deciduous conifer tree. E. Neil Harri takes us on a flight over Kearsarge back in 2005. In the lower left corner of the photo is the Hut building, where Pasty Central’s operations are located. Check out how close Lake Superior is, “as the crow flies”, too.

Our next shot is of Mont Ripley Ski Hill, snowless and waiting for the season to begin. Carl Schroeder took this photo in 2006. Now that they have snow making machines, the hill can begin to be covered in white as soon as the temperatures chill down enough and stay there.

Many folks think the trees decked out in yellow in the 2009 photo from Shawn Malone of Lake Superior Photography are dead or dying, but in reality they’re not, they are Tamarack trees, a deciduous conifer tree that turns this color in the fall and then loses its needles. It’s nice they do this later than the trees that lose their fall foliage, as it leaves a little color for us to enjoy.

Our video is from the Chipper Guy with a lesson on the Tamarack trees and where they grow.

From the webcams it looks like Mont Ripley Ski Hill is snowless no more