Melanie Hakala Rossi and friends took a wintry hike along the Monk Trails in the Keweenaw. The link in the previous sentence says this trail is: “A 2.5-mile loop trail on the Eagle Harbor cutoff road, near Mohawk, Michigan. Generally considered a moderately challenging route, it takes an average of 1 h 14 min to complete. A beautiful trail to the Arnold Mine Ruins and Jacob's Falls. The trails are well-maintained are relatively flat until you're near the Falls, where you may have to scramble a bit. There are small, handmade benches throughout the Monk’s portion of the loop, as well as a campground, pond, and mine ruins. This part of the trip takes you through a serene forest setting with a beautiful brook, an additional picnic area, and a tall table with stools.”

Melanie and crew, including Finley, who is always ready for a hike like this, enjoyed the wintry hike on the trails and just getting out on snowshoes, which there hasn’t been much of so far this winter. Someone asked Melanie if they even needed snowshoes, as there isn’t a lot of snow cover, but Melanie said that she wouldn’t have wanted to be out there with boots, especially on the downhills, as there was a few inches of fresh snow on any icy base. The snowshoe “claws” help to dig in when conditions are like that.

Today’s video was sent in by Dave Dalquist who said he recorded the beginning on February 8th, when it was calm, sunny and 40°. Overnight, the storm moved in...all this happening at McLain State Park, the calm and the storm.

Great pictures! It's so great that
yoopers get out there and have
fun, even in the winter months.
And then they bring us these
marvelous pictures.

The video was great also!

Nice hike! I’d give anything to be able to
get out there and do that.
And I had to think about it when I saw Finley
and UC came to mind…a Finnigan imposter?
Nice looking canine companion all the same.
I hope people know how fortunate they
are being able to do things like that.
“Cherish every moment, every step,
every breath of fresh air.”

And yes…a fierce, well done video!

I'm so with you Alex....Oh how I wish.

This is so cool...and the vid...amazing how one
day...

I like "Taking a break" where Finley is looking up like "so can we go already?!!!" But then he posed so cute in the last picture.