• Friday-What'sUP February 4 - 09:25 pm

Portage Lake and Chassell Bay are iced over and covered with ice fishing shanties, along with a maze of tracks made by the fisherman getting out to them. I've always thought those fishing shacks looked pretty small when checking them out from the highway, but in this aerial photo from E. Neil Harri, they're barely even visible! If you have a high speed connection, such as Pasty.Net's DSL or Wireless, then you might want to check out Neil's full size shot of ice fishing in the U.P.

That's a great shot once again!

Nice aerial picture! Those fishing shacks reminds me of the movie, "Grumpy Old Men". Do they take their shacks out there via snowmobile?

If the ice conditions are just right, ATV's, trucks, cars, are also used to take the fishing shacks out onto the ice.

Oh, cool!

How gorgeous. I love aerial shots (especially since I'm terrified of flying & can't see these views in person!). Neil Harri's photo album is one of the most fantastic I've seen yet.

I will have to get a picture of Kipling, down here in the banana belt, for Pastycam. I counted 50 shacks and lost count.

WOW, great shot again...Our Uncle Johnny Elenich would come by from Rambyltown on his way out to Keweenaw Bay on his day off to go ice fishing but we were never allowed to go with him..He had no shanty, just drilled a hole and dropped the line in.

what a pic, even though i don`t fish hehe.

Mr Harri:

How do you get such good pictures without part of the
airplane itself in the shot? Are you flying the plane and
taking the pics yourself, or do you have a partner? I
hope you aren't letting go of the steering wheel to hang
out an open window!!!!

I really enjoy his photos too. You feel like you are a bird and get to see secret things that you could only see from so high up.

Like the shots of the moose and wolves.

Anna Roehrich (Updreamer):
"... terrified of flying ..."

As old pilots say "The most dangerous part of the flight is the drive to the airport!"

Musicteacher (Musicteacher):
"...I hope you aren't letting go of the 'steering wheel' to hang
out an open window!"

Someone's been watching too many old Hollywood flying movies, with the pilot wildly, severely wrestling the wheel/yoke/stick to great extremes for the entire flight, lest the plane fall out of the air!

Don'cha know, most airplanes fly themselves, in straight and level flight at least (that's what they're designed for - it's called dynamic stability) , largely untouched by human hands except for gentle "encouragenemt" during maneuvers, and I'm not necessarily talking about 'autopilots', just proper 'trimming' of the controls.

And I sincerely hope Neil isn't 'hanging out an open window'... it's cold out there, especially in all that "propwash"!

I shoot all my own photos. I take over ten thousand a year since digital came of age. Part of controls are run by foot pedals. Since I don't use feet to hold the camera, I can steer with them. It is a good way to share what I see most everyday.

That is a great shot, I have seen the Keweenaw from a small plane like that. If any of you have a chance do it, it is memorable.

Arrgh! "encouragenemt" = "encouragement". (Sticky keys! - That's what I ger fer spillin' coffee on da keyboard!

Neil,

Your pictures are absolutely awesome! They make me feel like I'm right there with you in the plane! You're one lucky man to be able to get such views on a daily basis! Hope you keep sharing with us!

Aw FRNash and here I thought you were the perfect man!

Yes Neil, your views are always breath-taking!

Great pictures. I especialy love seeing the tracks. BTW Neil, do you take requests? Can you perhaps fly over the old Freda Mill and snap an airial shot so I can get a feel for it? When I wrote about Copper Range, I really wished I could have gotten a great shot of it. Of course, that was back in the film days, and I was much poorer then! Again, great shots!

An aerial shot of Freda would be awesome. Then I could see the house where my mother was born and the Superior View Cafe which is a great place to eat and look at old pictures of the area.

Cindy,
Superior View closed for good in October. It's a shame.
Mr. Deb

Sure am glad you have the urge to share what you see nearly daily with the rest of us. All are such sights to behold! Great eye for photography, Neil. Keep up the good work. I love "flippin' through your album".

I love all of your pictures that I've seen, Neil, and this is no exception.

I have a question--am I missing something here? When I went to Neil's picture site, I can find 12 pages of pictures, but I haven't been able to find this particular one. Am I missing something? I'd like to be able to zoom in closer!

You definitely are missing something....just go back up to Mary's notes under the picture and click on the link: "full size" (or you can click on this one) to get to the zoomed in shot. Or if you go to Neil's gallery, it's the fourth picture to the right in the top row.

What a great view - from an angle few ground pounders rarely see, looking almost due southwest, toward Pike Bay from about the middle of the south end of Portage Lake, with the Sturgeon River Sloughs on the left.

awesome picture..and being from Chassell, it is even more enjoyable. I think this is the first time I've seen a photo of Chassell from this angle.
The bay looks so small :)
The full size one really gives a view of the shacks. There are some darker areas off the point in the middle..are those the weed beds that grow there?
We used to row in there...tough going sometimes, but a lot of fun

At first glance I thought the dark part in the picture was the water and the white part the ice. Neat photo. I wish I could get my hands on some fresh out of the lake, lake trout. Yum

Cindy, sad but true, the Superior View is now closed for good and for sale. At least that is what I heard.

Awesome photograph! I wish I was there!

I went to Neil's gallery..and just spent over an hour looking at his photos. They are simply spectacular. There are a couple that are mind blowing good.
The one with the blue heron rookery left me breathless...I never realized there was anything like that up there...or the wolves...and the moose.
I remember my dad and uncles talking abou tdeer hunting and a sighting of a huge deer in the Gay area...some were wondering if it was a moose, but they kept saying no one had ever seen a moose up there....but its obvious there are some around. Or maybe there weren't any back in the 50s-early 60s

There were always a few moose Dave. That is not just speculation. A carcass was found in the Pt Abbey area in the 60's. There is some other evidence that a couple were always here.

Thank you! I went over & over his gallery & I couldn't find that picture, while it was staring straight in the eyes. I'm red-faced! Since I seem to be blind as a bat today, I guess it's a good thing that I didn't start knitting my son's socks today!

I love Neil's photos, particularly the ones that enlarge.

Stay warm this weekend!

Great shot cousin! I admit, I too thought it was water till I took a closer look.
Eliisa