• Wednesday-What'sUP April 28 - 08:34 am

The young man in today's top photo, is Casey Pepin and yes, he's soaking wet, after having just come out of the St. Mary's River for his annual first swim of the year. Harry Casey is young Casey's grandpa and lives on the St. Mary's River, about 5 miles from the Soo Locks. He and Matthew Casey snapped the photos of this chilly annual spring event, kind of a polar bear swim of sorts. With the snow and ice recently having melted off the lakes and rivers UP North, there's been some talk of lower water levels this spring.

You can see from the third photo, where Casey is getting a ride back to dry land, that the water level is down quite a bit this year. Compare it to the bottom photo of the freighter Saginaw, passing the same spot last summer. It sure looks like there's a lot more sand exposed on the shores of the river. Guess we'll have to hope for some Spring showers to help fill that in with water again. Special thanks to Robert C. Wetton for passing today's pictures on to us.

I will stick to ATVing! :)

Way to go Casey. WAY BACK WHEN, a friend of mine and I used to have a contest on who would "go under" in Superior for the first time each year. I don't think we ever got in there before May. Wow.

And yes, there is MUCH more shoreline this Spring. Amazing.....

WOW!! That's a brave boy!!

You guys can have some of our rain. It hasn't stopped for 24 hours now.

That sure beats a cold shower.

That looks like a Canadian freighter, as you can just make out the Maple Leaf Flag on the stern.

Freighter might be the Canadian freighter Saginaw.

Yes, that is the Saginaw