A cure for cabin fever

Winter really feels like it's setting in in earnest. So when the details came together about an expedition by some Great Lake surfers out to Grand Sable Dunes, I volunteered, as I felt that this might be the last surfable waves of the season with the lake freezing up fast. I had been out to Grand Sable many times when there were absolutely beautiful sets rolling in and always wanted to see surfers there. However, I don't think we could have picked a more difficult day in terms of snow, ice, and temps. Well, yes we could have, if it would have been snow blowing sideways, then photos of this trip would have been impossible as everything Au Sable was taken from the overlook or near there 300 feet up.
Surfable waves on the lakes don't happen every day. In fact, there's really only two times of year when the waves are at their biggest, late Fall/early Winter and after ice out in the Spring. So when the forecast called for 12-16 foot waves on Jan 05, 2009, we jumped on it.
Temps for the day didn't go much above zero all day. The winds, however, dropped considerably, which when all was said and done was probably a blessing.
We met up at Pictured Rocks Visitor Center 5 mi east of Au Sable. From there we snomobiled in, with surfboards strapped to one sled and equipment in backpacks such as wetsuits, 600 ft of safety rope to get down the "Log Slide", (a 300 ft sand dune), and lots of fortitude.
We checked out Log Slide and Hurricane River and decided on Log Slide due to the cleaner little peelers with less side wind and current to deal with. Dan is a freekin mountain goat. He basically ran down the Log Slide and was surfing before Billy even got his harness on to rappel down. I reeeeally wanted to get to the bottom, but no way for me. I didn't have cleats to dig in to the ice for footing, was hesitant, the dune was frozen and steep, so I reluctantly took a pass.
As it turned out, a birdseye view provided for some incredible sights and I'm glad it worked out that way. It was interesting to see surface ice forming on the horizon, slowly creeping forward with a fingerlike appearance, which seemed to contribute to dampening the waves down to a glassy appearance. Combine that with passing clouds reflecting pastels on the water with the low winter sunlight for a spectacular view. There's nothing like winter.

As usual, wave conditions were not even close to the forecast, the gentle waves made it possible to get in the water without getting pegged by slushballs on the shoreline. If waves had been bigger, it probably would have been a no go. So that's it for now,more pics will be available at a later date.