Silence

Recently, you step outside and listen to it be so quiet that the stillness becomes deafening; something seems amiss.
It's normal here to have things a little more quiet this time of year without having Lake Superior, with it's sometimes literally roaring waves, part of the ambience. The Big Lake is frozen to the horizon, but until it's really frozen, like all the way to Canada, the ice could move out tomorrow on a wind's whim and we'd have waves once again.
So back to the strange silence. I noticed this on a recent Saturday morning. We hear less traffic on M-28, a main east west artery in the UP, so much less that at times there's absolutely no vehicle noise. That means A LOT less traffic on the roads.
Saturday morning, hmmmmmm....

Ding! That's it! Where have all the snowmobiles gone???? Vintage snowmobiles lined up in a row

We have a snowmobile trail that is oh, maybe a half mile thru the woods to the south of us. There's NO snowmobile noise this winter, and I mean none. Well, maybe an occasional one or two every other day, but for sure, it's waaaay down this winter.

Then I think back to our expedition to the Grand Sable Dunes at the beginning of January and when going thru Munising and Grand Marais, the two snowmobile capitals of the northern UP, they were strangely devoid of snowmobile trailers, snowmobile semis, you name it some of the things these sledheads possess. One of the motels in Grand Marais said they are 75% down this year and they may close for the winter. CLOSING FOR THE WINTER! IN GRAND MARAIS! Wow, things are bad. On th roads this year, you are hard pressed to pass a single snowmobile trailer. This has really gotta hurt businesses that depend on the snowmobile season to carry them thru the winter. Is it the trickle down economy, or snow everywhere in places where the riders might otherwise come up here? A combination of the two? The solitude of the silence is one of those wonderful things I love about winter, but not hearing the whiz of snowmobiles reminds me that times are tough for a lot of people right now. Having a business that depends on snow has to be a real tough deal because this year we've had it in a big way, lots of it starting early in the season, beautiful fluffy stuff all winter long, and the least amount of snowmobilers I've ever seen. If you're a yooper, this is the winter to hit the trails,as I venture to say you'll have them largely all to yourselves.

Grand Marais Michigan with snowmobilers lined up at the pumps, on a good winter day a few years back