The weather was rather mixed up today, with thunder and lightning during heavy rain and sleet, then a brief thirty seconds of sun before it turned dark again with more snow and rain. A flowing river in the autumn would be a more favorable sight than what was flowing today.
Cascades Before Bond Falls
This morning looked more like spring than winter with the water flowing all over the lawn and a major overflow from my pond due to all the rain. Eventually it switched over to snow and looked more like winter again but I’m glad we didn’t get several feet of snow.
Branch of the Amnicon River
A river flows onward to another river, lake, sea or ocean, unless it dries up before reaching its destination and they can be many miles or just a few. The Montreal River is a river flowing to Lake Superior in northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Much of the river’s course defines a portion of the Wisconsin–Michigan border. The Ojibwe name for the river is Gaa-waasijiwaang, meaning “where there is whitewater”. And there is some ‘whitewater’ on this river as it drops more than a thousand feet in less than 50 miles as it travels downstream over four named waterfalls (Peterson Falls, Interstate Falls, Saxon Falls and Superior Falls) before empties calmly into Oronto Bay on Lake Superior.
The Montreal River looks rather peaceful at its mouth even though it just went over a 90 foot drop a short walk in the opposite direction.
Montreal River Reaching Lake Superior
Before the water reaches the Upper Falls on the Amnicon River, it makes travels over numerous small drops and cascading rapids until the water rushes over the series of bigger falls to its final destination into Lake Superior.
Rapids on the Amnicon
I imagine, with a few nice, sunny days, there might be some fishermen trying their luck before the snow moves in. The Brule River in northern Wisconsin is a popular and an exceptional fly fishing stream and there were fishermen there yesterday catching Steelheads and Brown Trout along the forty-four mile river. The Brule River contains resident brook trout, brown trout and rainbow trout. Lake run brown trout and rainbow (steelhead) trout along with Coho and Chinook salmon migrate up the Bois Brule River annually from Lake Superior for fly fishing anglers to pursue.
The Brule River
This juvenile Great Blue Heron doesn’t seem to notice the rushing water of the Amnicon River behind him but instead he seems to be scanning the pool of water for lunch.
Heron on the Amnicon
This poor tree has seen better days and with the rain today, probably is feeling a bit soggy too. When it finally collapses into the water, it will no longer be a home to the birds.
Worn Out Tree
And while most of the snow is gone in my area, there is still snow farther north but some signs of spring is coming there too with the ice leaving the frozen rivers as many of the waterfalls along Lake Superior on the Minnesota shoreline opened up yesterday and started flowing again.
I haven’t made the trek in the spring to walk on snowy trails to the waterfalls as I figure I would slip and fall in so my views of them are when they don’t have as much water flowing and no ice chucks floating by.
Dry Gooseberry Falls
Dry creek beds and little streams increase their size and look larger when the snow melts. And always good when the snow melts slowly so flooding doesn’t occur, even if many of us want all the snow gone right now. My little pond has filled up and is overflowing so maybe when the ice melts off the top, I will get some visiting ducks.
Winter River
The snow is shrinking down and melting a little with the recent few days above freezing but the landscape is still mostly white. And while some rivers and streams may continue to flow all winter, some are flowing under a layer of ice and you may only hear the small waterfalls until they poke out in the spring again.
Icy River
