Some might think it would be uninteresting to hike the same trail over and over, year after year. I find just the opposite to be true, the more times I go out on a trail in different conditions and at different times of year, the more I get a sense of place. I very much enjoy the contrasts between different seasons and weather conditions.
Here are four photographs of the same stretch of West Beach, taken under two extremes of weather conditions. There are two pairs each taken from approximately the same spot, summer and winter. The summer images were taken when it was in the 80’s and high humidity. The winter images were taken on a day when it was -5°F (before factoring in windchill) and 30mph winds off the lake. Same locations on the same beach, two completely different experiences.
Hot, humid and not a cloud in the sky. For some reason people seem to really like hanging out on the beach in this sort of weather. Ah well, to each their own.
Now this is more like it. Although the image does not really capture it, it was definitely cold. Yes, believe it or not people surf lake Michigan in this kind of weather. Apparently the best waves for surfing are in the winter when the weather comes out of the north and the winds run the length of the lake. All I can say is a) those dry suits must really work, and b) there is always someone crazier than you.
Just a few hundred yards down the beach you get a sense of how narrow and crowded the beach is when the weather is warm. Steel mills on the horizon.
Same view but photographed with a telephoto lens which makes the steel mills more apparent. One of the things I love about bitter cold days is how the steam just billows up into the sky. Yet again we see someone else out enjoying the frigid cold. No matter how cold, snowy or rainy the weather, I have never gone out to the dunes and not seen at least one other person on the trail.
