Mud Lake in Winter

Mud Lake in Winter

Wednesday, October 5, 2016

Itasca State Park and The Great Wind of 2016

 

We went to Itasca State Park today/  The weather looked super but turned cloudy, in line with most recent days.  The leaves were just glorious any way.  While those special odd purples and pinks were gone, and the northeast corner was pretty bare, many sections showed bright yellows and oranges mixed with longer stretches of pure yellow.  Even the tamaracks were in full yellow needle.

Mixing in was the very obvious, widespread damage from the mid-summer Great Wind of 2016 (reference in humor to Vicar of Dilby scene).  Trees were sawed off where they had blocked the road, but many then just sat piled on each other, left alone for a couple month period.  Some were average,m but others were among the bigger, older trees of the preserved park.  One has to assume that the Park’s policy is for the forest to remain in its natural state of forest recycling, or, financially and in terms of personnel the Park does not have the staff to take the massive amount of trees away.  More will go as select trees still threaten to fall over the roadways, especially the Wilderness Drive.

We did note some twisted wood indicative of spinning winds.  Most accounts and a look at the radar that night suggested straight line winds.  The single direction fall of the down trees was notable.

Still the trees were wonderful.

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