ICY WINDS CHANGED THE SCENERY
by Dave Ponke

There isn't a price to be placed on how splendid it looks, when the sheets of ice glazed the Straits of Mackinac. I guess while crossing the Big Mackinac Bridge, you sometimes take for granted the awesome views offered from up above.

The winters of Northern Michigan are just short of something to be stored away in a treasure chest, only to be reopened at a later date. Can you truly appreciate the postcard sent to you from there, if you haven't experienced the visit for yourself?

Likely, no is the answer to that.

Years ago while vacationing, we made our way to the Mackinac Bridge from an eight-hour-or-so jaunt up Interstate-75. An early evening arrival made it possible to settle in at an overnight inn, and unpack before heading out for dinner. The stillness of the Northern Michigan air made it seem colder than it was. But we eventually made the trek to the restaurant, and took in the picturesque view of the Big Mac Bridge while it was lit up, casting a glow across the darkened skies and waterway.

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Once again, the Harsen's Island ferry had to trudge through the icy chunks that the St. Clair River allowed to clog its path this month. And the Coast Guard Cutters Mackinac and Bristol Bay had the duty of chopping through the mountains of ice floes, to help blaze a path for the ferryboat to transport its passengers and vehicles to the mainland from the Island. The exact science of figuring out just how the ice floes are created is still up for debate, to some. The thickness of the chunks is a signal that they have been frozen for quite some time, by their obvious appearance when they arrive in the Algonac area of the St. Clair River. What does it mean when you look out, far, far beyond the shards of jagged edges... and see nothing more than the white, frosted pieces, scattered like dominoes atop a tabletop? It means Mother Nature has been doing what she does best: displaying her creations, and we have to deal with it.

Such is life. In all of its grace and beauty.

Citizens gathered along the Algonac shoreline in mid-January this year, gawking at the hard-working ice cutters in the St. Clair River. Freighter activity had ceased, at least temporarily, while the Coast Guard plowed into the hoards of ice. It is hard to imagine, that years ago residents of Walpole and Russell Islands would actually be brave enough to walk across the ice, to mainland Algonac. Observers recalled stories, to some longtime residents today, of watching the unfortunate persons that would not make it all the way across, and perish through the ice.