Getting Sunburned in the UP (in March!)

This past weekend was the best!  We decided a few weeks ago that if there was a weekend coming up with good weather in the UP we would head up to the property.  We were hoping for anything over 30 degrees, and that happened to be this past weekend! What an awesome time we had!  We left at about 6 AM Saturday morning and got up to the property at about noon after we dropped off our stuff at the cottage we stayed at.  We drove over to the property and were looking around and checking out the area by the road and out walks our immediate neighbor to the North.  We had a good talk with her and her husband and got lots of valuable information on our property and the neighborhood.  After the chat, we had to climb over the 8 foot tall pile of snow on the edge of the property.  (It was particularly deep there because that is where the plow pushes it all).  We thought we walked all over the place on Saturday, but as it turned out we really didn't walk all that far, but it was certainly a work out.  Most of the snow was between 2-3 feet deep, mostly hard and easy to walk on with snowshoes except a few spots where you seemed to sink in a foot.  We saw probably 20 or 30 whitetail deer throughout the day.  (Only two or three on our property, but a herd of about 50-80 hangs out by the neighbors because they feed them).   We were tuckered out and headed back to the cottage.  

Sun coming up in the east.

Looking South, this is the back field which we think is about 5 or more acres.

Fire that Tim built for us to enjoy lunch over.  It smelled so nice like camp and outdoors!

The "tree organizer" - where we hung the stuff we didn't want to carry while we snowshoed.

On Sunday we headed out to the land again.  We were a little more prepared to do some walking than the previous day because we knew better what we were getting in to.  We found a potential building spot for a house when we move up some day, but we will keep looking as we get to know that land more.  The property just seems bigger than we imagined!  Everything seemed bigger than our first tour of the property.  Since we were planning on staying through lunch, we paced PB&J sandwiches, crackers, and lots and lots of water to drink.  Around 12:30 we found a spot to sit.  There was a chair we found, and a big bucket that we flipped over to sit on.  Tim built a fire and ta-da...we had a camp!  We ate and talked about the property.  It was about 45 degrees, with a slight breeze, and was just lovely out!    On the way out we talked to the neighbor again for a while, which was nice!  They seem like very nice people and we are looking forward to getting to know them!

Overall, it was a great weekend and we learned a lot more about the property including more about the trees, landscape and space.   Oh, and regarding the title of the post, I am sunburned!  Between the sun and the snow, I am a bit red in the face!  So, who says you can't get a tan in the U.P. in winter? :)  We can't wait to go back!

-L