"With a bang, a whimper or worse!"

Are you tired of hearing about Ice Caves yet?  We have more B&B guests staying here tonight and tomorrow night, but Sunday it all comes to an end, at least for people trying to visit the ice caves.

So I have just a couple more fun links and pictures I'd like to share about the caves.  First this link from MinnPost.  I've always liked MinnPost because they started up as one of the first online newspapers in Minneapolis-St. Paul several years ago.  And it was kind of a thumb-your-nose move after bigger news agencies bought the local papers and "relieved" some of the good reporters of their jobs.  So MinnPost was started, but back to the caves.

This article is an interview with Superintendent Bob Krumenaker who is in charge of this national lakeshore, and he has probably slept very little since mid-January when the craziness began.  In this article he talks about setting a "Closed" date and how the ice might break up in the next hours/days/weeks...they just don't know when or how.  So that's where the bang/whimper/worse subject comes up.  They have a camera set up all the time so they can monitor how high the waves are for kayakers in the summer.  And it also helps them now to monitor ice conditions.  Read the article and see what happened OVER NIGHT last year, just before they were going to open the caves to visitors!
http://www.minnpost.com/earth-journal/2014/03/apostles-chief-says-ice-route-may-go-out-bang-whimper-or-worse

Below is a link to the website with all of the pictures looking down at the caves area from the last couple of years.
http://wavesatseacaves.cee.wisc.edu/wave_pics.html

Here are some just for fun:

First, from March 1, 2012 - no ice caves that year, there was hardly any snow!  The snowplow only had to plow our driveway twice that winter!

This one (below) is from last year when the conditions changed overnight just before they were going to open.

And below is from today at 2:30pm.  Looks a little damp-ish around those icicles.  People say you can kind of feel some movement under your feet.  Believe me, there was NO movement felt the day we went there!

And below are two other articles by this same MinnPost reporter - one from when it all started and one from yesterday:

• http://www.minnpost.com/earth-journal/2014/03/ice-caves-go-viral-hordes-visitors-swarm-apostle-islands
• http://www.minnpost.com/earth-journal/2014/03/apostle-islands-ice-caves-will-be-limits-after-sunday-park-service-says

And here below is the Facebook page for the Apostle Island National Lakeshore - The most recent post warns people NOT to stand under the possibly-falling icicles.  A comment mentions something about "thinning the herd!"
https://www.facebook.com/apostleislandsnationallakeshore

So, it's been fun.  This morning I heard on MPR that el niño is heading our way, meaning a probable mild winter next year.  Huh...does that mean we'll lose our main topic of conversation??