Ice-walking and access to Lake Superior

Hartley E. Conrad, Duluth, and Bruce F. Elving (holding stick), Esko, enjoy a stroll on frozen Lake Superior, February 2007.
Like a bunch of other people in the Northland, I tried out a new sport, ice-walking. The days in mid-to-late February were conducive to this type of activity, occurring after a period of relentless below zero (F) temperatures.

  My friend Hartley and I first ventured forth when ice conditions were ideal. It was before the blizzards deposited snow that would obscure the view through the pristine ice, although some of that snow instantly blew off. I’ve subsequently seen folks out on the ice, some with flimsy ice-fishing shelters. However, a more enjoyable walk on the ice awaits another year.
The first visit we took was from Twenty-First Avenue East and the waterfront. It’s a breathtaking place, buzzing with the activity of building houses and condominiums. Driving around the new construction and viewing the frozen expanse of Lake Superior was exhilarating enough, but coming back, parking the car, and walking on the lake was more fun. Later, Hart and I went to Brighton Beach, just east of Lester River, and I walked the ice, following other people who had found the best spots for negotiating the pressure ridges that defined different areas of the ice or non-ice.
Ski poles greatly facilitated walking on the sheer ice. I offered a ski pole to another person to help him get across a fissure in the ice, but he declined. Getting onto the ice at Brighton Beach was more difficult than at Twenty-First Avenue East. There was a slope to the ice making it especially difficult to return. The large group of people frolicking on the lake obviously enjoyed the unique experience. Invariably, as people returned, they had to take measures to successfully negotiate the downward slant of the ice closest to shore, which presented a challenge to people’s sense of balance.
At Twenty-First, a lady asked me if I am from the area, and I said, “Yes.” Remember my article in December’s Hillsider about sledding down Duluth’s hills? That establishes me as a resident of this area since childhood. Anyway, I told her that I had never seen ice like this where you could walk on it and see clear through, even to the extent that persons saw a wreck submerged in shallow water off Park Point. I told the lady that my father, who would have been 111, told of people skating from Two Harbors to Duluth. Until this winter I would not have thought that possible. Previously, when looking at the lake in winter you would see white, the color of snow.
Hart and I talked to a young fellow on Twenty-First Avenue East. He sat on a rock which had no snow on it, took off his boots, put on his skates and flung his boots over his shoulder. He said he was going to skate to work in Canal Park, something he had never done. Obviously he was a very good skater, as he zoomed away on the clear and smooth ice.
Will this joy repeat itself? Ice conditions like in 2007 might well occur again, and as locals, we’ll be conditioned to want to visit the lake again in winter. We might even go out when conditions might not be as good, with the more adventurous of us taking unnecessary chances.
 Much as the fun of walking on water in 2007 will fill our memory banks for years to come, I fear for the worst. Not from a nature standpoint, but from the standpoint of what we as humans can do to devastate the environment.
I fear for the future at Twenty-First Avenue East, and for other locations where ordinary citizens can view and play in or on the lake. With condominium development proceeding at a brisk pace, I envision 2007 as the last year the public will enjoy access to that spot, except for a narrow trail called the Lakewalk. Watch for “No Parking” signs to be erected along the entire roadway that used to be called Water Street. Signs might also mention “Lake Access Reserved For Residents Only.” Or signs might say, “Residents Parking Only.” And the informal trails that lead to the water’s edge would be posted “No Trespassing.”
This fear of being cut off from that which makes Duluth unique both to the locals and the tourists could come true in other regional places. Those areas could, and partially do right now, include all of Minnesota Point, the mouths of creeks and rivers flowing into Lake Superior and the North Shore, including the marina being constructed on McQuade Road. “Safe Harbor” will translate into “All But those Living in the Immediate Area Stay Out.”
As an aside, I recall my father, who lost an arm in an accident on the Northern Pacific rail yard on Rice’s Point, near the former Goldfine’s store, and who did not let that handicap stop him from being a real do-it-yourselfer. He was working on a project with concrete for our house on the East Hillside (where I used to sled, and which house I still own). We drove down Twenty-First Avenue East to Water Street, parked the car and walked to the lake side of the street. We proceeded to fill a bucket with gravel for making cement. I am sure the gravel is still there next to the big lake, but is access to it by ordinary citizens still possible? It might make for an excuse to visit that part of the Lakewalk just to find out.
  That gravel might be as unusable by the local citizenry as Park Point sand. I recall, as a kid, my dad filling a trailer attached to our 1937 Ford so I could have a sandbox. That was at the place on Park Point where Lake Avenue takes a sharp turn to the right. Now it’s posted with a warning not to harvest the sand. I suppose if everybody helped themselves to sand, somehow Park Point would be excavated, or Lake Superior might disappear into a giant sinkhole.
In writing this, I do not intend it to be a blueprint for others to follow, or for it to become a self-fulfilling prophecy. As businesses and government work to promote this area as a world-class destination to the detriment of the local populace, there can be disaster. It’s like global warming, but much closer in proximity, and more immediate in its outcome. This devastation to the environment is on par with what I observed at the western end of Lake Ontario, at Grimsby Beach. I enjoyed getting off the Queen Elizabeth Expressway (QEW) and just looking east along the lake on my drives to Syracuse, NY in the 1960s. I was a graduate student at Syracuse University, from which I received my Ph.D. after many commutes. Stopping along the shore there reminded me of Park Point in Duluth. Since then, in the 1990s, my wife, Carol, and I noticed massive houses, a boat landing and what appeared to be a marina. An e-mail acquaintance lives in Grimsby, and he described how the land is now in private hands, and the views of this great lake are now denied outsiders like us.
It is and was great to be able to walk on water on Lake Superior, and to observe the lake in all its placid winter beauty. Even more important, there was a camaraderie with other souls on the lake, who with me and my companion, were blithely oblivious to the dangers of being on ice that only partially covered this large body of water.
 The greatest threat is not that ice conditions may take several years to re-form in a way that allows skating, ice-boating, ice-fishing or mere walking, but that our enjoyment of this resource will disappear as the result of corporate greed, abetted by municipal and other government entities that could destroy the public’s use of a lake which is otherwise available for all to enjoy.

March came in like a lion, we finally got our snow: more than 20 inches!

Captions: Dawn Phillips, Keith Schrout and Larry Hill, Jr. walk up Twelfth Avenue East toward their home on East Third Street. They had just made a run to the grocery store.

Jordan Meyer, a Lake Superior College student, and Nathan Lauianen, a Moorhead visitor whose stay became extended because of the blizzard, used snow shoes to navigate the Hillside neighborhood.

Eric Bong and Cole Maki walked along Twelfth Avenue East. Bong is carrying Colour Maki, age 15 months, on his back

The winter of 2006-2007 was unseasonably warm and had very little snow. We got a whopper of a storm on Thursday, March 1. It was an all out blizzard. Chief Gordon Ramsay advised all Duluthians to stay at home.
The Aerial Lift Bridge closed and residents of Park Point had snow up to the second story or their homes.
Data from National Weather Service states that Duluth received snowfall of over 20 inches with winds of up to 50 miles per hour. Duluth and the area around Lake Superior were the hardest hit. At times the snow fell at the rate of 1 to 2 inches an hour. Thundersnow was also experienced.

Parents: Talk to your children about Internet safety, set up ground rules and learn how to search a computer to keep your household safe

“Safe and sound at home,” that is a phrase that is not valid any more because your child can meet anyone, even a predator, without ever leaving the comfort of home.
Parents used to be able to control who their children interacted with by just knowing as much as possible about their activities outside the home. Now parents must monitor their children’s activities especially when their child is at home alone with a computer.
On Thursday, Feb. 22, Sgt. Nicholas Alexander, a computer forensic analyst, and Detective Thomas Champaigne of the Superior Police Department gave an Internet safety presentation to more than 60 people who had gathered at Holy Family Catholic Church, 2430 W. Third St., to learn more about keeping children safe while they are on the Internet.
The presentation is one in a series of monthly city-wide meetings on crime prevention.
The Internet can be a wonderful thing, just as our highway system is wonderful for transporting goods and people. Once your child jumps on the Internet they are on a superhighway of information. Some of it is good, and some of it is not so good. Just as you wouldn’t let your child wander on the highway all alone, it is not a good idea to let him or her wander on the Internet, especially all by themselves.
According to the FBI, six out of 10 children online have gotten an e-mail or instant message from a perfect stranger, and more than half have written back. One in 33 kids has been aggressively solicited to meet their “cyber-friend” in person. One in four kids, ages 10-17, has been exposed to unwanted sexual material online.
Kids are naturally curious. It is easy for them to get enticed into an inappropriate relationship with an adult who may be a child molester.
Thirty million children use the Internet,” Alexander said. “There were 395 million websites one year ago.” Today there are more sites.
Alexander and Champaigne have received specialized training from the federal government on studying computers for forensic evidence. Alexander has a bachelor’s degree with a major in numerical and computational mathematics and a minor in applied computer science from the University of Minnesota, Duluth (UMD.)
“Computers contain a lot of evidence,” said Alexander. “A computer is like a book. When you delete a file it is like ripping out a page in the table of contents.” The chapter is still there. They have two shots at collecting the evidence.
One from the victim’s computer, and one from the perpetrator’s computer.
The two policemen started the presentation by using a laptop and a large movie screen to show the crowd photos of people. They asked the crowd to guess whether or not the person in the photo was a good guy or a bad guy. There is no way to tell by looking at a person’s photo on the web, or reading their screen name, whether they are good or bad. “You cannot tell by looking,” Alexander said. “We don’t know who we are talking to.”
Just recently a Superior man was arrested for attempting to meet a 13 year-old girl for sexual activity. Another Superior man, age 23, was chatting to a 13 year-old girl and sent her nude photos of himself. Not long ago a 56 year-old man working for the university was arrested for making arrangements to meet a teenager for sexual relations. He was caught because her parents notified the FBI.
During this community meeting people learned just how easy it is for a 13 year-old child to be lured into a sexual conversation on the Internet in a matter of minutes. The most dangerous places on the Internet are the chat rooms. A chat room is a space where about 50 people can talk to each other on the Internet. Your screen name is listed along with everyone else’s. Once people see who is in the room they can send a private message.
This presentation was open to adults only, and it didn’t take too long before the conversation turned uncomfortable for mixed company.
Within 30 minutes Alexander’s factious 13 year-old girl named “Ashley1993” had been asked numerous personal sexual questions. One person even gave her directions on how to search her computer for photos of her mom. He was hoping she had a nude photo. “Ashley” said she didn’t have any photos and her mom wouldn’t let her play with the camera. A few minutes later, he persisted by asking her if she had done a search within the computer. “Ashley” never was sexually suggestive and never initiated the questions.
Part of the agreement for the Superior policemen to receive the specialized training from the federal government was that they will give presentations to schools, staff, and parents. Please see the sidebar for information on Internet lingo and Internet safety for children.
After the presentation Raya, a high school student in Duluth, said, “I just think it is horrible what these guys say to these girls.” She has a Myspace account that she uses to correspond with her cousins. She has it set at private and her name and information can not be accessed by a search.
Raya’s mother, Debbie Letourneau, said she came to the presentation because, “When you have a 15 year-old daughter you have to be up to date.” She says of her daughter’s Myspace account, “I get to check it. I log on and talk to her friends.”
Diane Koranda, a social worker with St. Louis County, said she was surprised by the number of children who have computers in their bedrooms. She said computers and televisions should not be in children’s bedrooms. She said searching a child’s internet use is something that a parent must do.
www.cybertipline.com