Looking Toward Lake Erie

You are standing in Fairport Harbor, Ohio, looking north toward Lake Erie. Behind you is the original Fairport Harbor lighthouse, which is no longer active and has been turned into a museum. That amphitheater down the hill is part of the lighthouse grounds. Beyond it is the town’s waterworks building. In the distance is the Fairport Harbor West Breakwater lighthouse, which is still used.

Snow on the Beach

Hobie Beach on Eagle Creek Reservoir in Indianapolis will never be confused with Headlands Beach State Park near Grand River, Ohio, on Lake Erie, but I can get to the former by foot in a few minutes. Headlands was a favorite place to visit even in the winter. Hobie Beach may be much smaller, but it reminds me a little of Headlands during the winter months.

Sandusky Bay On Both Sides

I’m aboard an Amtrak train passing Sandusky Bay, which is part of Lake Erie, just west of Sandusky, Ohio.

I noticed that the windows from the other side of the coach were reflecting in my window so I decided to try something.

By incorporating the reflection into my image I can show both sides of the bay.

Most of the image is looking southward whereas the reflection shows the Lake Erie side of the bay.

Wanted: Some of that Cold Air and Ice

As I write this in late June 2019 Europe is sweltering in record high temperatures and the Midwest where I live high temperatures are reaching the upper 80s to lower 90s this weekend.

Whenever it gets this hot I think about how I wish we could have saved some of the cold air from January and release it to cool things down.

Of course on frigid winter days I wish for the reverse that we could release some of that summer heat.

Shown is sheet ice on the shore at Headlands Beach State Park on Lake Erie near Painesville and Mentor, Ohio.

I would think that beaches will be a popular place this weekend.

Wintery Footprint

I was walking on the frozen beach at Headlands Beach State Park a couple of winters ago when this footprint caught my attention.

The extreme cold has frozen the sand, which made walking on the beach much easier than normal.

The forces of falling snow and blow winds combined to fill his this footprint that had been left before the cold struck.

In time the sand will thaw and the forces of nature will melt the snow and obliterate this footprint.

But for awhile it enjoyed a much longer life span that it would have had in any other season.

Exploring the Ice

Not long after the spell of extremely frigid air moved out, I made a trip to Headlands Beach State Park to check out the ice on the shore of Lake Erie.

A newspaper story had said the lake was 75 percent ice covered and I wondered if the ice looked as spectacular as it did in January 2018.

The short answer is no, it was not as impressive. But did not stop a crowd of people from exploring the ice along the beach on this sunny winter afternoon.

Ice had accumulated next to the beach, but not in the thick sheets that had existed the previous year.

Sand from the beach covered some of the ice, giving is a “dirty look.”

In the background is the Fairport Harbor West Breakwater lighthouse.

Looks Like the Arctic Circle

I went to Headlands Beach State Park on a recent Sunday to seek out and photograph ice on Lake Erie. We had had a spell of very cold temperatures following by a few days of above freezing weather.

On Friday Northeast Ohio awakened to temperatures in the upper 50s. But a storm moved in from the northwest and the temperatures plummeted. The storm also brought snow and freezing rain.

Two days later we were treated to a sunny day, albeit with temperatures in the teens.

I was not disappointed in my quest for ice. In the foreground sheets of shelf ice have piled up after hitting an accumulation of ice that began forming in December.

Beyond the shelf ice is deep blue water, but beyond that the lake remains mostly ice-covered.

Out of Place

This buoy is supposed to be several hundred feet out in the water off the shore of Lake Erie at Headlands Beach State Park to warn boaters.

But somehow it became uprooted and drifted toward the shore. There is no telling how long it will be here before either being picked up and discarded or put back into place.

I happened upon it while walking on the beach on the last official day of summer.

Brick Sandwich

There are people who like to walk the Lake Erie beach at Headlands Beach State Park near Mentor, Ohio, looking for whatever catches their eye.

They carry bags and seek glass, rocks, driftwood and who knows what else to take home and put on display.

But would someone take home this? It appears to be a brick that washed ashore, but in my imagination it is akin to a brick sandwich with its layer of red surrounding an interior of light gray.

 

Field of Driftwood

You will find driftwood on just about any beach. Trees get knocked down in storms, fall into a lake and the water current takes them along for a ride.

In time, the currents carry the drifting wood back to shore and deposit it. Maybe a high tide will sweep the wood back out for another ride on the water or maybe this will be the permanent home for the piece of driftwood.

This field of driftwood is at the far eastern end of the beach at Headlands Beach State Park near Mentor, Ohio.

In the background is the Fairport Harbor West Breakwater lighthouse.