Mary Beth Writes

By the way, HAPPY HALLOWEEN today! 

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10/31/2022   Fata Morgana

A beautiful little hike on planet earth is the Houghton Falls trail just north of Washburn on Bayfield Peninsula. It’s a relatively easy path through woods, much on walkways, but it surprises as you suddenly come along a gorge that falls away on your right. The gorge is called Echo Dells and you can take stairs down into it. The trail itself continues to a rocky cliff overlooking Lake Superior. Although this isn’t a complicated or strenuous trail, I do advise crampons on your shoes or boots because there are mild inclines that tend to be icy. I did parts of this hike on my butt one year; we bought the crampons in Washburn after that hike and they are a good idea for people who don’t want to do free osteoporosis tests (falling).

We were the first people to this trailhead on our Ashland trip two weeks ago. The trees were in their whoop-whoop glory of reds and golds and burgundies and it had been snowing a bit all night and still was. It was so beautiful that cold morning!

So, lovely little hike in a nice place, quiet morning, pretty leaves. Nothing here to utterly knock your socks off, right? Well, we eventually got to the Lake Superior overlook which is here.

Len was looking through the binoculars when he realized that blue line in the distance was not an island. It was a mirage of the trees from an island below the horizon.

We tried to take photos but they are not as clear as what we saw through the binoculars. The image was an entire wavery misty pine forest floating along the lake as far as we could see.   

This photo he took later in the day on Chequamegon Bay shows more clearly the phenomenon we were seeing.

In case you as scientifically challenged as I am, this is more or less what’s going on. The weather had turned cold very quickly; the air was much colder than the water. Rays of light bend when they pass through air layers of different temperatures. A layer of significantly colder or warmer air can form an atmospheric duct (literally a long “tube” of air right above the horizon) that acts as a refracting lens which reflects images from below the horizon.

This phenomenon has the cool name of Fata Morgana. It refers to the Arthurian sorceress "Morgan the Fairy” as in, what you are seeing are Fairy Castles in the air.

There are many stories (Fata Morgana, Wikipedia) of early explorers turning around because of mirage mountains or sailing towards lands that didn’t exist. The mysterious Flying Dutchman is the ship that sails the seas forever and is undoubtedly a mirage ship seen by sailors. 

That was a good adventure. We went not knowing exactly what we would see and that is exactly what we saw.

 

                                                                                                                      

Comments

Thank you for the explanation of something I've seen many times. A Magical name for a magical phenomenon. Your hike looks like it was pretty Magical, too!

Gorgeous pictures. I’ll pass on the free osteoporosis testing. Ha Your adventure sounds like it was fun!

Beautiful!!! Thank you...

Great pictures!

Great pictures!

Too cool! Amazing photograph, Len! I am truly and unduly impressed!

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Y is for Yellowstone

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Grownups Noticing Their Lives

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IRTNOG

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Tag Cloud

9/11 17 minutes 500 Words A-Z AARPtaxes AAUW abortion Acadia accident Accountable Advent aging Alaska anniversary antibiotics antlers apples appointments Arrows art Ashland August Augustine aunts baby Badlands balance Baldwin Barbara Barkskins Beauty Becky Becoming Esther Berry birthday bistro BLM Blue BookReport books boy scout Bread BrokenDays BuyAngry Cabeza de Vaca Cahokia calendars Canada canoe cat romance cats cello Chicago China Choosing Christmas cilantro Cinnabuns circus climate change clouds Clowns clutter Colonialism comet ComfortZone CommonSense community consumerism Cops Corvid-19 Courage Covid-19 Crazy creditreport creosote CrimeShows danger DarkRiver death Debate December DecisionFatigue decluttering democracy dentist depression Destination Today Detroit Didion disasterprep dogs dollhouse Dreams Duty Easter eBay Echoes Eclipse election EmilyDickinson eschatology Esquipulas exit polls eyes Fable FairTrade family farmer Fata Morgana ferns firealarm Fitness Five Flatbread Flexible flu Food Pantry Fort de Chartres frame Franc FrancGarcia friends frugal FrugalHacks Frugality frustration Ft.Ticonderoga fungi fusion Galena Gannets Garden GarfieldParkConservatory Gaspe genius geode GeorgeFloyd gerrymandering ghosts gifts girls GNTL gorgons goulash GovernorThompsonStatePark Graduation grandkids granola groceries Guatemala gum guns Hair happiness HaveYouEver? hawks healthcare Healthinsurance hearings heart heaven HelleKBerry heroes hike History home HomeRepair Honduras Hope HowCrowGotOutofJail humor hurricane Ice Cream idiosyncrasy igloos impeachment Innkeeper Instincts integrity InternetPrivacy Interview InviteMe2Speak James Baldwin Jan 6 Janus jewelry JoyceAndrews Judy JulianofNorwich Jump justice Karen kites ladder Lady Lamb LangstonHuges LaphamPeak laundry LeeLeeMcKnight lemming Len Light Lincoln Little Women LockedOut Loki loneliness LouisArmstrong Love Ludington Macaw macho Manitoulin MargaretFuller Maria Hamilton Marquette marriage Marsden Hartley masks Mayan MayaWorks meme Memories men Middlemarch MilesWallyDiego MindfulChickens Mistakes MLK moon Mother MothersDay mounds mouser movies museums must-haves Mustapha NAMI Nancy Drew Newfoundland New Mexico New York City Nomadland nope observation OBUUC Ocotillo OnaJudge ordinary OscarRomero osprey Outside oximeter Parade mayhem PastorBettyRendon Paul Hessert PDQ Penny persimmon photos Pi Pies pineapples poetry Preaching privacy procrastination Protest QE2 Quern quest Questions Rabbit holes racism reading recipe recipes recommendations Remember RepresentationMatters Reruns responsetoKapenga Retirement rhubarb Ricky rime RitesofPassage romance Rosemary Ruether Roses Roti Ruth SamaritanWoman Sanctuary Sandhillcranes Santuario de Chimayo SaraKurtz SaraRodriguez satellites ScottSimon sculpture Seasons Sermon ServantsoftheQuest sewing Shepherd Shontay ShortStory shoulder sick sickness Slower snow Social Security SofritoBandito solstice South Dakota SpaceShuttle spirituality spring square feet staining stars stele Stereotypes stories StoryStarts stream monitoring stress Survival swim Talent taxes teenager thankgsgiving Thanksgiving TheBridge TheMaid ThePerpetualYou therapy ThreeBillBoards Three Thing ThreeThings Three Things TidalBore TimeBeing toddler Tom tortillas Trains travel Traveler Tubing turtle Twilight Bark Tyrone Ukraine Ulysses Grant Umbrella UnrelatedObservations Up North urgency vacation vaccine Valentines vanilla Vietnam vision VivianWokeUpDrowning Vocabulary vole volunteer WalkingAndSeeing Wampanaog war WarsanShire weather weaving Webs wedding whines WhyAttendChurch Wiley Willa WillaCather Wisteria Won! Wonder words Xeriscape Yellowstone
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