Just After Sunrise (2), photo by siskokid.

Jim writes that nothing beats the early morning light as it falls on the ice and snow of frozen Lake Superior. He took three shots (#1 and #3) from the beach at Little Girl’s Point in the far western end of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan on a very cold Sunday morning in January. The day before this shot was taken some ice fishermen found out the hard way how capricious Superior’s ice can be. Sam Cook’s story begins:

For an hour and a half, Skip Wick had been trying to stay upright on a chunk of ice in Lake Superior’s 8-foot swells.

The 80-year-old ice angler, stranded on the lake Saturday after big waves undermined the ice in Saxon Harbor east of Ashland, knew his options were limited.

“As I was standing there, the ice kept breaking up,” said Wick, a retired shop teacher from Hurley, Wis. “There was a big roar, like a jet going over, and here would come a wave.”

The roar was the sound of the waves, later estimated by Ashland firefighters at 8 to 12 feet, lifting and grinding chunks of ice as far as Wick could see. The chunk he was on was about as long and wide as a car, he said.

If you read on, you will learn how they were eventually rescued with an air boat, or wind sled, called an Ice Angel. Many who challenge Superior or any of the Great Lakes in wintertime are less luck.

Check this out background big and in Jim’s massive Lake Superior slideshow.

While this might seem like the ice goes on forever, as you can see from the satellite view, it barely dents the lake! More winter wallpaper on Michigan in Pictures.