TRAIL CONDITIONS: Poor
NEW SNOW LAST 24 HRS: 0″
Hello Sled Heads! Well, this is certainly starting out to be another rough winter season. Hoping that this El Niño talk isn’t the real thing? Businesses in the North Woods need the winter recreation revenue and Coyote, as well as many other places, are sure nervous.
During this Holiday season I’ve been thinking a lot about the passing of the legendary John Dee, who many of us followed for both weather forecasts and trail reports. For many years, when living in Indiana, our family read his reports religiously and loved his personal journals about life in the Keweenaw, his beloved family, and dogs. I was always so envious of his life and “bravery” to leave the Chicago suburbs for the uncertainty of life in the Keweenaw. I fantasized, like many of you, of living where waste deep snow was expected most every winter and the storms were “real”, unlike what we see in most of lower Michigan and certainly Indiana.
In 2010 our family left a steady career and central Indiana to chase a dream of mine to live in Northern Michigan and purchase Coyote Crossing Resort. Although our snows have not always been what we have hoped for, the life that we have created up here has been fantastic. Having kids in the 6th & 8th grade at the time of our move, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t use John Dee as some comfort and motivation. I never got the chance to meet him personally, but sure felt like I knew John, his wife, Nora, and daughter, Grace. Being almost the exact same age as John, it really hit me hard when he passed away in November.
John was an amazing ambassador for our sport of snowmobiling and also quite generous in fundraising for various causes. Please remember John and his family during this Holiday season and try and do something to give back to your community or snowmobiling, and do it in remembrance of a snowmobiling icon, who always put others before himself. Here’s a link to his obituary:
http://www.keweenawreport.com/news/obituary-john-paul-dee/
#ElNinoSucks
Good night from Wexford County!
– Pete, Julie, Lewis, Ali & Willa
