Snow Adventure [Part 1]

Just a few days ago I went on a nice day-long adventure in the snow-covered woods with some friends. It was all spur of the moment. I woke up that morning not expecting to do anything but the sky was blue.

Just as I noticed what a nice day it was my buddy @logicluke rings me up and wants to go on a snow-hike adventure.

I wasn't about to exclude my other buddy @honeybadger-1 so I called him up to see if he wanted to tag a long. It was a sure thing, so we were off. Windshield crack and all. I've been really motivated to get out there and capture great photo's for the Steemit Community with the Nikon that I bought just to share high quality pictures with you! So that was the main focus of our adventure. I was happy to have my good friends support me in this and we all had fun anyways. I took over 2000 pictures that day and I am only sharing the best ones of the bunch!

I am hoping to get them to start blogging more on steemit soon, but @honeybadger-1 has PC issues and @logicluke has other priorities right now. They aren't much bloggers, but they have talents that I feel would be a worthy addition to Steemit! I think everyone has potential as long as they are themselves. At best, they require my assistance when it comes to posting and editing a post (especially with markdown) since they're not as savvy with computer as I am, but we all learn from each other. Slowly but surely, I am converting all my friends into Steemians!

Anticipating a Great Day

This would be the first time I take my new Nikon D3400 on a photography adventure since I unboxed it 23 days ago. It's been extremely cold so it's been difficult getting out there. When it finally warmed up we got slammed with a blizzard, so it was a perfect opportunity! In fact, we are currently getting hit with another blizzard and are expecting more snow. Perhaps another snow-filled adventure is due tomorrow!

Waiting for us to arrive at our first destination, The Mouth of the Brule River, I couldn't help but snap a few pictures along the way.

When we arrived, there was a lot of deep snow and access to the shore was cut off, so our stay here was short. We stuck around long enough to get some pictures but our main focus was finding some woods to hike in. This was also the first time I had been to this particular area. I haven't explored my city as much as I should have since I moved here in 2009, so I'm making a bigger effort to explore as much of it as possible. After all, I'm in the Greatest Outdoor City in America!

Here, one of Wisconsin’s most historic and beloved rivers joins America’s largest freshwater lake. The Bois Brule River, famous for trout fishing, canoeing, and unparalleled beauty was important to early travelers as a waterway connecting Lake Superior and the Mississippi River.

The first written history of the Brule River comes from the French explorer, and diplomat Daniel Greysolon Sieux di Lhut in June of 1680.

“...I entered into a river which has its mouth eight leagues from the extremity of Lake Superior on the south side, where after having cut down some trees and broken through about one hundred beaver dams, I went up the said river, and then made carry of a half a league to reach a lake…”

The Brule River was used as a highway for many years to transport goods and people into the interior of the continent. After the decline in the fur industry, the American Fur Company operated a fish camp near this site in 1839.

1880 saw the start of the Clevedon colony near the current mouth of the Brule River. 30 tradesmen and their families came here from Bristol England to operate a fishing station; they packed the fish for market in barrels they built in their cooperage shop. The tradesmen left the colony in 1886 due to a lack of frontier skills needed to carve a colony out of the wilderness.

Around 1900 a logging dam was built about a ½ mile upstream from the Mouth of the River. Logs were sorted at the mouth, stamped and rafted to large sawmills in Duluth.

In 1907 the Brule River State Forest was established near the present day town of Brule with a gift of 4,000 acres of land from Frederick Weyerhaeuser. In 1959 the Brule River State Forest was expanded to include the Mouth of the Brule River.

I plan on booking a Canoe ride down this river come summertime!

We only had access to this picturesque picnic area that was elevated from the lake. Without snow shoes, we weren't all willing to jump down to the shore when we could find easier access closer to town. It still made for an amazing view! Here we discussed the view, and I was able to capture the moment. There was a walkway that was falling apart and I realize now I should have taken a picture of that. As I learn more about my photographers eye, I realize now there was a lot more to capture in this one little picnic area we were at. I will be buying snowshoes this week to have better access!

Then I pulled out my AF-P DX NIKKOR 70-300mm f/4.5-6.3G ED Lens to get a close-up shot of the Ski-Hill in my city. We were quite a ways away and I was surprised at how close I got! Zoomed in at 300mm According to the map, the entire city of superior falls below the horizon in this shot, making it invisible, with the hill behind it showing all the way to the bottom.

A direct distance of about 29 miles, this was a good test to see just how good the Zoom lens is, however; I also made sure to try and focus all the icebergs in the water! It's quite the sight to see one of the largest fresh water lakes in the world almost completely frozen over.

Being out here getting fresh air was a wonderful feeling. It really allows me to slow life down and enjoy the now and not worry about tomorrow. Being able to capture moments with a great photo is something I've always wanted to do and have never been able to.

Without snowshoes, we were sinking in the snow already so we figured it would be best to find a hiking path that people are sure to frequent, so it was back to the car as we quickly grew bored of the picnic area. @honeybadger-1 wanted to jump down to the shore, but I convinced him otherwise. It just didn't look safe.

We shuffled back to the car and decided it was time to head to Amnicon Falls State Park

Once we got there, it was truly peaceful. All you heard was the occasional wind blowing, pine leaves waving in the wind as snow dropped from them and scattered in all directions. It was like experiencing temporary snow falls every couple of minutes!

This made for truly spectacular shots that required perfect timing! I was more focused on this effect than any part of the frozen river! Every time the wind would blew, there were new amazing pictures to take!

Words cannot describe the peace when you're out there. I think the fact that it's cold makes it 10x more peaceful. You don't hear the river or the waterfall running, and since it's not summer, you don't smell the mist of the waterfalls as you walk through the trails. Just fresh cold air as the beauty if nature is frozen in silence and covered in a blanket of white powder. A true interpretation of a Winter Wonderland! As we walked around, there were so many great photo's to capture that I've had to scale most of these down or I'd run out of bandwidth real fast. Normally, my pictures are 6000 x 4000 and about 12 mb. I do this so as to upload the highest quality, but I feel that I've learned it can be extremely wasteful for bandwidth.

I stopped to take a selfie, but my expensive DSLR was just too bulky and heavy. I almost dropped it trying to get one, so I quickly gave up and settled with a shadow selfie!

However; as we furthered into the woods, I was slowly learning what settings I needed to use so that all my friends had to do was point and click (with a little focus tweaking). A few routes were more risky than others, and since we didn't have snow shows, we played it safe. Where there are no trees, there sits a frozen river underneath!

We hadn't even crossed the entrance yet and I had already gathered a quite few amazing shots!

I needed to do something positive and I made it happen. Stay positive Steemians! We're all in this together! Hard work pays off and we're all here working hard to make this place great by adding content. Taking a stroll through the woods certainly helped me realize that everything is falling into place for me. It's important to put down the cellphone and put down the social media to enjoy the great outdoors. It reminds me that I spend too much time indoors during the winters and I should make a bigger effort to get out there even though it's cold. As long as it's not too cold, I will keep on posting about my hiking adventures in the snow!

Stay tuned for Part two which will have the second half of my hiking adventure! Once we a got few river and ice shots in,
our focus quickly turned on the effect that the snow creates when the wind blows, and we even created our own effects by shaking some trees! I don't think you will want to miss it!

The Amnicon River normally flows between and around these two boulders. Not today!

Thanks for reading and God Bless! I hope you enjoyed the pictures! I took them to share exclusively with the Steemit Community! Steem On Everyone!

@bitfiend

When I joined Steemit I made the decision to always Power-Up my earnings. For now, payouts are set to 50/50 but you bet I will convert & Power Up! Besides internal transfers, I have never cashed out and don't plan on it! Moving forward I will probably not join contests that require me to send SBD. Power-Up only!