Last week on Wednesday, Jan. 7th, Taana Blom shared some photos of the Keweenaw Waterway out near the Lower Entry Lighthouse, which showed the ice forming on the canal. Today she has some photos of what she figures is a critter of some sorts, having fun out on the ice, walking in circles to check everything out. She’s thinking perhaps a fox and said there was a slushy layer on top, which then froze with the tracks like that and she thought it looked pretty cool (literally!). I totally agree... I love the way the critter was just casually walking along, where it normally wouldn’t be able to go without the ice. Note how it seems to skirt around the places that look like the ice may be a bit thinner, too. Really neat to see.

In The Keweenaw gives us a night time view around Hancock/Houghton and the Portage Lake Lift Bridge and Canal, which also looks to be freezing UP. This was recorded a week ago and remember, no matter how frozen it looks, always stay off the ice, especially with snowmobiles! Consider this your annual winter warning. Foxes are much lighter than people or snowmobiles, so they can get away with walking on the ice... you might not be as lucky!

Very cool pictures! I wonder how thick the ice is
out there. I'll never find out, lol.

Awesome pictures! Looks like the critter may have
been looking for an ice fishing hole. Some lil guy
looking to make it to Discover the U.P.!

I like the vid...too bad they can't do one on
Christmas lights~ That would be so stunning.

Interesting set.
The tracks remind
me of a
LiMu the Emu
commercial,
but UP Emus have
migrated south
by now.
Nice video!
And luckily no
Emu bird strikes
to worry about.
Bundle and save!

Hi
I'm having a little trouble seeing how a four-
legged animal would leave those tracks...but I'm
also not buying an emu.

Deb S., I agree. At 71, I find myself cautious
about a lot of things. My dad & his pilot buddies
had a saying:

There are old pilots and there are bold pilots.
But there are no old, bold pilots.

Whether that meant the bold pilots learned
caution, or that they didn't live to be old is a
matter of interpretation.

My observations:
The bright white in each "track" is snow filling up what seems like rather large depressions. The tracks in the 1st photo, on the left side, are oval looking with a dark spot in the middle, meaning the center of each "track" is higher than the outer edges. Therefore, snow didn't accumulate.

I'm not buying the fox or any small animal explanation. While there is no clear frame of reference (like a yard stick laying near), the gait appears to be much longer than expected. They also appear to be more inline rather than created by a 4 leg or even a 2 leg animal. There is no width separation left to right. Or if there is, the camera is too far away to detect it. If the camera is too far away to see the width separation of something walking or running, but then that greater camera distance supports a longer gait length.

Instead of a UFO or UAP (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena),
maybe it's a UIO (Unidentified Ice Object) or UIP (Unidentified Ice Phenomena)

I really like the night flight.

Sasquatch's tracks