Check out this video, provided by Friends of Sleeping Bear’s Kerry Kelly, of the Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail’s grooming machine at work. The conditions are great, so get out there and cross-country ski!
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Escape from the winter blues at the 14th annual Glen Arbor Winterfest on Saturday, Feb. 15. Festivities start at 7 a.m. with the beginning of the Perch Fishing Contest, with prizes for forest through fourth place catches. All participants will bring their biggest catches from Big and Little Glen to the Sportsman Shop at 1 p.m., and winners will be crowned. Entry fee for this event is $20, and all ages are welcome to participate.
The League of Women Voters Leelanau County (LWVLC) Energy Committee will host a public forum on “Community Energy Resilience: How do we achieve it?” Tuesday evening February 25 from 6-9 p.m. in the Leelanau County Government Center. The League’s goal is to create community conversations related to saving energy, generating electricity, and learning how “less can be more”, all related to building resilience in the face of energy issues that are and will continue to impact our community.
The Pathways to Sleeping Bear campaign reached the $2 million milestone in private fundraising. Campaign Co-Chair Carol Quarderer and her husband George shared, “We are thrilled and grateful to hit the $2 million mark in fundraising for the Sleeping Bear Heritage Trail. We deeply appreciate the support and generosity of our donors. This beautiful trail will continue to bring many benefits to both our local community and visitors.”
In a rare and extensive interview with the Glen Arbor Sun today, Remo Polselli admitted that he is the owner of Sugar Loaf resort, through his share in Rok Investments LLC. Polselli did not specify the extent of his ownership, or who else is involved in the corporation, but added that Liko Smith has no — nor has had any — part of Rok Investments.
Neither the Glen Arbor Sun nor any other media outlet in Northern Michigan seems to know exactly if/when Liko Smith will show up to claim Sugar Loaf/allow Leelanau County inspector Steve Haugen to tour the premises. Claims that Smith and Haugen would tour the property today, January 31, and that Smith would meet the public over karaoke tonight at the Cedar Tavern proved incorrect. Liko Smith emailed various media sources today that the inspection will now take place on Friday, February 7. Meanwhile, it remains a mystery as to who actually controls/owns the long-shuttered ski resort, and what their true intentions/motives are. One thing is certain: we journalists are pecking and clawing for every little scrap like vultures in a garbage dump.
The Glen Arbor Art Association, The Homestead resort and the Leelanau Peninsula Wine Trail will again team up to offer Art From Michigan’s Wine Country on Friday, Feb. 7, from 6-8 p.m. at The Homestead’s Mountain Flowers Lodge. Now in its sixth year, this fun winter event kicks off Leelanau Peninsula Wine Trail’s Taste the Passion weekend. The Friday night GAAA benefit features wine from Leelanau wineries, original art exhibits and sales by local artists and a small plates menu designed by Chef Piombo.
Folks around town can’t exactly remember the last time the surface of Big Glen Lake froze by early January. Some say 15 years, some say 50. Captain Bob Smith at the Sportsman Shop says Big Glen doesn’t typically freeze until Martin Luther King, Jr., weekend in late January. Regardless, by Jan. 2, there were ice shanties on Big Glen (Little Glen had them by mid-December). A week later, the hum of snowmobiles could be heard from Glen Craft Marina.
The Glen Arbor Sun spoke to Crystal River Outfitters co-owner Katy Wiesen about the impact this early, snowy winter has had on their business. “The key to surviving a Northern Michigan winter is getting out and embracing it. This year’s early winter definitely started winter business off much sooner than expected! Our first cross-country ski and snowshoe rentals went out Thanksgiving weekend. The snowy conditions give visitors even more of a reason to come up north knowing that there are more recreational opportunities.”