Every year, Yoopers hold their breath over what the fabled “St Patty’s Day Storm” will bring. This year, the storm broke a 100-year record for Marquette, MI as the National Weather Service logged 36.3 inches of snow!

While many shoveled, plowed, or front-end loader-ed out their properties, videos went viral as several Yoopers took advantage of the weather and skied across town or extreme snowboarded down the snowy streets. Some even took to the streets on their snowmobiles to check on neighbors and transport shovels & other snow moving equipment. One Yooper got creative and rode their sled behind their snowblower for faster transport!

Fred the dog wasn’t about to let the blizzard stop his routine of treats and pets from the neighbor and travelled over the high snow, piled up to nearly the top of her sliding glass door, for his daily visit!

For skiers, snowshoers, and snow bike riders, the end of their season is about this time in the UP. However, this amount of snow has made for a longer season and great trails. The Noquemanon Trail Network (NTN) groomers worked hard post-storm to get trails in perfect condition for the extended season.

Marquette Mountain had to close for a few days to dig out their chairlifts and equipment, but re-opened to downhill skiers and snowboarders with phenomenal conditions on both groomed and ungroomed runs promising “epic powder stashes in the glades!”

This winter has certainly been one for the record books and Hemlock Park is central to it all. Just 5 minutes from downtown Marquette, a walk across the street from the NTN trails, and 1 mile from Marquette Mountain.