Both Golf Clubs And Skis Handy Now In Michigan

How much snow has fallen in Northern Michigan this spring?

So much that a hardware store is offering a free snow shovel with each riding lawn mower sold, and a resort is keeping ski slopes open this weekend - even as it heralds the opening of golf season.

“Bring your clubs and your skis. You can’t go wrong,” said Steve King, advertising manager for Boyne Mountain in the northern Lower Peninsula.

While the resort grounds were mostly clear, snow was 12 to 40 inches deep on some shady hillsides, where artificial snow was added to the natural variety until March. Eight of the 27 ski slopes are open. It’s the latest that skiing has been available at Boyne Mountain since it opened in 1948.

At least two ski resorts were open in the Upper Peninsula, parts of which were socked this week by yet another blizzard. Marquette, on the southern shore of Lake Superior, got 14 inches, bringing the seasonal total to a record 251.4 inches.

Northern Michigan is no stranger to long, cold winters. April weather is iffy at best. But by May, people consider a snowless ground and mild temperatures a constitutional right.

Adding insult to injury, snow came earlier than usual last fall.