lake effect

I was up on the Iron Range today. The range is not that far from Lake Superior yet it is such a different landscape. There are huge industrial taconite processing plants growing out of bogs that seem to create their own weather and clouds. This is more exaggerated on a cold day like today. Driving around the range you can tell where there is a taconite  plant by the huge plums of steam that drift skyward. I was driving back to Duluth on St. Louis County Highway 7 when I noticed these clouds on the horizon. It is a Burlington Northern train full of pellets fresh out of the kiln waiting for a ride to an ore dock to be loaded into a laker. Even though the landscape differs between the lake and the range, I can feel the symbiotic relationship that exists between the two, especially when I am on the Iron Range.