Apostle Islands

Yesterday morning we left Houghton at 0515 for a long day, 104 miles across the lake to the Apostles. It was forcast to be flat, and after the first hour it was. The trip was eventful for only one issue, out in the middle, 15 miles offshore, we hit a vertically floating log with the tip sticking up only an inch or two, in 700 feet of water. No damage but it thumped and scared the crap out of us. The time zone changed as we crossed into Wisconsin waters, so we arrived at 4:30 in the afternoon but it was a 12 hour crossing. We tied up at a National Park dock last night at Stockton Island where we took Jeff Janacek's boat on our first trip 15 or 20 years ago. We met a nice couple from Washburn Wisconsin and had a little happy our on their boat. This morning Cindy ran the trails on the island and I took a hike, with plans to visit the sea caves on Devils Island and Sand Island later today. At this point we are set to move on to Duluth tomorrow morning with an anticipated arrival early afternoon if all things go well. The weather looks good for the next couple of days.

Dodging flotsam

Houghton-Hancock lift bridge at 5:15 in the morning

Lighthouse at the west entrance to the Keeweenaw Channel and Portage River

Flat day crossing the big lake

Leaving Stockton Island this morning

Stockton Island trail

Julien Bay

Julian Bay

Big Chute

Here is a video of when we went overlan on the rail portage of the Big Chute. I didn't post it before because of lack of internet access.

Weatherbound

The past two nights we have been tied to a public dock/wall in Houghton Hancock. After leaving Whitefish Point, we went to a marina at Munising, which was delightful. They had great docks at a park, and a bunch of tour boats that make trips to the picture rocks on the south shore of the lake. The Picture Rocks are not pictographs, but cliffs of sandstone that have eroded and are really impressive. We diverted to the shoreline to look at them. There were waterfalls that cascaded off the tops of the cliffs and the colors were amazing. There were a ton of kayakers from the tour boats paddling the edge of the cliffs. As we putted along the shore, taking pictures and Cindy noticed a handheld VHF radio floating in the water, so we circled around and picked it up. I called the tour boat to see if it might be one of theirs and the operator informed me they had lost two of them this week, so we got close to them and handed it over with a boat hook. In Munising we found a local brewery and some good pizza, then took advantage of the good weather and moved on to Marquette, where we stayed a night, got the holding tank pumped out and had a nice meal of whitefish soup and sandwich. We then moved on to Houghton Hancock, taking the route through Portage Lake, knowing the weather was getting ready to turn sour. As we came through the Portage River and Portage Lake, approaching the public dock/wall, I increased speed to about 80% of full throttle, as I usually do toward the end of the day. It's good for the engine. Within just a few minutes, I got a call on the VHF. It was the US Coast Guard, and I thought oh crap, I'm going to get a speeding ticket (at 8 knots), but nope, they just wanted to board us and do a safety inspection. Really nice guys, two of whom had been through the Boy Scout base on Moose Lake. Anyway, they said the only reason they pulled us over was because they need to do a compliance check and we were the only boat on the water. We have been tied up here on the Houghton side just east of the lift bridge over the canal because it's been blowing. The big lake would not be dangerous but really uncomfortable with head seas at 3-4 feet and a very short period, so we will wait until tomorrow to move on to the Apostles for a couple of nights then to Duluth on Saturday, assuming all things mechanical stay good. In the mean time, Houghton has given Cindy some thrift stores to check out and a great hill to bike up for a workout.

Big pizza oven in Munising

A nice flight of good beers in Munising

Picture Rocks

Huge sand dunes enroute to Munising

Gin clear water at the Picture Rocks

Tour booat missing a VHF radio

Farm on the Portage River

Getting inspected

Keeweenaw Brewing Company, November Gale Pale Ale

The Big Lake

We locked through the Canadian side Soo Lock right at noon yesterday, the last portage until fall. The day before we finished crossing the North Channel, the western half was not as rocky and looked more like Lake Vermillion rather than the BWCA like terrain on the eastern half. Made camp in a quiet bay before entering the St. Josephs Channel. Yesterday we ate current going upstream in the channel and in the St. Mary's River, then entered the Soo Lock on the Canadian side. It is preferred that the recreational boats use this lock rather than the two big locks on the US side. We locked through with a tour boat beside us and entered the channel above with more current for 8 miles until we entered Whitefish Bay. Cleared into the US shortly after exiting the lock using the CBP Roam app with only a slight delay until I found my password. We crossed Whitefish Bay and tied up to a free dock at Whitefish Point around 4, with enough time to hike to the Shipwreck Musum a mile down the road. The Michigan side is pretty flat sand dune country, but looking across to the Canadian side, it looked like mountains. the hike down the road and back to the museum was a mile, through a jackpine bog filled with blueberry bushes still blooming, and more mosquitos than I have seen in a while. They didn't eat much though. The museum covered the shipwrecks mainly in the Whitefish Bay and Eastern Lake Superior, and a lot about the Edmund Fitzgerald. Interesting but maybe not the best move prior to transiting the lake. We met a couple at the dock from the Twin Cities on a Marine Trader. They had done the loop a couple of years ago. Turned out a number of years ago, he bought a boat from Bill Defenbaugh in Ely, and his son worked for Harristhal's when they owned Canadian Border Oufitters. Today we re heading for either Grand Marais, Michigan or Munising, depending on weather and time, then on to Marquette tomorrow if all goes well.

grain hauler on Whitefish Bay

And another

St. Mary's Rapids at the Soo

Entering St. Joseph's Channel

These lighthouses are scattered all over

Locking through with a tour boat

Coast Guard building at the Shipwreck Museum

Underway on the big lake this morning

Sunrise this morning at the dock we stayed at

Georgian Bay and the North Channel

I swear Canadian internet is third world. Our access has been pretty limited, and despite Verizon's plan which is supposed to give unlimited data even in Canada, they cut me off at 0.5 gigs of data. When I am using the internet for navigational support, that data allotment can be gone in a couple of hours. Anyway, we have crossed the Big Chute portage and into Georgian Bay, up the small craft "inside channel" on Georgian Bay, passed the Little Current narrows and swing bridge, and into the North Channel. The Big Chute was very cool. The boat was loaded on a rail system and hauled out of the water for 600 feet to the landing below. I videoed the trip and will post it when our internet is better. Reminded me again of Loon River. Our weather has been spectacular for crossing the big water, often just flat calm. We have had some beautiful camps. Georgian Bay using the inside route is beautiful. This whole country is like being at home. The rocks, plants, birds and critters are all the same. The inside route does pose interesting challenges navigtionally. Much of it is following the bouys and mrkers and in places they or only 30 feet between the reds and greens, and the bottom isn't Georgia mud if you make a mistake. We anchored the first might in Georgian Bay at Beausoliel Island, part of the Parks Canada system. Cindy got a run in on their trail system and I got a good paddle. Monday heading up the shore we anchored at Snug Harbor the next night, protected with a few cabins around. The Canadians call them cottages. Tuesday we took a bit shorter day to the Bustard Islands, anchoring in a long narrow deep channel called the "Gun Barrel". The water looked pretty fishy and I made a good effort but I swear it's the dead sea. Yesterday we crossed the top of Georgian Bay, all straight deep water, through Little Current, which has a swing bridge that opens on the hour. We timed it so we only had to wait 15 minutes or so, then made camp at the Benjamen Islands at the same place we anchored 10 years ago when we chartered a boat from Canadian Yacht Charters with Barry and Bethanie. It is one of the prettiest spots we have been. High bald pink granite hills, like Warrior Hill an Lac La  Croix, only on steroids. Today we hope to cross the rest of the North Channel setting us up to go trhough the Soo Locks tomorrow and into Lake Superior.

"Mountains" of northern Georgian Bay

Little Current swing bridge

The Benjamins

View from the hill at the Benjamins

At the Benjamins the Moccasin Flowers were everywhere

We paddled to shore to hike the island

Sunset on the Benjamins

Light House where the small craft channel exits into northern Georgian Bay

tight navigation on the inside channel

No room for error

Snug Harbor anchorage

The Big Chute railway cradle. Our boat fit right into it

47 foot drop through lock 42 on the Trent Severn

This guy held us up for 30 minutes waiting to pass by the swing bridge

Lake Simcoe

We are off this morning crossing Lake Simcoe. The night before we came through and stayed at a nice Parks Canada dock at Bobcaygeon, went out for pizza and hoped for a local brew, but they were out. The pizza was excellent but I opted for water rather than a bad beer. We came through a lake that absolutely could have been Burntside, rock outcroppings and deep water and reefs, but that was the only lake so far that looked like that, and I'm a biit surpised. The shorelines are sure lined with "home" though. We entered an extremely narrow section of the canal approaching the Kirkfield hydraulic lock where passing another boat the size of ours would not have been possible. The channel is only 30 feet wide in places, so before entering this section, we got on the radio and broadcasted our entrance. The Kirkfield Lock is a hydraulic lock similar to the one at Peterborough, except we are descending 60 feet rather than going up. Entering it feels like driving off a cliff. Below the lock, the water was extremely shallow with loonshit bottom. We draft 4' 3" and I know we were plowing mud for a couple hundred yards. The depth sounder quit reading. No issues however except we sucked up some weeds into the raw water intake and the boat ran a couple of degrees warm for the rest of the day. Last night stayed at a Parks Canada wall below the last lock into Lake Simcoe and this morning are crossing the lake in fairly flat conditions. People were fishing off the wall near us catching catfish. Today we only have 4 locks to go through to enter Georgian Bay if things go well.One of the locks is the rail portage at the Big Chute where they will load the boat on a rail carriage for the 600 foot trip across, just like Loon River.

Looks like Burntside

and Basswood Falls?

Whitecaps big timeturbulance a

Turbulance as the water exits a lock

Houseboats at Bobcygeon. They were a navigational challenge getting around them

Pretty narrow canal

The edge of the canal, not much margin for error

back in frm country just before Lake Simcoe

This morning on Lake Simcoe

Exiting the Trent Severn onto the Lake

Top of the Kirkfield Lock driving off the edge