Michigander?

Update: Do you remember the lift lock that gave me the heebie-jeebies?  Super happy we weren’t in it last week😬

A malfunction caused the pan to tilt, and water to cascade out of the back.  Scary stuff for people on the tour boat!  The lock is now down for the ‘foreseeable’ future.

Back to Michigan…

Did you know people from Michigan are called Michiganders🤷🏼‍♀️

Our introduction to Michigan has been spectacular!

Everyone told us that Mackinac Island was a ‘must see’…but we didn’t want to dock the boat there, because the wind predictions had us concerned about the swell in the harbor.  We decided to continue to Mackinaw City, and take the ferry back to the island for a day trip.  Once we arrived we were happy to see our decision was a good one. The boats in the harbor were bobbing like corks…it would have been a very uncomfortable night.

There are no bridges to Mackinac Island. You can only arrive by boat or plane.

There are no cars on Mackinac Island.  Transportation options include horse drawn carriages, bicycles, or feet.  We had planned to bring our ebikes, but discovered ebikes were not allowed on the island…so we toured by foot.

Mackinac Island was charming! It is a vacation destination for many with hotels, B&Bs, restaurants, small storefronts, and fudge shops galore.

Definitely a different feel from anywhere we have been.

We happened to visit on a rainy day, so it was a relief to find an inside attraction during the downpour.

Welcome to the Butterfly House!

It was very cool to be surrounded by butterflies.

Have you ever seen a chrysalis up close?  I have seen them for monarchs, but I have never seen them for other species.  It is amazing how well some are camouflaged.

Very cool experience!

Once the rain calmed down we set out find the arch rock.

No worries of getting lost on these trails.

The homes, hotels, and B&Bs had beautiful flowerbeds, which happened to be in full bloom.

And we eventually found the arch.  We walked back to town on the lakefront road you see below.  

Not sure if the rain helped or hindered, but the horses make the streets quite odiferous!

Every ferry brings more visitors with more suitcases! This was a delightful stop!

From Mackinaw City, we started down the west coast of Michigan with a loose plan of town hopping…with stops ultimately determined by recommendation from others, provisioning needs, protection from wind, or simply by whim…next stop, Harbor Springs.  

Several months ago, soon after entering the Trent Severn Waterway, we were in a lock with a boat from Canada who asked where we were heading.  I told him we were planning to go through all 45 locks, cruise Georgian Bay & North Channel, cross to Michigan, down the west coast, and into the river system to head south for winter.  His response was that he had taken the same route, and he had one ‘must stop’ recommendation.  He said, “you must stop in Harbor Springs, and visit Tom’s Mom’s Cookies!” 😳

Seriously?  At that time we were over 500 miles away, with thousands of potential ‘must see’ sights, and this is his ONE recommendation??  Sounded crazy at the time, but you’ll never guess where our next stop just happened to be…

Harbor Springs was a very nice town,

With beautiful homes,

Delicious cookies…(but I don’t think I would send anyone 500 miles for them)

And a lot of young people interested in sailing school/sailing club!

From there we visited Charlevoix.  This is where we discovered the convenience of cruising the west coast of Michigan.  I never realized there were so many interior bays and lakes along the coast. The towns are well protected with large breakwater structures that lead to canals, which deliver you to protected harbors.  Since Lake Michigan is such a large body of water (250 miles long x 60 miles wide) it acts much more like an ocean than a lake.  Therefore, these safe hideaways are VERY important!

We walked out to the lighthouse, and a local told us he has pictures of waves crashing over the top of the lighthouse😬!

The highest waves every recorded in Lake Michigan were 23 ft, in 2011.

These people take their boat houses very seriously!

There is a beautiful park along the shoreline of the harbor.

We anchored in Loeb Bay, where ‘Lake Life’ is clearly enjoyed!

Loving Michigan thus far!!

North Channel

As we pass through Little Current, we say goodbye to Georgian Bay, and hello to North Channel.  We still have several stops on our ‘must see’ list, but our time in Canada is nearing the end.

Little Current is a great stop for reprovisioning, and we were in need of some fresh fruits and veggies, as we hadn’t been to a grocery store in more than two weeks.

We anchored in a well protected spot between a small island and the mainland.  The island had some type of stone wall ruins, but we didn’t investigate…we just admired from the boat.  The view was beautiful with the mountains in the background.

Next stop…Kagawong.  Several people told us to put Bridal Veil Falls on our list.

This was our first (and only) marina stay in Canada.  Our original intention was to anchor, but we found our charts were not very accurate regarding depths.  The place that showed a 20’ depth was actually 40+ feet deep.  We do carry 300 feet of chain and 400 feet of line, but we didn’t want to put out that much rode.  I called the marina and asked if they could accommodate a 50’ boat.  The guy seemed excited to welcome us (and we did make it work), but the space was VERY tight. The locals were amused to see such a big boat at their marina.

Following the well maintained trail, it was a lovely walk from the waterfront to the falls. I kept commenting how odd it was that we didn’t see any people on the trail.  It was a drizzly day, but I expected much more traffic.

Interesting art adorned the trail.  Apparently we need to up our art appreciation game, here is the artist’s description of this piece…🤷🏼‍♀️

“This sculpture rejects the separation between cultural and natural.  It rejects the division between an optimistic future and a tragic past. Instead it revels in the intersection between these forces. It is a zero sum game between a doe, a buck, a fawn, a Ford F150 bumper, the emerald ash borer and a propane tank. The work is Whitetail deer in headlights.”

Robert Cram 2017

I get the tragic interaction between the doe and the F 150, but the rest was way over my head😁

Much to our surprise, there were a lot of people at the falls.  There happened to be a parking lot, and stairs that brought many to the falls.  I don’t want to sound spoiled here, but most of our stops have been only accessible by boat, which drastically reduces the number of people at each ‘attraction’.  

I waited patiently to climb behind the falls where I was greeted by a strong, cool, misty breeze created by the falling water.

As we climbed the steps to the parking lot, we were able to get a more Instagram worthy picture (one with all of the people hidden).

Interesting art was also displayed along the road.

The small town offered a very cute museum, which mainly highlighted local history.  However, at the time of our visit they had a traveling display of the Empress of Ireland shipwreck, which took 954 lives in 1914…very interesting!

Back to our island exploration…

South Benjamin Island was our last opportunity to enjoy the rocks!

And guess what…we hit the blueberry jackpot!  Time to make ‘boat’ ice cream!  The best blueberry ice cream we have ever tasted!

This is super easy for anyone to make.  If you are flavoring with fruit, simply mix the fruit with a can of sweetened condensed milk.  Whip cream in a separate bowl then fold milk/fruit mixture into the whipped cream and freeze.

As we worked our way out of North Channel we marveled at the beautiful thistle plants along the shoreline.

We decided to anchor at Drummond Island, and hop over to Michigan the next day.  For some reason I thought the country line ran down the middle of the lake, but SURPRISE…

When I opened Google maps, to see when our unlimited cell coverage would be in effect, I was shocked to see the red line wrap around Drummond Island.  Oops…I guess we had better check into the US quickly!

GGB pt 3, Bad River to Baie Fine

The last few posts have swept you through Georgian Bay fairly quickly, so I wanted to give you the ‘big picture’ view of where this post begins.

We are anchored at the red dot in the middle of the purple circle.

Bad River 45° 56’ 05”N, 80° 58’ 26”W

Exploration by dinghy and climbing!

Bad River is oh so GOOD! Actually, great!  I believe Bad River (and surrounding area) was my overall favorite location in Georgian Bay!

Now for the close up view…

We are anchored at the pink star…ignore the red lines and numbers, those are just route plots.  Devil’s Door, Cross Channel and The Five Fingers were amazing places to explore!

We would travel upstream as far as we could, in the Whaler, and Keith would nose up to a rock so I could climb up for a better view.

This was the first place, in Georgian Bay, where the water level seemed very low.

After getting our fill of the scenery on the west side of the anchorage, we headed for the east side, and found very different terrain.

This is definitely the work of a local…no out-of-towner is going to attempt mooring there!

Time for some rock climbing!  I don’t mean ‘hang from your fingertips on a vertical face’ kind of rock climbing. You would get a more accurate visual if you imagine an intoxicated mountain goat, with 3 legs, trying to gain elevation on big smooth rocks.

But we found BLUEBERRIES! We have been looking for wild blueberries since we entered Georgian Bay, and we thought they would be a little easier to pick.  These plants are 6-8 inches off the ground, and finding a bush with more than 2 ripe berries was very difficult. This plant is the happy exception.

It took a lot of picking to get enough to make something, but our efforts were justly rewarded…

The best blueberry cobbler ever!

The next day we headed to Covered Portage by way of Beaverstone and Collins Inlet.

As we worked our way to the west, the topography changed quite drastically!  We quickly went from smooth pink granite to sheer and jagged outcroppings.

And this is where our good camera took a very hard spill on the pilot house floor…never to be heard from again!!  Luckily, Keith dug out our old camera, and we were back in business!

Covered Portage 46° 00’ 06”N, 81° 31’ 44”W

Exploration by dinghy and climbing.

The anchorage inside the cove was surrounded by these massive walls of rock.  However, the anchorage was pretty busy, and we chose to anchor outside, in a location that offered better protection from the forecasted strong northwest winds.

This rock will protect us nicely…and of course, we had to climb it.

This is the view from the top, while we were (once again) picking blueberries…yum!! With this batch we enjoyed blueberry pancakes, and blueberries in our yogurt.  We have decided that if we find any more we will make ice cream 🤞!

Rest time is good too!

Baie Fine 46° 02’ 40”N, 81° 28’ 42”W

Pronounced Bay Fin

Exploration by hiking, climbing, and hiking some more!

Apparently, the hike to Lake Topaz is in that direction…it looks like a lot of uphill from here!

Most of the trail is a dry creek bed with a gradual uphill slope.

Behold…the three legged mountain goat. As we get closer to the prize, the going gets a little tougher.  

We made it, and we are going for a swim.

Now, to get out of here. The blueberries are on the top of that rock.

We came…we conquered, and we celebrated!

The next morning we decided to get an early start for our 20 mile trip to Little Current.

All was calm at 6:45 a.m.

This is officially our last anchorage in Georgian Bay.  Once we pass through Little Current we will be in a body of water known as North Channel.

What a phenomenal experience!  

I do a lot of reading (especially when we are in places with little/no internet connection), and recently read a passage that sums up my feelings nicely.

“…humans innately can be healed by beauty, especially the splendors of the natural world.” The Oceanography of the Moon, pg 225.

Therefore, my advice to you…if your soul ever needs to be healed, plan a trip to Georgian Bay!