The Great Lakes Continued – Lake Huron
Hey everyone. I’m still cruising the Great Lakes. Here is an update from Lake Huron.
After several days in Sault Ste. Marie, ON working on WW, I headed south to Bruce Mines, ON retracing my path down the St. Mary’s River to the North Channel. This was a short 2-hour run to test my new alternator and the other boat fixes. It also let me meet Ryan and Lois who were my on-the-ground alternator saviours. My tech network made this connection that put a mechanic on the boat in just a few hours, and critically, a diagnosis and fix in 24 hours. One thing being reinforced here on the water is our lack of tradespeople such as marine and automotive mechanics. Parents, skip the mistaken idea that everyone needs a university education and get your kids into trade school; some advice from a professor with many years of teaching young adults, and I’ll explain why later. Back to Bruce Mines where I had a lovely evening with Ryan and Lois, plus I snagged a bartered WW lounger from an antique shop, an old aluminum one because it is light and doesn’t rust like some new ones I tried already.
The next day I headed to “America”. I logged into the ROAM app on my phone in the morning and within a few minutes I got a call back with my clearance ‘papers’ and a ‘have a good day’. That was my smoothest border crossing since pre-911. It is always great when technology works. I later docked at Mackinac Island / Michilimackinac, MI after some bath time in chilly but glassy calm Lake Huron. This island is quite interesting and a sample of classic ‘Americana’. There are no vehicles, just walking, bikes, horses, and countless tourists. The old town is well made over as are the old homes which are mostly tourist residences. It was jam-packed with people and horses in the downtown sector, and with every other shop selling fudge or ice cream on a 30oC day, there was a very strange sickly-sweet air of sugar, horse sweat and pee. But that didn’t keep the tourists from crowding to buy fudge and cones! There is some very interesting island history if you can overcome the people challenges. Once a Canadian island, it was given back to the USA in a gesture of goodwill. An American apologized to me for their historians’ claim they won it in the War of 1812 (and some other historical mistruths about that period). The island was and remains very special for Native North Americans as a meeting and spiritual place. Unfortunately, our ancestor immigrants to this region dismantled their culture and history here. These not-so-pleasant actions by the early Europeans and a need to retell the history along our waterways is a theme I’ll keep exploring and writing about.
At the dock, my neighbours were Lois and Mark holidaying from Cleveland, OH. I was planning to visit Cleveland’s famous Cuyahoga River, one of the rivers on fire in the 1960s that helped inspire the modern environmental movement (and an American president). I had to pass on the Cuyahoga, but my neighbours and their families had long histories in the area and they were thrilled to tell me the river’s recent history including the great work on its restoration. Lois’s family were immigrants from Ireland who lived in “Irishtown” which was the shantytown along the river. They worked in Rockefeller’s 21 (of about 30!) refineries in Cleveland in the early 1800s. The product was kerosene, and the byproduct ‘gasoline’ was simply dumped into the river. Not surprisingly the history of this river on fire goes far back in time! Mark has had a long career in heavy industry with visits to many of North America’s steel, pulp, and paper mills. He added lots of modern stories about these industries and their environmental and business struggles along our waterways. These will be part of a future blog on our industrial rivers. One of the very interesting things about this encounter with Mark and Lois is that, apparently, if I can’t get to a waterway like the Cuyahoga River to hear its stories, then it will find a way to get to me. Stay tuned on that thread.
Another emerging commonality about dockside encounters is the random-not-random people you meet. Some folks came to say hello after noticing my New Brunswick flag, and within a few moments we surmised that he was the neighbour of my aunt and uncle in Wyebridge, ON (near their port of Midland) and the farm where I spent my teenage years milking cows – let me know if you figure out that probability of occurrence?
My next stop was Hammond Bay Refuge Harbor, MI along the northwest shore of Lake Huron. I was the only person in the harbor, yet it had an immaculate dock and bathroom and shower facilities. It also had the ubiquitous gaggle of Canada geese (the same ones I think). A few boats launched, a couple of local people walked their dogs, and I had 2 miles of sandy beach to myself. It was interesting to see many piles of mussel shells along the beach, just as you would encounter along some seashores. These are the two invasive species and this observation adds to my collection for an invasive species story.
I was here to visit the Hammond Bay Biological Station, which is a field station of the US Geological Service’s Great Lakes Science Center and the place where lampricide was created and developed. That is one of the chemicals we created and use in the environment to control something we don’t like, in this case lampreys, but with other consequences we didn’t think about until recently - from Rachel Carson, a “you weren’t listening” story for later. Andrea Miehls their communications director picked me up the next morning and I spent the day touring the facility, learning the history of lamprey control in the Great Lakes, and catching up with the new Director Nick Johnson on current research and the trends in fisheries science and management for the lakes. I’ll get Nick to help me with my story on the Great Lakes – stay tuned.
I next landed in Mackinaw City, MI. It is another tourist-oriented town with well-maintained marinas (mine was Straits State Marine). Every marina I have visited has been very well taken care of and managed. If you are visiting these waters, all of them are recommended. I arrived into the middle of an early settler reenactment week encamped in the town square. It was an eclectic collection of period-clad people, canvas tents, outdoor cooking, cannon firing, trinkets and furs for sale, and cellphones. Oddly, I didn’t see any Native folks and wondered why non-native folks were making and selling Native American crafts? Boat wise, I stopped into Shepler’s Marina Store and boatworks to ask about a new floor-board for my berth (a downstream impact of my leaking port holes – now solved in the short term). The response was, “I’m not sure we can find that piece of wood, but we could make something work so bring it over”. Mike in the shop had one cut and prepped for me a couple of hours and I had a new floor before dark. There are many very kind and helpful people out here; this is something we need more of in our lives and communities.
I left the next morning passing under the impressive Mackinaw Bridge and turned my nose west into what would be the persistently bumpy Lake Michigan.
Until next time, Allen
