Around the Great Lakes

Is it Winter Still?

Saxon Harbor seems so long ago, but it’s only two days of travel away. The weather has been terrible with winds over 50 mph and cold temps, frost, and snow. If my friend Steve reads this, he’ll comment that it’s because I’m camping. His theory is that bizarre weather occurs when I’m camping and he has plenty of stories to prove it.

The morning I left Saxon Harbor, I paddled along a shoreline that changed from sandstone cliffs to lower hills with mix sand and cobblestone beaches with limited safe landing options. The entire day spent paddling in light chop and 15 knot SSW winds gusting to 25 knots. Combined with the nearshore NOAA marine radio report of the oncoming storm of doom, the landscape seemed slightly ominous to me.

This last week, because the forecast has been so windy from the northwest and cold, I’ve just started calling the NOAA report the scary report. I cringe every time I turn the marine radio on, but it’s almost compulsive to turn it on for a listen just in case something rosy is forecast. “Small craft advisory in effect from…” is the typical squawk out of the radio.

On my way to the Porcupine Mountains, I stopped at Black River Harbor where a tank of a fishing boat docked. The dirty white, iron rust bucket named the “King Fisher” belched out a dark diesel cloud. Inside the rusty body, the deck hand, a early thirties or late twenties year old, mopped the deck and greased the parts needing greased. His long hair tucked under a camo hat complimented his missing front teeth that showed when he smiled.

“It keeps me out of trouble,” he replied when asked how he liked working on a fishing boat. It was his fifth voyage, and first full week. A busy week where he helped pull the boat off of the rocks it ended up on after someone released it from the dock.

The fishing operation netted for whitefish, but took in Lake Trout as casualties. The dead Lakers thrown to the seagulls, because the price for their meat at $0.45/pound was much less than the $1.35/pound for the whitefish.

I asked the deck hand about the shoreline ahead, and he confirmed what my chart told me, but he couldn’t recall a campground in the area, which is what Google maps told me. “If you go back out, you’ll see bigger waves than two feet. I had ‘em up to the deck on this boat today,” was the deckhands last warning as I left the harbor for the Presque Isle River area.

After finding the river in 1.5′ waves, I couldn’t find the campground, so ended up setting up camp in a flat area away from the river. Then spent the next two days waiting as the winds kicked up to the roar of a jet engine and the waves pounded the shore. To pass the time, I listened to the only radio station I could get, WTIP, my hometown station. Two days alone, wind bound, with the hometown station playing made me long to be home and messed with my head. The questioning began…

On day 14, the weather broke and I raced to Union Bay Campground along a sand and cobblestone beach shoreline, which sifted to upturned ledge rock with no landings. 18 miles later I pulled out at the campground, talked to the ranger, set up tent and waited for the next storm. Ilena came over for the weekend to help me weather the storm. With gusts up to 50+ mph, temps in the 30Fs it was a hard day, and the weather didn’t let up until mid-day Sunday.

On Sunday, I decided to take the week off, fix problems with the kayak, like the broken seat, change out some gear that hasn’t been working for me for gear that I’ve used and trusted for years and for ultralight systems that I know work. I’m also resting the body. I have a few nagging issues that developed in the aggressive start of the trip that need to heal, like my blisters on my hands and a few weird aches. I’m also reorganizing food drops this week to boost the calories significantly. I’ve lost over 10 pounds in the first 16 days of the trip.

I’ll be back on the water next Saturday warming up with a 16 mile paddle from Union Bay to Ontonagon, MI — and I thought that Grand Marais, MN was remote; Ontonagon is truly at the end of the world — Hopefully, I’ll get to eat at Syl’s Cafe again. They have the biggest pancakes and serve up a huge plate of food for the price. Makes me feel embarrassed at the price of eating out in my hometown of Grand Marais, MN.

See you on the water soon.

Tags: Black River, leg two_a, Ontonagon, Porcupine Mountains, saxon harbor, Syl's Cafe