September « 2009 « A Superior Adventure

Beach Clean-Up at Calumet Waterworks

A couple weeks ago in my Wetlands class I was informed that Saturday, September 19th was going to be the EPA’s International Coastal Clean-up day and, being the concerned citizen I am, I signed Matt and I up to run the Calumet Waterworks beach clean-up to do our part in keeping the United States’ Third Coast clean and safe.

And so it was that Matt, myself, and our friend Andy ended up picking cigarette butts, styrofoam cups, aluminum cans, and chunks of insulation up off the beach for two hours on Saturday afternoon. The weather was beautiful and the beach was fairly clean already so our beach clean-up turned into more of a hike with the dog. I know this post is a week late, but I wanted to share it with you all anyway as a reminder that community service is a great excuse to spend a few hours outside enjoying the sunshine and getting some exercise. So next time you get the opportunity, do your part, go for a hike!

View Calumet Water Works.kmz in a larger map

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Written on September 29th, 2009 , Daily Blog

Surfing at Great Sand Bay

Let me start this out by saying that Hannah and I are not surfers. Not yet at least, maybe someday. That said, we had some huge waves today that I had to enjoy vicariously through my friend Sam Gardner, who I am certain you will all hear more about in the near future.

Wave Forecast Map for Lake Superior

I recieved a phone call on Saturday from Sam asking if I had seen the latest marine forecast. A quick visit to the NOAA website showed me what Sam was talking about. The wave forecast map for Monday was covered in a dark red color I had never seen. Upon closer inspection I discovered that this color means twenty plus feet. That is HUGE! It was so big that Sam was willing to drive the nearly 400 miles up from Ann Arbor just to ride this massive surf.

When I woke up this morning the house was shaking from the 55 mph wind gusts and I knew that the weatherman had gotten things right this time. The wind made work in the woods a little sketchy and the driving rain made it miserable so we did some paper work and geared up for an afternoon in the cold and wet. A brief look at the Lake around 10AM confirmed that this was going to be a big day on the water.

When Hannah got done with class we loaded up some camera gear and the dogs and headed up the Keweenaw to meet Sam at Great Sand Bay. The temperature was around 48° F and the wind was gusting about 60 mph out of the north.

Sam was already in the water when we pulled up. The waves in the bay were easily 8-12 feet but out on the reef they were breaking well over 20 feet. Hannah and I walked around the point to get the best vantage point for the big waves. It was incredible. I was standing on shore and got blasted by surf spray. It nearly knocked me down. It was very humbling standing in close proximity to 25 foot walls of water. The power is indescribable.

The photos we took can’t do it justice and none of them turned out as well as we had hoped. Between the surf spray and pouring rain we couldn’t keep our lenses clean. The aquapac I was using for my point and shoot worked wonders keeping my camera dry. It seems like every picture has water spots but they at least give you the idea of what it was like. You can see more photos on our Picassa page.

After about 2 hours of watching Sam surf the cold got the better of me and we loaded the dogs back in the car and headed home. I was really jealous watching Sam out there. Surfing looks great. After a summer on the Lake I know that big waves can get pretty scary but he made it look fun. I just might have to try it next time the waves get under 10 feet.

Written on September 28th, 2009 , Daily Blog

Ready to Go

We have been planning this hike since the beginning of our Lake Superior trip and now, with 8 days left until we leave, I am finally posting something about it. I have been adding to the website lately to get it ready to include this journal. It all seems very last minute. But what the hell, it all got done.

So we are leaving in 8 days for the Mexican Border town of Campo California and hiking north to the Canadian Border. It should be fun. We left Calumet about a week and have been visiting my parents in Beaverton, MI. We are heading down to visit Hannah’s parents for a few days before we leave. I have been ready to hike since about a week before we left the UP. I am getting pretty antsy. All the gear is ready to go, all the details of leaving for 4 months are handled, I hope, and I just want to hike.

Written on September 15th, 2009 , Matt's Pacific Crest Trail Hike 2010

Paddling on Lake Superior at Eagle Harbor, MI

So here goes. Our first blog post.

After several weekends of pushing, our friend Lynn finally convinced us to get back into our boats and paddle a bit. We weren’t exactly excited to do any more paddling after the this summer but we reluctantly agreed. We have been seriously lacking quality outdoor time since the end of our paddle and this seemed like a good way to buck our responsibilities for a few hours.

Lynn and a friend, as well as mutual friend Greg Maino, of www.juskuz.com, and his wife met us at our house in Calumet and we all headed up the Keweenaw. We unloaded on the beach in Eagle Harbor, a great little town on the shores of Superior with a well protected harbor, and shuttled some cars ahead to Esrey Park. The launch was really easy with a short carry across a nice sand beach. The lake was on it’s best behavior with a really light wind, 5 knots, out of the south and almost unnoticeable waves.

The shoreline in this area is classic Keweenaw with large basalt outcropping sloping away from the lake and many exposed rocky islands jutting from the water. It is a great easy day paddle covering about 6 miles with some pretty cool scenery along the way. One of the small islands is made up of a large sea arch, which stands 8 feet over the water and is about 35 feet in span .

We saw a handful of other paddlers, one group of five people and another pair, who were also out enjoying the beautiful day. It was a little more crowded than I expected but definitely not enough to detract from the experience. After covering the six miles in a little over two hours we headed back on shore at Esrey Park. Greg and Mari turned around and headed back to Eagle Harbor so they could explore the islands a bit more. The landing was mostly cobble but in the calm water it wasn’t an issue. We discussed paddling more but Hannah had a meeting for one of her classes so we had to call it a day. The take out was easy with a short up hill carry and we loaded up and headed home.

It was weird calling it a day after only six miles and getting into the truck and heading home to our house instead of putting up the tent. It was kind of nice. I didn’t think I would like paddling for a long while after our circumnavigation. I was wrong. It was really nice to be out, enjoying the lake with some great company and not have the pressure to keep moving. I think I could get used to this.
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Written on September 13th, 2009 , Daily Blog Tags: eagle harbor, Kayaking, keweenaw, lake superior

Day 72 – Completing the Circle and Coming Home to Houghton, MI

Portage Lower Entry, MI to Houghton, MI: Daily miles 14.1, Total miles 1164.6

Last night while we were trying to fall asleep kids kept pulling up to the boat launch on dirt bikes. In the morning we discovdered that it was dumb frat kids untieing the fishing boats’ moorings. Both fishing boats were still mostly tied up (at least one rope holding them to the dock) and I’d like to think that our illegal camping at the boat launch provided an element of fear for the frat boys and saved the poor fishermen hours of wasted time fetching their loosed boats in the morning. We launched at around 8 am and paddled the 14 miles to Houghton by noon. It was all a bit anti-climactic, but it feels good to be home with no more commitment to the lake.

Written on September 6th, 2009 , Hannah's Lake Superior Kayak Circumnavigation

Day 73 – Completing the Circle and Coming Home to Houghton, MI

Portage Lower Entry, MI to Houghton, MI: Daily miles 14.1, Total miles 1164.6

Done. We slept in a bit this morning and woke up the sounds of the fishermen getting ready to go out for the day. Over the night some of the Frat boys from MTU came in and untied all of the fishing boats so the fishermen had to rope them back in. Luckily none of them made it too far. Apparently they do it every year. Seems ridiculous to me. We were slow to get moving but there was no rush. Only 14 miles stood between us and the end of our journey. We paddled leisurely along, passed sights we had seen a dozen times and we finally felt home. We got into Houghton around noon and stopped at a beach on MTU’s campus to savor the moment. We called a few friends and tried to get some people around to make our homecoming more festive and maybe get some photos but we couldn’t get a hold of anyone. We couldn’t wait any longer and paddled the last mile and crossed under the lift bridge and landed on the same sand we left over two months ago. Sure we had been back twice since we left but now were really home. It was all pretty anticlimactic. No one was there. No one knew what we had done. But it felt good. Really good. I can’t even explain it.

Written on September 6th, 2009 , Matt's Lake Superior Kayak Circumnavigation

Day 71 – Portage Canal South Entry, Keweenaw Waterway, MI

Big Bay, MI to Portage Lower Entry, MI: Daily miles 47.1, Total miles 1150.1

We woke up to another beautiful day. Flat water, clear skies, warm weather, it’s what I had hoped for all summer. Paddling 47 miles in this weather was no problem, although it was not our original plan. We had only intended to paddle as far as the mouth of the Huron River today, but we got there around 3:30 or 4 in the afternoon and it was absolutely full of partying vacationers so we decided to make the jump for our beloved Keweenaw – HOME! We realized as we were about to paddle across that we had no maps with us and didn’t really know exactly where the Portage Canal was located on the almost invisible sliver of land on the horizon, so we paddled for land on the other side and figured we’d know it when we got there. The twelve mile open water crossing went well, aside from the fact that I forgot my sunglasses and couldn’t keep my eyes open for half of the paddle. Believe it or not it is surprisingly hard to paddle with your eyes closed, even after almost 1200 miles. We landed safely on the Keweenaw side of Keweenaw bay around 7 pm, both desperately needing to use the bathroom, and we had no clue which way to go to get to the canal. We ended up going south after drawing a mental map of the area and sure enough we were just over two miles north of the canal. Pulling up to White Sands and seeing the lighthouse that marked the beginning of the Portage was the number one highlight of my trip, it beat Pictured Rocks, it beat crossing into Canada, it beat getting to Ontonagon and thinking I could make it around the lake…we were finally home. I could have stopped right there and been happy, been done, but we both wanted to get to Houghton so we pushed on, not thinking about what a 60 mile day would mean. We stopped at the south entry boat launch for dinner as the sun set. Dinner was much needed and much deserved. After dinner we got back in our boats and paddled in the dark about a mile before we got to the main part of Portage Lake where things widen out and the vast expanses of marsh start. Wt this point we realize that with no maps and only limited light. paddling was useless. We turned around and went back to the boat launch to sleep. As much as I wanted to get home today, sleep felt good. I don’t know what we would have done if we had pulled into Chutes and Ladders anyway – we probably would have slept.

Written on September 5th, 2009 , Hannah's Lake Superior Kayak Circumnavigation

Day 72 – Portage Lower Entry, Keweenaw Waterway, MI

Big Bay, MI to Portage Lower Entry, MI: Daily miles 47.1, Total miles 1150.1

Holy Shit! I did not expect to sitting on the shores of the Keweenaw tonight. This was by far the biggest day yet and the most rewarding. Everything fell into line to make this day perfect. The weather was awesome without a ripple of wind all day. We slept really well and got up at a reasonable hour, 7AM. We are well rested from out week off and we are so motivated it hurts. The shore flew past all day. It was pretty generic shore with some rocky beaches and miles of forest. We passed the infamous Huron Mountain Club, which owns miles of shoreline and aggressively patrols it to make sure degenerates like us don’t land and spoil and their exclusivity. We stopped for a short lunch on a sand beach but were too excited to stay long. We really only planned on paddling to the campsites at the mouth of the Huron River but we got there at like 3PM and found it packed with RV’s and powerboats so we kept moving. We swung out to point Abbye and got our first looks at home. The idea of making the big 12 mile crossing had been floating around all day but we never really took it seriously until we could see it. It seemed so close and looked so easy. We didn’t have our maps but figured it couldn’t hurt so we took a short rest and launched across the bay at target we could barely see. The cross was really easy. It took about three hours and we didn’t see a wave the whole time. When we hit shore there was nowhere to land and we didn’t actually know where we were. We pulled out on a jumbled pile of rocks to figure out our situation. Without maps it was tough to actually figure out our location. I tried to use the GPS on my new iPhone but it wasn’t accurate enough due to the lack of cell service in the area. Eventually we just guessed and started paddling south and within ten minutes were cruising past White City and into the Portage Canal. We had done it. We circumnavigated Lake Superior. We still had about 13 miles to go until we landed where we started in downtown Houghton but we were no longer the Superior. It felt pretty good. We were both starving so we pulled over at a boat launch for some dinner and decided to go for the last few miles tonight in the dark. We ate fast and climbed back into our boats, sore and tired but excited to be done. After a few minutes of paddling into the darkness, with speed boats flying by we decided we were too tired, it wasn’t safe and we would be better just finishing tomorrow. We headed back to the boat launch and set up the tent in an exhausted stupor. It feels so good to be back in the Copper Country and to have paddled here this time.

Written on September 5th, 2009 , Matt's Lake Superior Kayak Circumnavigation

Day 71 – Big Bay, MI

Marquette, MI to Big Bay, MI: Daily miles 31.1, Total miles 1103.4

We drove down to Negaunee last night and stayed at my brother’s place. This morning we loaded up the boats and he gave us a ride down to where we took out last week. The water was perfect, flat calm, and the sky was sunny. The first mile or so around Presque Isle was fun because my brother ran along the shore and tried to get some photos of us together. It has been nearly impossible to get any shot of both of us on this trip. After we said goodbye to my brother we got down to the business at hand. We were like unstoppable machines all day. The weather was good and we only took a handful of breaks in the entire 30 miles. Early on in the day I realized I had forgotten our maps so were blind as to what shoreline lay ahead but it didn’t matter much as we were on a mission. We cruised by Granite Loma, a giant castle built on the shore. It is left over from the days of this area being the place to be if you were super rich. It was really cool and seemed to fit in nicely on the shore. The shore was pretty easy all day with scattered beaches and little development. When we pulled into Big Bay we set up on the first sand beach we found that didn’t have a house on it. We got in about 6PM which was really early given our late start and over 30 miles of paddling for the day. We wanted to go further but the no landing zone of the Huron Mountain Club was looming in front of us and we figured we had better play it safe. We hung out for a while, ate dinner and set up the tent to try to get to bed early. Just as we were laying down we heard people and a dog walking down the beach toward us. We were concerned that it was the owners of the beach and we were about to get kicked out. Turns out it was the owners but they were super welcoming and really nice about letting us camp here. I love the U.P. I am so excited I can hardly contain it. I am two days from the end. The actual end. Not any of the false summits we have had to endure. If the weather is good we should be able to see the Keweenaw tomorrow. This is the only place I want to be in the world right now.

Written on September 4th, 2009 , Matt's Lake Superior Kayak Circumnavigation

Day 71 – Big Bay, MI

Marquette, MI to Big Bay, MI: Daily miles 31.1, Total miles 1103.4

We started today out of a warm bed with a week of rest behind us. Matt’s brother took us down to the lake early this morning and took some pictures of us as we paddled past Presque Isle. It’s nice to be on the water again with good weather and very few paddling days ahead of us. We paddled by Granot Loma today, one of the only developments on the lake that I would call breathtaking and it surely complimented and rivaled the landscape surrounding it. The water was super calm and our 31 miles went by almost effortlessly. We arrived in Big Bay long before sunset. We once again spent the evening hanging out on the beach before setting up our tent because we weren’t sure whether or not we were on private property. When we did set up our tent a couple and their poodle came down to greet us and inform us that we were on their property. We both got a bit concerned, but they assured us that we were very welcome to be there as long as we weren’t planning on having a big ol’ fire and leaving lots of trash. We are now going to bed with less than 70 miles of paddling left in our future – man it feels good!

Written on September 4th, 2009 , Hannah's Lake Superior Kayak Circumnavigation

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