September 1 – WaWa, Ontario to Paradise, Michigan

We’ve seen a lot of water falling…into and out of the lake, falling in unique and lovely ways…and now it’s falling in torrents from the sky. This is a storm off the lake complete with thunder and sheet lightning. The windshield wipers work hard but can’t keep up with the volume that is being emptied from above. Intense, but luckily this tempest is going west and we’re heading east. We drive finally through it and into the sunshine.

The highway passes through Lake Superior National Park where we stop to see the pictographs at Agawa Rock. The trail is steep and slippery from the rain and it is strewn with boulders. A warning sign states that injury and death have occurred here. We question whether we should continue, but determination keeps us going forward.

Notice the rock suspended between the two cliff faces.

It’s another “worth it”.

Selwyn Dewdney discovered these paintings in 1958. He called them “images of forgotten dreams.”  This is what he writes:

“At Agawa even in the calm the water was restless beside the sloping ledge under the sheer cliff. We commandeered a leaky punt from the fish camp on a nearby island and paddled ashore with one oar, a piece of plank and a bailing can. Then I stared. A huge animal with crested back and horned head. There was no mistaking him. And there a man on a horse – and there four suns – and there canoes…my fourteen months’ search was over.”

The trail leads to a rock shelf jutting out into the lake abutting a sheer cliff. On the cliff face are the very very faded remains of the Agawa pictographs. Even with an informational placard telling us what we should see, it’s difficult to identify the paintings.  But the power of the place is the setting. It’s understandable that this would be a dangerous spot if the weather caused the lake to form breakers. A person could be easily swept off this ledge. In fact, there is a life preserver tied to a length of rope hanging on the nearby guardrail for this exact purpose. All is calm for us and we drink in the distinctiveness of the spot before we clamber back up the rocky trail.

The Soo Locks at 1350 feet stretch from the US to Canada across the rapids of the St Mary’s River which connects Lake Superior to Lake Huron. They are operated by the Army Corps of Engineers.

We board the “Bide a Wee” for a two-hour tour of the locks and their environs.

 

Soo Locks

Going up-bound we travel through the McArthur Lock (lock #1). A 21-foot drop needs to be neutralized and it takes10 million gallons of water flowing into the lock through underwater valves to raise the boat to the next level. The process takes about 10-12 minutes.

Water Rising

The locks are free of charge and operate on demand 24 hours a day. 10,000 ships pass through them, on average, every year. There have been locks in this location since 1855.

There is a navigation season that fluctuates depending on winter weather, generally April through December. This year Lake Superior was declared ice free in June. However, Coast Guard icebreakers convoy ships across ice fields cutting through ice 3 feet thick to create lanes. There are nine icebreakers on the Great Lakes. They call it the "spring breakout" when the Coast Guard starts opening up "tracks" so the freighters can start moving again. Freighters haul grain, iron ore and coal.

The SR Corporation of India runs a plant that employs 3000 people upriver from the locks. Yearly they produce 8 million tons of steel that is shipped in giant rolls, (so large that only two rolls would fit on a semi-truck). The ingredients for the steel are coal from West Virginia, taconite pellets from Michigan and Minnesota and crushed limestone. Oversized piles of each line the dock area having arrived by freighter. The finished rolls of steel squat in a separate area awaiting their own freighter transport. The steel sheets are used primarily in the appliance and auto industries.

We’re told a ton of freight can be moved on the great lakes for the price of a fast food meal.

The down bound lock operates on gravity. It’s like pulling the plug in a bathtub. We traverse the non-commercial Canadian lock. It’s used mostly for pleasure craft and tour boats. All of the major shipping traffic uses the US locks.

Going Down

Open Gates

People gather in an enclosed viewing platform to watch the water traffic.

Coming into our dock we pass a ¼ mile long power plant that has been generating electricity continuously for 100 years. It’s a handsome old building whose pillars are cut to look like lighthouses.

 

Power House

The Point Iroquois Light was deactivated in 1962. It’s now maintained as a historic site. The interior is frozen in the 50’s.

Point Iroquois

1950's Kitchen - Look Familiar?

Tonight we’ll sleep in the crew’s quarters at Whitefish Point Light Station. This is the oldest operating light on Lake Superior, (since 1849). All vessels entering or leaving the lake must pass this point. Hundreds of people visit here every day, but after closing we share the accommodations with the couples in the 4 other guest rooms. It feels like we have the place to ourselves. 

View From Our (Screened) Window

Our Room. How Did They Know?

The Crew's Quarters

We stroll out to the viewing platform above the water to watch the sun set. Two freighters are traversing the lake, steaming in opposite directions...Where? Why?