Simon hops onto my toe looking for some loving.

151020 After a walk on the beach, Simon hops onto my toe looking for some loving.
At home he jumps on my toe and gets a free ride up as I tip the recliner back.. .. then he walks up my leg and lays down under my chin ... waiting to be hugged.
N Shore Lake Superior.
 


Pic 151012aq N Shore Lake Superior Temperance River Van Camping Pigeon on my shoe Simon.JPG
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It’s amazing what a piece of metal can do for you.

My very life was often in the hands of this 8 pound piece of metal. I spent many sleepless nights hoping I could depend on it. Sometimes it would appear to fail, but it never did.
…..When I boated a lot on Lake Superior, mostly in the Apostle Islands and Isle Royale, anchoring out was the only way you could stay on the Islands overnight, there were very few docks. We'd take week long trips and there were no "safe" places to be. I rigged up alarms to detect anchor dragging but with wind shifts it was unreliable.
My boat was not big, but my main anchor was rated for a 36 foot boat and my backup anchor was rated for a 24 foot boat, and I usually used them both. I didn’t feel they were any too large. They held fast (usually) thru some violent weather and big waves. It's hard to visualize how powerful and violent huge waves can be. I still have and use those anchors and I look at them with great respect. Someday I may frame one and hang it on the wall.
 
"Everyone needs a good anchor to depend on" - Bert . . . . . . The anchors are "Benson" Danforth type anchors, cast alloy... a great anchor.

Here’s an example - Lucky rescue, 16 foot waves, 85mph winds.


 

Few humans have ever been there. It seemed like back in time hundreds of years.

When you need it the most, a compass will spin crazily because of all the magnetic rocks. When you circle an island, the compass may continue to point AT the island. It’s incredibly rugged and isolated. We were there two weeks, traveled more than 100 miles through the vast desolate expanse and never saw another human or another boat. Hundreds of jagged rock islands spread out over huge distances and they all look the same. It’s so easy to get lost without a reliable compass (It was before GPS). You depend on the wind direction to get your bearings, and hope the wind direction doesn’t change. Limited food and fuel is always an issue along with the weather. Since you are the only humans around, there is no help. Even the Coast Guard doesn’t go there.

A few decades ago, a friend and I took our boats to an area in the far north of Lake Superior in Canada East of Thunder Bay. There we discovered the ancient village (1840) of Silver Islet, including the original inhabitants (Population 40?). Well, many/most were direct descendants, most of them were born there in the village. (Today it is a "Summer" village, abandoned in the Winter). The village was just like it was in the mid 1800’s, frozen in time, no electricity, no phone.


We were greeted by the residents as if they hadn’t seen anyone from the outside world since 1840. Everyone competed for us to come to visit their house for coffee. We visited with them for a while and heard many great incredible stories of times past, shipwrecks, cold Winters, and death and skeletons found.
They told us of the old outhouse on the hill (It’s still there). Some years before, one of them discovered that the outhouse was built over a 400 foot deep mine shaft. They never used the outhouse after that. The old village store was only opened by special request. They let us in and I was amazed. It truly looked like 1840. Much of the original merchandise was still on the shelves and there were only a few usable staples, mostly canned goods. There were above-ground gasoline tanks there (Too rocky to bury them) but they hadn’t been used for many decades and were rusty. I have since read that the store has now been preserved as a historic site. I suspect much has changed since I was there.
Silver Islet (The Island, not the village) is an amazing story in itself. The village is named after the island.

For a number of years, the 90 foot long island 10-12’ higher than the lake and one mile off shore, was the richest silver mine in the world, 1,250 feet deep. But that’s another subject for another blog. The following link is a relatively mild story that tells but a small portion of the tale of the island. http://www.lynximages.com/silver.htm
If I can locate the interesting articles I will post them someday… spellbinding amazing life or death stories against 40 foot waves that wiped the island clean on several occasions. (Try Goggle "Silver Islet" for a small sample).
A Canadian Lighthouse.












After leaving Silver Islet, we traveled East in gray overcast windy weather. Shortly after, we crossed the mouth of Black Bay where the waves get to build over the 36 mile length of the bay. The 10 mile trip across the mouth is very treacherous until you get near "Magnet Island" (a big rock) for shelter from the wind. By then, we were tired, cold and wet from the constant waves and cold spray. The next hundred miles or so of the inaccessible coast is uninhabited.
Way up the shore we found a few long abandoned fishing camps, one with a calendar still hanging on the wall from 1923. It appeared they left for the day but never came back. Dishes, silverware, furniture, clothing, still the way it was in 1923. It appeared that nobody but us had been there since 1923.
Fish Camps
It was a great trip, but the best trips were to Isle Royale (That’s another blog).
I suspect things

Kayaking in Caves

These caves are near our cabin on the S shore of Lake Superior, not the big caves. The house-sized big caves are out on the islands, hundreds of caves. They interconnect so you can go in one cave and come out somewhere else on the island. Lake Superior Kayaking can be rather unpredictable and exciting.
Karen in white hat, red kayak, ready to go.
(Note, these pics are from a cheapo disposable camera).

 The water is crystal clear and you can see the floor of the caves 20' beneath you, almost like you're suspended in space.

These are the same famous "Ice Caves" of  Bayfield (Cornucopia).

 

  The Bayfield Peninsula caves are about 1.5 miles from the launching place, around that point in the distance (There is no closer access to the caves). 

Getting closer to the "real" caves.


A different trip....
We were compressed against the ceiling. One time 20 miles out on Devil's Island exposed to the big lake it was glassy calm and we were deep deep way back into a huge cave with not much headroom left.

 Suddenly the water quickly rose a few feet and in an instant and we were being scraped and compressed against the roof of the cave 200’ in from the entrance. We pushed against the roof but of course it did no good. Then just as suddenly, the water level dropped to normal as we were swept out of the cave and the water was glassy calm again.
WHY did the lake surface rise? About 15 miles out, a large ocean freighter had passed by the island and it was the wake from that ship that nearly squished us. It's nearly impossible to see those waves coming (swells).
Note - The Indians named it Devils Island because of the odd moaning and rumbling sounds as the waves were squeezed deep into the caves and the air gushed out. It causes the whole island to tremble.

Picture perfect = Foto Friday = "Fall"

"But officer, that boat pushed me right off the cliff"









  It's about 100 feet+ down to the water. (Note person still in truck cab).
It's on the N Shore of Lake Superior. Rumor has it "she" forgot to set the parking brake. Some of these "mountains" are 600 feet above the lake.

2007 Lucky rescue - 16' waves, 85mph winds.

Lake Superior: Years ago, I was boat-camping at one of the few safe protected spots in the 23 uninhabited Apostle Islands, on South Twin Island, 2 miles from the next nearest island (Rocky). Labor day weekend, we were alone on the islands, 2 of us, September, an overcast day, no rain, it was a beautiful evening. Weather forecast - windy, cloudy. As usual I tied up the boat as IF it were going to storm, safely tied halfway out a 150' dock, bow out to sea, two way-oversized anchors to keep the boat off the dock and 6 more lines to keep it in position, 500 feet of rope, ready for anything (almost).

At 3:00am I was awakened by the wind blowing on our tent. I grabbed a flashlight and went to check on the boat. The waves were tossing it around quite badly so I stayed and pulled on the ropes from the side, acting like a human shock absorber. I figured it was just another weather front blowing in and by daylight it would quit (it usually does) but instead, the wind and waves kept building. It was an unusually early Lake Superior Gale (usually in Nov). From 3:00am until 3:00pm waves kept building. Out in the open lake, there were 16' waves and 85 mph winds (an ore boat reported) and at my dock there were 12' waves and 60mph wind. The wave crests were blowing off in a mist and pelting me with buckets of frigid icy water. For 12 hours I stood on the shaky 6' high dock in 60mph winds freezing and holding the line tight to absorb the shock. The dock was shaking and trembling each time a wave hit, and so was I.    I watched as the shingles blew off the fishing shack behind me, and as some of the docks end boards being ripped off the dock and go sailing past me with nails sticking out, and far into the woods behind me in the strong wind. I was hoping the dock would hold up, it was shaking badly. I was hoping I would hold up, I was shaking too (cold).

But by 2:00pm, the ropes started snapping including one of the main bow lines. So with the boat bobbing up/down 12 feet, and in 60mph winds, I had to lasso the front deck cleat (nearly impossible in the strong wind and took a long long time) and JUST as I finally got it, the remaining 1800 lb test bow line snapped (whew). The water was only 6' deep where the boat was so it smashed on the bottom a few times and I knew I couldn't save the boat, and the wind continued to get worse. The 2,000# boat was often standing vertical on the lake bottom on it's stern sometimes, only the one remaining new bow line kept the boat from blowing over backwards and I was afraid that rope would break too, so we decided to try to beach the boat... nearly impossible. Fat chance, watching how the huge waves slammed the driftwood logs down hard on the beach and then tons of water crashed over them, really poor odds of success. But, it was our only chance and we had to be super fast and make NO mistakes. If we failed, the boat would be smashed to pieces and washed away. We'd be marooned with almost no food (on the boat because of bears). After a lot of rope rigging was prepared, our plan was to catch it between waves, quickly swing the bow around and quickly pull it as far ashore as we could, bow first onto shore BEFORE the next huge wave crashed down on it.

Good timing and good luck. We were about 90% successful. With the next wave smashing and pushing the stern we managed to winch it up mostly out of the water but as that wave hit, the stern cleat snapped off (whew) which was the only thing holding it from swinging broadside (doomed). But with each wave we were able to winch it up a bit farther and finally saved it (and our food). It only had a little bit of water in it (miracle). Another miracle is that the auxiliary motor stayed on after flopping loose for hours, it had made contact with the bottom frequently.

After 12 hours and with the boat safely beached, I was finally able to go ashore out of the wind to recover. I was surprised to find that I had a really Really bad case of hypothermia, quite seriously bad. I was shaking uncontrollably for several hours. Hot chocolate probably saved my life. Nearly all my toes were black and blue from tugging on the ropes so hard and eventually I lost several toenails, one never recovered, even today.

In typical Lake Superior fashion, the rest of the day actually became quite pleasant and soon it was calm. We were able to get everything back in shape, off to the next island to continued with our trip. One of many hundreds.

If anyone reads this far, I have many more similar adventures.