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Date:         Fri, 27 May 2005 08:00:29 -0700
Reply-To:     Jeffrey Earl <jefferrata@YAHOO.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
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From:         Jeffrey Earl <jefferrata@YAHOO.COM>
Subject:      Traveling lighter... a goal... Kayak carriers, Lake Superior?
Comments: To: steeles159@YAHOO.COM
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Stephen wrote: >> Finally a question about kayaks, as we are heading to the North Country and a circumnavigation of Lake Superior (Jeff Earl...where's your travel blog?). A fellow Listee and I will be traveling with wives and young sons(one each). And we are discussing how many bikes and kayaks we should bring along. The bikes are easy enough to carry. The kayaks aren't.

Stephen, thanks for checking out my site, and for your patience on my Lake Superior travelogue. I'm just wrapping up a long and frustrating kitchen remodeling project, so haven't had much time for site updates. But I assure you that as soon as I have enjoyed that first slice of toast in the new kitchen, I will begin adding the Superior journey, more photos, and some technical articles.

In the meantime, some of the highlights we visited on our own orbit of the world's largest inland lake:

My home state of Wisconsin boasts some of the finest state parks around, including Pattison State Park, where we found Wisconsin’s highest waterfall, and the fourth highest east of the Rockies: 165-foot Big Manitou. Northern Great Lakes Visitor Center will give you a great historical and geological overview of the region, and perhaps give you ideas for other sites to see along your 1000-mile route way. In Washburn, remember to stop for a double-dip soft-serve cone at the self-proclaimed "World's Only Underground Dairy Queen". From Bayfield, a brief ferry voyage across the waters of the bay will soon bring you to Madeline Island. At just fourteen miles long and three wide, Madeline is the largest of the twenty-two islands making up the Apostle Islands archipelago, and the only inhabited one. Amnicon Falls is another beautiful Wisconsin state park, featuring spectacular waterfalls and camping just outside Duluth, MN.

In Duluth you can tour an old ore freighter, the William A. Irvin. Launched in 1938, the “Pride of the Silver Stackers” has been saved from the cutter's torch and refurbished as a floating museum. A fifty-mile sidetrip to Chisolm offers a huge mining museum, with three stories of exhibits, and a train ride around the rim of an iron ore pit to a restored 1800s mining village. North of Duluth, there's Split Rock lighthouse. It’s not very tall but it doesn’t need to be; perched atop a 170-foot granite cliff, it offers a commanding view of the lake. The keeper climbed these steps to light the kerosene burner for the first time in 1910, after a rash of serious shipwrecks on the rocks below. Ships’ navigation compasses were rendered inaccurate by large masses of iron beneath the lake. Drive the historic Gunflint Trail out of Grand Marais, up into the wild country of extreme northeast Minnesota and a primary gateway to the backcountry of the famous Boundary Waters Canoe Area, a remote region along the Canadian border boasting probably half of Minnesota's famed 10,000 lakes.

In Thunder Bay, Ont. visit historic Fort William at the river’s mouth. For many years the site served as a key shipment center on Lake Superior. Now reconstructed and opened as a living history program, the Fort depicts the days of the booming fur trade, circa 1803-1821. Heavily-laden voyageur canoes arrived here from Montreal, bearing manufactured trading goods. Wawa, Ont. offers some of the most beautiful Great Lakes coastal paddling anywhere on the chain. Conveniently also the home of Naturally Superior Adventures, a paddling outfitter: http://www.naturallysuperior.com/DIYpricing.htm

Sault Ste. Marie has the Algoma Central Railway up into the rugged backcountry of the Montreal river valley, a large seaplane bush-pilot museum, and the famous Soo Locks, where you can watch 1000' ore freighters lifted over 20 feet up to Lake Superior.

Driving south, you can cross the Mackinaw Bridge, which some call the largest suspension bridge in the world (depending on how you measure it). The eastern end of Michigan's Upper Peninsula offers the highest concentration of rugged waterfalls in the region, and beautiful shorelines of both Superior and Lake Michigan. As Joy mentioned, Pictured Rocks Nat. Lakeshore near Munising, MI offers great backpacking; we honeymooned there (well, not Joy and I, but my wife and I ...). More great paddling, or you can take a tour boat to see the cliffs. Numerous sites and parks stretching all the way west to the Porcupine Mountains, with more great hiking and paddling, and the beautiful Presque Isle river gorge.

Bikes aren't too much of a hassle if you use them enough to justify their presence; just use good locks and keep a close eye on them while travelling or parked. Boats are another matter, being up on the roof, and are more difficult to hide behind a tree or in a motel room. You might consider arranging to rent kayaks or canoes at various key spots, with or without a guide who can show you some of the local gems and tell you tall tales. You could even personalize a rental boat by bringing your own PFDs, paddles, and other gear. In addition to the abovementioned outfitter in Wawa, I know there are others in Bayfield (heart of the Apostle Islands), Thunder Bay (near Isle Royale), Sault Ste, Marie, Munising, and other places around the lakeshore. As Joy mentioned, of all the Great Lakes, Superior is the coldest, and without wetsuit and other cold-water gear, can be downright deadly for all but a few weeks in late summer. Here's another place where local guides/shops can help you decide when and where to go.

Good luck, and have a great trip!

Jeffrey Earl 1983 diesel Westfalia "Vanasazi" http://www.vanthology.com/

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