Date: Fri, 27 May 2005 08:00:29 -0700
Reply-To: Jeffrey Earl <jefferrata@YAHOO.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Jeffrey Earl <jefferrata@YAHOO.COM>
Subject: Traveling lighter... a goal... Kayak carriers, Lake Superior?
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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