Lake Gitcheegoomie

Today was a fun day. Started out pretty lousy - we had heavy rain all night, found the antenna for the TV still leaks - and Dave woke up with a wet side of the bed. Since the lousy weather we decided to drive up north to the most northern point of the Yoopy (Upper Peninsula) as we could, to Whitefish Point where the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum is located. There is a working lighthouse for Whitefish Point for Lake Superior and if you recall - this is the area that the Edmund Fitzgerald freighter sank in 1975. Very impressive. While visiting the museum, Gordon Lightfoot's song "The Edmund Fitzgerald" was playing in the background. Very eery. We walked out onto their lookout deck outside of the museum and saw a huge tanker going by and you couldn't help thinking of the 29 men that lost their life back then on the Fitzgerald. I found that I was scanning the beach looking for artifacts when in fact there hasn't been a shipwreck since the Fitzgerald. Here's a picture of a freighter going through the pass down into Lake Huron from Lake Superior (Hiawatha's Lake Gitcheegoomie). Another A-Ha moment - one of the Life Saving stations where men were stationed to help rescue people who were drowning from their sinking ship was the Vermilion Life Station about 9 miles to the west. It's closed to the public and being restored with a grant. Vermilion is everywhere!


By the time we left the museum the sun was coming out - it had finally quit raining. We headed to Tahquamenon Falls, to the Upper Falls where they said it was more dramatic. This was also quite impressive. Typically about 2200 gallons of water go over the falls per minute - but due to all the rain yesterday and last night, they calculated over 8100 gallons per minute! The water is very brown from the tannic acid - from decaying wood and such.

Driving back to the campground we opted to stop in town and get fresh smoked fish. We picked up smoked salmon and smoked trout. Wonderful! But now we are so thirsty. Tomorrow we take the ferry to Mackinac Island and spend the day there. No cars allowed on the island so we will be doing lots of walking. And of course, getting some fudge!