2007/09 Ontario trip - Monocle Lake |
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Sunday September 16th
We survived another cold night and set off across Michigan state’s Upper Peninsula towards the north shore of Lake Michigan. After passing through the hills of the iron mining country, the scenery was much the same as Wisconsin, except that it was flatter and sandier, still not much good for farming.
Lake Michigan’s sandy beaches were busy with whitecaps, pushed by a strong southerly wind, and it was a warm wind, promising more normal September weather. The last time we’d driven along that shore was back in 1982, so I’ve included one picture from that trip, taken on the beach of Lake Michigan. I think perhaps my two uncles were discussing naval strategy for an assault on the Wisconsin shore.
The road we were driving ends at the Mackinac Bridge, which would take us into the Lower Peninsula and Detroit, so we turned north, away from the lake. Within an hour we had crossed the “UP” and were at Whitefish Bay on the south shore of Lake Superior, also sandy, but dead calm, sheltered from the wind. 
We visited the old Point Iroquois lighthouse, nicely preserved. We were too late for the museum but I was able to climb to the top of the tower for a view across the bay to a wind farm in Ontario. To the east, the bay narrows to become the St Mary’s River and pass through the Soo locks and rapids of Sault Ste. Marie and into Lake Huron.
We camped at Monocle Lake, a few miles back from the coast, in the Hiawatha forest. The campground had plenty of room, perhaps because the lake was much diminished by drought. The boat ramp ended a long way from the water.
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