WCP Online Newsletter

Paddle on Lake Superior - Written by Don Barnett
by Charlotte E Lackey (email)

Contributed 07/13/2005  Responses:  0

July 13. We drove the one-way road around Presque Isle Park, stopping when the road came down close to lake level, 1/2 mile short of the rest rooms and sandy beach that is usually used by kayakers and ourselves. We found a sloping bank of solid sandstone that was easy to carry the boats down, and got launched as the lake began to get rough in light north wind. We paddled NNW around Partridge Island in continuous 2-foot swells, altho the wind remained mild. Returned S of Middle Island and between the two rocky islands with hundreds of noisy screeching gulls, then NE toward the tip of Presque Isle Park, into heavier seas that sometimes surely exceeded 2-foot swells. We learned to plant the paddle in the troughs between swells and steadily and firmly power the Monarchs over the crests which we were quartering. The sea was too rough to land on solid rock so we took out on a slightly sheltered pebble beach which CL had fortunately spotted just S of the put-in. Trip covered about 5 miles in 2:10 and we felt good about doing it on the always beautiful clear water of The Lady. Carrying the 17-foot canoes up to road level form the pebble beach tested our almost-forgotten rock-climbing skills.