Now WE’RE Way Behind

 

Sheesh!

We apologize to our faithful readers for the LLLLOOONNNGGGG break between updates to this blog.  We are still out here and there has been a LOT going on.  We have just been too busy with other matters to sit down and write.  So, please bear with us as we try to get caught up. (Warning:  This may take several posts. )

 

The BIG Lake

Leaving the whole “How do you pronounce Mackinac” question in our wake, we headed west toward Beaver Island in northern Lake Michigan.  Called by some America’s Emerald Isle, Beaver boats one village and Harbor (St James) and acres of fields and woodlands.  Our voyage was one of those rare, calm days where you set a course, turn on the autohelm, and make no adjustments for 50+ miles.  

An ancestral land to the Odawa tribe, Beaver’s first white settlers were trappers, fishermen, and Catholic missionaries.  These were followed by a splinter group of Mormons called Strangites, after their leader James Jesse Strang.   Strang split from the early church when it failed to recognize him as the true successor to Joseph Smith.  In 1846, when the larger Mormon group under Bingham Young began their epic migration to Utah, Strang attempted to establish a Mormon theocracy encompassing Beaver and some other Lake Michigan islands.  He had some early success, using a cannon to overcome the objections of island locals and anointing himself as King.  He and his followers set up a printing operation and establishing two of northern Michigan’s early newspapers.  Sadly (or not) he was “promoted to heaven” by two disgruntled followers one night in 1856.  Shortly thereafter, some civic-minded “gentiles” from Mackinac Island (pronounced “Mack-in-aw”) ran his remaining followers out of town.  The void was filled by a colony of Irish immigrant fishermen, many of whose decedents are part of the island’s 600 year-round population.  

Until recently, Beaver Island was a low-key, well-kept secret for those lucky enough to acquire summer cottages there, but, like so many special places, it is now being “discovered”.   We did try The Shamrock for dinner with Looper friends from Orion and Seeker but found its Irish veneer to be pretty thin, with the interior and menu more akin to a U.P. hunting lodge than a Dublin pub.  Curiously, the local historical society/chamber of commerce has named its beaver mascot Pierre.  Given the place’s history, wouldn’t Ephraim or Shamus be more appropriate?

From Beaver Island we sailed SE back toward the Michigan (eastern) shore of the lake, bound for the town of Harbor Springs on the north shore of Little Traverse Bay.   (This is the finger side of the Michigan Mitten.)   Frankly, Harbor Springs was a second choice when there was no marina or anchorage space available in Petoskey on the south shore.  But it proved to be a happy second choice as Harbor Springs proved to be a delightful, somewhat upscale town with a lively waterfront and business district and neighborhoods full of large, lovely homes (cottages?).   Plus, it has a dog beach! (Admiral Maggie says, “YAY!”). The kind of town we could see ourselves living in.   Wish we could have spent more time.

Reluctantly leaving our snug mooring at Harbor Springs, we made our way across Little Traverse Bay and south along the Michigan shore to Grand Traverse Bay and the charming little village of Northport.  We found moorage on the wall at the municipal marina with a few other loopers, including our friends on Adventure Awaits.  Northport proved to be another charming Michigan port and we enjoyed a Friday night open-air concert in the adjacent park.   On Saturday, we were visited by ex-Spokane friends Glenn and Nancy Teal, who now reside in the Grand Rapids area.   They whispered those seductive words, “We have a car….” and took us on a little road trip that included a visit to The Cherry Republic in the charming village of Glen Arbor and lunch in the Fishtown neighborhood of the equally charming village of Leland.  (Notice the pattern with these Michigan villages?  They are, in fact, ALL charming. What’s not to like? Michigan is ACES with us.)

They also took us to see the Sleeping Bear Dunes, one of many collections of sandhills that line most of Lake Michigan’s western shore.  It seems a couple of million years ago, this part of the world was covered with glaciers.  And as they inched along, they ground whatever was in their way into massive deposits of sand.   The glaciers receded, filling the Lake and leaving the sand exposed to predominant west winds.  Years of wind and water heaped up the sand into dunes ranging from a few feet to huge, forest-covered hills now dotted with “cottages”.   We visited an observation point at the top of the Sleeping Bear Dunes to see folks gleefully sliding down hundreds of feet to the beach below, despite a Park Service sign offering rescues for those unable to climb back up at a rate of $3,000 per person.   (We elected to take the high road (so to speak) and walk back to the parking lot.)

On Sunday morning, we battled  20+ kt winds out of northwest and 4-6 foot waves on the bow to get out of Grand Traverse Bay and around Lighthouse Point to turn south for our next port of Frankfort, MI.  This was our roughest passage to date and we seriously considered turning around.  But things smoothed out a little once we made the turn and we had the winds behind us.   Whew!   We were very happy to see the breakwater at the entrance to Betsie Lake and our dock for the night at Jacobson Marina. 

From Frankfort, we………Oh, My!,,,,,,, would you LOOK at the time………the next stop will have to wait until next time.  Stay tuned!

 

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