A sailing we go...sort of

Well, we actually had a day where we mostly drove and got some miles in. We left Munising and drove to St. Ignace, a cute little tourist trap right to the north of the bridge leading downstate. You can take an expensive ferry to even more expensive Mackinac Island but we decided to pass on that. We spent a restless night in the Comfort Inn parking lot, listening to late arrivals, car alarms, garbage trucks, early departures....They did have good WIFI. Thayer spent the morning working and I walked into the town and browsed around. There was a nice museum of the Chippewa and Ojibwe tribes with very informative exhibits about the importance of family, trade and migration, and canoe building. The fellow working there was a very nice young man, we had a heart to heart talk about life. I found out the white cedar is their "tree of life", much like the western red cedar in the NW.

As I continued down the main street I was accosted by a bakery that reached out and dragged me in the door. I tried to resist but the salted pecan carmel topped cinnamon butter crispy rolls jumped into a bag and begged me to take them. They were only $.50 each! I only bought two. Then I only ate one and saved one for Thayer. It was a real battle! The sad part was that it was repeated a short time later when I had to wait for Thayer to come back and pick me up and I made the mistake of waiting in front of the bakery.  I resisted until the very end, and when he didn't come and didn't come, my resolve was shattered and I bought two more of the little butters. For tomorrow, I promise. Tell me if you could resist this little darling -->

Well, after that debacle we drove to the bridge overlook and read up on the history of the bridge and took some photos. Then we got to pay $10 to cross the mighty thing and we were officially downstate.  

The plan was to drive down the west side of the the peninsula, taking in whatever sights we happened upon. There are definitely more people and traffic in this part of the state!  We powered through a few biggish weekend resort towns and then, as we were tooling along Suttons Bay I spotted the tall masts of a schooner at the town docks.  Thayer drove us through a construction zone to get us there but we made it. We found the "Inland Seas" at the end of the dock, a 65+ ft steel hulled schooner. We talked with the young man aboard and found out that she is the floating classroom for the Inland Seas Education Association, a non-profit environmental education organization. Their mission is to expose mostly kids, but their families too, to science activities and investigations that teach them about the wonderful Great Lakes. We decided to spend the night here and then find out if we could get on the boat the next day. We found a great overnight spot near a local park. First thing in the morning we got to eat those delightful little butter bombs that I bought yesterday, chased down with some healthy fruit.

Then we made our way to the center and talked to the skipper of the boat. They were going on a cruise later that day but didn't need volunteers, however there was space available for paying customers. Since the cost was less than cruise to the Pictured Rocks that was refunded, we had no difficulty in deciding to go. We had enough time to visit a lighthouse down the road before the boat left(on a 3 hour cruise) so we quickly visited the Grand Traverse Lighthouse then came back to Suttons Bay. 

After a quick introduction and safety schpeel we got underway. There were about 30 passengers, 5 instructors and 4 crew on the boat.  First thing we did was motor out to about 60 ft of water and collect 4 different samples that would be used for the small group activities. We towed an Otter trawl to drag samples from near the bottom, we used a Ponar sediment grabber for the goop on the bottom, a plankton net, and a Van Dorn sampler to get water from the bottom. This part took too long because it was very hot and we were just sitting and watching while the kids got all the fun. Once this was accomplished we hoisted the sails and tried sailing in the light muggy air. I got to haul up the mail sail and must say that I did most of it with very little help from the 3 little girls who were supposed to be tailing for me.

Then we broke up into smaller groups and did 5 different stations to see the stuff we had hauled up and to identify and test the samples. We explored plankton, fish, sediments, and chemistry. I won't describe each activity but will try to explain what we learned.

1. The plankton in the Great Lakes is declining due to exotic species of bivalves that have gotten into the lakes. They are very efficient filterers and reproducers. The water is beautifully clear. Unfortunately, this is bad for the native animals because they don't have as much food, they are getting crowded out.  

2. The population of invasives has increased hugely in the past 20 years- mainly zebra mussels and quagga (another bivalve).

3. The diversity of fish has decreased as pressure from invasive species increases. Round gobies are taking over the lakes, though they think that native fish may be starting recognize them as something to eat and eat them.

4. Asian Carp are creeping up the Mississippi watershed toward the GL, only thing keeping them out are electric fences in the canals connecting the Mississippi watershed to the Lakes. The big worry is that the wetlands that connect the two watersheds will have catastrophic flooding that will allow the fish to pass from the Mississippi watershed to the GL watershed. These wetlands are less than 200 feet above the lake and river levels. These guys are bad news.

Some other interesting facts about the GL.

They contain 20% of Earth's fresh water! Other countries are interested in getting their hands on this water, including the Japanese. Not sure how they would transport it but...

The lakes have their own salmon runs, they spawn in the rivers and swim the lakes to grow up instead of an ocean. We saw some fishermen filleting some beautiful Kings today.

The funding for fighting invasives has been cut from about $480 mil to about $60 mil. 

We were surprised to not see much in the way of water skiers, sailing, jet skis, most boats were of the fishing variety. Maybe it is just because boats look so tiny in the vast waters.

Because this was a "3 Hour Tour" and no one wanted to chance getting stranded on some desert isle with Gilligan and Co., the skipper asked me to take over at the helm and steer us safely home. My sailing prowess was immediately recognized and we made it back to port without incident (except for some sore smilin' muscles).

After our educational cruise we cut across to the western shore and found a nice camping place in Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore on Good Harbor. The mosquitos were swarming but we were safe in our little rig. The next morning I walked on the long empty beach. Little did I know that this was the place I should be looking for Petoskey stones which are fossilized coral. A guy showed me what they looked like but they would have been pretty tough to find. This is a picture of a nice polished one, the ones on the beach have to be wet to see the distinctive patterns. The family looking for stones did find some.

                                     
We went on the scenic drive in the park which included beautiful forests, dune areas and beaches. From the highest observation point you could bounce your way down the dune all the way to the shore in deep, soft, golden sand. It was very steep however and once you got all the way down there you had no choice but to crawl/climb all the way back up in the same soft, slippery sand. Lots of people were doing it and having a lovely time. I did a little bouncing and you can see that on facebook if you have a strong stomach. I felt like we could have spent more time at this park but we had a boondocking host lined up and had to get there. Jon and Gail turned out to be very entertaining and gave us some pointers for the next day. Nice quiet night out in the middle of farming country.