Along the Great Gitchi Goomee

Aug 9th
Today from Sault Ste. Marie along Lake Huron for about 150 miles to Espanola, then turned south on Highway #6. Penny, our Streets and Trips, verbal Guide, almost got us off on a wild Goose Chase. Oh a word about Penny. She wouldn't talk to us all day yesterday and I thought she was just "Being a Woman", but then by chance last night I looked at my computer and Low and Behold, I had the speaker shut off. Sorry Penny for all those things I said about you. It was all my fault and I apologize for that. But then today I had just routed her from the Sault to our next campground on Manitoulin Island. Penny took it apon herself to take the shortest route. Now I must tell you the shortest is not always the best, so when she said turn right at Government road 20 miles west of Espanola, We for a minute or two did not question her and started to turn, but before we committed ourselves, it was obvious that this was nothing more than a narrow little dirt road. Closer investigation on the map showed it would have eventually taken us to Highway 6, but this was not the route we wanted to follow. I think maybe this was Penny's way of getting back at me for the things I said about her yesterday. We are even now!! Anyway we grabbed a hamburger and milkshake at Dairy Queen in Espanola, and then continued south.


This is huge bridge that turns to allow big boats to pass on the north Channel.
Now this peninsula is just "All Rock". The road was not bad, but a lot of corners and up and down. We arrived at or Manitoulin Campground at about 2:30PM and checked in. Their sites are quite small and so they gave me a choice of about 5 sites. I looked them all over and decided #46 was probably best, but I would have to unhook Toad, and I really did not want that as we are booked onto the ferry at 9:15 in the morning and we need to be there at least an hour in advance and we have at least a 30 minute drive from here to the ferry. However I did unhook Toad and wiggled into the site. The back end was almost touching another trailer and the front was almost on the street. But before we got hooked up the owner roared up in an ATV and said another pull through site was open as the people that had reserved it never showed, so we could have it. Wiggled out again and moved, but this is a good large site. End of another day, but I did walk down the the beach and enjoyed a sunset over the little inlet on the Lake. A great place for kids to swim, as I don't think there was anywhere on the little bay that was over 4 feet deep.

Lots of kids and adults just enjoying the water.
Aug 8th
Left Wawa this morning by 10:00AM and traveled along the shores of Gitchi Gumee (Superior's nick name). We had only 134 miles planned for today to the Sault Ste. Marie KOA Park so we traveled quite slow with several stops where ever we were able to. Stopped at Alona Bay.

Here the gravel beach reminded us of the one we saw several years ago in New Brunswick called " Cape Enrage." All the rocks have been "tumbled" by the severe wave action until smooth and round. When wet they exhibit many unique colors and designs. Denice had to pick a few of these and stow them away for future enjoyment.

Also stopped at Agawa Native Craft store. Lots of wood carvings and an array of other neat stuff that tourists collect. We bought a few!!
Now a little about Lake Superior:
Name
The Ojibwe call the lake Gichigami, meaning "big water." Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote the name as "Gitche Gumee" in The Song of Hiawatha. "The first French explorers approaching the great inland sea by way of the Ottawa River and Lake Huron during the 17th century referred to their discovery as le lac superieur. Properly translated, the expression means "Upper Lake," that is, the lake above Lake Huron.

Hydrography
Lake Superior is the largest freshwater lake in the world by surface area, and empties into Lake Huron via the St. Marys River and the Soo Locks. Lake Baikal in Russia is larger by volume, as is Lake Tanganyika. The Caspian Sea, while larger than Lake Superior in both surface area and volume, is brackish; though presently isolated, historically the Caspian has been repeatedly connected to and isolated from the Mediterranean via the Black Sea.

Lake Superior has a surface area of 31,820 square miles (82,413 km2)[1], which is approximately the size of South Carolina. It has a maximum length of 350 miles (563 km) and maximum breadth of 160 miles (257 km). Its average depth is 482 feet (147 m) with a maximum depth of 1,332 feet (406 m).[1] Lake Superior contains 2,900 cubic miles (12,100 km³) of water. There is enough water in Lake Superior to cover the entire land mass of North and South America with 1 foot (30 cm) of water.[5] The shoreline of the lake stretches 2,726 miles (4,387 km) (including islands).

American limnologist J. Val Klump was the first person to reach the lowest depth of Lake Superior on July 30, 1985, as part of a scientific expedition, which, at 733 feet (223 m) below sea level, is the lowest spot on the continental interior of the United States and the second-lowest spot on the interior of the North American continent after the much deeper Great Slave Lake in Canada (458 metres (1,503 ft) below sea level). (Though Crater Lake, not Lake Superior, is the deepest lake in the United States, Crater Lake's surface elevation is much higher and its deepest point is 4,229 feet (1,289 m) above sea level.)

The average temperature of the lake during the summer is about 40 degrees Fahrenheit (4.4 °C). Lake Superior is the largest, deepest and coldest of the Great Lakes. Superior could contain the volume of all the other Great Lakes and three more Lake Eries. Because of its size Superior has a retention time of 191 years.[6]

Annual storms on Lake Superior regularly record wave heights of over 20 feet (6 m).[7] Waves well over 30 feet (9 m) have been recorded