From: ault@engin.umich.edu (Matthew Ault)
Subject: Re: so... How bout those great lakes?
Date: Fri, 04 Sep 92 17:07:32 EDT
Organization: University of Michigan Engineering, Ann Arbor
Distribution: usa

>Well, John, this is a group that talks about the 
>attributes of Michigan, and asks questions related to
>tourism and stuff...  I like it.  Being from a little tourist
>town on Lake Huron just north of Bay City, I love it.
>Btw...where do all ye fellow Michiganders hail from?
>Steph

Let me guess...  Tawas?  AuGres?  Standish?  :^)

Ah, the days of me youth...

Myself, I hail from Midland originally, and Ann Arbor recently.
And am desperately trying to get out, or at least get a job.
Anyone out there need a recent aerospace engineering graduate?
Oh yeah, that's another group...

My most recent "Great Lakes" experience was last week.  My wife
finally got a week's vacation from her job so we decided to take
advantage of it and spend several days canoeing and camping in
the Sylvania Wilderness Area, which is part of Ottawa National
Forest.  Seeing as we didn't want to drive the whole stretch
from Midland to Watersmeet in one day, we spent one night camping
on the Garden Penninsula, which lies between Manistiqe and Escanaba
on Lake Michigan's north shore.  (It actually is like an extension 
of the same land mass that makes up the Door Penninsula area in
Wisconsin, just attached to the UP.)  We stayed the night at a
small state forest campground on the eastern side of the penninsula
which offered a nice stretch of beach just yards from our campsite.
It would have been better if some dummy hadn't driven his four- 
wheeler up and down the beach a couple of times.  I wonder how long
it will take for those tire tracks to erode away.   

The next morning I got up to watch the surise over Lake Michigan, which
is something you don't get to do that much while *in* Michigan.  I was
treated to a lovely view with the mist rising off the lake to meet the
sun.  It was one of those moments where it's hard to tell where the water
ends and the sky begins.  It all blended into one.

We didn't have enough time to visit my favorite Garden Penninsula
attraction, Fayette State Park.  It's definately a place to see, especially
if you are intrigued by Great Lakes history.  Back during the great and
glorious days of iron mining in the upper penninsula, Fayette was one of
the major iron processing facilities in the area.  The ore would be shipped
by rail down to Fayette and then melted down in to ingots (called pigs,
hence the term "pig iron").  It was a boom town for many years, but when
the iron ran out the town was abandoned.  The state of Michigan has since
turned it into a state park and rebuilt many of the wooden buildings to
represent the height of Fayette's history.  But the main attraction is
definately the old towers that held the smelting facilities.  Made out of
limestone blocks, they tower 75 feet or so  over the small bay where the
ships used to dock to take the iron south.  It's the closest thing to
a medieval castle that you're likely to find in North America, at least
in terms of ambiance.  The first time I visited there was early one
April morning several years ago.  I was the only one in the entire park,
and as I wandered among the deserted buildings, with the cold wind
whipping off the lake, I could almost feel the ghosts.

From there we went on to Sylvania and had several wonderful days of canoeing
about and enjoying the wilderness.  We saw three bald eagles at close
range and countless loons.  They must have been congregating for their
migration south.  It's the first time that I've seen more than a pair
of loons on a single lake.  We saw/heard at least five on one lake at one
time.  It was quite a concert.

Ugh!  This has gone on too long.  Sorry for the ramble.

-matt

-- 
 /|====================| Sanity is maintained only by healthy and     |\
/ |  Matthew A. Ault   |   regular promenades around its border.      | \
\ |ault@engin.umich.edu|     - from _The Complete Wilderness Paddler_ | /
 \|====================|         by J.W. Davidson & J. Rugge          |/
Newsgroups: alt.great-lakes