Last year, we visited Wilderness State Park, which I described here. We returned this year for 4 nights, 5 days during the last week of May. We did different things and learned of a few useful tips. First and foremost, we decided never to return at this time of year. Why? Because of the billions of midges!

Not to be confused with mosquitoes(which, admittedly, would be far, far worse), midges were everywhere. It turns out that these things emerge from the water in April/May, and mate in the air for just a few days, then lay eggs in the water and die. And we happen to pick the worst month of the year. We awoke one morning to the sound of whooshing or jet like sound. We walked to the water looking for a boat, only to be amazed(and slightly disgusted) that the sound was coming from the hundreds of thousands of midges flying in swarms just above the trees. They don’t bite, but always seemed to be in the way and have no fear of humans.

I had booked this trip 6 months ago, based on the new moon in order that I could bring my telescope and observe some difficult targets that require very dark skies. Alas, it was either cloudy or very hazy(Canadian wildfire smoke). However, that same haze and smoke made for spectacular sunsets(click to enlarge):

It also turned out to be cold, with nights in the lower 40s deg F. But thankfully, the cabin could be heated by the stove inside(see this picture). On the third day, we decided to stay on site and kept feeding the stove. Our reward was a nice, cozy temperature inside all day long, and especially at night. Third day onsite was spent reading and stitching:

The second day of our visit, we drove into the upper peninsula all the way to Sault St Marie to take a boat tour of the Soo Locks. This was an impressive experience. Currently, two of the four US locks and one Candian lock are operational. Our two boats got lucky with the schedule, and were able to transit the large Poe Lock in the upstream direction, and then went through the much smaller(recreational) Canadian lock to come back. The locks are required, because of the 21′ difference in height between Lake Superior and Lake Huron.

The Poe Lock is 1200′ feet long, and the largest freighter that uses it is 1013′ in length. In the picture, looking upstream, you’ll see a freighter in the smaller MacArthur lock(the Poe lock is to the right). Notice how high above the water it seems to be:

This is the Manitoulin, 656′ long, coming out of the larger Poe Lock before we head in:

This is the 1200′(4 football fields!) Poe Lock. Notice the closed lock doors at the far end, and the open lock doors at the near end, next to the stairs. Also, notice the height of the walls, in order to compare to the next picture:

This is what it looks like after 22 million gallons of water has filled the lock in only a couple of minutes, raising us up 21′:

After going through the Poe Lock, we toured the Algoma Steelworks, just upstream of the locks. This was a good demonstration of the amount of raw material provided by Great Lakes freighters, and in this case, just to make steel. The main ingredients are coke, iron pellets and limestone. This is a photo of the entire plant, seen from our view point. Notice the small, dark dot in the grass on the left side(click to enlarge):

Zooming into that dot, you’ll see that it’s an extremely large mining truck! That’s how immense this installation is. The white material is limestone:

This is coke, the fuel for the blast furnace, which the plant can make by heating coal. However, these piles are delivered by freighter:

And this is the enormous piles of iron ore pellets

This is some of the product that comes out the other end: 40,000lb rolls of steel, destined for auto plants, where it is pressed into car and truck bodies:

On the way home, we traversed the Candian lock, only 253′ in length. It’s far less industrial looking, being surrounded by a park.

We also visited a light house, which I will write about next.