Hmm, I was mostly joking. Why do they not want people seeing it?
Martin
Martin
CK5
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The Great Smaug
- Thread starter campfire
- Start date
Aside from the lifeboats, no debris and no survivors were found on the surface. The restrictions were instated because the crew members are all presumed to be on the ship or nearby. So it's considered a historic grave site. And historic underwater grave sites are now protected locations.
This was news to me, though.
Who knows.
We had a room mate when I was living in Lincoln, who would get hammered, and then hit on unsuspecting girls at our parties. We would always play "The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald" when we could see he was one beer off from the entertainment.
Martin
Martin
After 2 weeks I came back to the thread and realized I have no idea what the connection is here. Getting hammered leads to shipwreck?
I'm probably overthinking this.
It was like watching a wreck.
Martin
Martin
Heading back into Munising, we then went over to the local tourist trap:
Not sure if it's an actual lighthouse, or just styled as such. There are enough to go around up here, but counterfeits aren't that rare either. Behind the building sits the boat dock:
Once onboard, we soon find ourselves leaving the shore behind:
And out into Munising Bay!
Not sure if it's an actual lighthouse, or just styled as such. There are enough to go around up here, but counterfeits aren't that rare either. Behind the building sits the boat dock:
Once onboard, we soon find ourselves leaving the shore behind:
And out into Munising Bay!
Once out in the bay, we came across this buoy, marking the location of this particular shipwreck (there are a number of marked shipwrecks in Munising Bay):
Can't really capture the experience on film, but what we saw was a fairly intact wooden sailing vessel sitting underneath 30' of water. Given the clarity of the water, though, it looked much closer. Here's my best attempt at photographing it:
Can't really capture the experience on film, but what we saw was a fairly intact wooden sailing vessel sitting underneath 30' of water. Given the clarity of the water, though, it looked much closer. Here's my best attempt at photographing it:
I don't have a good picture of it, but the wreck was also visible through the waves:
After finishing our tour here, we cruised past a section of Grand Island's coastline:
And past the Grand Island East Channel Lighthouse.
We've seen several dozen lighthouses so far in our exploration of the Great Lakes. Many of them are no longer serving as active USCG beacons. For many more of them, the retired historic building sits next to a modern beacon on a tower. These historic buildings are typically maintained as private homes, museums, Bed-n-Breakfasts, etc. This one is probably the only one that we have found so far that is abandoned. It's privately owned, but no almost restoration has been completed. I've heard that the owners think it's more picturesque without paint, but it seems to me like the structure is not going to last without maintenance.
After finishing our tour here, we cruised past a section of Grand Island's coastline:
And past the Grand Island East Channel Lighthouse.
We've seen several dozen lighthouses so far in our exploration of the Great Lakes. Many of them are no longer serving as active USCG beacons. For many more of them, the retired historic building sits next to a modern beacon on a tower. These historic buildings are typically maintained as private homes, museums, Bed-n-Breakfasts, etc. This one is probably the only one that we have found so far that is abandoned. It's privately owned, but no almost restoration has been completed. I've heard that the owners think it's more picturesque without paint, but it seems to me like the structure is not going to last without maintenance.
I also thought the color pattern on these cliffs was pretty neat:
Especially this one:
Kinda like tiger striping.
Especially this one:
Kinda like tiger striping.
Captured a seagull performing water takeoff maneuvers:
And another shot of Superior:
The Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore is in the distance. Next time I definitely want to see that up close. I have a hunch it is that much cooler looking at it from the water. Guess I have to go back someday...
And another shot of Superior:
The Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore is in the distance. Next time I definitely want to see that up close. I have a hunch it is that much cooler looking at it from the water. Guess I have to go back someday...
Then we came to the second and third shipwrecks (fairly close together). These ones are less intact than the first one is, so it's more of a debris field than a recognizable vessel.
I believe the water was also deeper here than the first wreck. But the wreck sits next to a shelf that extends much closer to the surface. Evidently the vessel struck that shelf during a storm, and that is what caused it to break up and sink at that location.
Everything looks significantly closer than it is. When we arrived at the edge of the shelf, our pilot let the boat drift over the shelf wall sideways (so we could see it coming out of the side windows). Until we passed safely on top of it, it did look like we were going to strike it and repeat the story of the sunken vessel. Made it much easier to understand the story of this wreck.
Moral of story: Don't mess with Lake Superior. Especially during November.
This wreck also sat next to these sea caves. Would be fun to explore them, but, alas, we were stuck on a tourist trap ride and had no say in what we did or where we went.
We then started cruising our way back to port:
Passing again by Grand Island and its closest lighthouse:
Passing again by Grand Island and its closest lighthouse:
View of Munising harbor from the water:
Neenah Paper's Munising mill:
As far as I can figure, the mill is just about the only industry in the area (besides tourism, of course). It's a pretty small town surrounded by lots and lots of nothing but trees and water.
Neenah Paper's Munising mill:
As far as I can figure, the mill is just about the only industry in the area (besides tourism, of course
). It's a pretty small town surrounded by lots and lots of nothing but trees and water.
Back on shore, we steered The Great Smaug out toward the Lakeshore again in search of Munising Falls. We felt welcomed to Munising...as we were leaving town. 
At least the goodbye flowers were pretty:
Back at the Ranger Station, this sign told us we were on the correct track:
Following the lake shore to the Northeast, we again passed the paper mill:
At least the goodbye flowers were pretty:
Back at the Ranger Station, this sign told us we were on the correct track:
Following the lake shore to the Northeast, we again passed the paper mill:
At the park, we found this sign detailing some ruins nearby (which we did not wind up locating ):
And this nicely maintained trail leading to the waterfall:
Not really a hike at all.
But the patterns in the rocks were cool:
):And this nicely maintained trail leading to the waterfall:
Not really a hike at all.
But the patterns in the rocks were cool:
At the end of the trail we found the falls:
The rules of this particular public park did not permit us to get any closer than this. Which I though was a bummer. But it was still quite neat to be this close to the spray.
View in the downstream direction:
The rules of this particular public park did not permit us to get any closer than this. Which I though was a bummer. But it was still quite neat to be this close to the spray.
View in the downstream direction:
