You can’t walk the beach if there is no beach

This storm was not anywhere near as crazy as the 2010 Labor Day Storm (a small comfort in this Hell Year). But the water in Gitchee Gumee is much higher now than it was 10 years ago and we had NO beach this morning. I mean that the waves were coming in all the way up to the bank.

We both rose later than usual. For me it was because the wind soothed me. Others worried about trees coming down but slept anyway. That COULD happen but it is not a regular event here. The only tree I have ever seen fall did it on a day of dead calm. Me and The Comm and Radical Betty were having a takeout lunch and whine on the deck and a birch tree suddenly sorta imploded down into itself in a spiralish kind of way. It was the strangest thing and it made the strangest sound.

Anyway, me and the GG set off in Mooon Yooonit to check out the mega-storm in various locations up the shore. We stopped at the Iroquois lighthouse and walked down along the boardwalk. The wind was blowing MEEEEE around and we also got a bit sand blasted. We stopped again at Big Pine (a picnic park) and the Shallows near Naomikong Point. We investigated Bark Dock and then turned back and inland to traverse some Forest Roads.

We were probably not even a half mile down the road when we encountered treefall across the road. The GG did NOT have a chainsaw with him but these were lightweight branches and he had other tools that he was able to use to dispatch the mess in a relatively short time. Another vee-hickle came up behind us and I told the young driver “he forgot his chainsaw” and we laughed and then he and the GG talked at what I did not think was a proper social distance but they probably interacted for less than a minute, so…

From there we got onto the Avery Grade road and took that until Government Ranger Road. (He kept talking about “Government” Road and when I proclaimed “Ranger” Road, he was like, oh, I thought it was government road.) I’ve known Ranger Road since I was a child. It was a “roller-coaster” road then 🐸

Up Ranger Road to Dollar Settlement, hung a right and then another right and took Tower Road up onto Mission Hill and over to the Spectacle Lake overlook. Until we got to the overlook, the only other vee-hickle we encountered was a border patrol truck. We do NOT totally agree on polly-tickle issues but we both spent quite a bit of time speculating upon what the border patrol thought they might encounter on Tower Road. Us? Baggy old WASP-y looking American citizens in a late model Toyota SUV? We passed the border patrol vee-hickle with a friendly wave and they didn’t detain us.

All of the freighters in the St. Marys River were hunkered down in parking places this morning. The Kaye Barker was in view in our “parking place” (sorta). A bunch of others were down by Drummond Island. As the wind has lessened, the Kaye Barker has finally left to continue her journey up into Lake Superior and the first of the Drummond boats is approaching the Soo Locks. We may see one or two of these boats pass by our place but I expect most of them will pass us after we have retired for the night.

One Response to “You can’t walk the beach if there is no beach”

  1. Margaret Says:

    Windy here too today but no cool waves or (invisible) beach. I would be scared to drive around in a windstorm, especially around trees. There have been too many people killed around here by falling ones. 🙁