Before we departed Petosky the Admiral slipped out early because today is Friday, and Friday morning in Petosky means Farmer's Market... Of course, I blissfully slept in, but she hit the jackpot. Farming, including orchards and vineyards is a huge industry in this area of Michigan, and it looks very much like the prime season here. The fridge is now very well stocked with salad makings!
We left the dock about 9:00 am and headed west toward the mouth of Little Travers Bay. We had hoped to stay in Charlevoix about 17.5 miles to the west of Petosky, but even though we kept trying, we were unable to get reservations.
We did stop there hoping to have lunch at least before going further onward. This was our view as we were about to enter the channel at Charlevoix. You can see the ripples on the water and the hazy but cloudless sky. To get into the actual harbor, we had to pass through a bascule bridge that opens only on the hour and half hour. Of course, this picture was taken at about 11:10 am with only a half mile to the bridge. By the time the bridge opened at 11:30 am, we were the first in a line of about 7 boats just going in our direction.
It was a busy time at the helm with small boats passing left and right (port/starboard) in addition to oncoming boats once the bridge went up. We passed this sturdy red channel marker with a lovely public beach on the other side of the break wall. By this time the Admiral was busy on the VHF radio trying to find a visitors dock where we could tie up for lunch, but all of her efforts were to no avail. So, we continued on for a little sight seeing once we were committed to passing through the bridge.
This (picture at left) was our view waiting for the bridge to open, and you can just see some of the lovely condos lining the channel. Once through the bridge the channel opens into Round Lake, which is aptly named. It is perhaps a half mile across, but with boats on moorings and others waiting for or passing through the bridge, the traffic was pretty intense. We kept going through Round Lake and into Charlevoix Lake, which is about 14 miles long. We just did a quick in/out before we headed back for the bascule bridge with near perfect timing.
As we were about to pass back through the bridge we passed this classic old gill net commercial fishing boat named the "Falcon". This one was in pretty "rough" condition so it might well still be in daily use as a working fishing boat.
The rest of the trip was pretty much treed shoreline as we headed out of Little Traverse bay and turned south into Grand Traverse Bay. At one point I noticed a cluster of small white buoys/markers about a mile ahead. As we got closer, it became apparent that we had happened upon a single family of swans out for a little "stroll" about a mile off the shore.
Okay, you would be smart to ask how I knew that it was a single family of swans. My response would be that four of them could not fly, which means that they are not fully fledged yet. They tried to take off at one point, but you can see as far as they got... It was a valiant effort, but none of these four were able to get airborne wile one of the two adults took off with relative ease.
We have now seen about 20 swans on our trip, but this was the largest "flock" by far. Wow!
What starts out as one bay (Grand Traverse Bay) that trends north-south for 34 miles is split in the southern half into the East and West Arms of Grand Traverse Bay. We were headed to Elk Rapids on the eastern shore of the East Arm. Yet another great artificial harbor built out into the bay. You can see a public beach to the left, and there is another one on the other side. Hmmmmm... It sounds like some swim time in Lake Michigan is in order soon.
We left the boat about 6:00 pm headed for a quick "salad" for dinner before going to a movie at 7:00 pm. Along the way we discovered that there really still are "rapids" in Elk Rapids. These are part of a series of small rapids and dams that drop the river about 15 feet over a mile or so. Yes, we do have plans to use our tubes to actually go down the river. Daring? Well, it not much of a roaring rapids, but it should be worth a few laughs...
Going to a restaurant for a quick, light (salad) dinner and then to a movie, gave us a nice introduction to downtown Elk Rapids. The "Elk Rapids Cinema" is a classic old movie theater that has been more restored than updated. The ceiling in the theater has the largest (according to locals) ceiling mural of any theater in Michigan. The mural is kind of crudely executed (my opinion), but it is huge. Ann met the owner/operator who has been here for over 40 years. We were a little early so he said that he would put on some music in the theater. We got to chatting, and according to him, the music was playing off of classic vinyl records. The popcorn and soft drinks were almost reasonably priced and were certainly the cheapest that we have had on this trip. The Tootsie Rolls were only $0.75 and so on.... The movie was "America", which was probably not too surprising since this part of Michigan seems pretty conservative (?). I found the movie to be thought provoking, but as the movie itself says something like - take the facts that you want and interpret things the way you want (and maybe lie a little) and you can make a case for almost anything.
WE WILL BE HERE FOR ABOUT 4 NIGHTS AND PLAN TO GET A RENTAL CAR TOMORROW SO STAY TUNED...
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