Daily Stats
Start: 5:45 AM - P.H. Hoeft State Park
Finish 3:00 PM - Zela Point (Bois Blanc Island)
Time: 9:15 hours
Daily dist: 36 miles
Total dist: 4500+
Companions: None
Weather: NNE then E winds up to 10 mph, partly cloudy, 70’s
Notes: The 40 Mile Light park was closed so we went back to the State Park to put in.
Start: 5:45 AM - P.H. Hoeft State Park
Finish 3:00 PM - Zela Point (Bois Blanc Island)
Time: 9:15 hours
Daily dist: 36 miles
Total dist: 4500+
Companions: None
Weather: NNE then E winds up to 10 mph, partly cloudy, 70’s
Notes: The 40 Mile Light park was closed so we went back to the State Park to put in.
Keep land on your left for 4000 miles, then...
From the very first time I mentioned this trip, my brother Luke has cued up his best Forest Gump impersonation and teased me in a slow ramble “Hi.. my name is Jake… I’m goin paddlin. It’s easy… I just keep land on my left.” Remaining ever so clever, Luke even suggested a very simple approach to navigation when he signed my boat on launch day last December. He summed it up in two words and added an arrow for good measure… <-- TURN LEFT.
Well, today with my crossing of The Straights of Mackinac the rules have changed. For the first time in this trip (on open water) I now have land on my right as I will until I reach Green Bay. Honestly, it feels strange.
When Tom and I arrived at the Forty Mile Point Lighthouse park at 5:30 this morning we discovered a pair of locked gates with a sign stating that the park opens at 10:00 AM. Undeterred, and not wanting to wait five hours to launch, we drove back three miles to the nearby state park and launched there. With a quick farewell Tom headed home and I loaded my boat and launched into slightly choppy water with an already favorable breeze out of the northeast. With the wind slightly at my back I made up the three miles I lost in just a few minutes and continued on my way toward the Mackinac Straights. At noon, with a slight chop on the water and the Mackinac bridge on the horizon, I crossed from the lower peninsula of Michigan across the straights to Bois Blanc Island. I don’t know if the island pledges its allegiance with the upper or lower peninsula all I do know is that at camp tonight I’m only about ten miles from the bridge and Lake Michigan.
Look closely there is a very big bridge on the horizon
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