Connie and her little dog Morkie bade us goodbye and we headed into the calm waters of the channel, checking out cottages, houses and barns (see below) that we'd not seen before.
The coast guard boat slowed so as not to rock us with their wake and we called out to them that we'd come all the way from Copper Harbor! and to check out our blog!
We checked out Princess Point, hoping for a place to pee, but the shore is very swampy and tag aldery. Finally found a spot and then headed out into Portage Lake. I had had the idea that because it wasn't the Big Lake, it would be calm and easy. It wasn't. First of all, Portage Lake is much farther end to end than I thought, and also the wind was shifting from east to northeast (we were paddling north) and kicking up some substantial waves with whitecaps even. Then it started to rain. I had neglected to put on my rain gear, and by the time we reached the corner near Dollar Bay I was cold and soaked.
But the rain stopped as we headed through Houghton/Hancock, some friends hailed us from the shore and the sight of the bridge restored our spirits. Yeay!
Nathan Miller of the KLT positioned himself on the bridge and took this shot of our approach
and going under the bridge.
Libby caught us from behind.
It was exciting to be so close to the bridge and so wonderful to be greeted by friends as we beached our boat behind the Ramada and dragged ourselves over to the Copper Island Beach Club for some spicy jambalaya. Yum. I hung my wet stuff all over the ladies room while we ate so I wasn't quite as wet when we embarked yet again for the final stretch --our home stretch!--of the day.
The water was calm with just a bit of northbound waves pushing us along and we were observing all the places that we see from the road so frequently. The houses that seem so small on the road side look huge when seen from the water side, and we discovered some tiny cottages tucked under the level of the road that we didn't even know were there!
I was feeling tired and fairly relaxed--Terry said it was okay if I needed to just rest my arms for a while--when near High Point, right across from Don Arkin and Sharon Emley's house we heard some thunder. Well, for sure I didn't want to be out on the water if there was gonna be lightening, so my arms forgot their fatigue and poured on the steam. Even so, we didn't beat the rain, and we were pretty well soaked when we finally landed at our neighbor's house across the road from Churning Rapids.
Repeatedly on this trip we've seen eagles. They always feel like such good omens, and just as we neared the shore we came upon an immature eagle perched on a piling and watching our approach from just yards away. Thanks, eagles.
It's so great to see our dog Chester and Nick the cat, and so hard thinking about leaving them again tomorrow morning. But we will. We've come well over halfway on our circumnavigation; Terry estimates we've come 90 miles! and we want to complete the loop. So we're hoping to make it to the mouth of the Gratiot tomorrow.
Onward!
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