Day Nine: Rolling in to Copper Harbor

Sunrise on Silver Island, so peaceful and magical.  Due to the generosity of our friends the Roses, we have been allowed to stay here over the years and it never fails to delight and thrill us.

We were packing up in a leisurely way when another paddler arrived and announced he would paddle with us to Copper Harbor!

Dave Carlson from Lake Bailey travels all over the country with his wife and their hand-made wooden kayaks.  This boat is a thing of beauty and he could pick it up so easily.  We set off by 8:30am, getting a send-off from Dave and Allison.

The west wind caught up with us as we neared the end of Agate Harbor and there we could see the huge vein of calcite that runs perpendicular to the shore.  It looks to be about a yard wide, an eerie greenish white line that glows way down under the water--not sure how deep it is right there, but it always seems just a little scary to me.

We love that following wind; it carried us all along that rocky shore, till we passed between the rocks of Hunter's Point and Porter Island, into the still waters of Copper Harbor.

Back to where we started nine days ago.  We unpacked, went and got a thimbleberry icing doughnut and a bilberry crumble from the bakery and fish store, had them with coffee on the dock of the Isle Royale Queen, and then were regaled with stories of berry picking on Copper Island by Captain Don Kilpela.

Home at last!  Chester was happy to see us.  We said hello and went to take naps like the old folks that we are.

This adventure was about more than the Lake, the Island, the water and sky.  It was more than we expected about the people who love the Lake and the Island, who supported us, cheered us on, fed us, told us stories, gave us beds, and were such good friends sharing in the adventure.  

Donors to Keweenaw Land Trust are particularly appreciated; thank you so much!   Stay tuned to hear more about KLT.

I hope to write at least one epilogue posting for this blog, and I invite others to send me their stories of boating on Lake Superior.  Have you used the Keweenaw Water Trail?  Would you like to know more about it?  Okay!  That's all for now, Onward!