Finishing Lake Superior - Marquette MI to Sault St Marie

Finishing Lake Superior - Marquette MI to Sault St Marie

Sunday – Tuesday, Aug 6 – 8 – Marquette MI

Sunday was a travel day but were able to get docked and have dinner at Vierling, a local restaurant/brewery. Monday and Tuesday, we caught up on some chores (laundry/ boat wash, fuel and pump out). We also explored the town. Marquette reminds me of MN Iron Range towns due to their connection with iron ore mining. Tim of course sought out another of MI’s fine breweries – Blackrock Brewing and Ore Dock Brewing.

Blackrock Brewery

Ore Docks at Marquette

Wednesday – Sunday, Aug 9 – 13 - Munising, MI

Wednesday was an all-day travel day to Munising. We checked out the town which is very much influenced by the tourism of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. We checked out their 2 breweries ByGorge Brewing and East Channel Brewing. ByGeorge was our favorite. On Thursday, our good friends Bob and Denise Nelson decided to take a detour on their way from Hudson, WI to Jupiter, FL to meet us in Munising. We checked out the local scene, had dinner and played Rummikub – Denise and Tim were the evening winners. On Friday, we had a great breakfast and said adios to the Nelsons. The weather (wind) was a little sporty on Friday and Saturday, so we hung out at the marina. This really has been the 1^st time weather has impeded our travel. Tim and I did a 8-mile walk on Saturday to check out Munising Falls which is part of the Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. Sunday, we traveled from Munising to Grand Marais, MI. The waves were about 5 feet due to the previous day’s weather when we started but we expected them to lay down through the 6-hour trip. Unfortunately, they did not lay down as fast as we would have liked, and it took us 9 hours.

Tim had his own special bench

ByGeorge Brewery with
Bob and Denise Nelson

Look who Bob and Tim found!!

Rummikub

Munising Falls

Lighthouse on way to Grand Marais, MI

Old Lighthouse on Grand Island

Sunday – Tuesday - Aug 13 – Aug 15 – Grand Marais, MI

Very quaint 5 block tourist town. We landed up having a couple of sailboats raft up to us at Grand Mariais as GM does not have an actual docking system but a very nice seawall which can accommodate about 4 boats of our size. It was exceptionally busy as many sailboats were traversing back east after their finish of the Trans Superior sailboat race. On Monday, we did another 5-mile walk to Sable Falls on the other end of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore. This end of the park included large sand dunes. We walked on top of the sand dunes on the way out and on the beach on the way back. Tim also found his favorite museum 😂

AndinI in Grand Marais MI

Walking on top of Sand Dunes

Walking back to GM on beach

Sable Falls

Driftwood Art

Tim's favorite museum

Tuesday – Friday, Aug 15 – Aug 18 – Sault St Marie

Tuesday was a long travel day from Grand Marais to Sault St Marie. 11 hours. Pretty calm until the last few hours when Whitefish Bay became a little sporty. Once we were in the St. Marys River, it all calmed down. We went through the Canadian Lock this time which is primarily focused for recreational boats like us. It was initially built in 1895 and rebuilt in 1987. It is much smaller than the US locks which commercial boats (ore boats and trans-Atlantic boats) utilize. The lock lowers you 21 feet. We did not need to clear customs as the water in the St Marys River is considered international waterways, so no customs checks are required.

Wednesday, we checked out the town of Sault St Marie including their one brewery. It was unfortunately not very impressive. The marina had some free bikes to borrow so checked out the town. There was a large weather system which moved in on Thursday and Friday which kept us at the marina for a few extra days. In town on the river (not on the open lake), we had wind speeds up to 35 knots and gusts of 40+. We were glad we were safely tucked away at a marina in a river and not out in the open Lake Superior.