15-16 August 2014

We bid a tearful farewell to Canada on Friday morning and puttered across the St. Mary’s river to Sault Ste. Marie Michigan. The half mile trip took 20 mins, most of it was spent waiting for 4 boats to get out of the marina.

We had called Customs and Immigration before we left Canada so it was only a few minutes to wait for the officer to arrive. After answering a few questions we were welcomed home to the United States.

Like our arrival in Rochester, there were a number of packages waiting for us at the marina office. We got all the latest mail from home and some necessary supplies courtesy of Amazon. Yay interwebs and UPS shipping!

After sorting through everything it was pushing lunch time. We walked downtown towards the famous US Soo locks. These locks are the major boat shipping route from Lake Superior to the rest of the world. There are four locks that range from 80 feet wide and 800 feet long to the Poe Lock that is 110 feet wide and 1200 feet long. They are in the process of ripping out two of the locks to create one that is the size of the Poe lock and is able to handle the larger ships.

We watched the Phillip R Clark, one of the “lakers” come through the lock. It was over 767 feet long and 70 feet wide. It carries limestone for the steel plant that is just past the lock. The brochure says that a “1000 foot laker has the same capacity as 2300 tractor trailers. Very impressive. What’s more impressive is that it takes 32 million gallons of water to fill the lock. That’s a lot of water they move around in the dozen lockings per day.

We also watched the Soo Locks Boat Tour use the smallest lock. It looked like fun, so we added that to our todo list.

From the lock we headed back to the “Tower of History”. This is a 210 foot tower that had originally been built by the Catholic Church in 1968. It was to be part of a bigger complex of buildings but the funding was cut and the tower was turned over to the city in 1980. It offers a spectacular view of the surroundings. (Susan got some great pictures for the photo gallery)

Next stop was the Valley Camp, a laker that was built in 1917. It is 550 feet long and 58 feet wide. It would hold 72 Quo Vadimus sized boats in her hull. Today the hull contains a very good museum of shipping history and a very extensive display about the Edmund Fitzgerald. The crews quarters are in the process of being restored, but you get a pretty good idea how the 32 people aboard lived and worked.

From there we jumped on the Soo Lock Tour boat Bide-A-Wee.She was built in 1955 by the Blount Marine Corporation in Warren, Rhode Island. She is currently the oldest boat in the Soo Locks Boat Tour’s fleet and is the third boat to bear this name. The Soo Lock tours have been going on almost as long as the locks have been there.

We headed up river to the Canadian side (Oh Canada, how we miss thee already..) and into the Canadian lock. The lock is much bigger than what we were in on the Trent-Severn waterway. I’ve always wondered what would happen if someone hit the doors. Turns out on June 9, 1909 the locks were seriously damaged when the Perry G. Walker crashed into the south main gate, forcing it back and allowing the force of water to push the north main gate over. The rush of water threw the Perry G. Walker back and carried two other ships downstream, one of which struck the south main gate, breaking it diagonally in two. OK, so that does not sound good. But it turns out the Canadians think ahead. The rush of water through the destroyed locks was stopped by activation of the Emergency Swing Dam. It’s like a swing bridge, pivoting over the river then dropping plates on hinges down into the water to stop the flow.

The lift of 21 feet only took a few minutes and we were heading past the Emergency Swing Dam and past the train swing bridge. We then motored next to the Essar Steel Plant. The guide pointed out the huge piles of coal, limestone and iron ore that are all delivered by “lakers” to the plant. The resulting coils and plates of steel are also shipped by boat. A truck can only carry 3 rolls or 10 sheets, a boat can carry 1000 rolls at a time. We then passed the giant slag piles that have been building since the plant was opened in 1902.

Captain Mark then swung us around to go through the smallest Soo Lock. I was impressed with his piloting skills, the Bide-a-Wee has a single screw and no thrusters. He and the crew made the locking look easy. But I took some solace from looking at the entry way walls that were lined with chewed up 8” x 8” timbers.

The Soo lock is huge from the inside (it would hold 170 Quo Vadimus boats.) The 21 foot drop was pretty rapid when you think about all the water that needs to dump out of the lock.

Our dinner place was the Mexican place in town, our first Mexican meal since leaving in April. The fresh salsa and homemade chips were very good.

Across the street is the Soo Brewing Company, the local microbrew. We sat and had their taster racks and I was very pleased with my selections. The place is pretty neat, there are long tables with pew seating. There are a number of games like Jenga, Bananagrams, Scrabble, checkers, etc. A very nice place to pass the time (and drink great beers!) My favorites were the “Harmony Health Foods Manic Organic”, “13 IPA” and “Laker Gold”.

Saturday we woke up and we were both tired from the prior day of touring. So we declared a “snow day” and hung around the boat relaxing. Hey all this vacation stuff is hard work! Mid afternoon we took a bike ride to the east end of town to the Sugar Island Ferry. It’s a small 9 car ferry that makes trips back and forth. Because the “lakers” use the channel, it would cost too much to build a bridge that would be tall enough for the ships to come through.

We biked through town with the intent of going to the used bookstore outside of town. But a super high hill (the sidewalk had flights of stairs) and the final calculation of a 30 block ride dissuaded this notion. So we shopped in a couple of store in town, buying grandbaby birthday gifts and our own copy of Bananagrams.

Then it was back to Soo Brewing for more beer. Where lots of places have BYOB, they are good with the concept of Bring Your Own Food. Most of the take out places deliver. As part of our international food tour we got Greek Food. And I got a cool shirt! (More details here about the Soo Brewery and the shirt.

Next up is our tour south to DeTour island.