8/17/14 – Headed out this morning towards the bridge, but detoured to the Canadian locks, the original locks in the final shipping link between Lake Superior and the Atlantic Ocean, and another National Historic Site. Prior to the locks, the natural passage between  Superior and Lake Huron had been a broad channel of rapids where the level dropped 21 feet, a difficult portage route useful only to trappers, hardy fishermen in small craft, and canoes. The original locks had thick wood doors operated by underwater pulleys and cables, and direct-current electric motors, with a small hydro-electric facility providing power via a bypass channel.

Today, for commercial ships, these locks have been superceded by the larger Soo Locks on the American side of the channel.

Next stop, the bridge to Michigan, and the long line over it to customs.

Tedious but uneventful, and we proceeded through the streets of the U.S. Sault Ste. Marie to the Soo Locks, and the viewing platforms where you can watch them in action! We stayed quite a while, watching a 600+ foot freighter we had first seen approaching on Lake Superior while on the bridge. As we entered the viewing area, the locks were filling, then the Superior side gates opened, the freighter slowly entered until it cleared the gates, which then closed, and the level in the lock sank until the ship’s hull was almost completely below the dock. The buzzer rang, the Huron gates opened, the pass gate lifted, the ship’s horn blew, and it slowly passed out of the locks onto Lake Huron. Neat!

Next we drove further along the harbor front to the Museum ShipValley Camp. The Valley Camp is a de-commissioned 550’ freighter where the interior has been turned into a Great Lakes shipping museum. In addition, you can explore the entire ship to see the bridge, crew’s quarters, passenger areas, holds, engine room and other working areas. There is a small aquarium displaying local fish, and tributes to the Edmund Fitzgerald and other famous disasters on the Great Lakes.

Onward to the southeast tip of the Upper Peninsula, intermittent rain, and St. Ignace, where we camped at the Straits Campground, in sight of the Mackinaw Bridge to lower Michigan.