The Maritime Junkyard

The weather prediction for today was for clouds the entire day.  So we were pleasantly surprised when the sun rose brightly in the clear blue sky and shone nearly all day long.  Once we finished breakfast and had a last look at the beach, we headed north towards Alpena.

First stop was the Visitors Bereau, where we were hoping to get information on the various shipwrecks in the area.  The woman at the desk was nice enough but really didn’t answer our questions, so we managed to glean what we needed from the brochures we picked up and on the Internet.

I don’t know how we ever did this without readily available mobile Internet, it sure makes planning and navigation easier.

We stopped at nearby Bay View Park and walked the pier.  Various signs described the many shipwrecks in the area and we could see the marker buoys out in the bay where those ships lay. This is a popular spot for divers and even paddlers as some of the shipwrecks are under as little as six feet of water.

Many of these wrecks were ships that ran aground or ran into some other immovable object.  They were unloaded of cargo and crew and towed out away from the rocks or docks and left to sink to the bottom.  This maritime junkyard became valuable years later for its historical significance and recreational opportunities: diving, snorkeling, paddling, etc.

Deb and I were joking about our possible contribution to historical significance.  Exactly 25 years ago, we were on our first RV trip to Yellowstone National Park.  We made it home, but the RV didn’t.  After all the problems we were having with it, I wanted to just drive it into the Des Moines River and abandon it there.  We sold it to a junk dealer instead.  Had I left it in the river, maybe it would have become popular with divers and paddlers, exploring the historical significance of a 1978 Winnebago under the water.

Then again, maybe not.

Interestingly, the metal lighthouse, not your typical lighthouse, at the end of this channel was nicknamed ​Sputnik​.  The name fits.

Leaving here, we drove to Besser Natural Area, about 20 minutes north of Alpena. This had some hiking and paddling we could do.

Little did we realize the treat that was ahead of us.  The small parking lot was deserted when we got there. Nice to have a place all to ourselves.  A 1-mile loop trail goes through one of the few original stands of pine, and also past the ruins of the town of Bell, but the only thing we saw was a lone chimney in the middle of the trees.

And the original stand of pine: what the loggers missed, old age and the weather took care of.  There were indeed some very large and very old trees here, but many of them were dead snags poking up into the sky.

The hike is done, time for some kayaking.  A sign at the parking lot described the wooden schooner ​Portland​, a two-masted 150-foot cargo ship which wrecked just offshore in October, 1877, during a storm.  The gale drove the Portland ashore, where relentless waves and jagged rocks tore the schooner to pieces. The entire crew survived; the Portland was a total loss.  It was loaded with 300 tons of salt, but the sign didn’t give the fate of the cargo. 130 feet of the ship rests in just 6 feet of water, about 100 yards from the beach.  Another large section of the wreck, the stern section, rests in a few feet of water in a naturally formed lagoon just north of the main trail to the beach.

We could see the marker buoy not far from the beach, and decided to kayak out there and take a look.  From the parking lot, we had to drag the kayaks down a trail a couple hundred feet to the beach and we launched them there.  The waters of Lake Huron were clear with a slight chop that may make the viewing a little more challenging, but we arrived at the site with little difficulty.

Arriving at the marker buoy, we looked around a bit but could not see the wreck.  I launched my drone and looked down from above and spotted it right away.  We just weren’t looking in the right place.

How cool to paddle around and view the wreckage.  Despite the ripples in the water, the timbers were plainly visible and so close it seemed we could just reach down with a paddle and touch them.

We paddled to the shore and were able to see the stern section in the lagoon, just a dozen or so yards from where we were standing.

Definitely a bucket-list item.

We paddled back to the place where we put in, beached the kayaks, and went for a swim.  Another attraction in this hidden gem, a sandy beach and crystal-clear water.  We grabbed a bar of soap, waded out a few hundred feet, and dunked ourselves for a lake-bath and a swim.  The water temperature takes your breath away at first but then feels amazing when you come back out of the water.  We waded and swam here for a while, enjoying the sunshine and the waters of Lake Huron.

If we are ever in this area again, this is a must-visit.

We drove the short distance south to the Rockport State Recreation Area, the site of a former limestone quarry. Part of this area is a moonscape of crushed limestone piles, and the remnants of the jetty used for shipping the limestone is popular with swimmers, who jump off the edge into the deep water.  This limestone quarry was eventually abandoned because the stone was too brittle as it contained large amounts of fossilized coral.  The operation was then moved to Marblehead, Ohio, which we happened to visit about a month ago.

Cool views from atop the rock piles and the fossilized coral attracts lots of fossil hunters, which roam the rocky beaches with buckets, collecting fossils.

We stopped for a while at Starlite Beach in Alpena, to walk around for a bit, then drove just west of Alpena to our boondocking spot for the next two nights, a private driveway just off of M-32.