AN & JFP – U.P. 2014 – Day #3

This was “John Day” or Soo Locks day, although Annie enjoyed it too, but probably not as much.  After a timely and substantial breakfast we headed north up I-75 to Sault Ste. Marie, turning off at the last exit before the Bridge to Canada.  After a quick stop at the city’s Visitor Center we headed to the locks Visitors Center for a look at the displays and to learn that no freighters were expected for some time and the (officially unconnected) locks tour boats’ headquarters and jetties were couple of miles east, but the next tour wasn’t until 1:00 PM, this last day of “pre-season”.

We strolled the grounds after a quick walk along the viewing platform which is now glass-fronted and then crossed over to a couple of nice “tourist shops”, both of which snagged some business from Annie.  Having always been up here at the tail end of the season with sparse shelves it was interesting to me to see the shops bursting with a new season’s stock.

We headed down and found the tour boat place but they don’t sell tickets until a ½-hour before a tour and only then if there is a quorum of passengers, so we did a little miscellaneous exploring.  I should note that today was entirely brilliant blue skies with just occasional fluffy clouds, cool but not cold although still breezy until late afternoon – just perfect.  However, by evening the warmth and sun had brought out Michigan’s bug-a-boo, namely hordes of unwanted flying insects.

Before I start forgetting here for my record are a few stats.  It takes ten million gallons a “flush” to fill and empty a lock and it is done for free multiple times a day.  The rise and fall are 21 feet between Lake Superior (the higher) and Lake Huron.  The locks use just 1% of the daily flow.  The US and the Canadian hydro-electric generating stations take roughly 47.5% each and the remaining 4% (controlled as circumstances dictate) still flows down the old rapids.

The tour boats have an open upper deck and a closed lower deck with snack/coffee bar.  Since the upper deck was a bit chilly at times we alternated between the two, me more than Annie who mostly stayed down, although upstairs gave much better “Photo-ops”.  With so few passengers (compared to what would be possible) it was very easy to wander wherever one wished whenever one wished, which was really nice.  I found the whole 2-hour trip fascinating as we went up to the major lock, through and way on beyond and back down through the much smaller Canadian Lock.  This trip had been a minor item on my personal “bucket list” for decades, but I had always been talked out of it before so I was a happy camper.

After the trip we elected to visit the huge tower where (for a reasonable fee) one can take an elevator to the top for great view of either side of the river, as well as the whole lock area.  While we were up there a large freighter was being lowered in the lock and subsequently made its way downstream and right past us.  For an old retired engineer it was a great day.

We had a good run down to St. Ignace where we immediately had an early dinner as we were both hungry.  With the weather by now so lovely we then went to the Pere Marquette Memorial Park for a nice stroll and glimpse of Big Mac through the tree-tops – the tree have grown much taller since our original visit many years ago.  Leaving there we dropped down to the Bridge View Park, read all about it in the informative little visitors center, and took the usual ritual photos of each other with the bridge in the background.

 We have now adjourned to our room for our last night here before moving on tomorrow.

We took pictures and what we selected as memories may be seen here.