Exploring is something Jeff Dennis and his family do together. Something along the lines of “A family that plays together, stays together”. Today they’re taking us on an adventure south of Chassell. A fishing boat named “Kathy” is first up on their excursion, along with a number of buoys that are on dry land, waiting for the Coast Guard to come pick them up and install them where they belong in aiding the navigation of the many boats that will pass by in the summer months.

Then, being the railroad buff that Jeff is, they visited some old railroad tracks and bridges. One that has taken on some artwork and another that has gotten decorated by nature, with moss along the wooden railroad ties. Once upon a time these tracks were covered with the clickety-clack of trains. If only they could talk…

Our video from Brita Caroline Photography takes us back to the beginning of the month when there was just a thin layer of ice on the Portage Canal, surrounding the Lift Bridge. I feel like a broken record saying this again...make sure you turn your speakers up so you can hear the cracking of that thin ice.

I wanna be adopted by Jeff's family...they always
have the BEST adventures! Subscribe to his You Tube
channel...it's awesome!

Hi
The caption on the first photo made me think that
the Pasty Cam folks had a message for me, as my
first name is Kathy. ;>)

Looks like a fun exploration outdoors.

Nice pix and video! I wonder how long it takes
that water, or a message in a bottle, flowing
under the bridge to finally reach the Atlantic
ocean.

Alex, I think it would wash ashore long before it
reaches the Atlantic!

Yes Bob, but that's why the message would say;
"Please throw me back into the water."

Alex,
A common set of data on the Great Lakes calculates the time for them to empty given their present rates of discharge. One set of these data shows 178 years for Superior, 115 years for Michigan, 21 years for Huron, 3 years for Erie and 8 years for Ontario. But this sort of analysis ignores the fact that they do not have their drain point at the bottom.

Once the level of Superior drops about 24 feet it would stop flowing into Huron. Unless a floating bottle got trapped somewhere along the way it would exit from Superior to Huron along with this much smaller volume of water (only about 5% of the total). Therefore, the MAXIMUM time to achieve this would only be 9 years. A similar analysis could be done for the other lakes, but I had to go to the bathroom.

Nice photo of the Cans and Nuns. That’s what they’re called, green Can buoys (cylindrical shaped with odd numbers) and red Nun buoys (dome shaped with even numbers). It's like those nautical guys have a their own unique name for everything.

I always stop by that pier on the lower portage to see which fishing boats are present. Most recently it was “Dawn” and two sisters although neither looks like “Kathy”. You can see the lower entry lighthouse in the background.

Summer is coming... nice pics & video!!

Alex, I sent a bottle of Stroh's a drift from
Marquette in 1976... I think it made it to Maine
and was enjoyed by someone enjoying a Lobster
Roll.. or was it more like the old
commercial....... "Pick it up Alfie, you don't
want the bloke's to know we've been here!" Now
that was a great commercial, most probably won't
remember it. Stroh's always had great commercials
back then and touring the plant in Detroit was
great! All the free beer you could drink, but the
tour was 45 minutes long with no bathrooms during
the tour!! :(

Have a Great Weekend All!!

Well, that blows my rubber raft trip this summer.