Lake Superior

[Grange]

I was in Ashland, WI for work this week and decided to take the ferry out to Madeline Island one evening after my meeting. I took my camera and played with the settings.

The island itself wasn't all that spectacular as it was difficult to get to the shore with all the private land. I probably saw 50 deer on this small island.

From the ferry on the mainland.


Getting ready to dock.


Madeline Island shoreline.



Trying my macro setting on my camera. This was a small plant growing on the beach of the Madeline Island.

[13]

nice.

did you go for a swim?

[Cliff Huckable]

Lake Superior is a superior lake. Nice to see it again.

[Neezer]

Lake Superior is a beautiful lake.....I was in a wedding on the north shore of the lake in minnesota. gorgeous!

great pics

swimming is always a must in superior...i went once in the middle of august. it was over 100 outside...the lake was still in the upper 50's...always ball shrinking cold.

[mdblows]

Where in Wisconsin were you coming from? I've got tons of family in Washburn

[Grange]

I'm in the Green Bay area so I can visit Lake Michigan without much effort, but there is something special about Lake Superior.

[montanagirl]

Having a beer at Grandma's looking out on the Lake was always a good time...

[iceman]

I've never seen Lake Superior, I need to get out there some day, looks beautiful.

[TeleMang]

I'm in the Green Bay area so I can visit Lake Michigan without much effort, but there is something special about Lake Superior.

Do you drive a jeep with a TGR sticker?

[Grange]

Nope. Chevy pickup or little Suzuki GZ 250.

[Happy Fun Ball]

If I stand up in my cube, lean a little right and look out the window I have a perfect view of the South shore of Lake Superior. I guess I can't complain.

[Staggerwing]

I need to get back to Isle Royale someday.

[wurst]

Nice - makes me want to drive up to Duluth.

[focus]

For 5 summers I spent more waking hours out on Superior than on land.

Sure it's nice in pictures or for a quick visit, but it has a way of getting its hooks into you and making you not want to be anywhere else. The siren call of that lake still rings clearly some days.

[huck4bucks]

My grandmother has a house with the lake in the backyard. I love going up there.

Have you ever seen the water this glassed?

[yooper]

I've never seen Lake Superior, I need to get out there some day, looks beautiful.

It's definitely a big fucker....

[yooper]

If I stand up in my cube, lean a little right and look out the window I have a perfect view of the South shore of Lake Superior. I guess I can't complain.

Except of course the fact that you are in a cube....

(shit, what am I saying??? I'm in Alexandria, Louisiana right now.... I CAN'T WAIT to get back to my cube....)

[angelinalove]

Lake Superior is a superior lake. Nice to see it again.

Superior and largest too. Looks beautiful.

[focus]

My grandmother has a house with the lake in the backyard. I love going up there.

Have you ever seen the water this glassed?

We'd have trips where the lake would be glass like that and covered with such a dense fog you couldn't see more than ten feet past the bow. Absolutely surreal.

[Grange]

My grandmother has a house with the lake in the backyard. I love going up there.

Have you ever seen the water this glassed?

Can't say I've ever seen Lake Superior calm, but I've seen Lake Michigan that way. Doesn't last long.

[flatNshallow]

...swimming is always a must in superior...i went once in the middle of august. it was over 100 outside...the lake was still in the upper 50's...always ball shrinking cold.

Found this out the hard way... was about 12 or 13, early June, 95 out... fleeing the deer fly's I sprinted to the water and was fully commited to a dive before the warning bells went off... literally came out of the water holding my shrinkage in a vain attempt to defrost the boys.

Further investigation revealed the water temp was about 45.


Very pretty though.

[Happy Fun Ball]

I've spent the last 26 years fishing Lake Superior. Usually around 50-70 days per year on the lake. I will say more often than not there's a good chop. Some days, though, the lake just lays right down for you and it's pure glass. Here's one from last fall. I'll try to put up a few more later today.

[brizz]

seen the gitche gumee glass, pretty rare

[Dantheman]

That tree is sick!

[gincognito]

"The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
The lake, it is said, never gives up her dead
When the skies of November turn gloomy.

With a load of iron ore - 26,000 tons more
Than the Edmund Fitzgerald weighed empty
That good ship and crew was a bone to be chewed
When the gales of November came early

The ship was the pride of the American side
Coming back from some mill in Wisconson
As the big freighters go it was bigger than most
With a crew and the Captain well seasoned.

Concluding some terms with a couple of steel firms
When they left fully loaded for Cleveland
And later that night when the ships bell rang
Could it be the North Wind they'd been feeling.

The wind in the wires made a tattletale sound
And a wave broke over the railing
And every man knew, as the Captain did, too,
T'was the witch of November come stealing.

The dawn came late and the breakfast had to wait
When the gales of November came slashing
When afternoon came it was freezing rain
In the face of a hurricane West Wind

When supper time came the old cook came on deck
Saying fellows it's too rough to feed ya
At 7PM a main hatchway caved in
He said fellas it's been good to know ya.

The Captain wired in he had water coming in
And the good ship and crew was in peril
And later that night when his lights went out of sight
Came the wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

Does anyone know where the love of God goes
When the winds turn the minutes to hours
The searchers all say they'd have made Whitefish Bay
If they'd fifteen more miles behind her.

They might have split up or they might have capsized
They may have broke deep and took water
And all that remains is the faces and the names
Of the wives and the sons and the daughters.

Lake Huron rolls, Superior sings
In the ruins of her ice water mansion
Old Michigan steams like a young man's dreams,
The islands and bays are for sportsmen.

And farther below Lake Ontario
Takes in what Lake Erie can send her
And the iron boats go as the mariners all know
With the gales of November remembered.

In a musty old hall in Detroit they prayed
In the Maritime Sailors' Cathedral
The church bell chimed, 'til it rang 29 times
For each man on the Edmund Fitzgerald.

The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down
Of the big lake they call Gitche Gumee
Superior, they say, never gives up her dead
When the gales of November come early."

-Gordon Lightfoot