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| Kayaking The Beaver Island Group |
| July, 1999 |
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| Day 1 (Saturday 7/24/99) |
| As I lay in my tent, exhausted from the day`s activities, across the bay I could hear the distant sound of Native American drums. Native American chants filled the still night air. Paul and I marveled that only yesterday we were loading our kayaks onto the car at the beginning of our trip. It seemed like a week had passed since then. Our wives were gracious to put their blessing on our week long paddling trip in Northern Michigan. |
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| At 8:30 Saturday morning the ferry left Charlevoix, MI for a 2 hour ride to Beaver Island. Friday night we slept in the van after driving from Rochester MI, that evening. The night spent in the hot mosquito filled van turned out to be the worst night of the trip. The two cedar strip kayaks looked like toothpicks as they were loaded onto the giant Beaver Island ferry by the deck hands. |
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| We finally reached the island. Our hearts were pounding with a combination of anxiety and anticipation as we watched our boats being unloaded from the ferry onto Beaver Island. This would be our first effort at camping from our kayaks which were loaded with a weeks worth of gear. What if we slid the heavy boats into the water and they sank right to the bottom. We wondered if we would need to wear our snorkels while paddling. As it turned out, the boats easily handled the 50 pounds of food and equipment we had packed. |
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| As I paddled my kayak away from shore in St. James bay on Beaver island, the ferry sounded its horn and slowly pulled away from the dock on it`s return trip to the mainland. Reminded of a scene from "Titanic" I shouted "I`ll-a never forget you" to the passengers on the third story deck. "Good-bye" they laughed in return. |
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| No one noticed our small boats as we rounded the North-Eastern tip of Beaver Island and set out for a 2 mile crossing to Garden Island. Although Beaver Island is inhabited, Garden Island is strictly state owned wilderness. We set a course for Indian Harbor. Our first crossing was an easy one with mild winds and 1 to 2 foot waves. |
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| Paul and I were both paddling cedar strip kayaks that we had built from the same plans. The boats tracked well and easily handled the small waves. We had paddled the boats many times in the surf on Lake Superior and Lake Huron. The boats could handle conditions much more exciting than we hoped to see on this trip. We planned to paddle very conservatively. In addition to our own safety, we had a precious cargo to consider. We were carrying our camping gear. |
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| Indian Harbor provided good camping with easy access to hiking trails that were well worn by the Native American group that frequents the Island. We were drawn to Garden Island by pictures of the Ojibway burial grounds and cabin ruins on the island. We had hoped to meet a lady named Kee who lived and conducted botanalogical research on the island. We were saddened to learn that the Native American group present on the island had come to lay Kee to rest in the burial grounds. Kee had passed away the Wednesday before. A spirit house was constructed on her grave. The Ojibway gave us permission to enter the burial grounds. We exercised due reverence. |
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