Silver Bay, Minnesota: ATV's, fog, a Bonfire & more lilacs

On Monday, July 15th, we left Duluth, Minnesota with an overcast sky and calm water.  On our way to Silver Bay, fog set in (so what else is new?). Super calm water and our air temp 51, water temp 37, yes 37 degrees not a typo and water depth of 600 ft.   What's new, is that water temperature, can you believe it? Then dense fog set in, then pea soup fog came next.  Darn, we missed Split Rock Lighthouse along the Minnesota coast line 40 miles out of Duluth.  Supposed to be a real beauty of a Lighthouse. The dense fog was a challenge @ times, Waterford was in the lead and did an excellent job. We actually passed small fishing boats out in this stuff.  They were within 1/4 mile of us and we only saw one of them visually, the other 3 showed on our radar. Waterford led us into the Marina without incident and what appeared before us is a pretty spot with birch trees, beach, great docks and awesome rocks. We traveled 46 intense miles today, for a cum of 983 miles.

The city of Silver Bay was created by the Mining Company in 1952.  There is still mining today and there is a big Taconite (processed iron ore) loading facility on the Lake. The city is over 2 miles away from us, inland and uphill.   

The Marina is very nice with floating docks and the building appears fairly new. Since arriving in the fog, we didn't see the island attached to the break wall till the next day. 

Doug, Garry & Jacque attempted to ride their bikes to town the afternoon of our arrival, but returned after about an hour and confessed they did not make it to town, due to the long, uphill trail and being too close to "docktail" time.  I stayed home & did laundry. 

The next day, Tuesday, July 16, we awoke to sun and warmth, the fog had lifted.  We walked about a half mile and rented 2 ATV's for a couple of hours to see the sights.  There are many trails for snowmobiling & ATV's here with a lot of woods, hills & ravines. The trails were a tad wet, which Doug & Garry enjoyed: like boys splashing through mud puddles. Jacque & I rode behind, which was very comfortable; we even had backrests.  The scenery was pretty, but the only wildlife we saw, was a slow moving grouse & a chipmunk.  

Do you think he's having fun?

Our boats behind us

Supposed to be toasting marshmallows 

Around the Marina is a nice park area, so we decided to have a cook-out with a bonfire for dinner on the beach across from our boats.  We took J-villes and all the fixings and the guys started a really nice fire and we even had s'mores.  A great end to a great day. 

The owner of the ATV sports place, said they are about 45 days behind in their summer season.  His tulips are just now blooming. Hope that means it will stay warm longer into August for us.  

Lilacs, just starting to bloom

Split Rock Lighthouse

On Wednesday, July 17 (good that I have to write the days for the blog, so I don't lose complete track of time), we decided to take our dinghy's and go find Split Rock lighthouse.  It was sunny, warm & calm all morning so we figured it would be a good day to go out on Lake Superior in our dinghy's. WELL, it started great and as we went along the shore, we began to feel & see cool mist floating. Then there was a patch of fog hovering over a group of visible rocks in the Lake, not far from shore.  We continued on passing beautiful shoreline of rocks, trees and some cool homes nestled in the cliffs. The Split Rock Lighthouse appeared on a high cliff before us and is breathtaking.  We took many pictures, enjoyed loons in the harbor by the lighthouse & soaked up some sun and warmth.  We then began our journey back to the Marina, as quickly as it can, the wind changed direction 180 degrees and picked up slightly, so we donned our rain gear, because it was splashing some.  Next the fog moved in with a blast of cold air, we donned our sweatshirts under our rain gear. Next it began to rain, even though there was blue sky above us.  The hoods went up.  Then Garry spotted a majestic Eagle perched on a branch right on the shoreline. Again, we didn't get a picture, but Garry did.  As Jacque said "What we won't do for a photo op".  We made it back safely yet a bit chilled to the bone. 

Once back, the thunder and lightening began and didn't stop all night.  We took advantage of the rainy evening and enjoyed "Murder Movie Night" on Waterford. Remember how we wanted to watch Anatomy of a Murder after visiting Big (Thunder) Bay, well Jacque had ordered it from Amazon, since we couldn't find it anywhere in Big Bay, (shaking my head)! We brought the popcorn and enjoyed a classic movie. Jimmy Stewart was great in this black & white flick.  If you have never seen this movie, rent or Netflix it.  It begins a bit hokey, but it will hook you in the end.

a toast to all of you!!

We had planned to leave Thursday morning to head to Grand Marais, Minnesota not to be confused with Grand Marais, Michigan.  Jacque & Garry have some friends from around this area who are meeting us there. Cheryl, you should be proud of us, we didn't leave due to the fog.  We woke to very, very dense fog this morning.  The rain has stopped, but the fog has yet to leave us.  So a day to get some chores completed.  We defrosted the freezer and I did more laundry and I am catching up on this blog.  

Fish bait?