Which month “goes out like a lion?” March? This year, on the 46th parallel, it was June.
The last week in the month of longest days here on the south shore of Lake Superior delivered gorgeous sunsets and moonrises but also a few tempests and a remarkable movement of water. June scenes from Huron Bay in the Michigan’s Upper Peninsula in photos and captions below…
Sunset is the best time for a paddle because the water is calm. It’s about 9:30PM EST here, a few days after the longest day. I’m looking toward my camp, hidden in shadow on the western shore of Huron Bay. If I want to see the sun after 7PM, I have to paddle out for it.
The low sun also lights up the water grasses on the eastern shore, and the sand bars of low tide. When I cross the bay at sunset, I paddle back into shadow. It can be tricky to find “home,” but it’s worth it for these sights.
Living on the western shore means an earlier sunset but gorgeous moonrises.
This photo was taken about 30 minutes later. In midsummer, it takes awhile for the sky to become completely dark.
And the next night, yet another gorgeous moonrise after a day of thunderstorms. I stayed up late hoping the clouds would part for the moon. And so they did. But more clouds were coming…
…with this. Those green and yellow bands disappeared from radar pretty quickly but some places got hail or lost power. (My camp is directly below the “n” in “Hancock,” near the bottom of that narrow bay. Hancock is my hometown but my camp is about 45 minutes away.)
After the storm passed, the evening sun made its predictable appearance as a glow on the eastern shore.
The sky and water on Lake Superior are continually changing, which is why I love it here. An hour or so after the photo above, the moody clouds were back but the water was still. That stillness is deceiving, though, because the water is moving even when calm. It’s called a “seiche” — a kind of inland tide — and it sure makes itself known after a big storm. The next day….
…the water rose about four feet in 30 minutes, nearly covering the dock…
…and then receded way out.
It covered the sandy beach that normally exists here, and set the rowboat afloat. (Good thing I had it tied, which I always do, since the seiche always occurs. But not usually like this.)
This chunky tree trunk with vegetation growing on it was deposited in my ditch after crushing some tall grass. During the next high water, I pushed it “out to sea” again. I wonder where it ended up?
We took a ride around the bay in Jeff’s boat and saw plenty of debris set loose by the seiche. This dead tree was about 40′ long. We keep a close eye ahead when boating in these conditions. Some of these floaters can hide large stumps under the surface.
After the stimulating storms and seiche, I took the rowboat out for another calming sunset. The days are shortening now and I won’t be going out at 9:30PM much longer. We’ve had an exciting few days this week at Camp Many Moons, but last weekend brought calmer entertainments…
…like a trio of baby raccoons on a nearby roadside…
…and a beach hike with friends along the shore of the big lake (which I don’t see that often, since I live on a bay)…
…for which I wore my neoprene water socks. I have water shoes and water sandals and scuba booties, but these socks are “the cat’s meow,” as my folks used to say. Warm in cold water (I did go in and it wasn’t very cold), with good grip on the bottom, and no sand inside!
My Sunday hiking group is now “friends” after years of joining them at least monthly. They’re fully dressed because the temperature on the shore of Lake Superior changes a lot depending on wind direction, even in summer.
I leave you with two videos that work on my phone but seem to be quarrelsome on my laptop; sand cranes croaking at the moon, and the wind crossing the water in front of my camp. It’s past midnight as I write, so…happy July! Summer’s here!
For Many Moons 