Day 24 Wed- Locks Away!

Another day has dawned awake on and off for long periods, this is starting to be a common occurrence…I might be best to go back into my Melatonin….I think I mentioned it before now…but ho on it 2 weeks before travel with big time changes and stay on it for 2 weeks once there to regulate my sleeping pattern it does help…maybe just need it a bit longer…we have another time change only an hour in 2 days but might be enough to hinder the regular sleeping pattern….

We picked up our complimentary breakfast from here. Actually wasn’t that bad really , muffins, yogurt, a cereal bar and juice….even a little butter for the muffins…anyway we decided we will use these on our road trip in the car and John had his cereal I had my left over Tim Horton’s bacon, egg and hash brown farmers wrap….not as crisp ax yesterday heating it in a common area in the foyer…. Then we set off to explore the area….

Our first port of call was actually a marina…. When I got out of the car to take pics 2 older men where there, they said hello then went to a seat nearby with another older guy and sat down chatting…when I walked around the front of their car there were all, these ducks and pigeons eating grain.I worked out they must feed them everyday and meet up with their mate….nice to see them out and about enjoying each other’s company…

From here John realised he could do some Geocaching and set off to find one…I sat in the car waiting…I looked out the window and saw an unreal old building across the water…thinking to myself I would like to see this…then realised it was actually in the USOf A so no going to find it today…

John back found on Geocache the other one as missing…those darn mugglers….off we drove to further up parking in a huge car park opposite the boardwalk along the Water way on St Marys River that flows into Huron Lake that you could again nearly if you were great at it throwing a ball ⚽️ to the Yanks on the other side…it was a bit further than that, but still closer than I thought….

From this Vantage point I could see the huge old building a bit better and bonus it had a plaque on the boardwalk explaining all about it… it turns out it was Edison’s Saul’s Electric Hydroelectric Plant…they started to built it in 1898 and didn’t finish until 1902… situated on the Soo Locks of St Marys River that flows into Lake Huron….it was the very first Hydro Eke trip Power Plant built in the US…it is 400 meters long and contains 78 horizontal AV generators making it the longest horizontal shift hydro facility in the world….😲

We continued walking around the upper end of the boardwalk finding some bears….ha ha very big statue bears looking out on the River…
The bears are looking out at the Soo Locks…

(The Soo Locks……The world-famous Soo Locks bypass those rapids and permit freighters to pass up or down the St. Marys River to and from the Great Lakes Waterway. You can see the locks at work – an average of 10,000 ships per year pass through them – from atop the 64-meter Tower of History near downtown Sault Ste. Marie.)
(The main artery of the region is the St. Marys River, which flows from Lake Superior, over the rapids for which the town is named (French colonists referred to them as “Les Saults de Ste. Marie,” “Sault” translating to “jumps” or “falls”), into Lake Huron. Because of its prime location, Sault Ste. Marie was positioned for prominence: “The Soo” is where Michigan was born.)

Then off to have my first Starbucks coffee just close by…while there…..having being served with a young lady with the biggest black longest false eye lashes she nearly couldn’t blink they were so long 😁😁😁 any entertained John he couldn’t get over them….sorry back to my story, we did some research on what to see and we saw you could go to the Sault Ste Marie Canal on this side of the border….but right above them is a massive long span of different bridges 🌉 going to the USA….it was built in 1889 and 1895 and was the longest lock and first to use electricity…plus was the last link in an all Canadian navigational chain from the At,antic Ocean to Lake Superior….it was originally built to bypass the turbulent rapids on St Mary’s River plus a last link in the Canadian Great Lakes St Lawrence shipping Route…also as the Wisconsin Glacier retreated some 12,000 yrs ago… The St Mary River did carry the waters from Lake Superior to Lake Huron….the rapids resulted from a six meter difference between the two lakes….The canal was cut through the bedrock of St Mary’s island that being Red sandstone
which all the old buildings around the canal are built out if…what a gorgeous colour this sandstone is….when the had finally completed the canal in 1895 it’s chamber was 274 m long, 18 m wide and was the largest in the world at that time… Stone cutters laboured for 4 yrs to support even the walls of the lock which are intact today….Today this Lock is only used for recreational vessels and a bonus just as we were about to leave a Police boat was using the lock so we got to see it in action.,,unreal from the height of the canal going out to Lake Superior is 6.4m higher drop with the gates shut higher on the Lake Superior side than the waters on the bottom side to St Mary’s River ……huge difference and seeing it in action made it seem so much more special witnessing the heights and depths of each side…

We started out at the top end towards Lake Superior looking at what we thought were 2 old discarded bridges…how wrong we were…
One the huge Orange one it turns out is a Swing Dam… I won’t write this but will put in the info below it is a massive sheer machine that once we knew how it worked was totally fascinating…. There were 9 built in the world this is the only one left that can still be used and the only that was used in an emergency in 1909. I’ll put that story there as well so very interesting…

(The Sault Canal Emergency Swing Dam is an all-metal structure built by the Dominion Bridge Company in 1896.[1] It sits along the Canadian Sault Ste. Marie Canal, to protect against the rush of water that would occur if something ever damaged the Sault locks. It operates by swinging over the canal and dropping wicket gates into the water. The Emergency Dam was put to the ultimate test on June 9, 1909 when the freighter Perry G. Walker crashed into the upstream lock sending a torrent of water crashing into the downstream lock. The Perry G. Walker and another ship the "Assiniboia" were sent back into the St. Marys River and another ship that was heading upstream out of the locks the "Crescent City" hit the channel wall. The swing dam proved its worth by slowing down the torrent of water. This example of emergency swing bridge is the last of nine ever built. Other examples were previous in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, USA and in the Panama Canal.)

Looking at the plates that come down on the Dam bridge..such and every one had a buckled section…we were to learn the sheer pressure from the water during the disaster in 1909 cussed these l,ages to buckle which to this day can still be seen…just made you aware of the sheer force of the water coming from Lake Superior through the canal to Lake Huron is massive…to buckle each and every plate made of metal plate would have been huge….

We came here for a quick look and suddenly realised there was so much to take in so we slowed down to take in the rest of the many discoveries of being here… next to the big Orange Swing Dam…was this rusted looking yep like a bridge…on investigation yep it was a bridge a rail swing bridge….it too swung across the canals we thought in bygone years…but in talking to a guy who it turns out worked there..this bridge is very much in action so much so it swings across at 7 pm every night… wow …..it too was built in 1896 when it swings across this lines up right across the waterways to the US with 9 what is called Camelback spans and 3 big big lift bridges as well spanning right across St Mary’s River and her Rapids… we later went for a walk on St Mary’s Island to Whitefish Island and from here could see the massive Lift bridges up in the air on the US side……unreal feats these massive structures for their day….

From here we walked across to Whitefish Island that was used by the Native First Nations peoples until all the canals were built…. Today it is used by fisherman getting amongst the rapids to try their hand at fishing in their long rubber overalls… it was here we kept following another couple who Sheryl you will be very proud of me I asked them their names and got a selfie Witt them…Glen and Jocelyn were from Alberta out west and were driving across to get a motorbike trailer for his Goldwing…. We actually followed them through an off side track trying to fund a shortcut back to the main track…I think Jocelyn through there husband was leading us all up the garden or rather the bush path to nowhere…but we did eventually find our way out….being on the island and you could get really close to the rapids and see the US and the massive bridges so much better…
Well worth coming in the extra walk…I had a ball walking over as all the weeds are out and the weeds here are so different and interesting to ours…many with pretty little flowers that lined the paths along the way…plus what looked like a Queen Ann Lace a weed in parts of Aust and wild what looked like flocks…I even had a tiny chip muck come right up to me to check me out… we worked out that people must feed the sadly so they aren’t coy…which could be bad as people do awful things yo little creatures when they don’t have a sense of danger…mind you it was so special…one even come right up to my hand…I thought John might get a pic but no too busy watching…

Our time was running out with a massive storm looming…so back over the bridges that joined the two islands…back past 3 areas that looked like otters might have build their own dams as that’s what it looked like…but on close inspection the wood had been cut… darn…but it really did look so much like Otter 🦦 dams… maybe it’s meant to attract them…not even sure they live here…
Back to the main lock where I wanted to finish looking at the buildings left from the bygone days…only a few now…and that’s when we got to watch the Police Boat go through the Locks…a bonus to finish our morning now afternoon…

I am sick of crap food so on the way back we called to a little local supermarket to get some ham, cheese and bread…I am going to and did make salad sandwich’s as I had other stuff from Tim’s fridge and they were yummy…finally something I can eat…

What a great day…sorry so much info but so many facets to this great area on the Canals of Sault Ste Marie…

Tim contacted late afternoon about dinner…the place I accidentally sent to you Vic Low and Slow Fusion BBQ…. So I rang and booked it not knowing for sure it was booked ad it was only a msg bank you spoke to…as it turned out we were the only patrons… John slept nearly 3 hrs feeling very unwell and had a temp… I dosed him up and more when he got up…felt fine later…but always a concern these days we have Covid…. Had an email this morning to say Mum has Covid…pretty pissed of really…she has no visitors except us and none has been lately with Dad having Covid….so it has to come from staff….anyway they have her isolated…sad really every time I think about her being locked away because of this horrible disease…it breaks my heart…
Dad is on the improve thank goodness they have both had their 4 Vaccines or I would say curtains for them both…

Anyway back to our dinner…it turned out to be pretty good…I took a lick of the side dishes and forgot the massive platter for 2 mins you filled with meats…Chicken, sausage, Pulled pork and Brisket all smoked and very tender and tasty…The meal was huge, plus we had a starter nine if could eat it all…my fav was the very light Corn Bread… got some left for Brekky….
Coming out if the restaurant I walked past an ally way filled with great art works…very good Sone if it..,a local guy had to,d us of more great ones near a school, but sadly wasn’t on the right side of the car to capture them…
Tim and Jess were very impressed with our visit to the Canals today, so John took them to see it…what a bonus the rail bridge was over the canal… bonus indeed…I thought it might go back while we were there but apparently it stays all night different trains go across… Tim and Jess hightailed it to Whitefish Island to see the Rapids..they were certainly a lot quicker than us…
All in all a good day… Czytaj więcej