Big Lake Reconnaissance

After a nice breakfast out with my dad, we took a little tour of some access sites on Lake St. Clair. Mission objective: find out where we could access some liquid water.

I am assuming there are some people that come across this blog that have never been to the Great Lakes. Biggest understatement of the day: They are big. While not a "Great Lake", Lake St. Clair is very large, and has gained notoriety for its small mouth bass and musky fisheries.

First stop shown by red mark:

Our first stop was the DNR ramp by Selfridge Air National Guard Base. This is on Anchor Bay, which itself is larger than Houghton Lake (Michigan's largest inland lake). Here is what we saw:

Call me a sissie, but I am not walking out there. 

Meanwhile in the canal by the boat launch:

One could paddle around a little bit in the canal, but you would not get very far. Back to the car to thaw out ears and onward to next stop: Lake St. Clair Metro Park (but it'll always be Metro Beach to me).

Here is what we saw at the day sail access point:

Looking straight out, East

Looking south and east. The little tied structure on the horizon just to the left of the pile of ice is the Renaissance Center (General Motor's global headquarters) in Downtown Detroit.

The view south, along the shoreline.

This is all open water... if you can make it out to it. Good luck crossing the 50 feet of ice slabs and rough, unstable "terrain".

We also stopped by the boat launch at the metro park. It is open. There is still ice in parts of the marina and canals, but there is enough open water to get a kayak or canoe... or SUP (I'm inclusive!).

Final stop today was the mouth of the Clinton River DNR access site. Here is where I am talking. Look at the little bar scale at the bottom right hand of the Google Maps screen capture.

And this is just the central part of the lake.

Because it was so darn cold and windy, we quickly looped around the parking lot and headed back in. The lake is completely open here.

It is amazing how quickly the wind, sun, and current broke up and flushed out the ice. Don't get me wrong, there is still ice out there, as I showed in some of the pictures. I would not walk on it, though. People have been rescued by the coast guard over the last couple days on the lake.

When I purchased my first kayak three years ago, this week is the anniversary of its first outing. However, three years ago, there was no ice to be found. Just goes to show how each year the weather varies.

I'll be headed out in the very near future. Basically as soon as I get the anchor trolley installed on my SOT kayak.

Go get out there...