North Channel Great Adventure, Additional Installment
Thursday, July 19, 2012
I had not intended to
compose another posting today, but this idea is staying in my head and the
generator is running so I could fire up my laptop. All conditions are a “go” to type!
I have come to the
conclusion that I am in love with Canadian granite. CSO and I kayaked this afternoon, again in
Beardrop Harbour, Whalesback, North Channel, Lake Huron, Ontario, Canada, where
the granite – as in many North Channel anchorages – can be seen up close and
personal. There is a book that many
boaters use as an anchoring and motoring guide while in the North Channel. It is titled Well-Favored Passage, A Cruising Guide, dedicated to
Marjorie Cahn Brazer and written by Pixie Haughwout and Ralph Folsom. The book writes about most of the possible
anchorages beginning with the western side of Lake Huron at the Mackinac
Bridge, north and westward all the way through the Georgian Bay section of Lake
Huron. Thorough to a “t”, it is one of the
Bibles boaters use to avoid the pratfalls and pitfalls that can befall boaters;
i.e. prop damage, hull damage, or even worse.
The book describes the North Channel, geologically, as being two to
three BILLION years old. “Erosion of pre-Cambrian sedimentary rocks
and Paleozoic limestone were mixed by volcanic action with white quartzite,
granites and rich, rid rocks to create a rainbow geology………….The glaciers,
whose meltwaters filled the North Channel as they retreated, had earlier
scraped the land clean of topsoil in their advance south. To this day, the basement rocks on either
side of the North Channel are clothed in the skimpiest of soil cover. Yet so remarkable are the forces of life that
even this shallow soil supports a great variety of trees, grasses, shrubs, and
flowers. Indeed, both side of the
Channel have been farmed for over a hundred years. On many of the offshore islands, plants and
trees seem to spring directly from bare rock.”
What fascinates me is the
difference in surfaces of the granite.
Many of the rocks, boulders – if you will, are smooth and taper off into
the depth of the water. Other boulders
are sheared on sides with such calculation that it looks as if a mechanical saw
of some sort created the sharp and right angles. As we paddle along the shores of these great,
granite behemoth hills and mountains, the word “awesome” truly comes into
play. The Grand Canyon is awesome – so
is the North Channel. Add the American
Bald Eagle that calls this area home and more awesomeness is evident. The forces of nature are evident everywhere
my eye can roam here in the North Channel.
These majestic rocks, so
stark in nature, yet so beautiful in their starkness, deserve to be seen by the
naked eye, not just descriptions in books or blogs. Words can barely do them justice, so I will
cease to try.
Ancora imparo
