The Trip from Mackinaw City to Petoskey, Michigan

Despite Bernie's threats to hold her breath until she turned purple, we are starting our return trip. We've decided to come back down the Michigan side of the lake and stop in some of the places that we missed on the "up trip". As you can see from the map, this still may take a little while.

Oddly enough, even though there were winds and rains that caused power outages on Friday, the next day (Saturday September 8) was a beautiful warm day in Mackinaw City. The straits area was a bit choppy but the beautiful blue sky and water almost made us change our minds about heading back. But, since all the geese up here are flying back to Chicago for the winter, we thought we might as well come back, too. So the blue line is the return trip line.

The trip to Petoskey took us, again, through the Gray's Reef Shoals area. This is Phil's favorite area when moving about on Lake Michigan. The water was so calm and clear. We stopped in about 20 feet of water to just marvel at the water clarity. We could see the rocks (and occasional boulders) on the bottom, and it was as though you could just step onto them from the swim platform. (but Bernie wouldn't let me try)

We got to see another freighter. It's amazing how those huge ships must deal with all the recreational boaters that dart around them.


Soon we were heading into Petoskey Municipal Harbor. In the slip right across from us were the couple in the Chris Craft that we'd met in Charlevoix -- the ones who stay up here on their boat the Roma Lisa in the summer and then move back to Florida in the winter.

The Little Traverse Bay area has the greatest sky. Here is the first of what will be a few Petoskey Sunset pictures to come in future blogs.