Charlevoix

From the marina, you immediately notice the large Victorian-style houses along the hill. Charlevoix is probably the first town we've visited that was originally a resort and vacation area. And there are examples of the Victorian architecture throughout the town. But, there is also some very unique architecture here as well. While at the Chamber of Commerce, always a first stop, we picked up a brochure on "The Earl Young Tour of Charlevoix". Victorian is nice, but the Earl Young houses are really interesting. Back in the 1930s, Mr. Young had bought a lot of property on the west edge of Charlevoix, which he developed with winding roads and several houses. Eleven seem to still exist in the area and there are a few others scattered in town. The pictures to the left are two that are along the river.


This is the front and back of the same house. You have to look closely but even the birdhouse is stone with the cedar roof. The brochure says that he designed the house to fit the space. We'd love to see what the inside of these homes look like. Phil thought that we had wandered into Hobbit-town.

This is called the Mushroom House.

The Woolly Bugger Roasters of Fine Coffees and Internet Cafe has free wi-fi. It also has the "Lake Effect", a White Chocolate Coffee drink, that is rather addicting. There's a Woolly Bugger in Harbor Springs (which we'll write about soon). Phil thinks Bernie just likes the name, which refers to a type of fly fishing lure. But she also thinks that all the fishing related quotes around the wall, free internet are pretty neat. Did I mention that the Lake Effect was tasty? And Phil really liked the Ethiopean and the Inn at Crooked Lake Blend.

A quick mention of the Great Lakes Whitefish and Chips Co. is necessary since we ate there both nights. You can't be up here without enjoying the whitefish. Oh, and Murdick's Fudge shop also fulfilled our "Ice cream in every port" rule. They have Sleeping Bear Supreme Ice Cream.

Charlevoix has a good bike path, too. The Little Traverse Wheelway is an old railroad path that runs from Charlevoix all the way to Harbor Springs (about 19 miles one way). It's all paved but there are some pretty steep hills (that were definitely NOT part of a rail road line). But, hey, every now and then you should go through each of your 24 gears to make sure they all work. Or as Phil says "You got 24 gears - use 'em".

Along the way, we passed through a few roadside park/lake access sites. At one of them, they were dedicating a new Historical Marker for The Big Rock Point. This was also the site of the Consumers Power Big Rock Nuclear Power Plant. We'll spare you the side of the marker that talks about the power plant as it is written in fluent UtilitySpeak.



We didn't get to the Historical museum, this time, but we did check out some of their historical markers. We live along Lake Michigan but coming up here gives you an entirely different view of the lake and the history that goes with it.

Also while in Charlevoix we met another couple who have a Chris Craft, too. (Actually, they were our neighbors -- we've noticed that the harbor masters tend to put us next to other Chris Crafts if possible.) They live in Florida during the winter and live on their boat in various Michigan harbors the whole summer. They store their boat for the winter in whatever port they are in when the weather "turns". That doesn't sound like a bad plan to us at all!

"Looks like we got us a convoy" as we left Charlevoix for Beaver Island.

Heading off to Charlevoix

On Friday morning (August 24), we gassed up at Traverse City ($3.53 / gallon) then headed for Charlevoix. The trip up Grand Traverse Bay was uneventful, with the weather sunny and calm. Some Chicago boaters may recognize the large blue boat also in the picture -- it's from DuSable Harbor. It had some crewmembers from Pendragon (also DuSable) that were in town for a regatta.

When leaving Grand Traverse Bay headed to the northeast, you pass Fisherman’s Island. There are some shoals there to avoid, so you shouldn’t get too close. Past Fisherman’s Island, there’s a buoy marking the dangerous areas and you should stay outside of it. At this point, there were a number of sailboats heading out, as well as into, Charlevoix, and we kept close to the buoy to avoid them.

Upon rounding the point and approaching the river channel of Charlevoix, it got pretty choppy. This area of Lake Michigan around the Charlevoix was much rougher than the surrounding areas on the way out as well. It may be because of the interaction with the river current and the breakwaters. But it wasn’t too terribly bad and we made it into the channel with ease.

Once in the river, we could really feel the current affecting our forward motion. But it slowed down considerably by the time we neared the bridge, and it was easy to hold Meridian stable as we waited for the bridge to open. This time of year, it opens every half hour and you don’t have to signal.







After getting through the bridge, we hailed Charlevoix Municipal Marina, got our slip assignment, and pulled safely in to the harbor. Charlevoix Municipal Marina is currently undergoing an extensive reconstruction. They have nice floating docks (the rickety ladder gets another workout) and electricity, but there is no water. And there are no facilities at the harbor. The harbor master’s office is temporarily located over by the Beaver Island Ferry offices, and those restrooms are open 24 hours for boaters. However, they don’t have showers. They give a $5 per night discount for the lack of water or showers. That is supposed to make up for having to pay for showers at the health club. But when we went to the health club on Saturday afternoon, it was closed. Luckily, we had filled up the water tanks in Traverse City. We took very short showers on Meridian.

One thing that surprised us about the slips was that there were no poles between slips. Not even for the largest boats. That means there is no way to keep the boat off the dock when the wind blows from a certain directions. The fenders – and/or fender boards - can get a decent workout here. However, the wind wasn’t much of a problem because Round Lake is a small lake surrounded by high hills. And the entire lake is a no wake zone.

While the harbor and park are not much to look at now, we’re told they’ll be extremely nice once completed. And if they’re to be anything like the rest of Charlevoix that we experienced, they will be first-rate.


While we were staying in Charlevoix, we saw a large sailboat (The “Lady Carol”) arrive and sail on through Round Lake into Lake Charlevoix. That was a coincidence, because we stayed in their slip when in Northport. We know the boat because, when in Northport, they arrived and had to tie up on the wall while we were there. It was so windy at the time, the harbor master didn’t ask us to move for them (did we mention that the harbor staff at these marinas are great?).