The "Soo" Locks

I drove to Sault Ste Marie to see the locks that take freighters around the rapids of the St Marys River leading from Lake Superior to Lake Huron. The drop is 21 feet. There are 4 American Locks and 1 Canadian lock. Each lock has a name and one of the locks is 1200 feet long to accommodate the largest of the "Lakers" as the freighters are called. The boat tour takes us through the lock. We were lucky because we saw 4 Lakers two of them 1000 footers. As we approached the locks there were 2 in the locks and we could watch the smaller of the two come out of the lock. The larger one takes quite a bit of time to get into and out of the lock because there is only 2 feet of clearance on each side of the freighter.

We entered the lock and were raised to the Lake Superior level. Our captain, Mary, gave the lock attendant the required paperwork - what was she carrying and where was she headed. We then toured the area on the upper side of the lock. We were stuck there for 2 more hours while the second 2 boats cleared the locks making the tour 4 hours instead of 2 but I was glad that we saw the freighters. Again the 1000 footer took a long time to clear the lock. There is an interesting museum here that includes the remains of 2 lifeboats from the Edmund Fitzgerald that sank in Lake Superior in 1975 (Reference the Gordon Lightfoot song) but there was no time after the extended tour to get there. I will go to Whitefish Point to the shipwreck museum and see the bell from the "Fitz".