Our trip to the Soo

On Wednesday afternoon we headed up to Sault Saint Marie (Michigan and Ontario) for some admin and to finish our provisioning before setting out. We arrived around 5:30 and after checking into our hotel we headed off to the downtown area for dinner and some sightseeing. As you may or may not be aware, Sault Saint Marie is the home of the famous Soo Locks where all ships heading to and from Lake Superior must pass through. Before the settlers arrived there was a significant set of rapids that connected Lake Superior and the Saint Mary's River and then lake Huron. These rapids made transport between the lakes a bit of a problem moving the valuable iron ore from the mines to the west to smelters in the south. Some crude locks were built in the late 1800s but the current system got its start around 1912. Currently there are four US locks that can handle the big 1000 foot lakers that make the run during the 10 months the waterway is open. The total drop/lift is 21 feet and there are plans underway for a new set of locks to the build in the near future. We were fortunate to see both an upbound and downbound ship in the locks at the same time when we visited SSM on Wednesday.

Lake Superior level

Lake Huron level

On Thursday we headed over to the US Customs office to conduct our interviews with both the US and Canadian authorities so we could get NEXUS cards that will make our passage to and from Canada much easier as well as travel elsewhere. The NEXUS card is part of the trusted traveler program and involves a lot of paperwork, fingerprinting, and other requirements to me met before it is issued. We had a speed pass to go into Canada for the past five years but decided to go with this program because is more comprehensive.

Note room number on men's room at US Customs office



After we completed our NEXUS processing we headed across the bridge to Canada to get a wireless data card for the PC so we could have Internet access anywhere we may be in Canada as long as there is a cell signal. The plan we got is monthly and can be cancelled at the end of the season and restarted next year. The device we purchased supports 4G, acts as a wireless hotspotm and should be relevant for several years. On the voice side our Verizon service has a US/Canada option that cost $20/month and gives us normal cell voice operation all summer while in Canada.

After returning to the US we loaded up the car at the SSM Walmart and headed back to Drummond for our first night on the boat. We hope to be underway on Saturday weather permitting.