2011 vacation part two begins
the journal of Michael Werneburg
twenty-seven years and one million words
Tonight we're staying at my late grandfather's cottage in Victoria Harbour, Ontario and we'll be sleeping in a tent.
The tent is a loaner/gift from my friend Geoff, who's also supplied a tarp and some sleeping mats. It's billed as a three man tent but clearly none of the "men" were 6'5". I'm looking forward to this as a trial for the real thing up in Killarney. We had a long day of picking up pieces here and there: first to pick up the gear from Geoff; then to stop at a Canadian Tire for a few items, and at the MEC in Barrie for sleeping bags for Mari and Kenny; and finally at the grocery store in Victoria Harbour. It was 16:00 when we arrived, and I promptly took Kenny (literally kicking and screaming) out into the shallow weedy bay for a splash.
There is a good deal of unhappiness across "cottage country" at the reduced water level in lake Huron/Michigan. I'd estimate the reduction, which happened a good decade ago, at about a meter. Our formerly water-front cottage is now well back from the water. What's worse, the ten meters of exposed lake bed and thirty meters of ankle-deep water in front of the actual shoreline consist of soft organic-laden mud best left to reeds and sandpipers and frogs. The "surface" is far too soft to walk on without sinking in, and you can't emerge from the lake without needing to clean up again. Happily, perhaps one fifth of the area has been colonized by bull rushes and the birds and frogs have moved in.
There doesn't seem to be a lot of agreement about the cause of the change in water level. One explanation that makes sense is that the various cities, farm lands, and other users of water have simply grown so many in number that the current level is the "new normal" - we've altered the input/output balance. Given what's happened to the Dead and Aral seas and Lake Victoria, I think this is a plausable explanation. I've heard that the water fell conspicuously after the US Army Corp of Engineers (whose principle job seems to be fighting rivers) dredged the St. Clair river (the outlet of the Huron/Michigan system) to a depth of 18 meters.
Of course, it could all be some natural cycle and nothing to do with human activity. But given the other changes I've seen at the cottage over the past twenty-five years, I'm inclined to look at human causes. The cottage is situated on a broad bay that's fairly shallow. It used to be lined with a sandy-silt mixture and fairly free of weeds other than a thin grassy sort. There were plenty of clams and fish were abundant by today's standards (although the days of two+ meter sturgeons were gone two generations before my time). Now there are no clams, few fish, and thick weeds line the entire lake bed from any point where it's deep enough to submerge yourself (now at about fifty meters from the shore). Moreover, the weeds are coated in algae that is frequently thick enough to form their own strands. The slimy thick weeds make for appalling swimming for one thing, and I rarely see anyone water-skiing any more.
In any event, our cottage is harder now to make use of than it was in times past. Dragging the canoe through all of that swampy mud and back and then hosing it down after each use is not an appealing way of introducing my family to canoeing.