posted 09-13-2014 12:46 PM ET (US)            

The usual agenda is to rally the boats on either the Northwest shore of Mullet Lake (DNR launch) or on the Cheboygan RIver (at The Narrows DNR launch) about 10 a.m. Saturday morning, then travel upstream toward Indian River, to Burt Lake, to Crooked River, to Alanson, and return.

Depending on the weather and temperature, the tour has reached as far upstream as Crooked Lake, or stopped as soon as Burt Lake. We usually stop for lunch along the way. We have stopped in Alanson several times, but we have a curious history of finding that the restaurant we went to the year before has gone out of business. I think there is only one restaurant left in Alanson, and I am nervous about going there--I don't want to jeopardize the last place to eat in town.

posted 09-28-2014 07:30 AM ET (US)            

We are very sorry to do this at this late date but some family situations have arisen that preclude us from hosting this year.

posted 10-04-2014 09:24 AM ET (US)            

The weather forecast for Sunday is a high of 46-degrees. Wind increasing to 10 to 20 MPH WSW. Rain chances only 20-percent. Some sun in the morning, but cloudy in the afternoon.

posted 10-13-2014 12:01 PM ET (US)            

The Fall Color Tour follows the route of the Inland Waterway of northern Michigan. This waterway is a natural pathway that provides an inland water course around the Straits of Mackinaw, connecting Cheboygan, on Lake Huron, to Conway, near Little Grand Traverse Bay on Lake Michigan.

The waterway begins at Crooked Lake, an inland lake whose present level is about 17-feet above Lake Michigan. Instead of flowing about two miles west into Lake Michigan, Crooked Lake flows north and east, into the Crooked River, into Burt Lake, into the Indian River, into Mullet Lake, into the Cheboygan River, and finally flowing into Lake Huron, about 40-miles away.

A small dam and bypass lock maintains Crooked Lake about two-feet above the Crooked River. The level of the Crooked River, Burt Lake, the Indian River, and Mullet Lake is not blocked by any dams or locks. A large dam in the Cheboygan River at a commercial plant holds back the river, maintaining Mullet Lake and the other upstream lakes about 15-feet above the level of Lake Huron.

Historically, the water way was used by Indians as a way to travel across the northern tip of the lower peninsula. In the 1600's it was used by French fur traders. The dam on the Cheboygan River was built in 1846 at the site of a rapids to provide power for a sawmill. A bypass canal and lock was built in 1869 to enable navigation around the dam and rapids.

The original course of the Sturgeon River was to drain into the Indian River, and its flow created a sand bar. The course of the Sturgeon River was altered in 1877 to make it flow into Burt Lake, preventing the creation of a sand bar. This project and other dredging enabled the floating of timber logs on the route.

By the 1880's the construction of railroads in the region reduced the importance of the waterway in commercial transportation. By c.1900 the route began to be used by excursion steamers carrying passengers and picnickers on pleasure cruises. In the period 1956 to 1958 the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) improved the waterway, creating the present day system of channels and markers and a minimum depth of five feet.

For more information see:

http://www.michiganwatertrails.org/media/assets/media/inland_waterway_straits_area_water_trail_plan.pdf

http://archive.org/stream/4725494.0001.001.umich.edu/4725494.0001.001.umich.edu_djvu.txt

http://irchamber.com/documents/waterway.pdf

The origin of the English word "Cheboygan" is thought to come from the Annishinaabe (Ojibwe) word zhiibaa’onan, meaning a channel or passage for a canoe. The Cheboygan River was perhaps so named because its original state permitted passage only in a canoe.

Cheboygan may be adapted from the French spelling. I notice that in Wisconsin, the same word is spelled in an more English manner as Sheboygan.

When I was a youngster and our family was renting a cottage on Mullet Lake, I heard a story about the history of Sheboygan/Cheboygan:

An Indian Chief was hoping for a daughter to be born, but his wife seemed only to produce male offspring, Upon the birth of a new child, the Chief would inquire with the other women attending the birth as to the gender of the child. The string of girls continued, each time with a reply "She a Boy, Again."

This is also cited in a University research project:

quote:

---

SHEBOYGAN, WISCONSIN

AN INDIAN CHIEF AND HIS WIFE HAD HAD MANY SONS AND WANTED A
DAUGHTER. AFTER THE BIRTH OF THE NINTH SON, THE SQUAW ANNOUNCED
TO THE CHIEF, "SHE'S A BOY AGAIN"--HENCE SHEBOYGAN BECAME THE
NAME OF THE AREA WHERE THEY LIVED.

---

posted 10-13-2014 01:54 PM ET (US)            

Zhiibaa`onaning

is KILLARNEY, another place with a narrow opening suitable for a canoe!

Cf.: http://www.translateojibwe.com/en/dictionary-ojibwe-english/zhiibaa

Also see:

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/OjibweLanguageSocietyMiinawaa/ conversations/topics/6729

which again cites Killarney as an example:

quote:

---

Zhiibaa'onaning = Killarney, Ont. (lit.: at the channel for passage
with a canoe)

Three parts:
zhiibaa= >> go through ...
='onan >> be ... with a boat/canoe
=ing >> locative

zhiibaa'onan (vai) = be a channel for passage with a canoe

Here are other example of other ='onan words:
* ina'onan (vai) = be a passage (channel, strait, etc.)
* gakiiwe'onan (vai) = portage across a point of land

Here are some other zhiibaa= words:
* zhiibaabizo (vai) = drive/fly through
* zhiibaayaabanjigan(-an) (ni) = binoculars, spy-glass, telescope
* zhiibaayaanimad (vii) = be drafty

One of Killarney's promotional pages claim that the city's Anishinaabe
name means "safe canoe channel."

---

posted 10-24-2014 05:20 PM ET (US)            

We only saw one boat underway: the luxury cruise ship M/V HAMBURG. She was sailing to Mackinaw Island from Traverse City, on the homebound leg of a two-week cruise from Montreal to Chicago and back