Woods & Waters

09/05/2026

BTW, if anyone looking for this year’s poster — first one in can have it or it’s being recycled!

09/05/2026

There’s the 🐐 again. It’s still pretty G.O.A.T. 🙃

09/04/2026

Nature highlighting what we all know is true — Goat Island is the G.O.A.T.

09/03/2026

Let’s flip the script — “unkempt hair” is actually an apt visual for Lake Huron. So many islands break up the shoreline that they carve out countless channels, not unlike a good case of bed head.

Les Cheneaux itself means “the channels,” and zooming in on a map reveals even more of that unkempt-hair pattern — in the St. Marys River, the North Channel, and Georgian Bay. You may surprised to learn that Lake Huron has the most islands of any Great Lake, roughly 30,000!!

That number gets fuzzy fast, though. There’s a popular myth that an “official” island needs a tree growing on it to count. I’m looking at you little island next to Wenonah. It’s not true; no government body defines an island by its vegetation.

Fitting, really: no government originally named the Great Lakes either, and none should be in the business of renaming them now.

Real island definitions come down to the land itself — naturally formed, surrounded by water, and above the waterline. No comb required — Huron’s bedhead is the point, not the problem.

08/29/2026

Been wondering about our new retail space? Here’s a look inside!

08/29/2026

It’s that time of year again… take advantage of saving by snagging gently used equipment — call or stop on by.
That pink bike, known as petunia, is a large frame ($50). We also have several life jackets in L/XL and one XL/XXL, one youth, and a few 2mm farmer John (L) and Jane (M) too. And one fleece-lined bicycling jacket (men’s L). And a 9-gallon collapsible NRS basin.

08/29/2026

Lake Huron reminding us to stay calm and carry on.

08/28/2026

I did set my alarm and go look at the lunar eclipse overnight, but wasn’t rewarded with seeing the magnificent detail that our friend Anthony Arabie over on Mackinac Island captured. WOW!!! Shared with permission.

08/27/2026

It's HOMES. Not SHAME.

Back-to-school season means some kid is about to learn HOMES for the Great Lakes. This week, the government tried to hand them SHAME instead. Updated the blog post (again) — Denali, the Gulf of Mexico, and now Lake Ontario, whose real name never needed fixing. It's a deep dive. Enjoy the swim.

I saw Denali from a sightseeing plane in July 2000 and never forgot how massive it felt. Its name — and the ongoing fight over it — is a window into how naming shapes what we remember and what we let ourselves forget. Closer to home, Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, Michigan's most famous Indian Agent, i...

08/27/2026

TONIGHT!! LUNAR ECLIPSE!!! 🌕🌙 🌖 97% peak here in the and the forecast is for clear skies!!!