Lookout
Point
Local entrepreneurs focus
on paddle-boating to grow ecotourism
Lake Superior is like having an ocean-size playground
in your backyard. And this playground has a lot to offer both
residents and visitors.
First, a few facts: it is the world’s largest freshwater
lake by surface area, and the fourth largest by volume and contains
as much water as all the other Great Lakes combined, even throwing
in two of Lake Erie.
With a surface covering 31,820 square miles, this massive
body of water is an incubator of enjoyment for nature-lovers and
outdoor enthusiasts. It entices people of all interests to photograph
its beauty, swim its depths, explore its caves, hike its trails,
boat and fish its waters— and paddle its shores.
Paddlers are on the increase. Numerous organizations have emerged
to help these folks move safely and in harmony with their motorized
cousins. Locally, the Hiawatha Water Trail Association (HWTA)
is one of these organizations.
HWTA was founded by retired DNR employee Dean Sundell and named
by Bill Thompson of Down Wind Sports, in cooperation with Marquette
residents Chip Truscon and Sam Crowley.
As indicated in the June 2008 Marquette Monthly piece “Water
Vision” by Eric Hammerstrom, the name was selected to honor
Native Americans who first paddled the waters of Lake Superior
and in tribute to the belief that Hiawatha once lived on what
is now the Grand Island Recreation Area.
Since the canoe and the kayak have been with us for centuries,
it’s safe to say paddle-boaters were here first. Somehow
along the way, the needs of these nonmotorized craft were put
aside. The goal of this grassroots volunteer organization is to
address what is required by these water riders through the organization
and promotion of a safe, responsible and respectful paddle-boating
water trail that follows the 120 miles of shoreline between Big
Bay and Grand Marais.
Once the HWTA was established formally with organizational vision
and marketing plans in place, it was time to start thinking about
strategic growth possibilities. This whole project was about more
than just a boat and a paddle; it was an opportunity to pursue
ecotourism. Ecotourism is defined as “Responsible travel
to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the
well-being of local people.” (TIES, 1990)
Early on, Thompson recognized the growth potential in paddle-boating
and used his professional and personal experiences with kayaking
and other water sports to develop ideas on how to tap into the
opportunities that would arise as a result of the growing interest
in the sport. He, along with other experts, discussed various
options that would make the water trail more attractive to local
and visiting paddlers.
Numerous opportunities for paddlers to move along the water trail
with relative ease and minimal inconvenience already existed.
But where was that “drop” of opportunity? What could
be developed to encourage these water riders to put down their
paddles and spend some time (and money) in the communities that
dot the shoreline of the Hiawatha Water Trail?
Big Bay, Marquette, Munising, Grand Marais and all points in between
have lots to offer in terms of sightseeing, restaurants, lodging,
shopping, shelters and rest stops. What could be developed that
would encourage these folks to visit the communities they were
paddling past in lieu of the random shoreline stops traditionally
utilized?
Unlike the person traveling by motor vehicle or biking along a
roadway, these naturalists have kayaks, canoes, paddles, other
types of gear and personal belongings to secure.
Leaving these possessions unattended at the shoreline in order
to venture out and see surrounding sites or go into town for supplies,
dinner and a night in a comfortable bed involved a very real risk
of loss. This risk had to be addressed if the water trail user
w as
going to feel comfortable leaving equipment behind in order to
enjoy nearby resources.
Also, consideration had to be given to ecotourism goals. The solution
presented would have minimal environmental impact, while fulfilling
economic, social and aesthetic needs of the communities and areas
involved. It would provide more enjoyable experiences for tourists
and meet the needs of present-day participants and have little
negative impact on future generations.
It was time for the entrepreneurial forces to gather round and
engage in a group think. Thompson, Crowley and other interested
individuals conducted many meetings and had numerous conversations.
Ideas were shared. Some were written down, tweaked and abandoned.
Others made the written cut, but did not have group agreement.
Seasoned kayakers and canoeists were consulted. Casual users were
questioned. Research ensued. All this brainstorming activity culminated
with a very clear solution: there was an obvious need for a “trail”
of locker systems that could store the water craft, equipment
and belongings of the paddle-boaters safely. The structures would
have to be secure, user friendly, provide quick access to the
water, and be relatively close to sites of interest. The group
had found the void and filled it. The Lock-and-Go project came
into being.
It was time to turn the vision into reality. The idea to create
a stand-alone locker system that would store and secure both boat
and belongings was presented to Bill Sanders at U.P. Engineers
& Architects. Sanders was quick to recognize the viability
of the proposal and is responsible for designing the first prototype,
capable of storing up to six boats and being manufactured locally.
The structure is accessed easily, very functional with a solid
system that safely stores what is placed inside. A user-provided
lock is placed on the door of the locker compartment. The quality
of the lock dictates the safety factor. Hence, the user of the
unit assumes full responsibility for the stored property. Given
the wide variety of safety padlocks available, it is best to consult
with a lock expert before making a purchase.
Once Sanders finalized his plans for the locker system and a local
manufacturer was designated, Robb Cookman, also an employee of
U.P. Engineers & Architects, took the lead and searched for
an installation site. Chocolay Township seized the opportunity.
Through external grant funds requiring local matches, Chocolay
Township installed the first kayak locker system. It is located
at the Chocolay River Marina in Harvey (Chocolay Township) and
is a permanent installation. As part of the project, some boardwalks
were built through a wetland area used by fishermen to gain access
to the river and two tent platforms were added to be used as water
trail campsites.
Chocolay Township has agreed to maintain the facility. Currently,
the lockers are free for those paddle-boaters who supply their
own locks. However, if local funds dwindle and fewer volunteers
come forward, this free use policy may change.
The entrepreneurial force of the HWTA has succeeded in getting
one ecotourism friendly kayak locker system installed. Hopefully,
there are more to come. In the meantime, the set of plans for
kayak locker now rests on the desk of Northern Michigan University’s
Professor Peter Pless. He directs the Studio for Experimental
and Eco-Design (SEED).
During the winter of 2009, he and his students in Human Center
Design Seminar will work on conceptual development of the project
from concept to production techniques to usability on a larger
scale and, hopefully, across the entire water trail.
Paddling on that playground we call Lake Superior is worth pursuing.
Among the many positives is the opportunity to glide silently
along the hopefully flat water and share the surreal presence
of the past. The really great part—it’s free.
—Pam Torreano Aimone, Tawni Hunt Ferrarini
Hamming it up in the U.P.
On a summer’s evening, they’re out in
the woods on what they call a “fox hunt”—men and
women, in teams of two or three, each following a waggling antenna,
listening closely to the staccato beeps of Morse Code coming through
their handheld radios.
The beeps eventually lead them to the “fox,” a small
transmitting device hidden deep in the duff. Once the transmitter
is found, the team pulls off a tag and reads the clue that helps
them find the next transmitter.
“This is all for fun,” said Paul Racine, KB0P, a member
of the Hiawatha Amateur Radio Association (HARA). “When it
comes down to emergencies, the FCC tells us we have to provide
communication...We already have our own equipment, because we
bought it. We already know how to operate it, because we’ve
been using it for our hobby  and
practicing, experimenting. So then, when there is an emergency,
we’re prepared to go on the air.”
On a winter’s night, they’re out in the woods, hunkered
down in an igloo or truck, tracking the progress and safety of
sled dog teams traveling from Marquette to Grand Marais and back,
going where cell phones can’t go, providing a foolproof communication
system for the U.P. 200 Sled Dog Race. They provide the same service—emergency
communication—during the Noquemanon Ski Marathon and Ore
to Shore Mountain Bike Epic.
“Why do our signals work better than cell phone signals?”
Racine said. “First of all, we’re very skilled with
our equipment—we understand the theory behind communications.”
To join the world of ham radio, which encompasses not just the
earthly world, but outer space—care to eavesdrop on the crew
of the space shuttle?—one needs a license, and that means
passing a test. The test covers electronic and communication theory,
FCC rules and regulations, and how radio signals work. HARA offers
testing four times a year, and other ham clubs in the U.P. also
offer testing.
“We do like to hold a class if we can,” Rich Schwenke,
N8GBA, also a HARA member, said. “If anybody’s interested,
we’ll help them get started, answer any questions that they
got.”
And when a new ham gets his license?
“We usually get together and go over to his house and help
him put up antennas,” Racine said. “We all try to help
each other out.”
In addition, the club has donated general theory and test books
to Peter White Public Library.
Most amateur radio enthusiasts start with an interest in electronics.
Some are tinkerers, like Racine.
“Hams are very resourceful,” he said. “We make
things out of nothing. We make things out of junk. We make antennas
out of broken tape measures and PVC pipe. We may buy our own $300
radio, but we also build our own stuff out of junk.”
In fact, once a week members of HARA get together for Project
Nite to restore old radios, build things and socialize.
Hams have a keen interest in communication. A lot of times they
are at home, in a basement or den, surrounded by a bank of equipment,
talking to Joe or Betty or Sven next door or halfway around the
world.
“It’s like a family,” Racine said.
Amateur radio has been around for close to 100 years, starting
off with transmission of Morse Code before there was voice capability.
Racine and Schwenke have no doubt that amateur radio is here to
stay.
“Ham radio started off years ago when things were simple,”
Racine said. “Ham radio operators, throughout the years,
have pioneered a lot of technology. We had e-mail back in the
1980s, except we didn’t use the Internet, we used radio.”
“It’s not going to go away,” Schwenke said. “If
you’re in the right location at the right time you can take
this handheld and talk to the space shuttle.”
Enough said.
“There are different aspects,” Racine said. “There’s
the microphone; you can sit and talk with people, or use Morse
Code, the telegraph key. It depends on what you’re in the
mood for. We can hook computers up to the radio and type to each
other just like the Internet.”
Schwenke agreed that amateur radio is very versatile.
“You can set up headphones and a mike on your computer, on
your laptop, and you can talk anywhere in the world,” he
said. “You can talk to five different countries at the same
time…as long as they’re on the air.”
You can send pictures and video.
With all the fox hunts, Project Nite, work at special events and
chatting with each other and astronauts, hams seem to have a lot
of fun, including dressing in funny outfits and attending “hamventions,”
but their federally mandated mission is completely serious. In
an emergency, hams are there, giving their time, using their own
equipment and calling upon their own skills and knowledge to open
critical lines of communication.
During some large forest fires near Ishpeming and Champion in
the late 1980s, Racine recalled, the police and fire radio channels
were jammed and communications went down. The amateurs were called
in to help, and soon headquarters and outposts were talking again.
The fox hunts actually are an exercise in “direction finding,”
helping a ham sharpen a skill that may come in handy if, for instance,
an Alzheimer patient wanders off. Many patients now wear a small
transmitter, which a handheld radio can pick up. The sheriff’s
department may have two receivers, but the hams come in with a
dozen or more and search experience gained from their weekly summer
outings.
In 1959, before there was such a thing as a toll-free 800 number,
ham radio operators enabled TV6 to run a March of Dimes fundraiser.
Pledges were radioed in from across the U.P. to a headquarters
set up outside the television studio. The pledges were written
down and then run inside to be announced on the air.
Schwenke said right now HARA has more than 100 members, and it
is just one of many amateur radio clubs in the U.P. There is no
requirement to belong to a club, so the actual number of hams
in the U.P. is unknown, but the Amateur Radio Relay League in
2007 reported a membership of more than 150,000 nationally, which
was an increase from the year before.
HARA holds monthly meetings in the basement of the Negaunee Health
Department, and it was there on a subzero January day that Racine
demonstrated the use of a handheld radio, checking in with ham
WD0BCF in Houston.
“My name is Larry, and I’m in Houston, Texas,”
the voice said. “The temperature is 51 degrees, and everyone
down here is complaining about the cold snap. I’ve been a
ham now since 1966, if I remember correctly. Grew up in southern
Michigan.”
Mike (KE8IL) in Marquette, a ham for thirty years, checked in
via “walkie-talkie,” working through a repeater and
a handheld radio. A repeater is an antenna that picks up a signal
and sends it on, thus “repeating” it. The towers in
Marquette, Gwinn and Munising come into play during the U.P. 200,
when hams will be stationed along the trail to relay information
back to race headquarters. The signals get through not only because
of the towers, but because they can go through trees and buildings—unlike
cell phone signals, which get caught up in obstruction.
But the hams also will be prepared to continue talking, even if
something goes wrong with the towers. If that happens, they switch
to shortwave radio bands. With shortwave, the signals will bounce
off the atmosphere, in essence being relayed by nature. This requires
larger, more powerful equipment, but keeps the lines of communication
open. HARA raises money to buy much of this equipment and as well
raises money to put up the antennas.
Schwenke showed off some of HARA’s equipment.
“That sells for about $1,200…To pay for this, we have
a fundraiser the first Saturday in February at the Negaunee Township
Hall,” he said. “We sell raffle tickets, and we try
to get equipment, which we sell, donated to a club table, and
often people donate some money to the club. This is our fundraiser
that we try to finance all this with. And we do work with FEMA,
we do have some FEMA grants to help pay for some equipment. It
is rather expensive.”
The handheld beeped. It was the repeater, the antenna, announcing
its call sign in Morse Code, as required by the FCC, every ten
minutes. It sounded like the beginning of an old RKO movie.
“Because we know Morse Code, you can watch some of these
movies and sometimes you notice it’s real Morse Code and
sometimes it’s just random beeps…” Racine said.
Just another fun perk of being a ham.
The thirtieth annual HARA Swap and Shop fundraiser, an electronic
flea market offering new and used radio and computer equipment,
runs from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. on February 7 in the Negaunee
Township Hall. Admission is $4.
For details, visit www.qsl.net/K8lod or www.arrl.org for other
clubs throughout the country.
— Leslie Allen
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