Lake Charlevoix, MI
Lake Charlevoix (18NM) A short trip to Lake Charlevoix, so fast in fact, that we had to wait for the bascule bridge to open. While we wait several big boats do what I really don’t like to see, pass without any VHF announcement in a skinny channel with a wind and current...very rude and very impolite. We clear the bridge with oncoming traffic and hail the marina for our slip assignment. The wind has now built and is gusting to 12 knots as Larry expertly maneuvers us into the slip. We are also very appreciative of Charlevoix City Marina’s tight docking crew. Charlevoix is named for the French explorer, Pierre François Xavier de Charlevoix who explored this region in the 1850’s. The Homestead Act of 1862 brought Civil War veterans and land speculators to Northern Michigan. This act made 160-acre tracts of land available for $1.25 an acre. Eventually, with the augmentation of Round Lake (located before Lake Charlevoix) to connect to Lake Michigan combined with rail operations, this area became one of the busiest ports on the Great Lakes shipping out more than 40 million board feet of lumber. Now the area is a summer retreat for many local Michiganians and tourists alike. We jog and bike all about town and then take a tender ride out to the huge body of water that is Lake Charlevoix. We ride down to the South Arm and look at all the pretty houses and then head back to Round Lake as the afternoon winds pick-up.