There is a bunch of stuff going on this morning. We discussed in some minor detail the strange antics of the American Command and Control system yesterday, and the details of the hospitalization of Secretary Austin, and the apparent delay in notification of the PRESIDENT, his DEPUTY, the CONGRESS, CHAIRMAN of the JOINT CHIEFS and the Service Chiefs.

We will see how that all plays out, but iin our experience, routine procedure at the staff level is to ensure all the elements of the commnd structure are aware of the location and status of those in the chain of command that can commit our nation to War.

We are not going to belabor that matter. While scrambling around for something else to worry about, we tried to clear the morning pile of digits. One of the author’s we see is a fellow named Charles Kath, who does a daily stream of ironic commentary on ll sorts of things. He kicked in a story this morning about the bodies of water seen above. It provoked a visceral reaction to those of us from the Motor City, barn near the stream of fresh water my folks called the Detroit River. Canada smiled at us on the other side!

We lived inside the Detroit city limits, then the suburbs, attended college at the University of Michigan just west of there while family relocqted to the Western part of the Mitten with a cabin in the north woods. We spent a lot of time roaming around under the trees and on th modest ski slopes tht provided such fun. Charlie’s column this morning talked about the wonders of Lake Superior, a body of water tht actully is not a lake but large enough to be considered an inland sea composed of 10% of all the fresh water on this spinning world.

There are islands in Superior, some 400 of them. They are left from the way the Ice Age glaciers scoured what would become the lake floor. At College, we were looking for something interesting to do and heard there was an island with a trail that ran down the spine, southwest to northeast. 45 miles long, 9 miles wide. Isle Royale is probably the most remote and complex national park to visit in the lower 48.

Getting there is a bit of a challenge. North from Ann Arbor to I-75 to the magnificent Mackinaw Bridge, across the pristine Upper Peninsula to the landing at Copper Harbor, a former mining town now restyled as a distant destination. From there we embarked on the Ranger ferry that took us to the landing at Windago on the island. What got us going this morning was reading Charlie’s story. He talked about the reltive size of the Lakes complex and some of the wonders of all that drinkable water.

The one that nailed us this morning was the one we read on a stamped metal sign by a pretty little body of water in otherwise uspoiled wilderness. Chuck wandered over and read the text that informed us of important information not recalled until this morning: “This is Lake Siskiwit, the largest lake on the largest island in the largest Freshwater lake in the world.” There are several smaller islands in Lake Siskiwit, But sadly, the time for the adventuring has past. But if you happen to have a decent a inflatable raft to carry, you can take the Ranger across, walk the seven or eight miles up the trail, inflate it an paddle across to Ryan Island, which would enable you to stand on the largest island in the largest lake on the largest island in the largest freshwater lake in the world.

We are ordering some satellite imagery to check, but if there are no tiny lakes on Ryan Island, we might be able to dig our own!

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