Naked White-Caps

At one time, I regarded Lake Superior as the most dangerous of all the Great Lakes. Its ability to generate terrifying storms is legendary, especially when we remember the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald – the largest inland freighter of its time. On a map, Lake Erie appears much smaller than its sister lakes to the North, making it appear less temperamental. But according to mariners, it is the most dangerous. It’s relatively shallow depths, allow waves to develop faster, steeper and closer together making navigation difficult and sometimes, deadly. According to Wayne Grady, in his book, The Great Lakes – the natural history of a changing region, the area between Long Point, Ontario and Erie, Pennsylvania contains almost four times more shipwrecks than the Bermuda Triangle.
One mild-mannered afternoon, as we thought nothing could break the calm we were experiencing, we learned the true power of Lake Erie. Within a few minutes of checking our map and discovering that our next campsite was only eight kilometres away, the winds on Lake Erie suddenly shifted to the south causing the calm lake to develop white-caps within seconds. The waves quickly built in intensity forcing us to paddle further away from the clay-cliffs that lined the coastline. It took us almost an hour of paddling before we were within reach of a suitable landing spot. We were so far from shore that the people who were on the beach and playing in the surf appeared as small dots. As we approached the beach, I was too busy worrying about the next oncoming wave to notice something different about the beach dwellers. Jon, being the more observant, quickly realized that the beach we were about to land on was....A Nude Beach!