How dangerous is it to go outside?
Deadly Shores: shipwrecks & recent rescue stories from Lake Superior
Gunmetal gray waves and hair ripped out of my ponytail, the gales of November have come early indeed to Lake Superior—early September early.
The first flurries of snow have already fallen in the Keweenaw. We’ve had nearly a full week of small craft advisories and wind on Lake Superior, and the first reds are seeping into the maples. The Farmer’s Almanac is calling for a cold and snowy winter.
With the bulk of my summer guiding wrapped up, I’m looking forward to cozy afternoons working from coffee shops and hot apple cider and the crunch of fall leaves which may come sooner rather than later. I’m also looking forward to having the time to work on more informative, higher-quality newsletters for you every Sunday. In the meantime, we’re somewhere between that final breath of summer and the full grip of fall, and this is what I’ve got:
The 112-year-old shipwreck found on Lake Huron
In exciting Great Lakes news, a shipwreck hunter located the S.S. James Carruthers, a 529-ft brand new Canadian ship that went missing in the White Hurricane of 1913. The White Hurricane was an absolutely colossal storm that took out 250 ships on the Great Lakes and was the largest inland maritime disaster in history.
Shipwreck hunter David Trotter was mapping an underwater section of Lake Huron with underwater cameras when he came across the unmistakable hull of the Carruthers. Trotter reportedly searches for shipwrecks by generally mapping the lakebed, and has discovered more than 100 shipwrecks through this method. Read the mlive article below for more:
READ: Largest missing shipwreck in the Great Lakes was found
Midwest fall hiking ideas & new on the blog…
There is nothing more magical than a Midwest autumn, and no place I’d rather be in September and October than at home, enjoying the trails and Great Lakes. This fall, I have a handful of trips and getaways planned. Here are some resources to help you plan for your fall adventures:
Still in the planning stages? Check out the best destinations in the Midwest for fall color and get inspired!
Since moving to Wisconsin, I have found that this state has so much more to offer than people realize! Check out the best fall color getaways in Wisconsin for overlooks, waterfall hikes and some of the best car camping campsites I’ve stumbled upon.
Looking to venture out fall camping but not sure where to start? Check out this beginner’s guide to camping!
After living on the North Shore of Minnesota for nearly four years, I will always have a soft spot for autumn up there— so soft in fact that I booked a cabin getaway for this autumn🍁 check out the best things to do on the North Shore to start planning your own adventure!
For me, fall means miles on the trail every chance I can get. With that in mind, it’s prime time for a good pair of hiking boots. Check out a quick guide to choosing the best hiking boot for you.
The “tough girl” complex
On Wednesday I shared an essay about my how my anxiety around wilderness guiding and paddling has been really, really bad this summer and why. It’s a little bit about imposter syndrome, and a little bit about what it feels like to be the only woman in the room in outdoor trainings, and a little bit how “getting back on the horse” isn’t a quick fix after something scary and probably it was a little naive of me to think that it would be to begin with.
Mostly though it’s about what it means to be a “tough girl” and how I think I’m learning that tough looks different than I’ve always thought it did.
READ: My anxiety eats me alive on a beach
One of the most rewarding parts of working as a writer is when I am able to write pieces like this that resonate with a lot of other people, and I really appreciate every single DM and comment I get on pieces like this. I do my best to reply to everyone, but I often get upwards of 50 direct messages on Instagram and comments when I share pieces like this, and it just isn’t possible for me to reply to every single one. I promise I do carve out the time to read them and reply—usually 2-3 hours worth whenever I get DMs about essays like this—but some of them inevitably get missed, and at a certain point I just quite literally run out of time. All this to say, if you’ve sent me a message and I haven’t read it, don’t take it personally and please don’t stop messaging! I really love to hear from people, and I do generally get to most of my DMs!
Is the Lake Superior region more dangerous than usual this year?
There have been a lot of rescue stories in the news lately from the Western Lake Superior area. From the really terrible accident where a man was swept off the rocks near Lutsen by a large wave, to the young girls stranded on an island in a paddleboard incident, to the family with kids stranded in the Kadunce River Canyon, it can be really easy to wonder if the shore is dangerous.
Yes, and no of course is the answer. All outdoor recreation carries an inherent amount of risk; it becomes dangerous when you don’t understand the risk you’re taking on until you’re forced to confront it.
Take for example, the two paddleboarders rescued from Lake Superior after being pushed two miles from shore in an offshore wind. When they arrived at the lake to paddleboard it would likely have appeared calm—thus is the hazard of an offshore wind. With the wind blowing from shore and out to sea, you can’t see the hazard you’ll soon be in from shore, and the farther into exposed waters you venture, the exponentially more challenging the conditions become. But you don’t know what you don’t know; all these woman would’ve seen was calm water at shore, and likely not noticed the bend in the trees or the deceptively smooth backface of waves.
I’ll be the first to admit that I really struggle with rescue stories involving children. Children often cannot yet assess risk for themselves, and they’re dependent on adults to decide what is and isn’t dangerous for them. Another thing to keep in mind is often times kids cannot be active participants in their own rescue, which needs to be factored in when you’re considering risk.
At the same time, I find it important to have empathy in rescue stories; you don’t know what you don’t know, and sometimes the hard way is a really brutal way to learn. The punishment for ignorance shouldn’t be death. Sometimes it is.
When it comes to the four girls age 8-14 stranded on an island on Lake Superior, I cannot help but be frustrated that someone let kids paddleboard on Lake Superior to an island in waves unsupervised. I’m sure the reality is not so simple. When it comes to the family who had to be rescued from the Kadunce Canyon, I cannot help but be frustrated that someone would take children into a slot canyon without researching to learn that the water levels above the second falls are much higher, above a child’s head even, and it is nearly impossible to come back the way you came. It’s not a groomed state park hiking trail, it’s a literal river canyon.
So is it dangerous out here? Only if you don’t due your due diligence and research. Safety hazards by region, even by hike, are easy to find online.
Inside the real life scary water rescue I did last weekend…
Last weekend I was out on the water guiding and came across a mother and son without lifejackets about a mile offshore. The mother had fallen out of her sit-on-top kayak and was hanging on to the side, head barely above the water. Here’s what happened:
I keep 90% of all my content totally free! I’ll sometimes paywall in order to write a little more freely about events from my real life or as a thank-you for those of you who chose to be paying subscribers even though paywalled content is pretty uncommon. This section is a little bit of both!
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Hello Stranger to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.