|
|
BIG BAY
POINTS
OF
INTEREST
Lake Independence and Perkins County Park. There's good year-round fishing at this big lake known for its northern pike, walleye, and perch. The shallow lake makes for warmer, earlier swimming at the attractive park beach ...
more
Big Bay Outfitters/Anatomy of a Canoe. Part crafts shop, part outfitters and kayak and canoe dealer, part outdoors store. In season a daily waterfall and mountaintop tour of hard-to-find beauty spots ...
more
North Shore Treasures. A charming, rambling shop sells lodge look accessories, Michigan jams and sauces, and select local handcrafts. ...
more
Cram's General Store. Hardware, takeout sandwiches, complete groceries and meats, videos, snowmobile and car parts can be found at this community info center ...
more
Big Bay Harbor and beach. A beautiful and little-used beach near unusual sandstone formations that are fun for kayakers and scuba divers to explore ...
more
Big Bay Point lighthouse tour. Now a B&B, this 1896 brick lighthouse has tours highlighted by a climb up the 65' light tower viewing Lake Independence, the Huron Mountains, and passing ships ...
more
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Big Bay Outfitters/Anatomy of a Canoe
|
Here in the squat brick former Powell Township Hall and jail (still intact), built around 1915, an expanding variety of year-round enterprises are owned and operated by Kristi Mills and Bill Kinjorski. Here are sales and rentals of canoes, kayaks, carefully tested camping gear and clothing; a showroom of locally produced furniture and crafts, a coffee and cappuccino bar, and more. Kristi, an outdoor recreation major and former Marquette junior high teacher, and her partner Bill are now permanent residents. Their year-round presence means that their headquarters has become an outstanding visitor information center, especially for silent sports. Free maps of the Noquemanon multi-use ski/bike/hike trail system, Hiawatha Water Trail, Marquette Country waterfalls, fall color drives, and snowmobile trails can be had here.
In season from May into October, their BIG BAY OUTFITTERS offers a daily tour of waterfalls and mountaintops from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., including lunch and pickup, for $50 a person ages 12 and up. Reserve ahead if possible. Other tours by reservation, also include an eco-tour of the proposed Kennecott nickel mine site and a Big Bay historical tour from Lake Independence to Bay Cliff Health Camp.
Rentals include pontoon boat (holds 9) $125 for 8 hours, fishing boats and motors ($100/day including gas), kayaks ($30/day for singles and doubles), canoes, some camping and backpacking equipment, and in winter ice fishing gear, snowshoes, and cross-country skis. Bill's ANATOMY OF A CANOE business carries seven lines of canoes and kayaks and the necessary wet suits, spray skirts, and booties. It's the only Upper Peninsula dealer for Nova Craft and Bell canoes. Prospective customers can easily call a day ahead to try out canoes and kayaks on the water before buying them. The annual kayak demo paddle takes place the first weekend in June.
One advantage of shopping local for outdoors gear is that local stores order what suits local conditions. Marquette-area snow and Lake Superior paddling conditions are quite different from those in Maine, home of L.L. Bean. As an all-around outdoors store, Anatomy of a Canoe now sells live bait, fishing tackle and lures, Swift binoculars, Crescent moon snowshoes ($230 a pair), and Karhu cross-country skis from Finland, designed for back-country conditions. There's an expanded selection of outdoor clothing and footgear featuring Outdoor Research and Fly Shacker casual clothing for active recreation. Clothes and accessories like gloves, hats, and gaiters are chosen for function and worn and tested by Bill, Kristi, and their employees. Of great interest to many year-round Upper Peninsula gardeners and anglers are the outstanding Original Bug Shirt with hooded parka worn over a baseball hat, made in Canada, retailing for about $60. All these items can be special-ordered and shipped anywhere.
Finally, much of the two-story township hall — and its ground-floor jail cells, complete with bars — are given over to locally produced crafts, often functional things like burl bowls, pottery, and birchbark bowls and baskets which give character to small cottages and homes. Here are Nick Economides's hand-chiseled wood bears (special ordered for $300/foot), unusual leather buttons, and fish-shaped toilet paper carved out of sassafras wood. Bill makes tables of wood slabs from a local sawmill, selected for interesting knots and irregularities, then sealed and turned into handsome slab tables like those in the upstairs BIG BASS CAFE , where customers can have a latté or hot chocolate or tea, sit down, check their e-mail, and relax.
On the west side of County Road 550 as you enter Big Bay. (906) 345-9399. Generally open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily including Sunday. Not open from when the snow melts until a week before the trout opener (last Sat. of April), and from when fall leaves are gone up to deer hunting season. Handicap access: only to paddle and bait shop. Historic town hall is not accessible.
Return to Big Bay
|
|
