The Walter J. McCarthy at the Soo Locks

Of course, there was my main purpose for going to the Soo.  I was hoping to catch a ship.  And had I not went down the river to chase the Cutter, I would have missed her.  Despite my app that lets me track ships, the cell network in the Soo is still pretty spotty, so I don't always know what's coming around.

 But as I was heading down the river, I saw her making her way upbound.  Fortunately, I was able to find a park to get this picture but this is one of those times that I wish I had a wider lens.  Oh well, the picture still gives you an idea of what 1000 feet looks like.

 The McCarthy has been on this page before, so I wont bore you with the details of her history and stuff but there is one tidbit I found out.  The blue just above her boom is in commeration of her relationship to Detroit Edison.  I think she's carried coal for them for quite a while.

 If you ever want a clue to how cold and windy it gets on the Lakes, here you go.  I can't imagine having to scrape this off on occasion.

 Another view of that.

 And one more before she makes her way into the lock.

 Without the obersvation platform, I kind of had to improvise and the locks aren't particularly photograph friendly without the platform.

 But I think I managed fairly well.

 Another idea of the scale of one of these ships.  You consider that the Adminstration building is three stories and the pilothouse still almost dwarfs it.

 A shot as she heads into the lock.

And one more shot just to give you an idea of the desolation of this time of year.

Like I said, the Poe Lock will be closing in a little over a week.  It was kind of cool to see both ends of the locks this year.  I hope to do it again next year.