• Wednesday-What'sUP January 19 - 07:44 am

Last Saturday, I made mention of the final day of the shipping season on the Great Lakes and here it is today. The Soo Locks are officially closed, so shipping on Lake Superior is done for the season, until March when the locks open up once again.

These photos, courtesy of Mike Schneider, were taken on Monday, of the Michipicoten at the ore docks in Marquette's Upper Harbor. Beautiful night time photos at the dock, and fun to see the train engine #3011, busy bringing in the next load for loading.

So with that... the season here on Lake Superior is suspended for a couple months. For those of you that love seeing the freighters, I suggest you bookmark this page, so you can return back to it whenever you need a freighter fix, at least until March.

Another close call for keeping our perfect record finishing out 14 years of a picture-a-day here on the Pasty Cam. Thanks to all who followed the earlier link to the message about current legislation that would make life more difficult here at Pasty Central. And thanks to all who signed the petition, and for all the encouraging emails.

This morning I made a snapshot of the Marine Traffic map and saw a few boats making one last run across the Lake. But now we see it's a big empty blue bathtub out there:

"Michipicoten" at the end of our road in better weather!


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How are you guys ever gonna get up Thursday morning at your regular time?

Sleep in an extra 20 minutes for a job well done.

Love those Great Lakes freighters.

These big Lakers pics are always great to see no matter the time!

You're right Janie. Think I'll take Mary's advice and bookmark the
page.

Can anyone give me the correct pronunciation of that boat's name?

Was the daylight photo of Michipicoten taken at the St. Clair River?

I think it is "Mee-she-pee-coe-ten".

My Canadian friends from Wawa pronounce the name of the neighboring town and harbor as:

"Mishi-pi-cotten" (short "i" on the middle syllable)

I wonder what rail line owns that engine in the picture.

Alex---Yes St. Clair River just north of Marine City near where our road ends. Privileged to be not far from the big river. Most of my ship pics are from right here, some down near Algonac, and some by the Blue Water Bridge Port Huron. Yes that is Canada in the background just shouting distance away!

Love all of these wonderful pics at the ore dock at the Upper Harbor in Marquette at night ... the dock all lit up, and the freighter pulling up it with all it's lights on, including it's "headlight" ... the close-up of the front of the freighter ... and the great view of the train engine on the dock. Excellent photos!! :-)

Gosh! I must've missed a day somewhere....this wasn't on here when I 'cut out' yesterday evening. Anyway, that first shot of the ship put me in mind of the recent tragedy of the cruise ship.

Jeffery,
I believe the engine is the LS&I 3011 (Lake Superior and Ishpeming Railway).

You are correct Bob, its the Lake Superior and Ishpeming Railroad which hauls iron ore from the Empire-Tilden Mine just south of Ishpeming and then goes 16 miles to Lake Superior at the Upper Harbor Ore Dock in Marquette. You can see the LS&I in white on the engine if you look a little farther back from the 3011. What's very interesting too....as I look at the Marine Traffic website it shows the Michipicoten again at the Upper Harbor in Marquette...

Charlie at Pasty Central (Chopper):

"… Thanks to all who followed he earlier link to the message about current legislation that would make life more difficult here at Pasty Central.

Fine, I can click the link in the above message and get to the "End Piracy" page, but try as I might, I am unable to find "the earlier link" Charlie mentioned above. How could I have missed that, and where did it disappear to?

Not that it matters much but I gotta wonder if I'm "losing it", lately!

Frnash: My recollection is that on Wednesday, for most of the day, there was a link to the SOPA/PIPA information in a large black box on the main page of The Pasty Cam ... late Wednesday night, when the photos of the Marquette Upper Harbor were uploaded, the black box became much smaller, but with the link still in it ... even that small black box seems to have been removed now, and the only link is the one that you found in Charlie's message for Wednesday ... not to worry! ;-)

I love that nighttime shot with the ship's spotlight beam. I would buy an enlargement of that and hang it on the wall.