My Light Count & The 2005 Reunion

Before during and after the Reunion, I got to add a whopping 38 new sightings to by 'life list'.

In all I got to see 2 Life Saving Stations, 1 Lightship and 44 lighthouses in 10 days. K

en Reese, Bryan Acree, John & Lorie Roe and I traveled together from Port Huron to Mackinaw City -- and we ran into Joe & Stephanie Dingler at several stops and Bob & Maryann Scroope at Cheboygan.

Following the reunion, the five of us were joined by Ken Gebhardt for a journey into the eastern U.P. and down the Lake Michigan shore as far as Ludington before shooting over to Detroit to fly home today. John & Lorie & Ken Gebhardt returned to their homes from Traverse City.


Lorie, the Lighthouse Queen, and her court.

Got to climb several lights including Crisp Point, Old Mackinac, Au Sable, Sturgeon Point, Old & New Presque Isle, Fort Gratiot. Almost had a chance to visit Harbor Beach, but we had a thunder storm pass by and despite our waiting for 2 hours, it never cleared enough to get out in the boat.

Great friends, great lighthouses, great weather! Priceless.

This puts me well over 200 now. Only about 500 to go

Mostly we had great weather -- just a bit of drizzle in the UP around Whitefish Point (and the rain at Harbor Beach.) Lots of images to process.

Sounds like you had a great time! How sore were your legs from the walk to Au Sable?!

John,
Crisp Point has been one I have been wanting to go to for sometime. How was it getting there? Need a four-wheel drive? I know there is a parking lot -- how far is the light from the lot?

The parking lot and the light are about a nine iron apart, it is at least 20 miles of gravel roads (unless they paved some in the past two years, which I doubt) back in the old days the last mile was the questionable one, but now any car can get there.... well at least in 3 of the seasons.

Heather and I went out to Crisp in July on our last pre-Reunion trip to Mackinac. The previous times we had been close to the light we passed because we had a large pop-up camper behind a full size van and it would have been a wicked trip. The road to Crisp Point is 18 miles each way. I use to run Jeep rallies over similar type roads to give novice four wheelers experience in off highway driving conditions if that gives you an indication of the quality of the road back (and I do use the term "road" in its most generous interpretation). At the light there are also massive numbers of biting black flies - something along the size of a tennis raquet will help fend them off.

The setting is wonderful and if you can handle both your camera and fighting the flies there are some great photos to be taken.

The road was long, but very well maintained and graded right up to the light. There was an old GMC Motor Home parked there -- apparently the caretaker for the weekend or month or whatever.

Well worth the trip. Any old car will make it.

On Friday morning (Sept. 2), John and I along with John Chidester, Ken Reese, Bryan Acree, and Ken Gebhardt went over to the Soo Locks for the final day celebration of the 150th anniversary of the locks.

We left the locks around 11:00am and started to drive towards Crisp Point. It started to rain pretty hard before we arrived there but was not raining by the time we arrived at the lighthouse. The dirt road was not a problem for the Ford Taurus rental car.

There were some pretty intense dark clouds when we arrived but no rain. This picture was taken while we were out on the beach when all of the sudden the sun popped through and was shining down perfectly on the lighthouse.



By the time we were ready to leave, the dark clouds had passed through. All of us agreed that this was one of the favorite lighthouses we visited during the time we were in Michigan.



This lighthouse is well worth the visit and drive on the dirt road to get there. I found very good driving directions with the exact mileage posts from the Crisp Point website.

COOL shots, Lorie!! The stairway over the breakwall is new since I was there in 2000. Amazing at how far this light has come back from it's restoration. Here is a before and after shot, the first taken in 1998, and the second in 2000.

This tower was built from the same plans as Port Sanilac. Notice the corbelled bricks supporting the gallery.

Anyone have a photo of what it looked like with the keeper's house? Wonder if that was the same, too?

I think Mark Wagner was among the first to post a photo of this on the Forums many years ago. It was in a very sad state of affair then.

When we arrived at Crisp Point late Friday afternoon there was no one tending the light. The door was open and we were able to climb to the top but there was no one there. It was very nice! The view was absolutely gorgeous. By this time the waves on Lake Superior were really whipping up. They made for the perfect picture.

Lorie
Your pic of Crisp Point with the dark clouds behind it is absolutely awesome...I love it. Larry and really enjoyed seeing this lighthouse when we were there last year. The trip out was an incredible adventure and then when we were we were able to get some great pics too. Glad you all enjoyed the trip.
Thanks for sharing!

Crisp Point was one of the places that they tore down the lighthouse buildings on purpose when they closed the station. In 1965 -- All but light tower and service room was destroyed by Coast Guard.

Go here to see what it looked like in 1935
http://www.geocities.com/yosemite/trails/7568/crisp2.html

http://www.geocities.com/yosemite/trails/7568/images/1935b.jpg

http://www.geocities.com/yosemite/trails/7568/pictures.html

If Port Sanilac's tower is off of the same plans, they must have changed the plans a lot... The shape of the towers are not the same..

Wow, great pictures, (both old and new, history and info on Crisp Point. I wish I had gone while up there. I am glad to see the restoration work and now can't wait to get back. Thanks for all the responses.

Oops right you are, Paul. Guess not.

After seeing Suzanne's post of older pictures you can really appreciate the work that has been done there. It's one of my favorite settings for a lighthouse in the U.S.

Ken