Soo Locks

We have lived in the "Soo" for almost 5 years and I've never been on the Soo Locks Boat Tour. The tour takes you through the American Locks from the Lake Huron "low side" to the Lake Superior "high side". It's an interesting study in machines and mechanics, although it ain't rocket science. You go in the low side of the St. Mary's River and they close the gates behind you and fill the tub. Up 21 feet in about 15 minutes as the water flows in. Just gravity at work. Then they open the other side and you float on out to the high side of the river. It's amazing how low-tech it all is, although I'm sure computers help run some of the operation. The lockmaster literally gives you the "green light" to enter the locks as the enormous gates open. Dockworkers scurry around as the deckhands toss them lines to be tied down. Then you just sit and wait as the water either lifts you up or brings you down to the appropriate level. Then it's out the other end. There is no cost to any vessel using the locks; all that is required is that your vessel has a motor, and that you promise to tie up while you're in the locks. That's it. After leaving the American Locks you go out into the river, scout around the back side of Algoma Steel Plant and then pull a big U-turn and return through the Canadian Locks. The Canadian side is for pleasure crafts only, so it's not nearly so impressive. The entire trip lasts about 2 hrs, and is interesting through the entire tour.

It must take a master mariner to park one of those 1000 ft freighters into the relatively narrow slip of water between the gates. Your aim has to be perfect. Sometimes I forget about the history of sea going vessels that run between the lakes and the great nautical past of Sault Ste. Marie. A lap around the locks sure brings that history to life.