I’ve always been a romantic about lighthouses – the simplicity of their purpose, the isolation and beauty of their locations. Like a magnet, the lighthouse pulls and compels me to visit. So that’s how we ended up on a sunny Sunday morning making a short detour while enroute to a southwestern Michigan bike trail; our destination – the North Pier Inner and Outer Lights in St. Joseph, Michigan.
The morning was warm and windy. The water levels in the Great Lakes are at peak levels so between the high water and choppy waves the lower section of the concrete pier leading to the lights was partially submerged. We walked to the first structure two thirds down the long concrete pier, a compact red-roofed lighthouse, trying not to get sprayed by the occasional breaking wave.
Built in 1906 and operational until 2005, the St. Joseph North Pier Light actually consists of two structures, the diminutive red-roofed lighthouse and a larger white cylindrical light tower built on a concrete pier marking the entrance to the St. Joseph River on Lake Michigan. Once a canoe route for indigenous people, the St. Joseph River became a commercial route for factories in South Bend, Indiana, necessitating the construction of the lights. Today the river is primarily used for recreation and watershed management, with the pier, a popular fishing spot and the light house and tower now tourist attractions.
The light tower is located at the end of the pier and provides a small patch of shade for fishermen angling to catch large mouth bass, bluegill, sunfish, channel catfish or the occasional walleye or muskellunge found near the mouth of the river. We watched a lone fisherman catch and release several small bluegill too small to keep.
Walking back down the pier, I saw a loon like bird alight on the lake surface. Unlike the black and white loon common in northern Michigan, this bird was drab with no distinct markings on its neck or body.
Wanting a photo, I cautiously approached the edge of the pier, careful to avoid puddles of water; little did I realize that the areas of the pier no longer submerged in water were covered with a thin coat of slippery, slimy algae. Before I knew it, my feet shot out from under me and I went down first on a knee and then on my bottom, landing in a layer of foul smelling slime. Getting up without slipping was an ordeal. I did get some good shots of the bird, which later on I discovered was a grebe. A little more internet research after the fact, helped me identify the bird as a juvenile Western grebe, explaining why its markings were not prominent yet.
Unhurt, but embarrassed, I made my way back to the car. Despite some vigorous scrubbing with soap and water in a nearby restroom, those patches of algae on my leggings were an aromatic souvenir of our St. Josesh Pier Light visit for the rest of the day!