Friday 16 May 2025--I wasn't really sure St Joseph Island would be worth two nights' stay...or one night's, for that matter. The one thing I have in mind to see is Fort St Joseph, at the southern end of the island. I know it isn't open for the season yet, but that doesn't mean I can't have a look around. What does mean I can't have a look around is the locked gate at the head of the two-mile-long access road. What I know about the fort is that it was, in the words of one officer, "the military Siberia of Upper Canada," so forlorn a place that half the soldiers posted there either tried to desert or attempted suicide. It was the base from which the attack on Mackinac was launched, and once the latter was taken, St Joseph was abandoned.

I'm the only customer in at the Hilton Beach Inn. That was true also at Erieau, Pelee Island, Beaver Island, and Grand Marais, a happenstance of early season travel. The local restaurant is not impressive, but at least it's open. I'm not suicidal, and I think about deserting, but I figure I can last two nights.

This view on the St Marys River, at a locality called Sailors Encampment, could have been really interesting. The land across is Neebish Island, Michigan. Traffic passing from Lake Huron into Lake Superior must pass by here, and I'm hoping to catch sight of a laker. There is none to be seen. Traffic going in the other direction passes on the other side of Neebish.