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Gramps · 05-28-2003, 11:16 AM,

Hey gang...just wanted to pass along the word that a slew of us are heading up to Superior for the weekend of 6/6-8....invitation to join is extented to all MNScuba.com folk! Camping will be at Eckbeck Campground on the Baptism River up in Finland MN. For those ain't in the know, Eckbeck is a great campground just a few miles north of Silver Bay...nice sites, nice toilets. At night the camp fires are stoked, everyone eats hardy, and the group goes out for a nice evening stroll down to the river to watch the stars. Northern lights shows and howling wolves off in the distance are not unheard of! Diving Saturday and Sunday will be primarily on the Madeira however I'm sure a few folks will wanna hit up the Hesper as well. SD&T will be there and is planning on making available onsite air and Nitrox fills...sweet! A Saturday evening shoreside fish fry is also in the works. Plan to be up there early Friday evening as sites go very quickly. SD&T has offered to head up early in order to secure sites so drop Rich an email at his shop to work out any details with him. Whatta nice guy! Looks to be a great time and hope folks can make it.
Link for directions to Eckbeck Campground:

Tol · 06-04-2003, 10:22 PM,

So kind of you to post this. Too bad I have to work late on Friday. We should do something similar again, I'll plan it if people are interested.

Let us know how the turn-out is. And the diving Smile

Thank you, Tol

Gramps · 06-05-2003, 12:25 PM,

Yeah, sounds like quite a few folks ended up with other plans for this weekend...no worries, plenty of opportunities are schedualed to dive the North Shore this summer. Don't know about other LDS but check Scuba Dive and Travel's summer schedual for the next official trip up there. Schedual is posted on their site...

A crew of us are still going up and looking to have a great time.

Report to follow after...

cdtgray · 06-05-2003, 01:51 PM,

Well I'm planning on making it up there; haven't managed to dive superior yet so I'm looking forward to some good dives.

Gramps · 06-05-2003, 02:56 PM,

Weather for Saturday looks decent enough...ah, sunnin' on the pebble beach in between dives! Can't beat it!

Gramps · 06-09-2003, 09:43 PM,

Good time had by all this past weekend up on the North Shore. If you are reading this while chewing yer lunch at your desk, I've taken the liberty to provide a nice LONG report so enjoy.

Friday I jammed outta work and made it up to Finland in decent time. Despite the rainy forcast conditions, once you got past Duluth things cleared up nicely. Pulled into the Finland State camp grounds to discover we'd have the place pretty much to ourselves. Nice! Still early in the season I guess. Set up my tent city, cranked up a nice fire and waiting for the troops to start rolling in. Steve then Jim and Sandy arrived in short order with Rich ala SD&T head honcho pulling up the rear around 11:00 or so. Fire, beers, and endless dive talk kept us going til about three when we all decided it was time to hit the hay. Saturday morning Jason and one other person who's name escapes me now <apologies> dropped by to say howdy. We loaded up our gear and rolled down to the Maderia. Sun was shining with barely a cloud puff in the sky...gonna be a great day o' diving! We were joined by our friend Eric just as we were gearing up. Perfect timing!
1st dive Rich, myself, Steve, Jason, and the other guy who's name I have forgot <apologies> teamed up. Eric and Jim were running a bit behind so they planned to pop in next. Our team dropped down and headed out across the bay to hit the wreck. Having been at the site twice over the winter only to be thwarted by ice out conditions, I was particularly looking forward to reunite with the Maderia for the season. Water was a crisp 40 something at the surface with mid thirties at depth. Viz was fantastic, easily 30-40 ft. Perhaps more but I've never been too good at being acurate about that kind of judgement. In my book, if I can see 5-6 diver lengths away, viz is good to me. Despite being iced over for the winter, no apparent changes had occured to the wreck which was something I admit was curious about as I came up on the bow. Our team made the obligatory Maderia sightsee cruise, hitting the bow, then stern, out to the pilot house and back. I had planned for a max depth of 120 but ended up just enjoying crusing and poking around. In the end my profile was 92ft/39min, with air for my backgas. Jim and Eric were heading in as we got out...have a good one boys! Well, despite a leaky inflator valve for one and then freeflow primary for the other they had a decent time as well. Something about that water that just puts your gear through the motions. Nice shoreside lunch and onsite fill <thanks Rich for bringing up the fill banks...you da' man!> and we loaded up for the 2nd dive of the day. This time Eric and I teamed up with plans to spend some time out amongst the debris field...my personal favorite given there is always something you discover that went unnoticed before. Steve and Jason were right behind us. A few penetrations and quick visit to the masts out around the point and it was time to cruise back to shore. Profile for this dive was 115ft/40min. Again, just air for backgas. Game plan was then to head back to camp, grab some chow, and come back down for a long over due night dive. Steve and Jim decided to sit out the night dive so it boiled down to just 5 guys. We had 4 HID's and one halogen so everything was pretty well lit up as the team hit the wreck. Now, I hadn't had a hint of narkness all day. I get a little looped if my ears don't clear right on acent but other than that I have a pretty good tolerence. While poking around inside the hull, Rich discovers a new crack and goes in to take a gander while I wait outside for him. As he is coming out I look in and see it's fairly silty so I decide not worth it and turn around. Dunno why but as I am turning I get completely goofy...I have NO idea which way the world was turning for a moment. I make my way to the nearest exit and realize that I am not clear on which direction I am heading. Towards the pilot house or back to shore? Dunno. Stop, think, breathe. Ah, the mind clears...cool, pilot house is dead ahead. The team heads out to the pilot house to make a quick circut of it. Rich and I ponder a silver painted pipe running the length of the smoke stack which neither of us have seen before. Eric does the smoke stack shimmy, and we all head home. Fantastic dive with just a tinge of weirdness to keep it interesting. Saw a few small eel pout and what appeared to be trout fry..nothing else. Next day most folks headed back to the city. Jason went back down to the site to meet up with another diver. Rich, Eric, and I went over to Tettegouche state park for a very cool hike up into the falls.

Excellent weekend, great diving, good group! The Maderia treated us well and we thank her...again. Hope more board members can make it up next time. See the SD&T trip schedual on their site for the next Superior weekend planned.

LKunze · 06-10-2003, 04:34 AM,

Great review man. Glad the weather was good up there. Smile

Gramps · 06-10-2003, 07:52 AM,

Thanks...BTW, we discovered a couple of potential new dive sites to try out. Non-wreck stuff but terrain wise might be quite interesting...they'd different to say the least! Big Grin

LKunze · 06-10-2003, 08:33 AM,

Cool...where at? When Jason and I were up there we were wondering if it might be worth checking out some other areas in the bay. Maybe even towards the south a little bit closer to the lighthouse cliff.

Gramps · 06-10-2003, 11:22 AM,

Ah, your gonna have to tag along on the next trip to find out Wink