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The Keweenaw Peninsula is known for its opportunity of adventure. Thrill seekers come from all over to experience our trails and slopes in the winter, with the addition of fishing and water sports in the summer.
“I’m going to be living out of a canoe for a distance of about 1,200 miles or maybe two months. I’m going to be doing a lot of camping at night. I will need to shower from time to time, although the lake is also good for that, too,” said author and historian Steve Lehto, who’s going to making his journey from Duluth, MN to Detroit in a canoe in honor of Douglass Houghton.
Lehto said, “Douglass Houghton had actually traveled several times from Detroit to Duluth by canoe, usually traveling the shorelines. So I decided as an homage to Douglass Houghton, I’m going to go out with a canoe, drop it in the water in Duluth on July 1st and travel over to Sault Ste. Marie and then down to Detroit–a distance of about 1,200 miles.”
Lehto will not be paddling the entire way. He will be using the modern day amenities of a small outboard motor capable of propelling his vessel up to 8 miles per hour. “I plan on being in the canoe maybe 40 -50 miles a day, which could be anywhere from 5 to 10 hours a day depending on how fast I’m going.”
As he makes his way along the southern shoreline of Lake Superior and begins around the Keweenaw Peninsula, he will make a stop in Houghton or Hancock to visit family and rest before continuing.
Lehto said, “I’m going to travel up the Portage Canal to the Houghton – Hancock area. I’ve got roots in that area. I’ve got to see the bridge. So I will come up the canal, visit, and then head back out and I am going to go around the peninsula.”
Lehto’s roots run generations deep in the Keweenaw. His grandfather served as a dean of Soumi College over 50 years ago.
Although the inland sights, policies, and day to day activities have changed since Houghton and his colleagues have last set sail, Lehto believes that this spiritual journey will put him in touch with a distant time.
“The shorelines haven’t changed that much. And I thought, you know something, I’ve got records of what it looked like back then, so if I travel it today, I can actually compare it today to what it looked like back then and that’s got to be fascinating,” said Lehto.
