Shelter bay, MI to Marquette, MI: Daily miles 27.2, Total miles 1072.3

When we woke up the lake was glass calm so we got going pretty quickly. For the first time in weeks I was the first one packed up, in my boat, and ready to go. The morning was easy and we put away some serious miles fairly quickly. By the time we got to Shot Point I was absolutely starving and really had to go to the bathroom. Matt wanted to push on the the roadside parks that were about 2.5 miles up the way. We ended up getting into a fairly heated argument when I decided I could wait no longer and paddled in to shore without Matt. By the time we were done eating lunch things had mostly resolved themselves and we were able to paddle on in peace. From the last roadside park on 28 before Harvey we decided to just shoot across Marquette Bay to the break wall south of Presque Isle. We had joked about doing this 10 mile crossing a few times early on in our paddle planning thinking there was no way in hell we would ever attempt it, but then when it came time we were way too sick of paddling to even be concerned with the risks of just winging it. The crossing took us a little over two and a half hours, during which time the wind picked up to about 15-20 mph, the lake got a bit choppy and it started raining on us. I was more than happy to reach land and rest my hurt shoulder which was feeling like someone had grabbed onto a nerve near the base of my neck with pliers and then gave the pliers a few good twists. There were tons of people at the beach in Marquette when we got there. We sat at a picnic table for a bit and waited for Matt’s brother, Chris, who was coming to pick us up so that we could go home (can’t miss the first week of school). Our day ended nicely with good dinner, good friends, showers, a real bed, and a 5 day break ahead of us.