Hamilton Harbour and Hamilton Beach

We are lucky to work on Great Lakes research, so we attend, nearly annually, the conference of the International Association for Great Lakes Research. We have begun to make it a tradition to bring our canoe, both to remind ourselves why we do the work we do and because by putting the canoe on the car for the drive to wherever the conference is held, we find that we end up paddling in new places where we perhaps never would have planned a traditional vacation. In the three years since starting this tradition, we have gotten our paddles wet in the Saint Lawrence River (Cornwall, ON), the Wabash (West Lafayette, IN - not in the Great Lakes basin, but we can forgive this conference oversight), and now Hamilton Harbour, a brief jaunt on Lake Ontario, and Long Point Provincial Point on the way home.

When we arrived in Hamilton on Monday, the site of the conference, we knew that we would not have time later in the week to get our paddles wet, so we registered for the meeting and then headed straight to Bayfront Park on Hamilton Harbour.

The west end of the harbor is home to Cootes Paradise, a wetland managed by the Royal Botanical Gardens. The northern side of the harbor looked green. The southern side was home to Bayfront Park and heavy industrial areas. We put in and headed for the south side. When I described our paddle to a colleague she gave me a puzzled look and asked, "but wouldn't it be more scenic on the north or west side???" I find it difficult to describe to people sometimes how interesting the waters can be in industrial areas. Not only do I feel that it is an important view on our waterfronts, but it is also genuinely interesting.

As we headed northeast toward Lake Ontario, we enjoyed a swift downwind run on the open water. Hamilton Harbor, incidentally, was the topic of several conference talks, as it is challenged by many water quality issues due to heavy urban and industrial use. Seeing it from the water gives an important perspective on scale!

The return trip was a slog against wind and chop. We headed in toward the shore (seawall), where dust was blowing into our eyes from piles of raw materials.

Coming close to the seawall, we had a good look at some of the industrial features that we had seen from a distance in the harbor. I had to ponder why these domes were painted in a flesh color...

One of the fun things about paddling in industrial waters is seeing tugboats. We think if we ever end up as motor cruisers, we'll have to have a re-purposed tug.

After a few miles, we wrapped up the mini adventure so that we could run through our presentations one last time before the meetings began. During the conference, it was fun to see Hamilton Harbour on people's slides and know that we had been there!

After the conference, before leaving Hamilton for a weekend at Long Point Provincial Park, we drove out to Hamilton Beach so that we could put the boat in Lake Ontario. Maybe we'll hit all five Great Lakes this year, if we're lucky.

Don't worry about me, Mark. I've got it!

We enjoyed a short paddle and float on the cold clear water of Lake Ontario with thoughts of quagga mussels, deep chlorophyll layers, and fecal indicator bacteria dancing in our heads.

It seemed fitting, somehow to end our post Great Lakes research conference float by circling an Environment Canada buoy.