One
of the main places I've not mentioned about the West End of
Erie is known either as the Hot Hole or the Hot Spot. It's
located about mid-way between the mouth of the River Raisin
to the North and the channel entering Bolles Harbor to the
South. Here's
a satellite image of the shore to show you
better.
I've omitted mention of any details about it on the main
page for reasons that will become apparent soon. I mention
it here because it's an interesting and somewhat curious
place. The
Hot Hole got its name because the water temperature in it is
easily 100 degrees or so, nearly year round, even when the
lake is frozen over. That's because it receives effluent
from the coal-burning Edison plant (the nav landmark with
the two tall stacks) that lies along the shore of Erie and
the south side of the River Raisin. It's a great place --
albeit a risky place -- to visit on one of the many days
when Erie's temperature is on the chilly side and you'd like
to warm up with what amounts to a nice bath. Once
you enter (more on that below), just to starboard there's a
sandy area (essentially an unofficial beach) that drops off
steeply to a depth well over your head in a matter of feet.
The usual practice, then, is simply to run one's boat up on
the sand (most folks with I/Os don't even bother raising
their outdrive), hop off, and run a lunch hook up into the
sand. There's little current, so there's little chance that
your expensive toy will depart on its own. If it does, it
won't go too far too fast. The
Hot Hole is visited by several types of people: water
skiiers, since the area of water is "reasonably" large
and almost always flat because it's protected almost
completely all the way around; jet
skiiers, for the same reasons that water skiiers go, and
in addition the water goes back quite far so there's a
fair amount of space to explore; and
fishermen, although I can't comment on what they catch
there. (One can envisage very large three-eyed,
two-tailed fish growing up in such warm
waters.) It's
not uncommon to find remnants of a bonfire on the sand from
the prior evenings. Or empty beer cans. None of these
activities are condoned, by the way, because I believe all
the property is owned by the Edison plant and for liability
purposes I don't think they're fond of boaters or anyone
else venturing into their territory. The
problem with the Hot Hole is that you really need to know
how to get in and out safely. There are no navigation aids
to help, although you can (and must) line up on the "right
bearing" and get in. And there will probably never be any
nav aids placed, since the Hot Hole isn't a place where the
owners want you to visit, and the Coasties certainly
wouldn't want to help you to get there either. So getting in
is truly local knowledge, and I won't share it. We've been
in many times on our 28 Sundancer (which had a 36" draft),
but wouldn't even dream of risking the Carver. What's
the deal? Well, even when lake levels are up (and for sure
they aren't up now!), many portions of your path into the
Hot Hole are in about two feet of water (on a good day when
the wind's blowing out of the East). The bottom varies
between rocky, muddy, and sandy; and there are lots of areas
of dense grasses you need to go through or (if you're
careful) between. The bottom just loves to eat outdrives and
props. One
secret to getting in, therefore, is to get on plane at least
half a mile from the entrance. Don't forget to trim your
boat so the stern and the precious parts attached thereto
are as high as you can get them. If that means shifting some
human weight towards the bow, so be it. Then, once you're
propelled like a rocket coming from Hell and hopefully on
the right course, you pray. See
why I'm not encouraging you to go to the Hot Hole, or giving
more information on how to do that? It's relatively
dangerous, especially if you move bodies towards the bow,
which I don't encourage. We even have to use extraordinary
care, and make sure our course is right-on, when we take our
jet skis in. Invariably,
there are one or more small fishing boats right in the way.
(We're talking boats well under 16 feet here, and little
freeboard -- precisely the kind of boat you see on Erie when
the weather is horrible and the seas are running 6 feet or
more, and nobody in their right mind would be on the lake.)
As one of the real locals described a few minutes before he
let me follow him in, you must say to yourself something
like "Sorry, Mr. Fisherman who's in the way, I have a very
expensive boat, I've gotta go like a bat out of hell to get
in safely, there's no room for me to change course to miss
you, so p-l-e-a-s-e move!" Not
liking to pilot my boat that way is another reason we don't
go in anything but a dinghy or on a PWC -- and always with
great care. But
once you get in to the Hot Hole, ahhhhhhhh, it's so-o-o-o
warm!
families,
kids and all, who want to warm up, swim, or just relax
for a while;