Port Albert

The storm over the weekend churned up the expected mix of styrofoam and party balloons along the Lake Huron shore, but also something new for us: an enormous foam buoy rocking back and forth in the driftwood. It looked like it belonged there, which is the problem with foam — it weathers to the same colour as everything else, and then it starts coming apart into pieces small enough to stop counting.

We grabbed as much debris as we could, and the buoy.

Later, once the sun came out, we moved off the beach and up the Nine Mile River, which empties into Lake Huron. The bank was full of goldenrod and Joe-Pye weed in bloom, with butterflies and a few monarchs drifting past, apparently having weathered the storm just fine. Lodged in the rocks and washed up by the same storm, we found discarded fishing gear, rope, and mismatched shoes.

Thirty minutes, one bag, and a buoy that didn’t belong.

Here’s a short video of the storm and the foam buoy we removed from the shore: