Death's Door

The waters between the tip of the peninsula and Washington, Plum and Rock,etc. islands is called Death's Door. The waters were treacherous before good navigational aids -- lots of wrecks. There was a fog bank over Washington island right where the cool and warm air were meeting. The winds and water are always doing something different here than elsewhere in the county. Its also the coolest area.

The picture with the waves washing up onto the shoreline -- you can see that the shoreline looks "piled up" -- the piles are actually shells of dead zebra mussels. The pile was 3 feet high and four feet wide and extended down the beach at least a quarter mile. So instead of walking on sand or rock you crunch along on top of all these shells.

The zebra mussels get dislodged with the wave action and thrown up on shore. Many times if you see a pile like this you can smell it first. The dead mussels -- still have some mussel in them that rots. These mussel shells were all very clean and bleached out.