Guide available for Lake Erie area
There's no question about it, gasoline prices are high and will probably remain that way for the summer. This single factor will cause many tourists, fishermen and hunters to stay home.
A friend has canceled a hunting trip in Montana (about 3,500 miles total) since the gasoline bill (4-wheel drive and small trailer) would be more than $450.
This means that many fishing buffs this summer will look for spots closer to home, and Scott Carpenter's book, “Lake Erie Journal,” guide to the official Lake Erie Circle Tour.
This travel guide includes many parks and natural areas.
This book is the first to follow Official Lake Erie Circle Tour. Some of the most popular tourist attractions in four states and a Canadian province can be found on the Lake Erie shore.
This book by Ohio writer Carpenter captures the natural, historic and cultural significance of the lake shore, and all the region has to offer as a travel destination. Carpenter's book is the first travel guide to the designated Circle Tour, a 700-mile marked driving route along the lake shore in Ohio, Michigan, Ontario, New York and Pennsylvania.
The 308-page book is indexed and illustrated with nearly 200 maps and photos. it describes historic sites, parks and natural areas, large cities and major tourist attractions, small towns and lesser-known destinations.
“A lot of travel guides these days are about as interesting to read as a phone book - not much more than lists and phone numbers,” Carpenter said. “I wanted to write a book that gave the reader a feel for the character of the Iake shore in its entirety and its many parts.”
The Great Lakes Commission established the Lake Erie Circle Tour as part of a 6,5OO-mlle Great Lakes Circle tour in the late 1980s. Green and white signs mark the route in Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania, while in New York the tour overlaps about 75 miles of the larger New York Seaway Trail, a National Scenic Byway that continues to the Atlantic coast.
For generations, families have vacationed at places like Niagara Falls, Cedar Point and Put-in-Bay.
Today, tourists also flock to new attractions such as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, casinos in Windsor and Detroit, and Bicentennial Tower overlooking Presque Isle in Erie, Pa.Recent magazine articles have touted the lake as on of the best places in North America for fishing and birding. The Ohio Division of Travel and Tourists just this year names the state's entire lake shore as a Heritage Corridor because of its significant historic and natural features.
“This region has never been more popular,” Carpenter said. “Every large community on the lake has rediscovered its waterfront, particularly in the last decade, There was a time when Lake Erie was a joke, but nobody's laughing at Erie anymore.
Carpenter has nearly 20 years experience as an editor, reporter and freelance writer in Northwest Ohio. For much of that time, he has written a column about Lake Erie, which has received more than a dozen awards for outdoor, travel and environmental writing.
Lake Erie Journal may be ordered from the publisher, Big River Press, P.O. Box 130 Millfield, Ohio 45761.
The cover price was $14,95, plus $3 shipping when the book came out several years ago. It's possible, the price may be higher today. Phone: 800-447-8238
(Don Lewis is a longtime outdoor writer for the Leader Times and other publications as well as the author of several books. His column appears each Frdiay on the Armstrong Afield page of the Leader Times.)
