Lake Superior is the largest of the Great Lakes- both in surface area and volume. In fact, all of the other lakes could easily fit inside Lake Superior. It is also the deepest of the 5 Great Lakes with a maximum depth of 406m/1,333 feet. In terms of surface volume, it is actually the largest lake in the world. There is enough water in this lake to cover all of North America AND South America with 1 foot of water. This lake is so large that it actually has its own tide! Lake Superior contains 10% of the world's fresh surface water.
The lake is known as "the lake that doesn't give up her dead" because most of the lives lost in this lake, and there are approximately 10,000 of them, are never recovered. This is in part due to the depth of the lake but also because the water is very cold, which limits bacteria growth which, in turn, prevents bodies from eventually floating to the surface. Now then, that took a dark turn.
On a more pleasant note, Lake Superior has 78 species of fish and is known as the cleanest and clearest of all of the Great Lakes. In some spots, the underwater visibility exceeds 30m/100 feet.
There are a lot of lighthouses on the lake but there are also a lot of shipwrecks. The last ship to sink in any of the Great Lakes was that of the SS Edmund Fitzgerald in Lake Superior. It sank on Nov 10 1975.
Lake Superior is 257km across and a whopping 560km (302 nautical miles) long, which is the exact distance that you will be challenged to run if you sign up for this voyage. That is approximately 18km every day for the entire month. Are you up for the challenge?
You will earn the following race medals: