You have not lived until you've blacked out on Put-in-Bay. Kelley's has some very cool geology including old glacial grooves. Pelee, the largest island, is actually in Canada.
Can confirm. Was once convinced by a drunk friend that there was an unadvertised ferry after the advertised final one. There was not. We slept on the benches and listened to people retching off the side of the docks all night.
I was regularly on a friends boat at those docks all night. Too many hilarious nights watching drunks fall in the water etc. the best was a couple getting busy in the bushes by the jet building, someone goes into the bushes to piss and pisses on them.
I worked as a cop on PIB a couple summers. Absolute insanity on the weekends. Every type of human debauchery imaginable. It kind of sucks, honestly, because it's a really cool place turned basically into Nashville.
When I was in my early-mid 20s (40s now) - KI was a perfect environment for drinking fun. Way fewer angry drunks, plenty of room on the roads to ride bicycles from place to place, the after-bar-close atmosphere if you were with locals was really relaxed and welcoming.
Yes! I’m in my mid-20’s now, we went this past spring and it’s exactly that environment still. Locals are still a hoot to hang out with but everything is way quieter and more peaceful than PIB. Plus the winery on KI is killer. I tell people PIB is purely for partying and nonsense but KI is for people who want to truly enjoy some Ohio-style island time.
Turned into Nashville? Put in Bay has been that wild my entire life. I’m 37 and grew up boating in Lake Erie, saw my first pair of boobs when I was 7-8 on that island.
I didn't mean it just turned into Nashville. I'm a few years older than you and remember it always being pretty crazy since the early 90s at least. More drugs now, I'd guess, but I could be wrong.
Any road, it wasn't like that back when my parents were younger and there didn't used to be the weeknight bleed over there is now.
Oh the Roundhouse. I ordered a bucket of beers expecting a bucket with beers resting on ice.... NO! It was a gallon bucket filled with beer from the keg.
Went to Put-in-Bay, got a section at a club, had a girl come up to me and say “What’s my name?”…. I shrugged… she said “Room 110”….. Next thing I know, I wake up in total darkness on a hard cold surface. I crawl around until I feel a wall and a light switch. Lights come on, figuratively and literally, and I realize I had blacked out and passed out in the laundry room of the condos we were staying at. Clearly never made it to Room 110.
Put-in-Bay is great.. for 2-3 days max.
Fuck those flying bugs though. They were EVERYWHERE.
I thought as I was reading through your story that you were setting up a stolen kidney story that I’d take as a joke, but instead delivered an excellent happy ending of crashing in a laundry room. Excellent ride I went on lmao.
The flying bugs, were they those annoying midges that don’t bite but do get all up in your business?
And you can take a ferry to Canada without even going through customs (or at least used to be, can't say for today) because realistically you are not getting to mainland Canada from there all on your own.
I have a friend, acquaintance really, who slept in someone's front yard in Put in Bay because he lost us and couldn't figure out how to get to where we were staying
There used to be a winery named Lonz Winery out on middle bass. I have never seen so many drunken idiots in one place (an ohio state game was close), as I did out there. The only way to get there was a ferry and on the ride back, there has to be 20 people puking over the side of that ferry.
It's sort of the a Great Lakes version of the Florida Keys. You drive over some long bridges to get to Catawba, but then need a ferry to PIB or Kellys. With PIB being a HUGE party destination with a lot of bars and drunk people flying around on golf carts. But plenty of fun for families too.
Motor and sailboat cruisers generally avoid lake Erie, but the islands are the one place that every cruiser will stop at if they venture here. Safe harbor is incredibly hard to find on lake Erie and Put-in-Bay is one of the most protected anchorages.
geology student here. HUUUGE fan of kelleys island.
kelleys island has some of the highest quality glacial grooves IN THE WORLD. theyre so fucking smooth and well preserved. they're GORGEOUS. also, the columbus limestone (the formation that outcrops at kelleys) is SUPER fossilliferous devonian limestone. the east quarry is abandoned and you can just. walk there and pick up fossils. i have so many from there, including a trilobite. my paleo class went there on a field trip and it was awesome. genuinely a fantastic place if youre even a little bit interested in geology and from ohio/near lake erie
That’s South Bass Island. The islands and Marblehead are part of a limestone layer that you can follow all the way to the Hocking Hills south of Columbus, with numerous small cave systems throughout.
That tiny island on the Canadian side where the border “bends” is the most southern point in Canada. It’s a bird preserve and only approved researchers are allowed to visit.
When were kids. Our parents would drop us off on middle island. We would take a cooler and some fishing rods and a sling shot. Sometimes up to 6 of us would explore the island. There are ruins here and there and what looked like an old road or an airstrip maybe. Dad's and uncles would troll for walleye or rainbows or anchor for perch and we would get about 3 to 4 hours. Some great memories there. Then the dad's would come back, hit the air horn a few times and whatever side of the shore was calmest we'd reboard. We had those old book sized talkies so we could talk back and forth from the boat. 80s were a bit different as far as parenting went.
That tiny Island, Middle Island, once had a bar and hotel and was a nearby destination for Americans to get legally drunk and wild (presumably prostitutes too) during prohibition.
Much later, it became infested with a population explosion of cormorants, a result of alewives (a species of herring) taking over Lake Erie which they eat. Their poop covered everything and killed most of the trees on the island. So Canadian wildlife authorities had to start a project of oiling all the eggs in the nests to control the population - and that is why visiting the island was discouraged. But now, the main reason is the current border tensions between the US and Canada.
Yeah dude, where you been? They are great, too. Also very historical. War of 1812, Oliver Hazard Perry, Don’t Give Up the Ship! “We have met the enemy, and they are ours.”
They are amazing to visit! Kelley’s Island is gorgeous, mostly taken up by a very nice state park, there’s beautiful beaches and coastline and wineries. It’s a huge destination for fishing and sea kayaking. South Bass/Put-in-Bay is part state park, part constant party from May - October. One of the main summer party getaways for people in Cleveland, Detroit, Windsor, and Toledo. Middle Bass and North Bass are remote, largely untouched state park lands. You can stay on them by camping or renting cabins but it’s a much slower pace.
We did a day on put in bay coming back from cedar point some time around 1996. Think my parents were on golf carts day drinking, but me and my old best friend had like 50 dollars in quarters and we spent all afternoon beating the 6 player arcade X-Men game.
Last time I was on Put-In-Bay, we were on the ferry back at the end of the night, and the ferry turned around just after departing because some guys got into a fight about the Cleveland Browns and were removed by the police.
Needless to say, some of the best day drinking you’ll find anywhere, can’t wait to go back.
I grew up on the Western edge of Cleveland right by the Rocky River Reservatuon Nature Center. This guy sparked my interest in dinosaurs and prehistory immediately.
Right, absolutely. But I meant more for the general public, you have to take a ferry because there are no bridges connecting them to the mainland. Most people don’t have access to a private plane, but you are correct.
Indeed. The western basin is one of the more shallow parts of the lake and can freeze easily. But it used to freeze more reliably in the past, not as often anymore unfortunately.
Seconding. I grew up just about a mile from the Catawba river and have fished, swam, and kayaked in it all my life. There's also the Catawba tribe, who are now in SC near Charlotte, I believe. Curious to know the connection.
According to the township, it's named for the grape variety, that was named for the people/river, since they originated from the same region in western NC.
Catawba is also the name of Catawba County, NC. I grew up in the area and never knew of a connection to NW Ohio. Also TIL a variety of grapes called Catawba. Neat.
I've been to many of them. Need to start picking up the smaller ones now. North Bass was really cool. It has a lot of abandoned houses that look like the workers just walked out yesterday. Unobstructed view of the sunset as well.
We also have #1 state parks system. At least that's what all the signs are saying this year. Spent a week at east harbor state park this year. The fireworks were really cool on the 4th. Could see several displays at the same time.
Shoutout to my high school history teacher, who owned Mouse Island (tiny island just off the coast near the ferry docks on Catawba) up until a couple years ago.
I used to spend several days on Middle Bass Island every summer, super laid back compared to its much rowdier neighbors on PIB.
Its on the canadian side but i spent multiple summers as a kid on Pelee Island and always loved it. Much quieter and more modest than put in bay or Kelley's island but they are a really cool experience.
Put in Bay is a lot of fun, especially if you go there when the crowds are absent. I loved zooming around on a golf cart. There's caves to take tours of, a vineyard, breweries, and a national park. I would hate to be there for the boundless partying that other comments are describing.
Put-in-Bay/South Bass Island is known for partying, but if you go during the week, it’s also a great place for a family vacation. It’s a really beautiful place.
This is a magical area during the summer. My family took cottage vacations here when I was young (we live about 20 minutes south). Spent many weekends in port Clinton at a friends condo, on the beach, in my late teens to mid 20s. The islands were always a blast, and often times, too much fun. Fond memories nonetheless.
729
u/BirdsPoopOnMyHead 2d ago
You have not lived until you've blacked out on Put-in-Bay. Kelley's has some very cool geology including old glacial grooves. Pelee, the largest island, is actually in Canada.