Tower climbers aim phone circuit at South Manitou

by Norm Wheeler
Sun editor

Saturday, June 2 – As the sprinkling of weekend visitors turned off the car alarms on their SUV’s and settled down for lunch in the eateries of Glen Arbor around noon, two men strung ropes so that one of them could ascend the tower behind the Glen Arbor fire station. Andy Barth and Ralph LIddle of Radio North in Traverse City were taking advantage of the windless, cool, sunny Saturday afternoon to aim a microwave dish at South Manitou Island. Simultaneously, colleagues were speeding via charter boat from Leland toward the ranger station tower on the island to aim a similar white dish at Glen Arbor. An initiative of the Park Service, the goal was to establish a line-of-sight link so that a phone circuit can replace short wave radio as the means of communication between the mainland and the rangers and campers on South Manitou. The boat to the island would take forty minutes to get there, so Andy and Ralph had a good half hour to string their ropes and get ready to establish, via trial and error, the line-of-sight connection across the watery 8-9 mile stretch of Sleeping Bear Bay and the Manitou Passage. As Ralph stepped into his waist/torso harness and checked his buckles and carabeeners, Andy explained that Ralph would climb all the way to the top of the tower hooked by two latches to the steel safety cable threaded through eye bolts between the footpegs up the east side of the tower. Once at the top, Ralph would rig a winch line, a safety line, and a descent line. Equiped with walkie-talkies, the men would communicate between the top and bottom so that Andy could send up needed tools and tie off successfully threaded lines, and so that Ralph could verify the safety of the ropes before rappalling half-way down the tower to the white microwave dish on the west side, looking out over Art’s Tavern toward South Manitou. Ralph climbed the tower in less than fifteen minutes, with only two short breaks, despite being loaded down with gear for the operation. “Ralph’s one of the strongest, most safety-conscious climbers I’ve ever worked with,” said Andy. As Ralph hunkered at the top and began threading rope through the pulley, Andy put on a hardhat and admonished me to pay attention. “The danger area for any falling objects is a radius around the foot of the tower equal to its height,” he advised. We stayed outside the fenced area at the base of the tower while Ralph worked with ropes at the top, for as Andy quipped, “I don’t wanna be whipped like a red-headed stepchild if those ropes start flippin’ around.” Soon everything was secured and double-checked for safety, and Ralph let himself down from the top in a slow, careful rappal that nestled him comfortably on the stanchion holding the 24″ microwave dish. Over the next couple of hours Ralph and Andy talked by radio with the men situated similarly on the tower at the island until their respective bowls were lined up. Soon, rangers or maybe campers on South Manitou will be able to order food from Riverfront Pizza by telephone. Now, if they could just get Tim Nichols to deliver . . . . .