Too many questions all at once!!!
Escanaba is on Lake Michigan, but what is called the North Channel is the northern part of Lake Huron. The North Channel is often called the 6th lake, as it is separated from the rest of Huron by two very large islands and many others, making it look, on a map, like a different lake entirely. It consists of many many islands and is part of Canada. I have heard it said that it is the best place on the entire Great Lakes to spend a summer, with many fully protected anchorages, relatively warm water for swimming, little traffic, long days, steady winds particularly in late summer, and lots and lots of nature.
The Green Bay (aka Door County on the peninsula) area is great for weekending as it has warmer waters than Superior, and a few places to anchor out as well as some marinas with restaurants etc.
My home port in Bayfield WI is similar to that on Lake Superior. Bayfield is within an hour or two of the Apostle Islands on Lake Superior. There are about 22 islands clustered within an hour's sail of one another with many anchorages available for winds from any direction, some, of course, better and more popular than others. The Islands are a National Park, so they only have a few residents still grandfathered in and they are dwindling fast. The National Park Service maintains paths and campgrounds on many of the islands which are also popular with kayaker's. The primary sailing done here is an arrival on a Friday evening (about 4 hours from Mpls/St. Paul), cocktails or dinner out or on the boat, when the summer sun is still high there is plenty of time to motor/sail to an island to anchor for the night, then either hang there Saturday or sail around to another island, hike or swim (tho the water can be too cold at times), another anchor-out, Sunday return to base as late as possible, pack up, clean up, and return to the daily life-grinder. One day I will return my boat there and spending my summers cruising the Lakes.
I have been through the locks at Sault St. Marie, between Lake Superior and then down the St. Mary's River which flows into Lake Huron. This is where all of Lake Superior empties into the next lake. I've also sailed under the Makinac Bridge, which is generally considered the line between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. On one sail there we were "upbound" (against the current from Huron to Michigan) and we were motoring at 5 knots over the water, but only 1 knot under the bridge due to the current that passes through there: all of Lake Michigan empties into Huron. I've also motored down the end of Huron on the St. Clair River, which flows into Lake St. Clair by Detroit. From Lake St. Clair, the Detroit River empties into Lake Erie, which in turn empties into Lake Ontario via the Welland Canal (where the big ships pass en-route to Detroit, Chicago, Duluth, other places?) and the Erie Canal in Buffalo. I've been lucky enough to pass upbound through the Welland (a full day, sometimes two, though it operates 24/7 sailboats give way to lakers, tankers, salties) as well as outbound through the Erie Canal on my own boat, starting in Buffalo and ending in Albany/Troy on the Hudson River.
There are so many many places to stop and spend time between Albany and Duluth one could spend a lifetime seeing only some of them. Bonnie Dahl has done just that on Lake Superior and I believe other lakes on her boat, Dahlfin, and has written the definitive cruising guide to Lake Superior,
The Superior Way, now in its 3rd or 4th edition.
I could go on and on. As you can probably tell. I've been away from my boat since March.
