The Apostle Islands: Lake Superior's Carribean

I have been waiting to write this post all week since we returned from the Apostle Islands in Lake Superior, thinking that somehow I would have a good description of how amazing it is when I sat down to write. I still can quite fit it all into words, or pictures for that matter, but should talk about what a great trip it was.

We caravaned up with S and L on Thursday night up north. After the boys had to stop at Hardees after dinner, and we avoided about 900 (live) deer on the road in Northern Wisconsin, we made it safely to the campground outside of Bayfield for the night. (That is once we got our tent site settled...)

On Friday morning, we woke up early to go get our permit and attend our "basic safety course". It was pretty cool on Friday with not much sun, and as we are sitting outside for our lesson of "concentric circles of safety", "the lake is fickle", and "always have the means to make a hot beverage" I was experiencing the beginning stages of hypothermia. Then, as we are about ready to get in the water to practice strokes, wet exits, and self-rescues, our instructor tells us that due to terrible wind storms two days earlier, all the 'warm' water had been pushed out of the bay, and that the average water temperature was around 40 degrees. I was freaked out and had already completed this course five years before...

The wet exits were, well... cold. So cold, it was hard to think or really to move. And that was with wet suits on. I ended up coming out of my wet exit so fast that I hit my head on the bottom of the boat and had a bump on my head that felt literally like I was a cartoon character where the bump just grows higher and higher. In the end we all passed the basic safety course with flying colors and a new appreciation for how quickly hypothermia can occur in Lake Superior.

After a good lunch, we pushed off in our tandem kayaks (also called divorce boats by the instructor) and paddled about 14 miles to our campsite for the night on Oak Island. Luckily the wind was at our backs and it didn't start to rain until we made it to camp. The beach was beautiful and later on that night L and I did some quality rock exploring/collecting. L made us amazing individual pizzas for dinner that were delicious and after dinner I cooked up some rocks to warm up with. Jff and S were on wood duty and seemed to have a fab time dragging up downed trees for us to burn. The big thunderstorm didn't start until we had crawled into our tents for the night.

The next morning I woke at 5:30 am to hear the loudest waves and wind I have ever heard while camping. I was convinced our kayaks had been taken away into Lake Superior, but they remained safely on the beach when Jff and I got up for an early morning stroll and glance at the beach. We promptly went back to bed for 2 and a half more hours. It was a slow morning waiting for the wind to die down and for blue sky to emerge. It was close to 11 when we pushed off for Raspberry Island, where we hiked to the light house, had lunch and toured the newly renovated lighthouse. Ranger Jim was a bit of a zealot on our tour- we examined, in depth the life of a lighthouse keeper, his various duties, the house, the times, and everything else. The exclamations of "tulips to turnups", "the room would transform again," and "service: faithful" were a bit much, and S wanted his money back after we were never told why it wasn't named Cranberry Island instead of Raspberry, but either way the view was really worth it.

The paddle directly into the 15 mile an hour winds to York Island was not my favorite- the only time the divorce boat rang true to its name on the trip- but soon we got to a beautiful campsite on the sandy Island. Literally a bay that looked like it was in the Carribean, clear waters, blue green tint, white sand, and full sun. We took a quick chance to swim (or really dash in and out of the water) and hang out in the sun. When weather threatened we nestled our tents together on the tent pad and later went for a hike across the island.

On Sunday we woke up to finally the perfect day: windless and sunny. A perfect day to see the sea caves on Sand Island. The four mile paddle went quickly, and the caves were beautiful. S and L paddled really deeply into a couple and all the while we were taking pictures and exploring. The caves are really, really cool no matter how many times you see them. Again the water is like green jewels that you can see 20 feet down in.

After eating our lunch on Sand, we paddled to the mainland, and the campground that we had originally stayed at on Thursday night. We essentially completed a tour of the islands splayed around the mainland pennisula over three days.

The trip was in many ways too short, there was a lighthouse on Sand Island I know L and I would have liked to hike to, there were other islands, mainland sea caves and nicer weather to be had... A trip for another time, I suppose. We had a great time with our traveling companions, however, lots of laughs, and a sense of shared adventure.