On Friday morning, just a week after my first Apostle Islands trip, I had the wild and crazy idea of going back again this summer. I looked at the LAI schedule and saw that they had a 5 day/4 night trip over Labor Day that would head to Outer Island. Purely as a matter of curiosity, I sent an email off to find out whether there were any spaces left. (This was a bit like saying "Could I just look at the dessert tray?" I hadn't jumped in, but I was definitely sidling up to the water…)
The prompt reply came back that the 5 day trip had been cancelled, but that there was a 4 day trip with one space available over the same weekend.
I thought about it for the next day. The weather was supposed to be good, and I had really, really enjoyed the first trip. I was nicely in shape and ready to go. On the other hand, going back just two weeks later seemed extravagant. I had a long list of projects and tasks that needed doing. And most importantly, I wondered if a second trip could possibly be as wonderful as the first.
But as my brother pointed out, we usually regret the things we don't do, not the things we do, so the next day I called to sign up for the Labor Day trip. At that time, the planned itinerary was Oak, Otter, and Stockton. Not my first choices, as I had already been to two of those islands, but on the other hand, the Apostles are a place to return to over and over. As I registered I put in a plug for getting to Devils, and then spent the next week managing my eagerness to be under way.
Day 1
Labor Day weekend finally arrived. Everything about getting ready and getting up to Bayfield was much easier the second time around. I pulled into Bayfield on Thursday night with time to spare to listen to Obama's acceptance speech. The next morning, I felt like a regular at the Egg Toss café when I showed up for breakfast.
I headed off to LAI and was the first one from our trip to arrive. (Did I mention that I was pretty excited about this trip?) Met our guide, Joe Ko, who was the guide that Tom and Colin had on their trip in June. Also met the other participants as they arrived … a couple from Minneapolis who were avid outdoors folks and 3 young men from the Philadelphia area, where I had lived for many years. The three had been friends since middle school and high school, and had read about the Apostles in a National Geographic article a few years ago, and had decided they had to come. Marina and Adam (from Minneapolis) had been on a trip with Hovas (the guide from my previous trip), so there were lots of connections between us all from the beginning.
I was delighted to hear that our itinerary had changed since I had registered. Due to the fact that the Outer Island trip had been canceled and its campsites were available, Joe had cherry picked the best sites from those available for the two trips. We would now be going to Sand, then Devils, then back to York.
We packed up our gear (took me about a tenth of the time it had the first time), then headed off in the van to Little Sand Bay. We took the boats out to practice our wet exits, came back for lunch, loaded all of our gear, and were off.
We headed straight across to Sand Island, then paddled up the east side, Made a brief visit to the caves, though we would have a longer visit the next morning. Paddled around the lighthouse on the northeast corner, then around into Lighthouse Bay which faced north. Our campsite was on the west edge of the half moon bay. This may be my favorite campsite of all I've been to so far in the Apostles. The bay is much like the bay on York, although there is definitely a sense of being on a bigger island (on York, you can hear the waves on the shore of the far side of the island…) There's only one campsite on the bay, and there was only one sailboat anchored in the bay overnight, so it had a quieter feel to it. Joe, Adam and Marina and I pitched our tents right on the beach, while the other folks camped in the campsite in the trees.
As the sun set, we enjoyed the quintessential northern view of dark pine trees along the shore silhouetted against the darkening sky. The previous trip had been over a full moon. This time, two weeks later, there was no moon up, and we were treated to a sky full of stars that slowly appeared, starting in the east and then overhead and in the west as the sky darkened. I sat out each night of the trip and watched the sky before going to bed. No mosquitoes, perfect temperature. Saw one shooting star, and of course the Milky Way. From Sand, we could see lights of towns on the North Shore in the far distance.
In the morning, I got up early and walked to the east end of the beach and partway up the trail to the lighthouse. Turned around in time to get back for breakfast.
Day 2
On the second day we paddled back past the lighthouse, where we paused for a trip member to make a cell phone call in one of the few places in the islands with reception. Adam the polar bear went swimming. Back underway, we saw a pair of eagles, one immature, in a tree. We made another visit to the Swallow Point sea caves, and then crossed over to York. We had lunch on the beach there, then headed for Bear, saying hello to Raspberry as we passed it.
It was about 6 miles to Bear. When we got there we wanted to stop to get out and stretch our legs, but the west side of Bear proved to have limited landing sites. Most of the shore was steep bluffs, with rocky shores. As the bluffs slowly erode from the wind and waves, tall trees lose their footings and topple down the cliffs and into the lake.
We eventually found a spot where we could land, and enjoyed a break before heading on. The northern part of Bear has some thickly bedded sandstone, and while there were no caves big enough to paddle into, there were arches and massive slabs of rock that had fallen every which way, some on land, some which we could see in the shallow water.
From the northern edge of Bear we crossed over to Devils, where we landed in the small harbor. There was only one campsite up in the woods (ours), but there were several yachts moored in the harbor. We did a bit of good natured grumbling about the music coming from the yachts, but they quieted down before dark.
After setting up camp and having another splendid dinner cooked by chef Joe, we hiked up the trail to the north end of the island to look up at the lighthouse and down at the sea caves we would visit the next day. The friendly volunteer lighthouse keeper came down and chatted with us for a few minutes. He quickly put the kibosh on any thoughts of cliff jumping when Adam innocently asked a question about it.
We listened to a couple of owls call as we settled in for the night, and heard a loon in the morning.
Day 3
In the morning, we set off up the east side of Devils. There are sea caves all along the shore of the northern end of the island. From a paddler's point of view, it looks like there was a wedge of sandstone shoved over the northern end. As you paddle north, you start seeing a wider and wider band of sandstone emerging from the water. In some places, you can see a gray layer of sandstone over a reddish layer, representing two geological formations with very different characteristics. The gray sandstone is thickly layered; the red is finely grained and thinly layered. The intricate sea caves are carved into the red sandstone by the erosion of wind and waves and ice. During our visit the wind was calm, and we were able to paddle into and through the many of the caves. In one, all of us were able to gather with room to spare to listen to Joe's talk about geology.
Around Devils and back to the south end, we picked up our trip member who had chosen to skip the circumnavigation. Then it was back to Bear. We landed on a stone ledge where we had lunch, then headed on to York. A headwind picked up soon after we left Bear, and we definitely earned our dinner during the crossing through waves up to 3 feet high.
York was becoming fairly familiar by now (my third visit). While Joe started dinner, Adam and I practiced self rescues. After dark, we could see the red light from the Devils Island lighthouse flashing in the distance. There was another group of paddlers at the next campsite. They did a night paddle around the island and we saw them come back. Something to look forward to for another trip, after one knows the islands better.
Day 4
In the morning, Joe gave us a short lesson on J leans and braces after breakfast, then we headed back to the mainland and Little Sand Bay. Boats were unpacked, rinsed out, and loaded on the trailer. We had lunch at a picnic table at Living Adventure, then headed home.
And while the second trip was very different from the first, it was just as wonderful. Hopefully there are many more visits to come.
Addendum: I am officially hooked on the sport now, and have gotten a kayak of my own.
