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| One of the many lighthouses on the Apostle Islands |
Day 3: Apostle Islands
Miles: 50
Berries picked: Blueberries; Gooseberries
Con: signs saying “tree ripened peaches” don’t mean local trees.
Memories:
Therese: Beautiful blue of the blueberries on the plants; and the whole fruit loop; meeting another person at the campsite
Gordon: The gooseberries; the tree ripened peaches from Colorado; seeing the sea caves on the tour
Grace: Glass bottom boat tour;
Danny: Grace and I met some new friends; mom almost fell asleep on the glass bottom boat. (Actually I DID fall asleep.) Helping with the fire. The GIANT apple pie cookie eaten while watching a little bit of the olympics.
Woulda coulda shoulda: put on a bit more sunscreen. Test out your camp pillow beforehand!
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| Camp Sunrise |
Aaah: our first morning at camp. I got to use my Aeropress in the field. My coffee was delicious! I wish I had put as much time and effort into my pillow. The square feather pillow I packed turned out to be hard as a rock. I was tossing and turning all night and my ears were sore the next morning.
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| Morning Meeting |
The kids have been helping by bussing dirty dishes to the camp sink and returning clean ones which make clean-up go so much faster.
We had heard about the “Fruit Loop” the night before. This is a loop of highway just outside of Bayfield with dozens of orchards and berry farms. We stopped to pick blueberries. (.76lb for Grace; .58lb for Gordon; .48lb for me and .38 for Danny - no telling how many were eaten while picking!) We were also introduced to gooseberries which were evidently delicious to 75% of the population. I was in the minority on this.
After picking berries we followed the intriguing signs to “tree ripened peaches”. It was a winding journey and upon arriving we learned that the peaches, while tree ripened, actually came from Colorado. Well we were there so we bought a batch anyway. Fresh fruit is always welcome at the campsite. Our travel guidebook tempted us with a stop at Erickson’s apple orchard. No apples but an abundant supply of cider donuts, apple pie cookies and cider. Yum! We got a quick peak at the Olympics while were were there.
Finally it was time to head for Bayfield for a lunch no one was really hungry for after all that dessert. But we found a great fresh berry smoothie place and everyone was happy.
Our main plan was to take the Glass Bottom Boat tour to see some shipwrecks among the Apostle Islands. We were advised to arrive an hour ahead of time so we patiently waited in line and I felt my sunscreen slowly loose potency while we sat on the blacktop of the docks under an unusually hot sun.
Our efforts were rewarded with a free copy of the book they shill to passengers since we were the first in line. When we got on the boat we were a bit disappointed to see that the glass bottom consisted of two deep wells, slightly larger than a coffin. At the bottom were four panes of glass that looked like they were painted with green paint. Turns out that was the glass bottom and what we were seeing was the green water below. The captain advised us that the recent storms had made the water murky and we probably would not be able to see any wrecks. We were told we could get a refund, but no one took them up on the offer.
We set out on our three hour tour. (Yes a three hour tour!) We were pleasantly surprised to discover that our captain would be narrating the entire tour with history of the islands, their lighthouses and the shipwrecks. There were only three wrecks on the tour and we were able to see hazy outlines of two of them. But we felt that the narration and information were so good that the trip was totally worth it. Even the kids were fascinated by the tour and enjoyed going from below decks to the upper deck with a spectacular view. The last 20 minutes were a retracing of our path and the captain took a time out from narrating. I may have dozed off in the peaceful boat.
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| A few examples of shipwrecks spotted in the murky depths. |
We made a quick stop for ice and…oh well…we were there anyway so we might as well sample the local beer. (Delicious.) We had a great dinner of roasted sweet potatoes; hot dogs and the rest of our apple cider.
While making dinner we ran into another camper, here with her daughter for a week. We happily shared tips from our last two days and also passed on the firewood we won't be using. Great camping karma. We spent a fair amount of time chatting about kids and camping. It turns out she and her daughter are going device free for a week. She lamented that this meant she didn't have access to her phone for weather updates. I nodded a bit guiltily thinking of the massive charging station just 10 feet away in the front seat of our car. We are not allowing screen time but e-readers and blogging are allowed!
We had toyed with going out after dinner to see a waterfall but inertia got the better of us and as I type we are enjoying the last of our fire and getting ready for bed.
Tomorrow we head for Grand Marais after we break camp. On the way we’re going to check out that waterfall.
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| Fresnel Lighthouse Lens |
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