Better Knowing The Apostles

(This post covers a period from July 20 to July 27)

This week we settled into more of a routine, got more comfortable with our job in the visitor center and continued to learn about this diverse and beautiful park on the northernmost tip of Wisconsin.

In addition to us the visitor center volunteer staff is two high school girls from Bayfield (twins) and our trailer pad neighbors Volunteer Susan and Charles. Our boss, Ranger Susan, has been out on leave most of the time we have been here because her husband is ill.

One of our duties at the VC is to conduct tours of the adjacent Hokenson Fishery that operated from 1927 to 1961.  Betsy took the following photos in and around the fishery buildings where I usually give two or three tours per day (I’m learning a lot about fishing).

After uploading the last blog post at the Bayfield Library on Saturday July 20 we took a tourist ferry to the Raspberry Island Lighthouse on a spectacular, clear, sunny – but relatively windy - afternoon.

Raspberry Island is the only lighthouse out of the seven in the park that is open to visitors this year. The others are being renovated or repaired.

The lights were built in the 19^th century to guide ships to the port at Bayfield, through the islands and around the islands (for ships sailing to and from Duluth).

The Raspberry light and keeper’s quarters have been beautifully restored. Two seasonal rangers staff the facility and provide tours in period costume. We went along in our volunteer uniforms to “help out” but primarily to get free passage on the ferry. As it turned out though we did help out some; including me hanging off the side of the ferry to toss out a line at the dock (because of the wind direction the boat had trouble docking) and later chasing down two passengers that had taken off hiking and not returned when it was time for the boat to leave.

Notably, it was the 150^th anniversary of the day the light was first lit; July 20, 1863. Roughly 40 people - about half of them from the ferry and half from kayaks and sailboats – sang a rousing version of happy birthday. Some of the boaters played croquet on the lawn, a traditional recreation activity for the families of the lightkeepers.

On the clear day, from the top of the light tower, we could see the Minnesota coastline about 30 miles to the west (we can see that most days from Little Sand Bay) and we could see east to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.

On Sunday we took a kayak safety course that is required before we can rent boats and go out on our own. The class covers routine things like paddle strokes, but the key is the open-water, self-rescue where you deliberately tip over and then get back into the kayak. It’s not easy. I only wish we had a camera because the photos would surely be priceless. The water was a balmy 60 degrees in the bay but still cold enough to get our attention.

On Tuesday, after work in the VC, we did a “ride along” with our boss’s boss to a campground on Stockton Island where he was going to audit a ranger’s “campfire” talk. On the return trip we were treated to a spectacular sunset and, when we arrived back at the dock, a beautiful rising full moon. If the blog's Chief Photographer (who, as you may have noticed, is very shy about sending me photos of herself) sends me the sunset and moon photos that she took I may include them in a future post.

On Friday we took a ferry to Stockton Island and camped there overnight, returning to Bayfield today where we are now uploading the blog.

On the island we did a lot of hiking and swatted a lot of mosquitoes, which are worse there than on the mainland. It was rainy and cold but we had a good time; hiking about 10 miles round trip to visit an abandoned quarry where some of the government’s stimulus money was used to construct a barrier to keep people from falling into the quarry. Saving the economy AND saving lives; what a combo!

 We had the Duluth portage pack loaded up with camping gear and I was afraid it would look bad when we got on the boat but it turned out that several other Stockton Island campers had outdone us...including one couple that had an ice chest on wheels!