Meeting The Apostles

(This post covers the period from July 9 through the morning of July 20. From the website you can click on a photo to view them all in slideshow.)

Betsy models one of the items for sale in the visitor center.

After a short but nice visit with my cousins in Missouri (which included a stay at lovely Mozingo Lake Park in Maryville, Mo.; where the new AC felt really good) we pushed on north to Interstate State Park on the St. Croix River near the town of Taylors Falls, MN. This is Minnesota’s oldest state park (1895) and it is directly across the river from a park with the same name in Wisconsin which is also that state’s first state park.

The place was nearly full by the time we arrived after slogging through St. Paul rush hour traffic; and the back-in RV sites were tight; and the mosquitoes were out in full force as my trailer-backing prowess went on full display before a gaggle of slack-jawed Minnesotans as they sat inside their mosquito net tents eating their evening meal of bratwurst. After approximately 27 attempts I finally got the trailer backed into (more or less) the correct (we hope/think) slot.

The next day I hiked the edge of The Dalles of the St. Croix to a bakery in Taylors Falls where I ate my first Cronut. By mid-afternoon  we had arrived at Apostle Islands National Lakeshore where we were met by our NPS “handler” Ranger Susan. She introduced us to our new home and our new neighbors, experienced NPS volunteers Charles and his wife Susan that I will refer to forthwith as Volunteer Susan.

Volunteer Susan and Charles immediately announced that they were cooking supper for us. It was quite a feast that was topped off by a homemade raspberry pie and consumed on a picnic table in the yard area behind our trailers. It was a bit humbling because these two are living in a trailer half the size of ours and cooking things that we would not consider in the kitchen at home, much less on the road in the trailer. In an unguarded moment of candor Betsy even confessed to Volunteer Susan that we use the oven in our trailer for storage; we’ve never used it for cooking.

Charles and Volunteer Susan have turned out to be good friends. They are experienced NPS volunteers that have worked in a variety of NPS parks over the last 10 years. They arrived here at AINL in June and will stay into September. So they have a wealth of knowledge, not just about this park and this area but also about the NPS in general. We have picked their brains for information and they have been very helpful.

Sunset on Lake Superior and Sand Island, from the dock at Little Sand Bay

There are three gravel trailer pads for use by volunteers and/or seasonal ranger and the third was filled a few days after we arrived by a seasonal ranger named Kevin. The three pads sit immediately behind two duplex park service housing units where three seasonal rangers reside. There is a shared washer/dryer available for all of us in one of the duplex units. Collectively, it has the feel, sort of, of a small apartment complex.

A ranger-volunteer get-together

We arrived here a week ago Thursday, had Friday off, worked our first day at the Little Sand Bay Visitor Center on Saturday, had Sunday off, and worked Monday through Thursday this week at the VC.

We have a nice walk to the VC of a quarter-mile or so that takes us along the edge of Lake Superior with some lovely views.

Our job, essentially, is to operate the visitor center which typically gets less than 100 visitors per day. However, the variety of questions and services is pretty broad and there is much to learn (including operating/balancing out a cash register – something Betsy has not done in 35 years and something I’ve never done).

We have an advantage in that we are both experienced bureaucrats and the NPS is similar in many ways to our past work environments. Even though the people and places and missions are quite different; this is well-trod organizational ground for both of us.

On our day off Friday we explored the back roads of the peninsula and found our way over to the little town of Cornucopia (known locally as Corny).

Corny has a dock, a fish monger, an historic and very cool general store, a kayak outfitter, the northernmost post office in Wisconsin and a bar/restaurant that serves Summit pale ale on tap in frosty pint glasses and has a menu that includes wonderful fresh cheese curds and various forms of fresh whitefish. The town also has a free-flowing artesian well with great-tasting water.

There isn’t much else in the town; then again, there isn’t much else we need in a town.

Needless to say, we really like Corny.

We also checked out much larger Bayfield (pop. 500) which has a beautiful Carnegie library that has good wi-fi and is the closest place where we will be able to download photos and update the blog.

On our day off Sunday we went back to Corny and took a guided half-day kayak paddle up the shore to explore some spectacular sea caves that have been formed by the relentless pounding of Lake Superior against the sandstone cliffs along the shore.

Monday through Thursday we worked at the VC and we were by ourselves on Tuesday and Wednesday.

So far I think we both like the 9-5 job at the VC more than we thought we might and we are, at least so far, a little disappointed in the opportunities that have been afforded us to hitchhike on park service boats going out to the islands. 

As with any organization this park has plenty of bureaucratic bullshit, personnel issues and tribal mentalities.

Little Sand Bay is clearly the park’s stepchild, cut off from the headquarters in Bayfield and – in many ways – from the offshore islands that are the signature feature of the park.

Sand Island is a popular kayaking destination and a relatively easy paddle from Little Sand Bay but a bear problem on the island has caused it to be shut down to visitors indefinitely. That, in turn, has reduced the number of kayakers launching from LSB.

One of the oddest things about the place is that there is a campground and a boat launch, both less than 100 yards from the visitor center, that the park service has nothing to do with. Both are operated by the “Town of Russell” which – as far as we have been able to determine – consists of little more than the campground and the boat launch. a small community center and a town garage.

Thus, the number one question we get at the visitor center is about the campground, which we have nothing to do with. Besides pointing to the sign that outlines the self-registration process and telling people which campsite the campground host is in there is nothing more we can say or do. It is a classic case of “sorry, it’s not my job” and that is more than a little frustrating for both of us because we have an aversion to saying that.

We staged this...but it looks official, right?

One of our duties is to raise the flag each morning

After four days of work in the visitor center we have Friday, Saturday and Sunday off. On Friday we hiked a muddy trail along the west shore of the peninsula and looked down from above on those same sea caves we had visited by kayak on Sunday. We had pretty low expectations and they were far exceeded even thought parts of the trail were quite muddy.

After the hike, in the trailhead parking lot, we had the good fortune to meet the ranger who effectively runs the park and he invited us to go out to one of the islands with him for an evening program next week and confirmed that we will be going along today on a boat that is going out to Raspberry Island Lighthouse for the 150^th anniversary of the light’s dedication.

After the hike we stopped at the artesian well in Corny to fill our water bottles and then drove across the peninsula to Bayfield for the Bethany Lutheran Church’s annual fish fry. The Friday Fish Fry is a tradition in northern Wisconsin and this one included another staple - boiled potatoes - along with several types of berry and fruit pies. We met up with some of the rangers and our volunteer neighbors afterward for beers.

This morning we picked strawberries on our way into town and had some fresh-baked cinnamon rolls for breakfast.

The weather has been nice. There has been quite a bit of rain, but almost always during the night. We have not run the AC in the trailer at night, although one night was a bit warm and muggy. We ran it one day in the visitor center. Most of the time though it is pleasantly cool and a recent front dried out the air. Last night temps dropped into the 50s and today is a spectacular, cool, blue sky day for the trip out to the Raspberry Island Light.

We do have internet access on the NPS computer and we can check our personal e-mails when we are working. So if you send an e-mail we will get it and can respond, but it may take awhile.