To mark our 20th wedding anniversary when we were married there, Erin and I went back to Madeline Island last weekend to celebrate by camping at Big Bay State Park there. We had a nice time, although Erin unfortunately banged up her knee which limited her walking about to a few short hikes around the park and in the town of La Pointe. The weather was very cool, with highs only in the upper 50s and nights down in the 30s, and Tucker our dog was very happy to sleep with us in our tent and share the warmth. The days though were beautiful, as the sun this time of year is very warm anyway and we had sunshine in abundance. We took a new tent with us too as our older one, while still serviceable, is beginning to show signs of wear. We were very happy with it and look forward to using it at Baggiecon at the Winnipeg Folk Festival later in July.
There were some incidents along the way, most notably having a freezer die on us a few days earlier before we discovered it was dying on Thursday night. So we got up the next morning and went to Wal-Mart (because it was open early) and got a stop-gap chest freezer to save what food we could. As they say, it could have been worse, as in not discovering it until we got back after a long weekend. We finally left town at noon after cleaning the freezer mess up, and had a lovely drive up north. It was in the 80s when we left New Richmond and by the time we were almost there the temperature had dropped into the 50s, and I realized I'd forgotten my jacket. Thankfully we were able to drive into Ashland and hit a thrift store, where I found a $3 jacket that would keep me warm. We also stopped at a co-op to get some bacon, eggs, and other victuals to have for breakfast in camp. We also made a quick stop in Washburn to browse in a wonderful used book store there, which even let us bring Tucker in to sniff all the old book smells.
By the time we made it to Bayfield, we'd just missed the ferry at 5:30pm, so we had dinner in town at a place that had outdoor seating that allowed dogs, and had a pleasant meal overlooking the lake before heading back and getting on the ferry at 7pm. It took us about 25 minutes to cross, and then another 20 minutes to get to the campground, so it was almost 8pm by the time we arrived and checked in. Of course the sun doesn't set until almost 9pm and there was twilight lasting to almost 10pm, so we were able to set up the tent and make the bed before it got dark. We got some firewood at the campground office and had a little fire, but some of it was wet and the fire sputtered out. Oh well, we were plenty tired and ready for bed anyway.
I got up in the morning and got out the campstove and set it up to make coffee and then breakfast after Erin got up. She tripped while getting out of the tent and came down hard on her knee, which was her bad one, so she was pretty miserable for a while but later she felt able to go into La Pointe to walk around there a bit, although she wasn't up for a longer hike in the park. So we went into town and poked around at a couple of art galleries and had some coffee and cheesecake. Then we decided to check out the Madeline Island Museum there as it was half-price that weekend as part of a general welcoming back for the summer season there. We didn't know what to expect, but the museum was delightful. It had been started by a fellow back in the 1920s who was an amateur anthropologist and ran it as a tourist attraction, but it really did cover a lot of ground, from the early native settlement to the fur trade days to the logging and fishing era and then to modern times where tourism now is the main business of the island. Erin came across one item labelled a "rutter blade", and she asked one of the museum staff what that was, to be told they didn't know. So they looked it up in the archive and found it was used to dig ruts for sleds where water would seep in and then freeze, for logging sleds to run on more easily. There was also an amazing exhibit of birch bark art work that was stunning. If you ever visit Madeline Island, see the museum.
We then had a late lunch/early dinner and headed down to the south point of the island where we could let Tucker run along the lake shore and fetch his flying toy, getting soaked of course. We were near the house we were married at too, so we drove by and had a look, and then drove around the south shore on our way back to the campground. I then went for a long walk with Tucker while Erin got some more firewood that was drier and she was a wiz at making a nice warm crackling fire that lasted for almost three hours until it was getting dark and we relaxed around the fire enjoying some smoked trout we bought earlier on the island, some blue cheese, and crackers, along with some stout to wash it down while we talked about our day and other memories.
As we were enjoying ourselves, we also were hearing all the birds around us in the forest, including loons who were calling out over from the Big Bay lagoon nearby. There was also one blue jay who was very interested in what was on our picnic table, but Tucker chased it away for us. We didn't have any other critters come up to check us out, unlike on past visits when we had a raccoon come up to see what was in the cooler that was next to me (cheeky critter that one) or a bear one night that our former dog Missy sensed and apparently the bear sensed Missy and left us alone. Of course I was sure to put all the food and trash inside the minivan before turning in.
Sunday morning dawned cool and clear and we again had bacon and eggs for breakfast, and then after taking showers (there are showers in the park, which were nice and warm) we took down the tent and even got it to fit back in the bag, and then packed the rest of our gear away and cleaned up our campsite. Erin was up for a hike, so we headed over to Big Bay Point where Erin took lots of photos and I jumped the guard fence to walk out to the edge of the cliff overlooking Lake Superior, where I could see for miles, as far as the Porcupine Mountains in the U.P. across the lake. We then took a hike in the woods where Erin found a fallen birch tree that she was able to peel a huge piece of bark from to paint on later. We let Tucker just run around the woods too and he loved it.
Then we drove over to check out the Big Bay County Park and found a few prospective campsites we might come back to, and then headed to La Pointe where we arrived just in time to catch the 2pm ferry and Erin said she'd like to walk around Bayfield, so we got aboard and crossed the lake. In Bayfield we stopped at some galleries and a book store before having a late lunch and starting back home at 4pm. We did pause in Washburn to check out a city park by the lake that had around 80 campsites too. Obviously a lot of people head up north during the summer to get away from the heat!
On the way home we tuned in the radio to Wisconsin Public Radio's Simply Folk music program, which was a lovely way to accompany the pretty drive back home, where we arrived just before 8pm. We unloaded the minivan, mostly, and then chilled out and turned in early. This was our fourth visit to Madeline Island, although we hadn't been back for over ten years until this trip. Next time I would like to go and catch a show at the Big Top near Bayfield, and Erin would enjoy that too I know.
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