This past weekend my father and I went to the Apostle Islands for a three night kayak camping trip.
We were greeted by gorgeous weather and glassy smooth water when we put in at Little Sand Bay.
We had left the Twin-Cities at 4:30am so by the time we reached our first destination (Sand Island) it was time for lunch, coffee, and English Fruit Cake….
It was my father’s first time in the Apostle Islands and so we made sure to visit the sea caves on the east end of Sand Island. The bright sunlight and the algae(?) on the cave roof produced a beautiful green light in the water.
Our camp for the night was on York Island, situated at the Western end of a long sandy horseshoe beach. We were the only residents for the night.
Once the camp was established, our bellies filled and suitably hydrated with coffee and tea, we set about gathering and chopping firewood. We did leave some wood on the island for the next visitors, promise….
The next morning we rose at 5:00am and headed north east to Devils Island. We rafted up each hour for food and drink.
After arriving at the harbor on Devils Island we moved our gear up the hill and set up camp. Later in the afternoon we walked the path to the North shore and viewed the amazing arches and caves from above.
That evening we watched the sun set over Minnesota from the crumbling dock while drinking (more) tea and eating (more) organic chocolate.
We rose the next morning to rain. There was an ugly NOAA forecast on the VHF WX7, rain rain thunder, rain, pause, rain, thunder, followed by rain and thunder for the next two days. We decided to break camp and see if we could paddle back to Little Sand Bay in the “pause”. We had calm conditions until Bear Island.
Then the heavens opened up again, and a stiff 15mph North westerly kicked into gear. We took a quick stop in the shelter of Raspberry Island’s dock. Time for another (yes you guessed it) snack.
I am fortunate enough to have the best gear and kayak money can buy, in my opinion. It was great to pull up my hood and just let the kayak take care of me as we crossed through the clapotis (reflected waves) off Point Detour.
The final mile of the return trip had us running down the front of 3 foot breaking surf, a great end to a fun trip.
A few minutes of video from the trip are below:
More photographs from the trip are available here
