Twinergy: Have Kayak, Will Paddle

Hi All,
Jim and I had a nice little getaway. We traveled to the Apostle Islands, where we embarked on a three day, two night kayak trip. For anyone not familiar, the Apostle Islands are a cluster of islands located in Lake Superior, north of Wisconsin. I learned of them through a travel feature in the local paper back in 2008. (We briefly considered the trip then, but not for long, since I was pregnant with the twins.) Anyway, we like to visit nature when we travel, so this spot never really left my mind. We found a guided kayak trip which boasted, among other things, awesome food. Admittedly, Jim and I were skeptical. How good could camp food be? Well, it did not disappoint! The excursion was called Beaches, Waves, and Caves with the group Living Adventure. Our kudos to their crew, as it was an awesome trip!
We flew into Duluth, MN on Thursday evening and drove onto Bayfield, WI (a two hour drive) to spend the evening in a hotel. We embarked on our trip Friday morning. We met up at the headquarters, met the group, packed our dry bags and received some introductory instruction and information. Then, a van/trailer drove us to a state park which served as our jumping off point. We got off on the right foot with a delicious lunch of sandwich wraps, homemade hummus and chips, fresh fruit, chewy bars and homemade cookies. We received some "on the beach" instruction and then wasted no time entering the water and practicing tipping the kayaks. If I recall correctly, Lake Superior temperature measured somewhere in the 50s. Yes, we were none too excited about tipping on purpose, but felt much better with the confidence of knowing how to vacate the kayak and skirt in the event of future mishaps. Our group contained a mix of single and double kayaks. Jim and I took a double for the first leg of the trip, probably a good choice for the first leg since it was a sturdy ride. When we arrived, we set up camp and enjoyed dinner - whitefish on the grill and smores for dessert (another delicious meal!). We island hopped to York and Raspberry Islands on day two. We enjoyed a nice day on the water in good paddling conditions. About half way through, Jim and I switched into single kayaks. The singles were definitely more "tipsy", but also more fun and easier to maneuver. We stuck with them for the rest of the trip. The islands we visited were mainly uninhabited. We saw only park rangers and other kayakers. We had cell phone service on some but not all of the islands. I was very happy to arrive on York Island to find my cell worked, as I was anxious to check in on the kids (Bree had gotten sick not long after we left). We also took in some of the sea caves on day two. There are some beautiful sandstone caves that have been carved out by the pounding water. It reminded us a lot of the formations we saw when hiking Pictured Rocks in the U. P. While the paddling was a workout, the setting was serene and made for a good break from modern civilization. We parked ourselves on Oak Island for our second evening. We ran into a small issue with a group of girl scouts that took our campsite for the second night in a row (we had a permit to be there, they did not). But our guide was very diplomatic about it and polled the group as to how we would like to proceed. We ended up letting them stay put and shared the campsite. The girl scouts were thankful and offered to do our dishes. :) Our last day was a nice, leisurely paddle back to the mainland. Along the way, our guides pointed out shipwreck remains and even offered up some tall tales surrounding the details. Speaking our the guides, Brian and Bjorn were first rate and incredible in every way! They were excellent instructors, friendly, funny and engaging, and awesome cooks to boot! Back at headquarters, we unpacked and cleaned the kayaks, said our goodbyes, and Jim and I grabbed a quick bite to eat in Bayfield before heading to Duluth for the evening before our early morning flight. We reflected on what a nice spot it was and how well run the Living Adventure operation is. It was a nice getaway, but I was also more than ready to get back to my little sweethearts at home!

View from a kayak