This veer off the spreadsheet has set a high expectation for next year. Apostle Islands are a group of 22 islands off the Bayfield Peninsula in northern Wisconsin.
After our Picture Rock kayak experience, and the Jam Pot line lady raving about this, I got on our not so great Fort Wilkins bathroom Wi-fi, I booked the first easy rated tour that fit our tight schedule that I could find. Well, even though the tour was a Bayfield tour company, the tour ended up being to Chequamegon Bay, south of Washburn and we really didn’t see the Islands.
We saw some sea caves, but there were none that we kayaked through, nonetheless an enjoyable outing putting us a bit closer to our gallop to the Canadian Rockies.
What we did find however are two delightful towns. We headed to Bayfield and got set up in Over-flow parking at the Apostle Islands Campground the night before the kayak tour. Besides having a welcoming office area and well taken care of facilities, it is in walking distance to the Adventure Club Brewery(lots of covered outdoor space and the huge wolf sculpture in the field.) Breweries are always a first stop in any new location as John exudes an enthusiasm, and takes over my role as the trip organizer as he is excited to taste new beer. There is a new section to this RV park that has theme cabins around a sandy swimming pond and mini golf course that would be great for grandkids.
After viewing YouTubes of the Apostle Islands, we definitely need to go back. Music is the other attraction of Bayfield and there is a group that puts on summer music under a Big Top Tent. This summer Gaelic Storm and Brandie Carlisle were on the schedule. There is a whole fruit scene with a big apple fest in the fall, blueberries and cherries. Hmm tha campground books a year in advance you can kind of plan on fruit but what about the music? Well there is an Open Mic Night every Wednesday at the Backstage.
Our tour put us through Washburn, and a real grocery store and a delightful little town that had a fest or farmers market going on. The atmosphere was vibrant and would also make this town a stop, with live music advertised on the main street. This was about a 25 minute drive from Bayfield. Both towns have numerous bike trails, some gravel too, as per Howl Adventure Center. I think this would be a good place to call if interested in planning a biking adventure. This area has kayaking, biking, hiking, breweries, sailing tours, and restaurants.
It would be a perfect area to rent in the summer months! But people keep saying how cool, I say freezing, it is in the winter.
It was a bee-line to Orr, Minnesota which was a lovely drive, and we started a new Baldacci Audiobook and the drive sped by. We arrived at Pelican Lake which looked like a once-upon-a-time vibrant resort where Port-a-potty replaced boarded up wooden out-houses in our remote section of the RV resort and the lake is big with islands. The office looked like part of the house, but very friendly, kids coming up to us wanting to tell us a joke, a small store with ice cream, and you signed in a guest book to register, but they did take credit cards. We were set up in a line of empty campsites at the end of the road. Many trailers looked like full-times summer residents as we drove to our end spot where he said we could take any one. We did not dare walk out on the dock that was lakeside to our site, and as we employed the netting, and I did photos while John played his computer game(AT&T excellent 5G), we saw over a hundred mosquitos on the outside of our net since we had lights on! We haven’t seen that kind of action yet. Not necessarily a place we would come back, but convenient for Canadian gallop. Glad we didn’t decide to stay 2 nights and did the “pseudo” Apostle Islands Jam Pot Lady Excursion. It’s Sunday and the Stone Angel Brewery outside of Winnipeg closed at 6pm, Paddle Boy may arise before noon so we can arrive after our 5 hour drive in enough time for some tasting which he always asks for the pint size taster. We needed to venture out and shake out the netting.
The mosquitos didn’t fly away when the lights were turned off, and we decided to drop it on the front mat rather than risk bringing it inside!
Travels with Vinny VanGo 