Biking - Sheboygan, Wisconsin

 Today was a lazy morning as I stayed in bed for a while. I had a fantastic night of sleep, which was much needed after a few restless nights. The campers next to us had been up late the night before, and every step they took sounded like it was right outside our trailer. Lucky for Scotty, I stayed awake to guard our home anyway. 😄

Eventually we got on our bikes and rode the trail into Sheboygan. It’s a great trail with space beside the road clearly marked for bikes, so riding with traffic felt very safe. There was very little incline, making it mostly smooth, easy riding. Along the way, we stopped at the James Tellen Woodland Sculpture Garden. It’s a quirky spot with lots of cement statues apparently made by a man possibly around the 1950s. 

We passed through some really beautiful neighborhoods and spent part of the ride alongside Lake Michigan.

We stopped for a late lunch at [blank]. We each ordered cheeseburgers and they were absolutely delicious — big, juicy burgers served on hard rolls. I had a side salad while Scotty ordered cheese curds, which were really, really good: chewy, squeaky, and everything cheese curds should be.

After lunch we rode along the harbor and riverside toward the small lighthouse. It was such a beautiful area, and you could tell a lot of careful planning went into the development. On the way back to camp we stopped at the nature center, which was small but very well designed.

Back at camp, we decided to use the campground showers, and that turned out to be a great decision. The water pressure was amazing and the shower was wonderfully hot. It felt lovely after the day’s ride which totaled 19 miles.

There was still daylight left, so I sat out in the sun while Scotty tinkered with the battery, which has been a little temperamental on this trip.

Kayak - Big Eau Pleine Campground

 We couldn’t check into our next campsite until 3:00, and with a late checkout here, we decided to spend the warm afternoon out on the lake. Temperatures were in the upper 70s, pushing close to 80, making it a perfect day for a paddle.

It turned out to be a pretty uneventful 3.3-mile trip, but we did spot a dive team putting in at the boat launch and a group of pelicans floating farther out on the lake. After paddling, we headed back to the trailer for a simple sandwich lunch before moving on to our next stop.

Biking - Big Eau Pleine

 Today is Monday, Memorial Day and it was interesting to watch our campground empty out. When we came in, we took the last site. But now we  are just one of a very few around the campground.

We decided to go for a bike ride and it turned out to be a lovely 12 mile ride. The road just into our campground is 5 miles. We are in a state park and there are many trees as to be expected. What is beautiful are the hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of ferns lining the forest floor. It was a lovely ride.

Kayak - Apostle Islands

 After some cold, windy days, we were happy to wake up to a calmer morning — still cold, but much more manageable. Since we didn’t have to check out until three, we decided to head back to Myers Beach for another kayak trip. We arrived around 8:15 and immediately unloaded the kayaks so we could be on the water by 8:40.

The fog was incredibly thick. I was nervous about going too far out onto the lake, so we stayed close to shore — maybe twenty feet away — and even then, the shoreline and trees disappeared into the mist. It had such an eerie feeling to it. The upside was that the water was perfectly calm.

Eventually, through the fog, we could make out the faint outline of a cliff directly ahead of us. But we couldn’t really see it clearly until we were only about twelve feet away. We stopped there in the water, hoping the fog would lift enough for us to see the formations, and slowly it began to clear. As we rounded the point, sunlight started streaming through the fog, and I’m so glad we decided to come back out that morning. The light was simply incredible.

This will easily be one of the paddles I remember most. It’s hard to fully describe how beautiful it was, but the photos tell the story better than words can. I took lots and lots and lots of pictures — and once you see them, I think you’ll understand why.

We paddled farther along the cliffs than we had the first time, weaving into grottos and caves. We even spotted several ice formations clinging to the cliff faces, a reminder of just how cold the water really was. There were plenty of safety warnings posted, and I remember reading that hypothermia could set in after only thirty minutes in the water. I definitely had no interest in testing that.

By the time we turned around, the first guided kayaking group was arriving, and on our way back to the launch we passed several more groups heading out. Back in the parking lot, kayak outfitters were everywhere, but for a little while that morning, we had the cliffs entirely to ourselves.

Once back at camp, we had lunch and packed everything up — something we’ve become pretty efficient at by now.

A four-hour drive brought us to our next campsite at Eau Pleine. Since it was Memorial Day weekend, the campground was completely full, and we pulled into the very last empty site.

Hiking - Meyers Beach Cliff Trail

 Rain rain go away. It finally did seem to lessen about 1 o’clock, so we headed to Myers Beach for a hike. We ended up poking about 5 miles. It’s an out and back path along the cliffs. The majority of the hike is in the woods, so you can’t really see the lake until the very end. The first 3/4 of a mile is a boardwalk, which makes it very easy walking after that. There were some muddy spots which turned out to be slick in some places. The last half mile has about six overlook from where you can see the sea caves down below. It was fun to see the case from above when we had just paddled them a few days before. We were lucky that it never did rain on us. We had a scrumptious dinner of Lake White Fish, and a salad when we got back to the trailer that evening.

Touring - Bayfield, Wisconsin

The weather is cold and windy so it wasn’t really good paddling weather nor hiking weather. We hung out in the trailer until we decided to head over to Bayfield for a stroll around town. well it turns out most of the places in town were closed and so that stroll was a very short stroll. The population of the town is 593 and with the tourist that day it was at least 595 we had lunch at hoops which was delicious it was fried Lake whitefish and fries. We sat in a enclosed tent with heaters inside, and it was comfortable. Scotty suggested a bike ride, but I whipped out because I felt like it was too cold so back to the trailer we went where we hung out again. I did some painting and later in the evening we had crackers and cheese and watched a movie.

Kayaking - Apostle Caves

 We drove to Myers Beach we would like to start kayaks into Lake superior. The winds were 5 to 10 mph today so there were some waves. It was only 1.1 miles to the point where the caves began. It was a long 1.1 miles most of the paddle was parallel to a Sandy shore, and then it turned into red cliffs. Once we got around the point, we paddled past some of the caves/landmarks. We only paddled into one grotto as we were afraid the waves might be too rough. Coming back was a little bit easier as the wind was at our back altogether we paddled 3 miles. Once we dragged our kayaks up the steps and loaded back onto the truck. We found a picnic table and had lunch. My arms were only slightly sore, and it just reminded me again that I don’t like paddling in a lake. At the campsite, we sat outside for a while in the sun until I got cold and went in the trailer. Scotty stayed outside and had started a fire for dinner. We had hamburgers with onions and cheese, and asparagus. All in all, it was a great camping day.