I made a recent trip to the “up north” area in the great states of Minnesota and Wisconsin to visit and adventure with my friend, Sarah. After our trip to the Boundary Waters Canoe Wilderness Area we decided to visit Gitche Gumee (Lake Superior) and kayak around in the the famously beautiful Apostle Islands National Lakeshore Area in Northern Wisconsin. I had seen photos of the Apostle Islands on the internet over the years and made a mental note to get there if at all possible.
I researched outfitters who guided trips to the islands online and decided upon Rustic Makwa Den, and I am not sure exactly why. You should do more research than I did if you are interested in going. It turns out this outfitter is a bit controversial. I will describe our experience in this post. I selected their “Sand Island Sea Cave Tour” and reserved a tandem kayak for September 1.
We drove out of the Boundary Waters area on Tuesday after a cool stop at the International Wolf Center in Ely, Minnesota.
On Wednesday night, before our Sand Island paddle, we stayed in a rustic cabin near Maple, Wisconsin. The We made a hearty breakfast that morning, packed up our stuff and drove the meetup location for our paddle, Point Detour, or the camping and recreational area on Little Sand Bay Rd. Along the drive we saw old boats from the historic fishing fleet based in or around Cornucopia, WI.
Our guide was 24 years old though he acted like he was 12. He was joined by his “not his girlfriend” friend (who is a girl) and then we had a party of six paying clients. The safety talk was decent and then we had to wait a bit for a hatch cover for one of the boats (he had forgotten it) to be driven from the home office.
ola (life) | wai (water) 