Apostle Islands, Lake Superior

We first sailed on Lake Superior in 2000 and have made it up there pretty much every summer since—first as a couple, then with friends and family. We have crossed Superior in every direction, in fair and foul weather, in daylight and at night, and when I worked as a sailing instructor from 2009-2019 I spent as many as 50 days a season sailing on the world’s largest freshwater lake by surface area. Bonus Question 1: What is the largest freshwater lake in the world by volume? (answer at end of post). 

Lake Superior’s nickname, Gitchee Gumee, is an Anglicized spelling of the Ojibwe “gichi-gami,” meaning “great sea,” and was first popularized in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s 1855 poem “The Song of Hiawatha” and more recently in Gordon Lightfoot’s haunting 1976 ballad “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.” The 729-foot ore freighter sank in a storm on November 10, 1975, killing all 29 crew members and is the largest shipwreck ever on the Great Lakes.

Our usual cruising area is on the southwest part of the lake out of Bayfield, WI. Named after Henry Bayfield, a British naval officer and surveyor who explored the area in the 1820s, it is the smallest city in Wisconsin. A year-round population of 600 residents can surge to 10,000 during summer weekends and more than 50,000 during the Apple Festival held every October. Bayfield is the gateway to the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, a 21-island archipelago and one of our favorite places on Earth. Administered by the National Park Service, it is one of only four National Lakeshores in the country. Bonus Question 2: Can you name the other three? (answers at end of post). 

The Apostle Islands group was named after the 12 apostles from the Bible by Jesuit missionaries in the 17th century. It is presumed that they could not see all 21 islands or conveniently rounded down to honor their holy icons, as was their tradition. Interestingly, they did not name any individual islands after Christ’s disciples. Two of the islands, Gull and Eagle, are tiny bird sanctuaries that are usually off-limits to visitors. A 22nd island, Madeline, had too much development and private land ownership to include in the national lakeshore when it was created in 1970. The other 21 islands appear to be pristine wilderness, but most were heavily logged in the 19th century and many were home to brownstone quarries, fishing camps, farms, resorts, restaurants and cabins. A handful of private cabins that existed in 1970 were allowed to remain, and their owners have life-leases on those properties, which revert to the park upon their deaths. The Apostle Islands has the highest concentration of historic lighthouses in North America, with eight restored lighthouses, seven of which are still active aids to navigation, and several more light towers, which are also still in use. Map link: Apostle Islands National Lakeshore

I recently enjoyed a sailing trip in the Apostles with two UW-Madison NROTC buddies, John McSherry and Bob Day, and figured that it was about time that I shared this special place with readers.

Wednesday, Sept 10: The three of us met in St. Paul and drove to John’s cabin in Hayward, WI. After provisioning and some organizing, we had an amazing dinner of barbecued ribs at neighbors John and Tim’s house. Map Link: Hayward, WI

Thursday, Sept 11: We packed up and left Hayward around 7:00 AM, stopping for sweet corn in Shell Lake and eggs in Washburn, then arrived in Bayfield and loaded our gear aboard Liberty, a 2019 Lagoon 40 sailing catamaran rented from Superior Charters. After a very brief checkout with the Chartermaster (we’d all sailed on this vessel before), we were underway in a light breeze and good weather. Our plan was to sail and we tried heading east of Madeline Island into open water to find more wind, but it wasn’t enough to move the boat at more than 1-2 knots. There’s an old sailor’s adage that there are two kinds of wind—too much and not enough—and another tally mark was added to the frustrating “not enough” column. We used the engines to get to Michigan Island, where we anchored, ate lunch and then took the dinghy ashore. Map link: Michigan Island

Michigan Island is home to two historic lighthouses; the first and last constructed in the Apostles. Completed in 1857, the original lighthouse was supposed to have been built on Long Island to the southwest. The contractor was apparently persuaded by local shipping agents and captains that there was a greater need for a light on Michigan Island and that the U.S. Lighthouse Service would understand and accept the change. They didn’t, since the 64-foot light could barely be seen above the trees—the Lighthouse Service refused to pay the contractor and extinguished the light after only a year of operation. The builder eventually erected a simple wooden structure on Long Island to fulfill the contract and a second, taller light was relocated to Michigan Island from the Delaware River in Pennsylvania in 1929, with new keeper’s quarters and a small railway system to bring supplies up the steep stairway and around the site. We roamed around the attractive, historic grounds and found a small apple orchard north of the original lighthouse, helping ourselves to the fresh, delicious fruit that grows exceedingly well in this region.

Michigan Island. Note that only the newer
lighthouse is visible from the water.

Lunchtime!

Stairs and tramway down to the dock

1929 (left) and 1857 (right) lighthouses

Our dinner menu included the sweet corn that we had bought that morning, but we realized at lunch that our butter was still in Hayward. The concept of corn-on-the-cob without butter was a non-starter, so we sprung into action. We first asked a visiting boat at the Michigan Island dock if they had any (no), then decided to motor the 16 miles to Bayfield, tying up at the town’s transient dock and walking up the hill to the grocery store. It was getting later in the day, we liked our mooring spot and remembered that the Green Bay Packers were playing that evening, so it was an easy decision to stay put and spend the night. We enjoyed grilled brats and corn (with pure Wisconsin butter), then watched the Packers defeat the Washington Commanders before lounging in the cockpit and chatting with tourists and locals walking the docks. Map link: Bayfield, WI

Liberty at Bayfield transient dock 

Another Dragonfly

Friday, Sept 12: After breakfast, we departed Bayfield under partly cloudy skies and light winds, heading north and then west to Sand Island, the westernmost of the Apostles and the only one besides Madeline to ever support a significant population. The village of Shaw, named for Frances Shaw who homesteaded here in the 1870s, had a peak population of about 100, mainly Norwegian immigrants, with a farm, grocery store, school, post office and underwater telephone cable to the mainland. There are stories about Canadian liquor being hidden in and around Shaw during Prohibition, and while bootlegging was common in remote areas of the northern U.S., I could not verify that it happened here. 

On our way around the north end of Sand Island, we got a good view of the lighthouse and the well-marked Sand Island Shoals, where the 372-foot ore carrier Sevona grounded and broke apart in 1905. We anchored in Lighthouse Bay on the west side of the island and dinghied ashore, hiking to the 1881 lighthouse, made from local brownstone and regularly voted (by me) as the most beautiful in the Apostle Islands. Fun fact: the Norman Gothic structure is architecturally identical to the Chambers Island and Eagle Bluff lighthouses on Green Bay in Lake Michigan. Only two light-keepers were ever stationed on Sand Island before the light was automated in 1933. The second was Emmanuel Luick, age 29, who married 16-year-old Ella Richardson in 1896. The marriage would not last, however. On May 19, 1905, the keeper’s log indicates that “Mrs. Ella Luick left for Bayfield on steamer Barker at 6 PM.” She did not return. Map link: Sand Island

Wild blackberries along the trail

Lighthouse Bay, Sand Island

After our hike, we went back to Liberty, where we declared “it’s five o'clock somewhere,” i.e. happy hour. John made Old Fashioneds then we fired up the grill for steaks, grilled onions and baby potatoes with Chips Ahoy cookies for dessert. The anchorage was a little rolly from the eastern swell working around the northern tip of the island, but we eventually drank enough that sleep was not a problem. 

Saturday, Sept 13: We woke up to fog and a light east wind that was still sending a mild swell eddying around Sand Island into our anchorage. We waited a bit for the fog to lift, then pulled up the anchor and ventured back out on the lake. The fog came and went, with visibility as low as a half-mile, but we never got completely socked in. The wind was fickle again in both speed and direction, but we were occasionally able to sail. We stopped for lunch at the Raspberry Island sandspit, as the breeze steadily backed into the North, which was better for sailing but worse for our intended anchorage at South Twin Island. We changed our plans and altered course for Stockton Island and Presque Isle Bay, probably the most popular anchorage in the Apostles. This large bay has good protection and holding, a beautiful sand beach, campsites, trails and small dock complex. We anchored with about 20 other boats, then had chips and salsa with margaritas followed by fish tacos and a gorgeous sunset on our last night aboard. Map link: Presque Isle Bay, Stockton Island

Sunday, Sept 14:  The morning was lovely, with clear skies and light northeast winds.We pulled up anchor and motor-sailed back to the marina, passing Hermit Island close aboard to view a set of brownstone blocks on shore that were left behind when the Excelsior Quarry ceased operations in 1897. Hermit Island was once called Wilson Island, named after a recluse that was the island’s only resident from 1847 until his death in 1861. The story goes that Wilson was exiled from Madeline Island after losing a fistfight with his employer and chose to live a remote, solitary existence. He apparently was suspicious of strangers, closely monitored visitors, and always had a bag of silver coins (or was it gold?) to pay for supplies on his rare trips to Bayfield. When he was found dead in his cabin, rumors circulated that he had met a violent end by murderers searching for his alleged fortune. Locals then spent the next several years digging up the island, with no loot ever reported found. Map link: Hermit Island

Hermit Island kayakers and brownstone blocks

We docked in Port Superior Marina around midday, offloaded and drove back to John’s cabin in Hayward, where a few season-ending chores awaited us. We had dinner at Weber’s Northwoods Tavern with neighbor John, then watched the Minnesota Vikings lose to the Atlanta Falcons on Sunday Night Football. The next morning we drove back to the Twin Cities and said our goodbyes after a terrific trip. 

Bonus Question 1 Answer: Lake Baikal in southern Siberia is the largest freshwater lake in the world by volume. It is only the seventh-largest by surface area, but has a maximum depth of 5,387 feet and contains 5,660 cubic miles of water, about 20% of the earth’s unfrozen freshwater and more than all five Great Lakes combined. It is also estimated to be 25-30 million years old, making it the oldest lake in the world. Map Link: Lake Baikal, Russia

Bonus Question 2 Answer: Sleeping Bear Dunes and Indiana Dunes on Lake Michigan and Pictured Rocks on Lake Superior round out the list of America’s National Lakeshores.