A visitor takes in a frozen formation at the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore ice caves in an area the Park Service calls The Bowl. © Clayton Stalter, 2014-All Rights Reserved
We arrived at Apostle Islands National Lakeshore Saturday afternoon and quickly realized we weren't the only ones willing to brave the cold temps to see these ice caves. This photo is taken on the walk from the parking area to the cliff face where the ice caves form. The Park Service estimated 8,500 people just on this Saturday alone. © Clayton Stalter, 2014-All Rights Reserved
We're at the tail end of February now and this blog post is long overdue but it's somewhat still newsworthy as we have just passed the one year anniversary of "Dave and Clay's Trek into the Great White North." Plus, the ice caves will be opening for the first time this season, today, Feb. 28, 2015 for visitors to experience.
A little fun with a flash inside one of the caves. Dave's portrait of me crawling through one of the caves. © Dave Heinzel, 2014 – All Rights Reserved.
I ventured to The Apostle Islands National Lakeshore on the northern edge of Wisconsin between February 8-10, 2014. The extremely cold winter had frozen enough of Lake Superior to allow visitors access to caves formed by wind and wave action on the sandstone cliffs. In the winters the caves, normally only accessible by kayak, transform into icicle covered wonders. For years these ice caves had been accessible nearly every year but recently the winters had not been cold enough and since 2009 there has been no access to the caves. 2014 was the first time in five years that the National Park Service felt the ice was thick enough and of high enough quality to allow the public access.
Accompanying me on this quest was Dave Heinzel, a new friend at the time, who was willing to take the 12-hour drive, each way, to Bayfield, Wis., from Central Illinois in the hope of seeing this spectacle. The weather was forecast to be no higher then the middle teens over the time we were to be there with the wind chills bringing the temperature down to negative degrees. Zero at best.
Dave, a much more dedicated blogger/social media sharer/web designer/all-around creative genius than I, chronicled each day of our three-day adventure on his blog (Day 1, Day 2, Day 3), as it happened, if you want to read the play-by-play of our journey. He's got some great pictures up too. I just wanted to sleep at the end our days.
The view parallel the cliff face of an area known as The Keyhole. © Clayton Stalter, 2014-All Rights Reserved
The namesake view of The Keyhole. © Clayton Stalter, 2014-All Rights Reserved
© Clayton Stalter, 2014-All Rights Reserved
© Clayton Stalter, 2014-All Rights Reserved
© Clayton Stalter, 2014-All Rights Reserved
© Clayton Stalter, 2014-All Rights Reserved
Some of these formations were massive and aside from the almost guarantee of slipping and falling there was also the very real possibility of injury by being hit by a large chunk of falling ice. © Clayton Stalter, 2014-All Rights Reserved
© Clayton Stalter, 2014 - All Rights Reserved
There was one more event worth mentioning on our return trip to Springfield.
We left Bayfield, Wisconsin about 11 a.m. on Monday. Stopped at the only grocery store in town and stocked up on food for the drive back. About an hour and a half south of Bayfield, my car started making an awful noise. It had been slipping a belt a bit on the entire trip but the noise would quickly go away. This time sounded worse and wouldn't go away. Dave was driving at the time and we started looking for somewhere to pull over. It's not a straight road and there are 3-4 feet of snow on either side so it's fairly narrow. We didn't want to stop on a curve and get hit.
The noise goes away, but then so does our heat.
When we finally reach a safe area to pull over. The car is dead and steam is pouring from the hood. I have one signal bar on my phone (thank you Verizon), Dave has none, and I'm able to get a tow truck from the nearest town, Hurley, Wisconsin, about 30 min. south of where we broke down.
We get my little 2003 Mazda Protege back to the garage in Hurley and the tow truck driver/owner of the garage says it doesn't look good even without taking the thing apart for an accurate repair estimate. My main belt broke/shredded knocking out the radiator, and therefore the heat, and the engine overheated. Most likely blew gaskets and probably more damage. He would start his estimate repair at $800 and it would go up from there. Plus, it would be a week minimum to get parts. Apparently there aren't any Mazda dealers in the North Woods of Wisconsin, go figure.
At that point it was decision time. Both Dave and I had day jobs we needed to get back to on Tuesday. I decided to sell the trusty Mazda to a scrap yard (it served me well up to 192K miles, but just wasn't worth repairing), we rented a vehicle from the only place with one-way rentals in town, U-Haul, and headed back to the Land of Lincoln. This all within an hour of arriving in Hurley with the car. The U-Haul got terrible gas mileage true, but plenty of room for beer and cheese curds! It's all up on Dave's Day 3 blog post with pictures.
I broke the news to my wife back in Springfield via voicemail and text message - not the best approach in hindsight. But that's another story.
The trip was rejuvenating and much needed. It was the first photo adventure that I'd had just for myself in years. All in all it was an amazing experience and I would do it again in a heartbeat! (I'd handle breaking the news to my spouse on the the car situation differently, though.)
Heading home. © Clayton Stalter, 2014 - All Rights Reserved
The frozen expanse of a snow-covered, wind swept Lake Superior. © Clayton Stalter, 2014 – All Rights Reserved