Madeline Island Pt. II - Boat Tour, La Pointe, WI

Time for the boat tour!!! For a relatively modest amount of money, you can find yourself on a 2.5 hour tour of some of the islands most interesting history, lighthouses, and ship wrecks. Oh yeah, plus the rocks... which means the Brownstone cut out of the islands to make some of the largest buildings in Chicago, at the time.

Let's start at the dock with the view of the boat...

And now for some of the sights along the rather fun route they've developed for this tour...

" 'Merica! "

These are the shots of the "famous" brownstone. It was placed there during the Ice Age from compacted sediments. At one time, Ashland WI was the 2nd busiest port on the Great Lakes, only deferring to Chicago, due to their exporting of all the brownstone. It was accessible on the islands, and could also be loaded onto ships and transported to places like Chicago with much less effort than other stone alternatives. Chicagoans will also know that this term, Brownstone, is what people call many of the two-family structures built in many of the city's neighborhoods.

One of the nice little surprises on the tour was that the boat was equipped with two viewing galleries, or wells, that allowed the folks to peer right into the depths. This came in very handy as we went over wrecks just below the water's surface. You got to literally see the old wooden sunken ships. Kind of cool really...

It seems one can also try their hand at some serious fishing off this island area - get yourself strapped in real good, and wear a windproof jacket. 

This touring company, Apostle Island Cruises, is right near the docks in downtown Bayfield. They offer other types of tours, one going as long as three hours. I would recommend them without hesitation. They were also selling out the boats to a max of 50% capacity, though mine was much less full than that even. Deckhands were also wiping down common touch points multiple times during the tours.

Madeline Island Pt. I - Ferry Me, La Pointe, WI

It only took about 5 years, but I finally got back to The Mad Isle! It's the largest island in the Apostle Island chain, and the only one not now owened by the US Government (there were too many private residences on it to afford the buy-back when they converted the island chain to a federal area).

For me, some of the most fun of this trip is getting to this island, because... it's by ferry! It was great to pull up and get across within a very reasonable amount of time. I left the car on the island for my stay and simply walked back to the very for a day-trip back in Bayfield.

See how the get across part works here...

This is not my set-up, but they take all manner of vehicles, big & small...

They don't usually waste space on these ferry trips, so it fills up!

More to come from the Island - including a peek at the boat tour I took part in, plus a real wacky night spot.