I just got back last night from the Apostle Islands in Northern Wisconsin.  We spent four days paddling the islands on Lake Superior and put over forty miles under our keels.  You can see the complete route that we took on the map below.
 

 
Day 1:
 
After checking in at the Apostle Island's Visitor's Center in Bayfield, Wisconsin, to pick up our camping permits, we drove up to Sand Point, where we broke out the tools in the parking lot and finished the deck rigging on Mark K.'s kayak.

 
 
We finally put in between 3:30 and 4pm for the long paddle to Rocky Island, which was our first campsite for the week.  Here are Mark H. and Mark K. on Sand Pt. Beach getting ready to leave.

 
Mark H. paddles out of Sand Bay, rounding Sand Point.  Since he wasn't able to get his kayak skinned in time for the trip, he borrowed a fiberglass Pintail kayak from Don G.  The fit was a bit tight and, as a result made for a little unsteady ride for most of the trip.  He handled some rough water, though, and never capsized.

 
An immature bald eagle on the rocks on Sand Point.  This was one of six that we saw total for the trip.

 
Mark and Mark on the crossing to Bear Island, where we took our rest stop on the way to Rocky Island.

 
The famous Raspberry Island Lighthouse.  Had we left in th emorning as planned, this would have been our first rest stop.  This is the closest we came to it.

 
Is that a ghost ship?  No, it's the Pride of Baltimore, a tall ship that was sailing the area.

 
During the crossing, Mark H. began to cramp up and became nauseous due to dehydration.  We rafted up and I gave him the last of my water and he was able to make it to Bear Island, where we pumped some water through the water filter and rehydrated.  
 
Here, the sun beams shine down on Mark as he closes in on his rest stop.

 

 
Our rest stop on the southern tip of Bear Island.  Originally we had wanted to camp here, but when we called for reservations the week before, there was no room for us there.

 
Rested up, we made the crossing from Bear Island to Rocky Island.  We had also planned to visit Devil's Island, but this was as close as we came to it.

 
This is me with Devil's Island in the background.

 
Well, we did get a little closer to Devil's Island...

 
The sun sets behind Mark H. as we draw closer to Rocky Island.  We arrived at the island just at dusk, with very little idea of where to go to find our campsite.  As you can see from the map, we went up and down the beach a couple of times looking for Campsite #7.  We finally found it, right next to #6.

 
After paddling up and down the beach a couple of times, we finally left two of the kayaks at the dock.  After we found our site, I hiked back to the kayaks and hooked the towline to Mark K.'s and paddled back with both kayaks, while he stayed at camp and started a campfire.
 
Mark H. cooked up the first of a number of great, hot meals for us.  He gets my vote for permanent camp cook.
 

 

Wednesday, Day 3:
 

 
The day started out a little breezy, with a bit of chop on the Lake.  NOAA predicted that the waves would die down later in the day, so we decided to wait a couple of hours before we launched.  Hambo acquired a new pet while we were waiting.  The night before and that day, whenever he would go down by the Lake, a goose would swim in and follow him around.  We named it George.

 

 
We visited with Wes and his wife and Maxi the dog, as they prepared to motor back to Bayfield to pick up some ice.  After a cigar, we packed up and hit the water.  We planned to go for Stockton Island by way of Ironwood as our rest stop.

 

 
It turns out that this worked out very well.  By the time we got to Ironwood Island, a thunderstorm had come up behind us.  

 
Mark and Joel crossing to Ironwood Island.

 
After we landed on the beach, Caveman decided to try his hand at rolling the fiberglass kayak, tried once, missed, went down, tried again, missed again.  He pulled his head out of the water and said, "Help me!"  We would have been glad to, but we were on shore and he was in ten feet of water.  He wet exited and I hopped in my kayak and paddled out and towed him in.  

 

 
By that time there was some lightning flashing, so we grabbed the cookpot, some coffee, and a tent and prepared to wait out the storm.  We didn't need the tent, but we did build a fire, made some coffee, and smoked another stogie.  

 

 
The clouds and lightning passed, but the waves stayed up for another hour, then it calmed down and we paddled out again, this time for a four mile crossing to Stockton Island.

Thursday, Day 4:
 

 
Camp on Stockton Island.  I was sleeping in the eight foot Eureka yellow sarcophagus.  It wasn't too bad, except that you couldn't sit up inside it.

 
The four mile crossing to Madeline was the roughest of any of the days we had paddled.  Currents and waves funnel between the various islands and meet in the middle, making for a very confused sea with one to two foot waves.  Throw some wakes from powerboats in the mix and you have a fun ride!

 
Our host on Madeline Island, Jay, showed up a little ways down the beach, so I decided to paddle over sit-on-top style.

 
Transportation for three kayaks from the landing site on the north side of the island back to Jay's property near LaPointe.

 
Does it look like I got a little bit of sun this week?

Thanks to Chicago_Mark for some of the above pics.  They've been interspersed through the narrative in their proper places, so you'll want to go back to the top and review the pics in case you missed the new ones.
 
I'd have to say that Mark K. was really an ironman on our paddles.  Except for questioning our navigation and constantly checking to see if he had cellphone service out on the Lake, Mark paddled without complaint through all kinds of conditions.  Just when we thought he might be superhuman, he finally complained about blisters on his hands on Wednesday night.