I am inside an icicle!
This weekend I took a road trip with my cousin, Goldie, from Madison to the Apostle Island Ice Caves. It was as simple as tagging her in a reply post on the Bayfield Chamber of Commerce Facebook page and a plan was born.
Brilliantly, once we set the dates, she did all the hard word of picking and reserving a hotel. Much to my surprise, on Madeline Island; a half hour drive from the caves and across the lake…. She thought the caves were off Madeline Island and that this was just the right course of action. And while at first it didn’t seem all that logical, our timing fell perfectly into place and I would not have a thing about our trip changed. Perfect!
I thought we would have to leave at the crack of dawn to allow enough time, but a call to the information hot line had both the Iced Cave and the Ice Road closed from the huge storm the day before. Goldie had an inside tip on parking and let me know that arriving in the afternoon was the better plan anywa and maybe by then the caves would be open. So, we slept in on Saturday, not hitting the highway until after 10 am, Bayfield for lunch at a crazy famingoed restaurant (bravo on the vegan pizza!) around 1 and the cave parking lot by 2:30.
TIP #1: Everyone goes early for parking… they are also done early afternoon, wait to go and park at the trail head. Works also if you are going for sunset photo. It is only in the morning that the parking fills up.
Not only did we park at the trail head, we were the in the first position behind the porta-potties and could not have been any closer to the start of the trail. The folks that did not know this added at least an extra 2 miles to their hike.
TIP#2: There are no potties on the ice. DON’T drink fluids for the hours before you go, wait until you are off the ice. A beer at lunch is NOT a good idea.
TIP#3: The 4th porta-potty on both sides is heated. Kidding… but just by saying that I started a line at the portables for potty #4. That was fun.
We were both wearing red and thought that would make us easy to find if we were to fall through, but once on the ice there was really no fear of that.
The first cliff you come to is very impressive and sets the tone for the rest of the shoreline walk. Here there were dozens of kids climbing on and around the ice and sliding down where possible. It was quite a bit further before we found a go-into cave, and go in we did. belly wiggling our way through. Once in, there was plenty of room to sit-up and enough light through the ice to see the wonder we were surrounded by. Goldie took a narrated video of this section, if she publishes it, I will link to it here.
We walked further on and found more and more curves, cliffs and iced embankments. Kids were tucked into every nook and cranny. It was great fun.
But… The fun ended when we had to come back. It was a wind-in-your face-like-a-brick-wall return trip. Winds were screaming at us at over 20 mph and we had to walk a mile + back to parking in the soft, unpacked, newly fallen snow. That was hard. Not impossible. But really hard. And my head gear wouldn’t stay on with the winds. But there were folks much worse off on the return than us, the mom with two kids she was pulling in a sled. I wanted to cry for her. And the dogs. Goodness there were a lot of dogs on the trail. They were not a problem in anyway, but I don’t think any of them liked it as much as their owners might have thought them too. It was cold and difficult and they were all on short leashes, not dog fun.
TIP #5: We saw many people with snowshoes and on the soft snow, that was probably a good idea. Cross country skis too. But, I think most of the time the “trail” is hard packed and then the snow shoes would be more hindering. If you have a choice and it has just snowed, wait a day or two or three. It will get hard packed again.
Bravo! We made it! More to follow in another post….
Cedaroma Lodge 