The Joy (?) of More Winter (?)

A week ago, Len and I took our vaccinated selves on a 3-day “Born to Run” road trip. We drove six hours north to Ashland, WI, which is on the Chequamegon Bay, which is on Lake Superior. Because everyone wants to rock out the end of a Wisconsin winter by going north to have more of it, right?

We stayed at the motel we always stay in. They no longer clean your room each day and the “breakfast included” is now cups of fruit and yogurt that you can take back to your room. Whatever. No one goes to a Super 8 for pampering. We ate both evenings at the Deepwater Grill which we highly revere and had sorely missed. They observed protocols and we wore masks except while we were eating. (Things you should eat at the Deepwater: burgers, any of their fish- it’s caught locally, mushroom and wild rice soup, their South Shore Brewery beer.)

It was both ordinary and extraordinary being back inside a restaurant. It felt safe, which is how places feel when a threat is invisible and consequences won’t appear for days. It was so, so, so lovely to sit, talk about the day, eat tasty food, and groove to the hum of other humans. Kinda felt like we were cheating on all of you.

But the best thing is this. We love Ashland because we love to hike. This was pretty early in the season and the hikes were icy-to-icier. After the hike that I did partially on my bottom in order to not fall over, we stopped at a hardware store in Washburn to buy crampons for our boots. (Can one buy crampons in a hardware store in Chicago? I bet not.) It took 26 years in Wisconsin to finally buy crampons. (Crampons are cleats you pull over your shoes or boots to help grip the ice.) They work marvelously.

Len took these photos. The weather was crisp and icy and as sheerly beautiful as glass art in a sunny museum.

The hike to the Ice Caves was closed because there had been recent thawing and it was apparently deemed unsafe. Then again, there was an ice fishing contest going on over the weekend; we saw cars, trucks, and full-sized trailers on the ice of Chequamegon Bay. And there is a PLOWED “road” on the ice between Bayfield and Madeline island. We didn’t drive on it.

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That’s the ice road to Madeline Island. Madeline Island is the spiritual home of Lake Superior Chippewa since long before Europeans showed up and French fur traders built a fort here in 1660. Jesuit Missionaries Marquette and Allouez established a mission here in 1663. (Those two guys impress me. I wrote about them here. ) 

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Copper Falls State Park. This is Brownstone Falls where the Bad River and Tyler Forks River crash into and around each other. In the summer you can hear the roar of the falls from the parking lot which is a quarter mile away.

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 This is where springs outfall to and through a ravine on their way to Lake Superior. It’s on the Houghton Falls hike just north of Washburn. If you go this way, don’t miss this hike. It’s less than a mile from parking lot to lake and is not – usually - treacherous.

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The sky at night when one is not in a city.