Playing Hooky

A couple weeks ago I made the now or never decision to visit the sea caves in the Apostle Islands with my fat-bike and a small group of friends. Before that... I vowed to my kids and wife that I would plan a trip there for all of us as soon as it was safe to travel.

The long walk

This boy always finds a sick that he can not live without and therefore must take home with him, we are a mile out on the lake and somehow he finds this to play with

  We had all gone to a seminar about the sea caves back in November at the Midwest Mountaineering Expo and they were pretty stoked. I felt guilty for leaving them behind on the first trip but it was such short notice that I knew another more accommodating trip would be in order. So this week we all piled into the van after school and headed for Ashland to stay the night.

How do you motivate three kids to follow you around in the cold? ....give them candy

 The next morning we got up early, ate breakfast, and made the short trip to Meyers Beach where we began the 1 mile ++ hike on the lake out to the caves. It was damn cold and windy but on the plus side we all got to skip a day of work and school. The crowd was small too, around 20 people when we left and maybe a hundred as we were headed back. This was nothing compared to the 5-6 thousand that visited the weekend before. In that respect we kind-of had the place to ourselves. We spent about three and a half hours out there exploring, a lot of which we simply rolled past on the previous trip.

If I took my jacket off and exhaled I would have fit through this....real caving 

      I was glad for my boys curiosity to stick their heads into everything they could possibly find and thoroughly check it out. This in turn got Lynn and I to follow after them (safety) and really see every nook and cranny. I was so glad we all could share in the spectacular beauty of this place together and that mother nature would hold out long enough to make it possible. It had been 10 years since I had been there last, I'm hoping it will be a lot less time for a return trip, to think that my boys will be adults by then is a sobering thought . If you have the chance, the ice is still safe right now.........GO !