#23 Going to Apostle Islands and seeing major flood damage

When we got to looking for a place for the Apostle islands I thought I would check out Madeline Island which is one of the Apostle islands with RV sites. It was like about $36 to camp over there and about a $80 Ferry fee for the RV and it was just too much. I can't even imagine how we would fit on the ferry anyway. I looked around and there was a place in the National Forest and it was $12. It was 10 miles to the left of Washburn Wisconsin. We headed there and it should have taken 3 hours. I think it was more like 6 hours by time we were done.

When we got to Ironwood Mi I noticed the lake had a lot of debris and it looked like high winds or a tornado had come through. I pulled over and at a gas station and asked what had happened. I was told that a few days back they had received about 12 inches of rain in one overnight period. Almost all the roads in the county were washed out . Here is a picture of the damages.

All the roads in red is closed/ washed out making travel a challenge

We took a cruise that showed us all the Apostle islands. It all kind of reminded me of the Boston Harbor Islands. The one that was the most photographed was called Devil's Island. It had the most interesting / beautiful carved rocks and caves.

At some point I had missed one of the detour signs and ended up on a closed road and so I asked some local folks for advice. They gave me the dirt road solution. I am quite a sight being 60 feet long wandering down 5 miles of dirt roads in dairy country but the directions were accurate and their kindness saved us 20 miles of back tracking. As we finally got back to civilization ( asphalt ) there were two little kids out in the middle of no where selling overpriced lemonade. I had to stop and support the cause and although it was sweet as honeybee food it hit the spot.

When we got to the campground it was just too beautiful. It was called Twin Lakes campground in and it was about 2 miles down a dirt road off the paved road. When we left Pictured rocks , I left with an 10 % fresh water tank. I figured less weight would offer better gas mileage. When we arrived at Twin Lakes I figured I would fill my water tank and dump sewage. I was told right away they don’t have that here. We found ourselves settled in for two nights with no water. As I was picking my site I picked the one that seemed nice and as close to a hand operated well pump as possible.

The next day I thought of all kinds of scenarios of how to get water into my tanks and all of them were pretty bad. I took two hose pipes and I duct taped one end to the hand pump and the other in to my fresh water tank fill and started pumping. The tank holds 55 gallons and it took about a 1/2 hour.

India and I went to a nice church service at a Methodist Church. It was a small congregation and they had been affected by the flood a lot. After the service we talked to a gentleman and discussed how the blueberries were easy to find right now. I had asked India to keep on eye out of we turned. down the National Forest Road for blueberry Bushes. We didn't see anything. We kept driving and we saw a lady on the side of the road for the bucket she said they were not bushes or trees. they grow about in inch off the ground and it was like the woods were carpeted with blueberries. Weirdest thing.

As we left the Apostle islands we were heading to St. Paul which I thought was 3 hours away or at least it appeared to be on the GPS. It was more like 5 hours but these things happen. We also crossed over a time zone so it might even 6, not sure.