It was evident that I should have not bothered to camp within the Apostle Island National Lakeshore. I left Red Cliff and arrived to the mainland backcountry campsite on the west of Sand Point about 3 pm leaving hours and hours of flat calm conditions. Perfect for some nice lighting photography of the caves of Mawikwe Bay..formerly incorrectly known as Squaw Bay. ... Anyway getting to the Clover Town Park in Herbster would also have been a bigger step towards Duluth. Yes I was eager to be home and take a break before continuing to Grand Portage where I began with Dave, Amy and Wilderness Classroom intern Dan on May 9th...to get my vehicle. There were no more 'designated camping options between Herbster and ? Duluth.. I decided somewhere near the Brule River would be a good goal for reaching Duluth the following day. The light south wind marine forecast changed to a not so nice SW 10 to 15 knot wind.. Basically a headwind....waves 2 feet or less with condition ranging from calm to nearly 2 feet. I kept plugging away at it despite my injured shoulder. It wasn't the biggest day miles wise but it was a 12 hour day..minus a long 1 hour and 40 minute lunch break at the Clover Town Park in Herbster. I stopped briefly one other time to refill my water bottle. I thought about how without my overuse injuries doing big days with the long summer hours makes sense. Due to the headwind I think the distance was only about 30 miles.. My longest miles day was about 43 and that was about a 9.5 hour day. Camping at the Bois Brule River...(stealth camping as it were) left me about 21 miles to my house in Duluth.
As it turned out the SW wind had waves where I was camped creating difficulty with my stern first skeg deployed launch required with my problematic gravity drop skeged Necky .. I took on a fair amount of water and actually forgot to pull the skeg down so began the day heading down the beach to the more protected corner. These are from before heading around the corner and at the very end I just paddled off to the point creating the bay since it was all choppy reflecting wave actin with no chance at photos and I've seen these caves several times.
Still protected..
Me without hat..
Heading toward Roman's Point
At Roman's Point
More of Roman's Point formations
Bark Point
Where I took my long lunch... Herbster's Clover Town Park
On toward Port Wing
My refill water bottle break.. Private property as it turned out...
On toward the Bois Brule River...late in the day
Stealth camping near the Brule....
Another sunset over Minnesota
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