Wednesday, August 4, 2010

JULY 25 2010, Strawberry Islands

Sunday morning I headed up North toward Fish Creek, WI with the intention of going out to Chambers Island…touching the spit on the SE shore.

I entered Peninsula Park at the southern end and drove past Weborg’s Point. Just past Weborg’s campground there is a parking lot for hikers and bikers of the Skyline trail.

There was fairly easy access down some rocky stairs to the water, so I decided to put in.

Water…70, wind light and variable from the SW.

I headed out toward the buoy that marks the outer end of the gravel reef that extends close to a mile from the SE Point of Chambers Island.

The most dangerous portion of paddling in these waters is the power boaters.

On weekends and some evenings there is a constant stream of high speed boat traffic running between Fish Creek and Ephraim. Usually traffic is less in the evenings and early morning. This morning wasn’t too bad, a few sailboats and a couple power boats.

Who has right of way? If it is bigger, faster, I try to stay out of the way.


There is a gravel shoal just South of Adventure Island, so I was going toward the buoy, then heading for Chambers Island. The return would take me past that shoal and Adventure Island. Didn’t work out that way…the wind was very light, water flat and well the paddle would have been long and monotonous, so I stopped at the buoy, then over to the shoal and watched the couple dozen pelicans preening themselves, paddled near as I could without making them nervous, then just drifted and observed…they didn’t seem too bothered by my presence. I then headed to Adventure, rounded the Island and started back to the mainland. I saw a few kayakers in Tennison Bay, which is N of where I started, so I hit the shore side there and headed south, they were all just folks on vacation, staying near shore bumming around…no lifejackets or spray skirts.

White Pelican and Adventure island
I was back to the vehicle about noon.

Summer is going fast. It takes so long for the air and water to warm, summer doesn’t seem to begin until the 4th of July and by Labor Day, there are not many warm days left and it is back to the wetsuit/drysuit by the end of September.

No comments:

Post a Comment