Whitefish Dunes State Park
Back on Feb 4 It was supposed to be up to around 40 degrees and it was.
I had wanted to finish hanging the 4th pair of planks on the Trap Skiff before I thought of paddling. A friend stopped by to look at the skiff on Saturday, so he was a welcome helping hand as I finished off the rabbit on the bow, then glued up the surfaces, hung the plank and fixed the 50 or so clamps along the 20 foot plank.
After finishing the plank, it was lunchtime and then I checked the weather forecast. Wind about mid teens from the west and temperature in the low 40’s….If I went to the Dunes or Cave point, then I would be on the eastern lee shore of Door County…perfect, little wind and few waves…I didn’t really want to be in any waves when the water is what 33 degrees?
It is about a 2.5 mile paddle along the pure sand beach, then the shore becomes rocky until Cave Point where there are a few caves to paddle in if the water is calm, otherwise you might get a headache if you enter as there is maybe 2 feet of clearance above your head.
West winds about 15. I was on the East side of the Door Peninsula and so was in the lee of the land. As long as I stayed within a quarter mile of shore, it was pretty calm.
Air, mid forties when I left at 3:30 and near freezing at 5:30 when I took out.
The Lilly Bay Boat Ramp
The boat ramp at Lilly Bay is sanded in so only hand launched boats can use it. Since the water levels of Lake Michigan fell ten years ago the ramp has been unusable for trailered boats.
Waves were less than 2 feet, some breaking waves near shore and the shallow areas.
Pretty nice for February! No shore ice at all.
So I poked along shore, did some surfing on the breaking waves occasionally as I paddled along the 2 mile sand beach toward the Dunes. I tried to go up Whitefish Dunes creek which flows from Clark’s Lake, but it just wasn’t deep enough and I grounded into the sand. The water is so much clearer in the winter…most of the summer the cladofera are pooled near the northern portion of the dunes beach and as summer progresses that part of the beach is unusable and avoided because of the smell of decaying vegetation…rip currents often form toward the northern end of the beach and swimming is prohibited in that area as several people have drowned.
Beginning of the rocky shoreline
Continuing North, the shore is increasingly rocky with the land gaining in height. The limestone Cliffs of 20 or 30 feet are rare on the east side of Door County. Lake Michigan has eroded and beaten caves into the limestone, several of which are large enough to paddle into on a Calm day…I never enter a sea cave if there is wave action…helmet or not...I love my life.
Along the cliffs of Cave Point County Park ice was dripping down the rock face,… which I had hoped to see. I don’t care for cold water, so seeing the lake in winter as a different environment from summer motivates me to paddle in the cold. Most years the weather is not conducive for winter paddles…too much shore ice and temperatures way below freezing so ice is forming on your boat and gear…that is not for me.
I posted this 6 weeks after I paddled…I’m bad…I just want to paddle and play
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