The Wrath of Lake Superior
My Paddle Experience to the Devil's Island Sea Caves
Lake Superior is the largest of the Great Lakes and the largest freshwater lake. It is called The “Big Sea” in the Ojibwe language because of its characteristics. The lake has its own weather patterns that can change at any short notice and that’s exactly how I faced the wrath of Lake Superior.
I spent the summer being a sea kayak guide on the water of Lake Superior. My home base was Little Sand Bay, a bay west of the town of Bayfield. It is directly across from Sand Island. With my days off three other guides and I decided to adventure out to the islands to enjoy more sea caves and cowboy camp.
In the late morning we launched from Little Sand Bay to make our way to Bear Island. Our paddle started with Sand Island in sight across from shore, then we weaved in between York Island and Raspberry Island. Due to a storm and lightning rolling in we beached our two kayaks at York Island to wait out the storm. We continued on our paddle wrapping around the northeast side of Bear Island to land on the sandy beach area. Here is where we cowboy camped. Our paddle was around 14 miles.
We took a much needed beach on the beach, setting up our campsite and taking a dip in the water. Then headed out to the breathtaking sea caves located on Devils Island, about 4.5 miles from Bear Island. We weaved in and out of the sea caves as the sun slowly lowered in the horizon. The Apostle Islands Cruise tour passed us, enjoying the sea caves from a different kind of boat. We made sure to wave and smile for all of their photos. As the sun set we enjoyed our dinner around the campfire, bear proofed our camp and then hit the hay.
The next morning we took our time enjoying breakfast and morning dips while listening to the VHF radio about the weather for the day. With clear blue skies we were sure to have a swift paddle back. We started off strong, rounding Bear Island and passing Raspberry Island before a storm front of wind, rain and lightning came into view.
It seemed to come out of nowhere and soon we were feeling the power of the big sea. 3-foot waves caused us to lose sight of the kayak in front of us. Our placement in between York and the mainland had us questioning which shore we should go to take shelter. We paddle hard, but we were no match for the wrath of the lake and knew with lightning surrounding we needed to be anywhere but on the water.
We veered for the mainland hoping to find a sandy place to land. Squinting our eyes we caught a glimpse of yellow flashing on land. The other kayak had beached on shore and tied a yellow paddle float on their paddle, waving it back and forth to catch our attention. We finally made it to shore, crashing in with the waves. We sat in silence being pelted with rain, trying to calm our adrenaline. Within 20 minutes the sky cleared and the sun was back shining as if it never left. We left our little sandy spot to finish the paddle back to Little Sand Bay. I finally understand why it is called the “Big Sea” and I won’t forget it.
