The Buffalo Bay Campground on the Red Cliff Indian Reservation was our base for exploring Bayfield and the Apostle Islands. Our campsite had a view of the lake and Basswood Island and we finally had a campfire - our first of the whole trip!
Bayfield is a nice town with the typical cute shops and restaurants. It is also an orchard area, and the home of the ferry service to Madeline Island. Madeline Island is 3 miles wide and 14 miles long and is 2.5 miles from Bayfield. The ferry service is only seasonal. In the winter, once freeze up hits, you can drive to the island across the ice! Less than a thousand people live on the island fulltime, but they can get a few thousand tourists on a summer day.
We spent a long day on Madeline Island, kayaking in Lake Superior and a river estuary. The morning weather was cloudy and breezy, but still warm and muggy. I accomplished my swim in Lake Superior following our kayaking excursion. The sun came out in the afternoon and after a great lunch (with wine) I was able to talk Mary into renting mopeds. We rented both a Honda Ruckus and Yamaha Zuma. Our favorite was the Zuma. I think Mary actually had a little fun on the motorbikes; she was even exceeding 30 mph! Maybe there are motorcycles in our future after all? The island has a very unique bar/café called Tom’s Burned Down Café. It looks like a junk recycling station, but seems to be a pretty popular hangout.
This area would be a great place to spend time on a boat exploring around the islands and shorelines. It is still hard not to think of these bodies of water as oceans. The water is clear and changes color with the depth and bottom types, and when the wind is up there are even waves on the rocky shorelines and sandy beaches.
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