La Pointe, WI

According to information provided by some friends (and verified on the Web), the ice caves at the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore are now open and accessible.

Park rangers have reportedly cored the ice between the caves and Meyers Beach, and have found the ice thick enough to accomodate tourist traffic.

The ice caves are awesome and beautiful! You'll need a parking permit or 2009 seasonal pass in order to bring your vehicle into the Meyers Beach lot. You can call the Visitor Center at (715) 779-3398 x399 to verify if the lot is open for parking and to obtain price information.

Bring a camera or two and dress warmly..it can be extremely cold this time of year in the Apostle Islands! You'll have to walk approximately a mile across the frozen beach and lake ice to reach the Mawikwe caves.

I guarantee it's worth the trip and the effort.

Here's an update on the current condition of the ice road between Bayfield, Wisconsin and Madeline Island.

According to the ice road "Hotline", the road was plowed last Thursday. I'm told the ice is now safe for cars and light trucks and the ice thickness will increase now that some of the snow has been removed from the ice surface.

Accumulating snow may have the effect of insulating the ice from the cold air above it, slowing the increase in ice thickness. The folks who maintain the ice road make an effort to keep the ice plowed once it has grown thick enough to support vehicles.

I plan to drive the ice road this coming week and I plan to upload a Flip video of that trip!

I spoke with my friend Steve McHugh (owner of the new Bell Street Gallery) around Noon today and he informed me that the "ice road" between Bayfield, Wisconsin and Madeline Island opened this morning.

Steve said the ice road is currently open to "cars and light trucks".

Aft view of the windsled "Ice Angel IV" near Madeline Island

A midday call to the Windsled Transportation Hotline (715-747-5400) didn't announce the ice road opening, but the recorded message is supposed to be updated later today.

I'd strongly suggest re-checking the Windsled Hotline number before you schedule a trip across the ice in your vehicle. You may also want to call Arnie Nelson (Nelson Construction in LaPointe) at 715-747-3300.

Winter has arrived in a big way on Madeline Island.

Approach to the ice road on Madeline Island

On New Year's Day, the Madeline Island Ferry Line made its last trip before freeze-up, slogging through the slushy passageway which threaded through the forming ice between Bayfield and La Pointe, Wisconsin. The much-anticipated ice road is now forming across the two miles of Lake Superior that connects the mainland with the Island. And Islanders are thrilled about it. They see the ice road as a bonus, something that saves them from the expense of ferry (and windsled) fees.

Within the past few days, the Island has received over a foot of snow. And over the New Year's holiday, nighttime temperatures were as low as -10 F. Now, shrouded in white, Madeline Island is settling into its winter routine.

Until this season's ice road oficially opens, Islanders will be choosing between snowmobiles and the windsled for transportation options. But this year's transition between ferry service and the ice road could be one of the shortest in recent memory.

One of my Islander friends told me he's predicting that the ice road will be in by the tenth of January. A few others are saying it will be more like mid-month, but that is still considerably earlier than last year when it took nearly until the middle of February for the ice road to open to cars and light trucks.

Stay tuned and we'll keep you up-to-date on the opening of the 2009 ice road!

A recent University of Minnesota Duluth study claims that Lake Superior is a prime example of global warming and its effects.

The "ice road" to Madeline Island begins to break up in Spring of each year.

According to a recent article in the Duluth News-Tribune, the Lake Superior winter ice cover has, in general, diminished over the last thirty years, with a corresponding rise in average lake water temperature. And another study by a local Bayfield resident who researched weather data back to 1857 claims that today we are seeing an average of forty-five fewer ice-covered days in our area of Chequamegon Bay than there were in the mid-1800s.

The article goes on to send a warning about the future of the winter ice cover between Bayfield and LaPointe, suggesting (if the purported trend continues) that by around 2040 there will be virtually no days of solid ice cover between the mainland and Madeline Island.

Is is a bit premature to sound the alarm about diminishing Lake Superior ice?

You might not put a lot of stock in either of these studies based on the ice situation last year and this year. At the beginning of March 2008, we had nearly thirty inches of ice in some spots between Bayfield and Madeline Island.

This season, we're experiencing a rather early freeze-up. The Madeline Island Ferry Line shut down operations on New Year's Day and it looks like we'll have an ice road soon.

At stake is the future of the "ice road" between Bayfield and Madeline Island. In many ways, winter ice thick enough to support cars and light trucks is a huge economic benefit to Islanders and visitors. It provides local residents with a brief holiday from paying ferry fees. And it also offers the freedom to come and go around the clock, rather than being tied to a transportation schedule, provided that the ice is thick enough and in good shape.

Is the reduced number of ice-covered days a long-term trend or merely a cyclic event? The thirty-year study seems to me to be an inadequate time period in order to establish a definite pattern. More research is likely needed to determine if the Chequamegon Bay ice situation is as serious as these studies suggest.