Canoeing the Apostle Islands

Apparently due to my Jewish upbringing, I never learned that to say the word 'Apostle', you do not accentuate the T. Unfortunately, this was not brought to my attention until after we were done with our 12-day canoe trip through these islands, but whatcha gonna do. The islands were named so because it was thought that there were at least twelve of them, like the twelve apostles (I had heard of them, pronunciation aside). Turns out there are actually 21 islands included in the National Lakeshore. Off the top of my head, they are named: Long, Rocky, Outer, Cat, Bear, Hermit, Stockton, Oak, Raspberry, Sand, Basswood, South Twin, North Twin, Devil's, Manitou... sadly there is not a good mnemonic device for remembering them... so that's all I got for now.

My favorite thing that I learned about the flora and fauna of the islands regards the black bear populations. A couple of the islands are the most densely populated black bear regions in the country, because their area is just tiny and they have a lot of bears. For example, Stockton Island used to be the most densely populated, but then two bears swam to Oak Island and the title shifted accordingly. Funny, huh?

Good place for a swim, eh?

But way more exciting than bears... wait for it... AMPHIBIANS!!!!
Of the six species of frogs and toads in the Apostles, I saw all of them. And tried to hold as many of them as I could. Cynthia and I have often talked about how we have an amphibian catching problem. No matter how many times we have caught a dusky salamander in the stream, we HAVE to catch one if we see it. Even though we know exactly how it will feel, and even though we know it's not really good for them to be handled. It's slightly problematic, but as problems go, I think it's an ok problem to have. Plus they are sooooo cuuute!