We received a warm welcome at the Visitors Centre at the Illinois-Wisconsin border.The drive from Chicago is 380km. We skillfully left Chicago by navigating up the US-41 rather than the faster I-94 to avoid paying any tolls on the Illinois Freeways, because to use just one would require us to open an account on the Illinois iPass system for $25.00, and we probably won't encounter any other tollways. Look after the pennies and maybe the dollars will look after themselves!
Rustic shed near Cana Island Lighthouse.Out of urban areas, you realise how much snow has covered this flat, northern region of the USA. Apart from the cleared roads, several feet of snow covers everything. At the Wisconsin border, now on the I-94, we called into the Visitors Centre for R&R, and got some really useful information about our visit to Door County there. The agent there could not have been more helpful, and we took his advice to ignore the determined instructions from our Garmin Navigator and drive into Sturgeon Bay via the coast road State-42. This passed through cute towns like Manitowoc, Alaska and (nearing dusk) the wonderfully beautiful Algoma with a whole park full of illuminated Christmas trees. Dark comes early in this wintery place, about 4:45pm preceded by several hours of "getting dark", so to see town lights and Christmas decorations in this light is very pretty.
Illuminated Christmas Tree lights up the night in front of Lake Michigan at the Coast Guard station near Sturgeon Bay.
Ice bound ships in the canal splitting Door County at Sturgeon Bay.We spent a day exploring the Door County peninsula, places like Egg Harbor and Baileys Harbor, covering maybe half before we ran out of time and light. Away from the coast, agriculture seems to be predominantly cherries and corn, but both crops are pretty dormant given that several feet of snow is covering absolutely everything. The cherry trees seem to be covered in unpicked cherries, giving them a strange reddish hue when viewed from a distance.
Close up of the dead cherries on their tree after weeks or months of freezing conditions.
Fishermen use giant augers to drill holes through the ice.
Fishermen can watch this gadget from a distance, e.g. the warmth of a car or tent, to see if a fish has been caught.It was in Egg Harbor that we first discovered ice fishing. Men use giant augers to drill 400mm diameter holes in ice about 300mm deep. We found a friendly guy (up from Chicago) who explained to us the processes and mechanisms they use. Basically, when a fish is snagged, a flag is triggered which lets the fisherman know. The harbours themselves all have pretty modern marinas, but all boats have been removed and placed in big storage sheds. The moving winter ice would otherwise destroy them. In Baileys Harbor, we noticed that even the marina components had been removed from the water.
Frozen Clare at the frozen Baileys Harbor.
Unable to extricate the Toyota RAV4 from a snow drift near the Range Light.We chased down several lighthouses in an attempt to photograph them. At one, the Range Light near Baileys Harbor, we got bogged in a snow drift when quickly reversing back to see the light (yes, it was Mike!). A friendly tow-truck driver eased our embarrassment for $50! It was dark by the time we got back to near Sturgeon Bay, and thus we saw three spectacular lighthouses there on the southern end of the canal in a particularly good light.
The Range Light, with it's smaller partner, enables mariners to gauge their exact bearing and distance when entering Bailey Harbor.
The Cana Island Lighthouse is approached by walking a causeway over to its island.
The Sturgeon Bay Ship Canal Lighthouse glows a red lamp.
The beautiful and unusual contruction of the North Pierhead Lightouse.
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