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We had some really cold weather in early January.  Nighttime lows were well below zero and daytime highs only reached single digits.  So, what to do?  Go north!

Every summer my wife and I vacation with family and friends on Washington Island, a tiny island off the tip of the Door County peninsula in Wisconsin.  It sits between the waters of Green Bay to the west and Lake Michigan to the east and north.  After decades of summer vacations, I finally decided I’d like to see the island in the winter, so a couple weeks ago we packed our bags and headed north.

Although Door County actually begins much further south, in my mind it begins when Highway 42 gently curves down into Egg Harbor and Green Bay comes into view.  In the summer, this is where you start to encounter crowds of tourists. In January, however, we had the road almost to ourselves.  It was unusual to drive through nearly deserted towns, but we recognized each one and knew which one was coming next — Fish Creek, Ephraim, Sister Bay, Ellison Bay, Gill’s Rock, and finally, at the end of a curvy wooded road, the ferry dock at Northport.  We stopped several times along the way to view the frozen scenery, but had to pay attention to the time.  In the winter, the ferry only leaves for the Island at 9:30 AM and 2:30 PM. We were required to make a reservation and did not want to miss the boat.

We arrived at the ferry dock with plenty of time to spare. A strong wind was blowing from west to east across the channel, known as “Death’s Door,” but the lake didn’t look too rough. The ferry, the Arni J. Richter, arrived at about 1:30.  We sat in the car to keep warm while it was unloaded.  Except for the short line and the cold air, it was just like summer.  We were finally waved ahead and drove onto the ferry.  There were only a few empty spaces on deck when the ramp was raised at 2:30.  The engines fired up and the ferry pushed its way through the surrounding ice and headed towards the island.

The icy wind blew steadily.  There were two warm passenger lounges available but the windows were dirty and riding inside removed us from the experience.  So, we walked around on deck until we found a place out of the wind where we wa-wa-watched the ice and en-joy-joy-joyed the ride.  After a while we both noticed that something was different; the ferry was apparently taking a different route.  Later we were told that in the winter, instead of passing to the east of Plum Island, the ferry follows the western shore to avoid the shove ice that builds up on the other side.

There wasn’t much ice in the main channel.  Some of it was in flat sheets or large floating blocks.  When the ferry hit the ice the boat shook and a loud grinding noise could be heard as the ice was crushed.  In some locations the water was covered with a myriad of small balls of ice.  They were easily pushed aside as the boat passed.  As we approached Detroit Harbor the ice soon covered most of the surface and the ferry crushed its way towards the dock.  Before it could tie up, however, the pilot had to move the boat back and forth to break up and shove the ice away from the dock. It reminded me of what we do when the car gets stuck in the snow.  As we drove off we could see that the other ferries in the island fleet — the Eyrarbakki, Robert Noble, and Washington — were tied up and frozen in for the winter.

After a long, cold ride it was time to for a warm place to spend the night.