Devils Day 1

Note: These bits in italics are information added in 2007. The info in plain text is the transcript of my volunteer log entries. The Island volunteers create an entry in the log each day of their activities and observations. The log books are kept at the station as a reference for future volunteers.
Friday, July 8^th, 2005

I arrived on Devil’s Island today for the first time. Boat ride was uneventful with a stop on Raspberry to drop off passengers. Naturalist and rangers gave me an update on Devil’s wildlife before they were dropped off. No bear, deer, or beavers currently active, as far as we know. Owls have been reported moving south from Canada due to heavy winters there.

This is my 4^th summer volunteering in the Apostles but my first time on Devil’s. Devil’s has traditionally been staffed by one volunteer, Mike Armstrong, who came for the entire season. For reasons unknown, he is not coming, so I will have to deal with all the questions about “Where’s Mike?” I plan to do lots of photography, but also brought a video camera for the first time.

I arrive with a bit of sadness because my father enters hospice care today. I spent a week with my parents, in nursing care, on my way here. I spent as much time as I could bringing my mother to my father’s side so they could eat and visit together. Though his condition was stable and he could be around for a long time yet, I said good bye to him and hope he is well and comfortable. On the positive side, the move is to get him out of a 3 month cycle of nursing care and hospitals and into the comfort of a home setting at my sister Theresa’s. Though I feel a twinge of guilt being here and not helping the family, I’m sure my father would do the same. He was never one to hesitate to head off on a new adventure, taking me fishing, hunting and on world travels. At the age of 64 they just up and bought a golf course on a whim.

Anyway, back to Devil’s…. Mark Swaya was here to greet me. I followed him on Outer Island as well and as usual his preparations and instructions were very useful. My supervisor, Susan Mackreth, took me on a tour of all the systems, facilities and paperwork before we finally made it up the light tower. The lens is in rough shape but is still a beautiful gem. They have added cotton aprons for visitors to wear to help protect the lens. It is a 3^rd order Fresnel. It is a flashing type, so it is made up of 8 sections and is about a 4 feet across and 6 feet high piece of intricate glasswork.

Mark and Susan left and I proceeded to haul up the rest of my gear when I was met by a group of 6 from a Minocqua girl’s camp out for a 3 day sail so I got to practice my presentation without having many of the facts down yet. After a quick lunch, gave a tour to 4 guys from the twin cities. At 4:30 I took a hike to the south end of the island, about a mile walk. Mark Swaya had told me there were no bugs on the island, but he is a lying sack of something. The trail was infested with mosquitoes. The center of the island is mostly bog. While the sunset was unremarkable, I had fun bush-whacking along the north rocks hunting for “photo opportunities”.

Note: The Devil's Keepers quarters are pretty plush by wilderness and park standards. The quarters are outfitted with propane refrigerator and stove and limited plumbing and electrical systems. A solar powered system provides a 12 volt system that charges radio batteries (other stations have to rely on battery deliveries) and powers two small lights, one in the kitchen and one in the bathroom. A larger 36 volt system powers the water pump and septic tank pump. Still, according to past logs, a series of heavy overcast days can send the whole system down.