USA Travel Magazine

Rock Island is a Wisconsin state park and it is only right that a ranger should be here on a day like this. His shift had just begun. The rangers pull something like four days on island to three days off. We were lucky enough that our trip ended on the day he returned. He was a grizzled old man who said very little to us. We didn’t have to explain much to him of our situation either; he just knew what our problem was and immediately we began loading the Zodiak, hooking kayaks behind it, and off went the first wave of us to the looming safety of Washington Island.

I was in the second wave of escapees, and as we bounded over the white caps heading for our cars and dryer times, I watched my friend Jared in the distance, braving the frigid waters and waves, rain beating down over his paddling and huddled torso, because he couldn’t call it a vacation if he was rescued, and he couldn’t call it an adventure if it ended on a boat that motored into shore. He aimed his bow into the waves, hardly paddled on his starboard, because the current through Jackson Harbor was too intense, leaving ships in the past strewn across the rocks separating Washington and Rock island. Jared came to shore just fine that day, as we all had expected; we loaded up our cars, changed into dryer clothes and went on our way to finding the ferry back to Door County.

My bliss was inherited when we weathered this storm for nearly a day before we were rescued. Bored with a boat house made of stone, we hiked about, and although some of us were worried about not returning to school on time for our classes, life couldn’t have been better. In an intense situation, where time could have dragged on miserably, we huddled together, spoke of our impending plans, how we might get off the island, or how long we might stay. None of us fretted, only wondered what was coming next. I felt like I could weather any storm as long as they were all by my side. I found bliss in my company and in the unknown circumstances that hounded us all, but most of all, in the adventure that can be fall.