What is the “safety plea” in the headline? Nothing more than a teaser designed to get us to read the article.
The government is not responsible for people who do foolish things and put themselves in danger. Your family is very important to you. Don’t risk losing it by going out on a stupid kayak just because it has a funny name and will sound good in a facebook posting.
Krumenaker, whose staff assisted with the rescue efforts, said the Apostle Islands are mostly undeveloped and forested, with rocky shorelines and long distances between each island.
“Some of the places that people want to go kayaking are incredibly attractive but also deceptively dangerous,” he said. “This particular incident happened in a place that is not often traversed by people on kayaks, and for good reason.”
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The safety plea is don’t do what these people did.
I took my wife and two sons (14 and 10) there mid august of 94. We paid for the ferry to haul us out to Stockton island where we camped a couple nights. The shallow bay was tolerable for swimming in the hot afternoon sun for maybe 15 minutes max. It was probably 10 degrees warmer than the deep water. It was interesting walking the island coastline and seeing where brown sandstone had been cut out and shipped for buildings far away.
I remember thinking on the ride out to the island that it was farther away that it seemed. There were no buildings on it to help give perspective of the distance we had to travel to reach it. Once there we noticed a couple arrive to the island using about a 14’ jonboat with probably at least a 35 hp motor. That seemed small to me, but my boating experience was and still is minimal.
I know my wife shed a few tears reading story online Saturday evening. Very sad.