Christmas Trees line the ice road to Madeline Island from Bayfield, Wisconsin

Madeline Island, the most southern island of the Apostle Islands, is the only one occupied year- round. Once the lake begins to freeze over the car ferry between the island and the Bayfield mainland ceases to operate. For a time while the ice is getting thick enough for traffic, an Ice Sled water taxi (Windsled) allows passenger travel to and from the mainland. The Wind Sled is a large, covered, flat-bottomed airboat that is able to travel on the ice but will float should the ice not be thick enough to support it.

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Once the ice thickens enough to support conventional vehicles the Ice Road is officially opened to cars, trucks, and buses. The company operating the Windsled then switches to a large passenger van running on the same service schedule. With both the bus service and private vehicles able to cross the lake, the pace of activity on the island picks up abit. On our visit we found the Bell Tavern open, a grocery-convenience store doing some trade, and a few other places of business apparently operating in the winter. As you might expect, however, many of the homes and B&Bs, and several businesses, on Madeline Island were closed for the winter.

The trip across the Ice Road was an adventure and it was fun to drive around LaPointe seeing how things looked covered in snow. Tom's Burned Down Cafe was closed but the Bell Tavern was open - serving snowmobilers and people like us who traveled across the bay in their cars and trucks.