Washington/Rock Island

[Barry Butrymowicz]

We are planning a trip to Washington Island and possibly Rock Island this weekend, We would like to get all the caches up there in one day, I think getting Washington Island is do able, but the ferry to Rock Island runs every 3 hours, is it possible to grab all the Rock Island caches in 3 hours?

Thanks for any info

Barry of sweetlife

[gotta run]

I don’t think so. It’s a pretty long walk with some doubling back.

You could put on your trail shoes and do a bataan death march, but why not take the time to enjoy the island? Gives you a reason to come back too.

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[JimandLinda]

I agree with gotta run. Only foot traffic is allowed on Rock island, and the farthest cache is a minimum of 3 1/2 miles, round trip.
jjcool719 and I did all 19 on both islands. Some are tough hides, too, especially the new ones. What took the longest was waiting for the ferries. There is a limit on cars and passengers. If you miss out, you must wait for the next available ferry. You might be able to do Rock Island in 3 hours, but you would miss alot of nature and history. If your going to pay the fees, get your money’s worth!
We left Oshkosh at 6:00 AM, and returned at 10:30 PM. We had about 5 1/2 hours to and from the Washington Island ferry. We did grab a few in Door County that were roadside caches, so we did about 30 on the day. Near perfect weather was a plus, too. Any warmer, and we would have struggled to get them all.
Take some water for Rock Island. It will come in handy.

[Astro_D]

I don’t think you could do it. If you did, I don’t think it would be that enjoyable. The trails on Rock Island especially the eastern end, are rugged and uneven. You have to contend with ferry schedules – and they don’t wait around for people – which means, there may be quite a bit of rushing to ensure you’re not spending the night! If you are into letterboxing, I think there are one or two on Rock Island in addition to the caches. (I came across one back in June this year).

On our way to the first Rock Island Getaway years ago, we grabbed the 8AM ferry to Washington and the 1:00 ferry to Rock. We pushed to get the 4 or 5 caches on Washington, grab lunch and making it in time to get our gear and ourselves in line to the ferry to Rock. We had all the next day to grab the caches on Rock (2 or 3) and it took a good part of the day – as they were located on the far end of the Island and the walks were quite long (1-2 miles) and the hides pretty damend good! That could of been the tree cover and the crappy GPSr we had at the time though. Not the large group we were with 🙂

If you give it a go, post about it. I’d be interested to see how long it takes and how many caches can be found.

[gotta run]

Thinking back to our trip, we were able to do all the Rock Island caches in a day, but that is because we managed to take the FIRST ferry from Wash. Island to Rock Island. We flew into the Wash. Island airport which definitely cut time off the driving part of that trip!

We were there all day, catching the last ferry. That allowed us time for a leisurely pace, some lunch, exploring the museum on the island, and also giving the kids some beach time.

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