Love Our Lakeshore: Where unpredictable, incredible memories are made

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Written by Friends of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore

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Love Our Lakeshore | News

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March 11, 2025

During this challenging time of change for our nation and for our national parks, Friends of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore wants to shine a bright light – a lighthouse beacon if you will – on this very special place and on the people dedicated to protecting the national lakeshore for future generations. That’s the goal of our series entitled “Love our Lakeshore.” (You can tell us why you Love Our Lakeshore by filling out our simple form at this link.)

In this report a paddler from southern Wisconsin shares an unpredictable, once in a lifetime event that’s now a lasting memory.

We met all kinds of people who love to paddle their kayaks, during the Canoecopia paddlesports show in Madison last weekend. Some wanted to know all about what it takes to paddle the islands and the sea caves safely.

Others, including our own board member Neil Howk shared wonderful stories about why they Love Our Lakeshore. Neil talked with Owen Murphy of Sauk City, Wisconsin about Murphy’s incredible experience on the water.

I love our lakeshore because of the birds, beaches and blueberries

Friends board member Neil Howk at Canoecopia

Neil: I understand you have paddled in the Apostle Islands quite a bit.

Owen: Yes. My friend and I have been taking kayak trips in the Apostle Islands since 2018. We’ve been to eleven of the islands and six of the lighthouses.

Neil: I understand that last year you were out to Devils Island and had an interesting journey on the way back.

Owen: We were paddling last summer and it was a perfectly calm day, so we got out to Devils Island and spent the morning going through the sea caves. Because the conditions were so good we decided we were going to do the large crossing from Devils Island to Sand Island, which is probably 8 or 9 miles and about 5 miles offshore. About halfway through that trip as I was paddling, a hawk was flying right at my head looking me straight in the eye and I didn’t know what was going to happen. It went right over my head.

It turns out that what it was doing was it got too far out into Lake Superior and was really tired so it actually flapped its wings and very carefully landed on the top of my head! I didn’t feel it at first and my buddy said, “there’s a hawk on your head!” And I’m like, “what?” And then I could start feeling its talons through my hat. And basically what happened was that the hawk had gotten so far out and it was tired and it needed to take a break and find a place to land. Apparently, my head was the place that it chose to do that.

So it stayed on my head for a little while, probably like 10 or 15 minutes. I shot some pictures. Then it hopped off onto the back of my kayak, rode for a little bit longer, then flew off. It was a pretty amazing, one in a million experience.

Neil: What time of year did this happen?

Owen: It was in the middle of August. It was coming from the west, maybe from Sand Island when I saw it. We were by York and Sand and it was coming from the west.

Neil: Thanks a lot for sharing your story. It’s amazing.

Editor’s note: Large hawks, like the immature Red-tailed hawk in this story, generally avoid flying long distances over large bodies of water like Lake Superior. These birds like to soar on updrafts of warm air which are absent over large bodies of cold water. If these birds get blown too far out over the lake, they eventually tire and drown in the lake. Hopefully this bird rested enough to fly back to shore. If you have a story about your adventure in the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, we’d love to know about it. You can tell us why you Love Our Lakeshore by filling out the form at this link.

Neil Howk began working as a park ranger/interpreter for the National Park Service in 1978. He worked at a number of different parks over the years and served as the assistant chief of interpretation at Apostle Islands National Lakeshore from 1993-2016. He now serves as a board member of Friends of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore.