Do We Have To Burn Fossil Fuel To Have Fun? What Can We Do About It?
For over 100 years, Midwesterners have been traveling to Northern Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Michigan to beat the oppressive heat in the summers and go swimming, boating, and fishing. In the early 20th century, they traveled by train because driving the miserable gravel roads was the only alternative. At the time, air conditioning was not prevalent and temperatures during the day and at night “up north” are cool enough to be very pleasant. No one up north had central air conditioning. There were numerous resorts on the thousands of lakes up north where dipping in the lake, canoeing, fishing, and row boating helped pass the time. In the early 20th century here, there was no electricity or indoor plumbing and the toilet was the out-house. You could only get out on the lakes in a rowboat or canoe. The environmental footprint of the vacationers at the time was very low.
Our cabin in Three Lakes, Wisconsin, was built by a wealthy Chicago businessman in 1920. When we purchased it in 1990, it had electricity, but no running water and only a hand pump at the kitchen sink. The only toilet was a two-hole outhouse in the front yard.
Today, vacationers and summer residents swarm up here on Interstate highways driving SUVs and Ford F-150, Dodge Ram, and Chevy Silverado pickup trucks towing boats and huge travel trailers.
On the water, many people are driving float-boats and “fishing” boats powered by outboards as big as 350 hp or jet skis that swarm the lakes at speeds of up to 70 mph.
I like to call the wakeboard boats loaded with friends and water sacks to make huge wakes for wakeboarding or surfing “small destroyers.”
On the roads, many own monstrous SUVs like the Ford Excursion and Cadillac Escalade as well as huge pickup trucks. You never know when you will have to pick up a ¼ lb box of finishing nails at Home Depot or will need seats for 6+ or will have to tow a huge wakeboard boat or 45 ft travel trailer. The other official car of the Northwoods is a regular size SUV.
Also, on the roads and swarming through the woods are thousands of ATVs burning gasoline and sounding like Harley-Davidsons.
Greening of the Northwoods
What are we going to do to have fun in the future without burning fossil fuel?
Kayaks and canoes are extremely popular in the Northwoods. Canoes are still popular for carrying all the gear for camping where motor boats are forbidden, and the latest are made from Kevlar for easy portaging.
The first real advances in green transportation are EVs like my Tesla Model 3 and Nell’s Model Y (see picture below) that are showing up in the Northwoods. I can count 6 Teslas on just our short Bonkowski Road here that either spend the whole summer or come for short visits with their owners. The owner of the Three Lakes Winery has a Tesla Model S Performance and has installed four L2 chargers in the parking lot of his store. Tesla recently installed a Supercharger in Minocqua 40 miles west of here that opens up a great deal of Northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to Tesla travel. With Ford, GM, Rivian, Volvo, and others soon to follow using the Tesla NACS Supercharger standard, Northwoods travel will become open to most EVs.
As you can see, though, there are a multiplicity of recreational devices that will have to be switched to electric propulsion. The only one that I have seen “in the wild” is the electric surfboard shown here:
Otherwise, the shift to electric propulsion is more a promise than a reality. Taiga has released a line of electric jet skis (see pic below) and plans to release a model for only $14,000 soon.
You can buy a Correct Craft electric wakeboard boat for $250,000, but they have a runtime of only 2 hours and we have yet to see one.
Mercury has developed an electric outboard motor (see its 7.5e 3.5 hp below) and has promised to develop a complete lineup of electric outboards, but you won’t see one at your local marine dealer yet. Other European brands are selling electric outboard models up to 350 hp, but they are not stocked by local dealers and you can’t easily buy one.
Polaris has an electric Ranger XT ATV that has received rave reviews, but the dealer here in Eagle River didn’t order any in time, so we have yet to see one here. I can’t wait to switch from our balky 15 hp Mercury two-cycle gas outboard motor, but my family doesn’t see the only alternative, a 2.5 hp Minn Kota trolling motor with a tiller, to be an adequate replacement. We spent 9 weeks and $600 on repairs for the Mercury two years ago and it is back in the shop again.
The good news: For the first time, this year, we are seeing other EV brands here in the Northwoods besides Teslas. The small-town Eagle River Ford dealer has two Mustang Mach-Es and a F-150 Lightning pickup truck. These are the first EVs to be stocked at any of the local dealerships. The salesman said they have yet to make a local sale but have sold their Mustang Mach-Es in California and Florida. I also spotted a Rivian electric SUV charging at the Three Lakes Winery Parking Lot (see below).
Next year, I hope to report on more EV brands and recreational devices that have switched to electric propulsion. Please let me know in the comments section if you have observed any recreational greening up north or in other areas of the country.
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