Sean Kennedy
The shadows are lengthening, but the sun is still high overhead when we nose our boat onto “Gilligan’s Island.”
It’s not really an island. It’s a sandbar, maybe a hundred yards long, just under the waters of the Yahara River at Upper Mud Lake. You’ve probably seen it before, even if you don’t have a boat — it’s easily visible from the Beltline, just south of the highway in Capital Springs State Recreation Area.
Every summer weekend, it’s packed with boats. Today is no different. Probably 20 boats and 75 people. Most of them are knee-deep in the water, drinking beers, splashing, chatting. It’s known as a party spot, with drunken, rowdy crowds. But today, at least a dozen kids play on the sandbar, where the water reaches their waists.
Jody Derr is with her husband and two children. “We don’t come here on a Friday night, not a Saturday night — it’s Sunday for families. Those other people are probably still in bed.”
“We came here before we had kids, and enjoyed hanging out. And we’ve been coming here since we had kids,” she says. Though now the routine has changed a little. “Sometimes we just do a drive-by and see if we’ll pull up and park. It depends on how many other families are here, what kind of music is playing, how loud.”
There’s still some young, rowdy guys here today. I high-step my way over to ask them how it’s going.
“Livin’ the dream. You want a PBR?”
This is my introduction to Tanner Merrill, Eric Volkey, and Connor Mellum. I have a feeling we’re going to get along just great.
I ask how often they come here. All three, in unison: “Every weekend.”
“You’re guaranteed to know someone down here. You don’t even need a boat! You can just call somebody and say, ‘Hey, I’m at the boat launch, come pick me up!’ And if you really wanted to get out here you could swim up.”
That was pretty much the case today, which is why Merrill and Mellom made the trip in a dented aluminum canoe they call the USS Fuck Off.
“Got about 2 horsepower in this baby,” Merrill says, giving her a loving pat. “You can’t get in trouble for drinking and driving a canoe!” Mellum says (he was kidding, but yes, that is true).
These three are out here from “the first weekend the ice clears.” It even causes some heartache for Merrill. “You can see this shit from the Beltline, when you’re heading home on a Friday and you’re pissed off, because you’re driving, stuck in Beltline traffic,” he says. “And everybody’s out here having fun. You can hear ‘em hootin’ and hollerin’, and you’re stuck there getting honked at because you can’t get over.”
Although it’s not that busy this afternoon, it’s still a good crowd, Merrill points out. “This is a Sunday, four in the afternoon, people got to go to work tomorrow, and there’s still, what, 20 boats out here?”
The spot even has its own provisions. Cory McDonnell is at the helm of Pop’s Sicles, a 24-foot pontoon boat with chest freezers full of ice cream treats. “A dreamsicle on water,” McDonnell calls it.
“We wanted to bring something on the water you can’t take with you. So we thought we’d get a nice mix of Italian ice, the classic bomb pop, ice cream sandwiches. The cookie sandwiches are big sellers. And a couple of good nutritional juice bars — 100 percent juice.”
McDonnell says he and his business partner Mark Engelman had been kicking around the idea for years before launched the boat in May.
“First day out, Memorial Day weekend — we sold out. We thought this was the best biz ever,” he says. “And then June came, and it was miserable and rainy, and business wasn’t good at all. But July’s been good — the Fourth was tremendous, yesterday was huge, today’s been good.”
Merrill, Volkey, and Mellum — these guys are definitely part of the younger crowd Gilligan’s is famous for, but they love the family-friendly vibe.
“There’s a little bit for every crowd,” Volkey says.
“It’s absolutely amazing,” Merrill says. “You can drink, you can shoot duck — oh, maybe don’t put that in there, because if anybody knows about my duck huntin’ spot, we’re gonna have problems, Mr. Kennedy.”
COORDINATES FOR GILLIGAN’S ISLAND: 43° 2’ 31” -89° 19’ 35”
0: Number of tickets for drinking or disorderly conduct given this summer at Gilligan’s Island. Surprisingly low, no?
270: Number of Foursquare check-ins at Gilligan’s Island
Agencies that regularly patrol Gilligan’s Island: Dane County Sheriff’s Office and state Department of Natural Resources
Best-selling item at Pop’s Sicles: Bomb Pop
