Jordan Rantala and his girlfriend, Candace Huewe, stopped at Subway and then headed to the beach along Wisconsin Point earlier this week.

While there, the Superior couple ate their food and relaxed a bit, and then they got to work - lending a hand in response to a Facebook post made by Mayor Jim Paine.

"Can you help me out? We're trying to figure out a way to clean up our Point," Paine posted July 21 on Facebook. "The flood left a lot of driftwood and cleaning it up will take time and money. But I have a better idea: let's have a few parties. Get some friends, get some food, maybe grab a few beers (but no glass), and light a fire. Bring your swimsuit; Lake Superior is great right now. A few summer bonfires will clean this beach right up. It's totally legal, I promise, and you'd be doing us all a favor. Just keep your fires 150 feet from the treeline, bring a designated driver along with those beers, and have fun. See you out here."

Since then, groups large and small have headed to the beach to lend a hand.

"I just figured building a fire out there wouldn't be a bad idea because there is a lot of wood out there," Rantala said. "I'd been out there a couple of times beforehand and I liked the spot I was at. I'd had a couple of fires out there already."

The couple borrowed a rake Monday to pull together smaller pieces of driftwood from a pair of women who were doing the same to burn them.

It's hard to say how much driftwood has vanished from the beach on Wisconsin Point, the mayor said.

"I was out to access No. 9 about a week ago and that was looking pretty clean," Paine said earlier this week. "That's the easiest site to access, by far, so you get a lot of people there."

No formal offers to clean up the beach have been made to the Superior Parks, Recreation and Forestry Department," said Linda Cadotte, the department's director. The city does offer training to volunteers who register with the department to help clean up the beach, she said.

"Just on social media, I'm seeing people posting their fire pix quite a bit," Paine said. "Folks are out there enjoying the beach, so if that's all that happens - that more folks got out and had a fun day on Wisconsin Point - then I consider it a wild success."

After all, the mayor said half the purpose of the post was to encourage people to get out and enjoy Wisconsin Point.

"I had a beautiful day on the beach on a gorgeous Saturday afternoon, and it struck me that a lot of people think they are not allowed to do a lot of the things they are allowed to do," Paine said. "People think fires are for late at night when the police or fire departments are not going to catch you. Or you can't have a beer out there when, in reality, we want people to enjoy it."

Motor vehicle access to Wisconsin Point is restricted from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m. beyond Lot 1, but pedestrian traffic to the point is allowed anytime.

Paine said while officials want people to be safe and responsible and clean up after themselves when they head to Wisconsin Point, "I want more people to experience it."

"It's a nice beach," Rantala said. "Go have a fire."