First the ferry. Prior to 1999, the region's four ferries never ran all the way through the winter. But in four out of the last 18 winters, the ice hasn't thickened enough to support an ice road. In two other years the road was only open about a week.

"That's a pretty dramatic change," said Mike Radtke, marine operations manager for the Madeline Island Ferry Line. "It's become much more of a roller coaster, of temperatures rising, falling, rising, falling."

Radtke pointed to a line of discarded Christmas trees that have been propped in the snow, stretching across the thin layer of lake ice, marking where an "ice road" is typically built connecting the mainland with Madeline Island.

"People used to be able to almost mark their calendars and say the ferries will stop sometime around the first or second week of January," Radtke said, "then the ice road will come in maybe a week to ten days after that."

But not anymore.

The ferry is a lifeline for residents. It transports school kids, commuters who work on the mainland, vehicles and supplies. But it operates on a strict schedule. The last ferry to the island leaves every night at 5:30 p.m.