TR: 7/9-7/14, 2014

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arandombackpacker
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TR: 7/9-7/14, 2014

Post by arandombackpacker »

TR: 7/9-7/14, 2014

So, this was our first ever trip to the island, we did a lot of research and thought we were prepared... we were not! But we still had a great time!
We were in a 3 person group and left Wednesday afternoon from the Metro-Detroit area, we drove straight up to Copper Harbor and ended up at the visitors center around 4am. None of us could sleep on the trip up, too excited I guess. We got about 2 hours of sleep in the truck and then got some breakfast around 6am, changed clothes and got ready for the ferry. Once on the ferry, again, none of us could sleep!

I will say this, I was VERY displeased with the Captain of the Queen ferry. Midway through the trip, he was in the pilots house and SCREAMING at a new employee, with the door open! When I say screaming, I mean really screaming.

This is a paraphrase of what he was saying, literally..

"WHAT THE FUCK JIMMY, ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS, YOU'RE 35 DEGREES OFF COURSE! HOW THE FUCK DID YOU GET THIS JOB, YOU MUST HAVE LIED ON YOUR FUCKING RESUME! I SHOULD FUCKING THROW YOU OVERBOARD, WHAT GOOD ARE YOU! WHEN WE GET BACK TO PORT, I DON'T WANT TO SEE YOU ON MY SHIP AGAIN, EVER!"

In no way was that exaggerated or embellished. I was so shocked that the Captain of a ship would be berating his employees in front of his patrons/passengers. The worse part was that the Captain knew that the door was open and that we could hear, he left out and went back in a few times. The man he was yelling at appeared to be about 60 years old and was at the helm while the Captain was in the chair behind him with his feet kicked up. There was a church group of kids around 10-14 years old at the bow who could hear him as well. I just thought it was very unprofessional and unbecoming of a Captain to act in such a manner, openly. But I didn't let that mess with our trip, although I was thoroughly disappointed with the Captain, I wasn't letting that bring this trip down.

We landed at Rock Harbor around 1130 and after finishing the indoc, final preparations and weigh-ins, we hit the trail around 1230.

My pack weighed in at about 38lbs and the others were both at 50lbs each. Two of us are veterans with our fair share of humps to our credit and are in decent shape, the third was a second timer and not in the greatest shape… we based our itinerary off of what he thought he could handle because after all, you only move as fast as your slowest man.

[7/10 RH->LC]

We hit the trail and took the Tobin Harbor trail, hiking that to the Mt. Franklin junction and headed up towards the ridge. During this time we passed quite a few day hikers but not too too many. Once we were headed up the ridge, we passed a swamp/marsh on the left in which we saw a large female moose bathing in the water. It was a pretty cool sight to see, we watched for a while as she bathed and swam in the water and eventually climbed out on the other side and trotted off into the woods.

We continued up the trail and finally reached the top of the ridge and took a much needed break/rest. Up until this point we had no real issues with bugs, very minimal mosquitos and no flies. Once we started down the Lane Cove trail, the bugs got terrible. The trail is a lot steeper than we had thought and was quite rough on our inexperienced hiker, even though we were going downhill, he was pretty spent from the trek up to the ridge earlier. As we made our way through the swamps/bogs the bugs got even worse. We finally made it to the Lane Cove camp site and we were thankful the day was over, especially after having no sleep! The site itself was beautiful, we were the only ones there so we checked out all of the sites and went with what we thought was best. The seclusion of LC made the hike there well worth it.

[7/11 LC-[strikeout]WCBL[/strikeout] DF]

Well, our plans were to head out early from Lane Cove and trek out to West Chickenbone Lake, so we got up early and started out. The hike up the Lane Cove trail wasn’t for the weak, very strenuous uphill and again the bugs were out in full force. We bug netted up and wore long sleeves to minimize the nuisance of the bugs. Once we made it back to the top of the ridge we took a short break and continued towards Mt. Franklin, once there we dropped packs and enjoyed the view. What an amazing view point, great spot for a quick snack. There were quite a few day hikers up there so once they started rolling in we hit the trail. We did meet up with a lone woman hiker who by 10am, had already made it there from WCBL! She was doing like 2 weeks on the island or something by herself, amazing.

Sucks to say it, but this is where the day went south so to speak. We left Mt. Franklin with intentions to hike the trail to WCBL, and we were feeling pretty good about ourselves and were making great time… unfortunately, halfway to Mt. Ojibway a thundershower rolled in and hit us pretty hard. This is where I realized that I packed my rain jacket and instead of my rain pants, I mistakenly packed my poncho (which is the same color and material as my pants)! I also realized that the two guys with me only brought those cheap saran wrap type ponchos… needless to say, we were soaked within a matter of seconds, really. From our hats to our boots… soaked. Thankfully we all had rainflys and our packs stayed dry. Once we made it to the Ojibway Tower, we sought shelter underneath the tower to recoup. During this time, thunder and lightning rolled in and the winds really picked up. We noticed a few NPS packs at the base of the tower but no bodies, so we carefully walked up to the top (which was unlocked) and met with two Rangers who were up there in the shack, they were nice enough to give us a weather update which they told us that the thunderstorms would persist into the night and that it would be wise to seek an alternate route off the ridge since that’s where the highest winds and rain were. Them being the experts, we decided to adhere to their advice and reroute to Daisy Farm which made it less than 2miles instead of the 7 or so ahead of us to WCBL. I did snap some pretty cool thunderstorm photos of the heavy rains over the Isle while I was at the top of the tower though.
We ate some breakfast and proceeded down the DF trail, the rains persisted and we were very cold and soaked. It wasn’t that long before we hit Daisy Farm and took refuge in one of the shelters along the water. Sure enough, about an hour after being there the freaking rain stopped and sun came out… WHAT?! Whatever, we strung up some 550 cord and got our clothes hung to dry, ate some dinner, did some fishing and relaxed. The shelters were a nice surprise, we hadn’t planned on using any shelters since we brought a tent but the convenience of the shelters and better locations on the water made them more appealing. It was great to hit the trail without breaking down a wet tent.

[7/12 DF->MB]

We woke up, packed up and hit the trail. We had planned to hike from WCBL to Moskey Basin, so we just went to MB from DF instead and kept a relatively similar itinerary. The trail to Moskey Basin wasn’t the easiest. The rain had flooded some spots and since the majority of the trail is rock (some pretty steep) it was very wet and slippery. The bugs were pretty bad in the dark shaded areas but just fine in the open sun rocky areas. Once we made it to Moskey, there was only one other group there so we took what we though to be the best spot, down at the very end. Again, the shelters offered the best locations on the water so we took a shelter again. There were not that many people at Moskey that night so it was nice to be secluded again. Our site had a checkers board carved into the picnic table, so we fashioned some pieces and played a few games. The views at Moskey were amazing, there were quite a few ants on those rocks though. Night time was the best, when the sun went down the sky was clear and the moon was shining full, this made for an amazing view from the shelter as the moon reflected off the water. The animals were out and making all kinds of noises. The rain hit heavy that night and again, the shelter came in handy!

[7/13 MB->TM]

We got back at it in the morning and since it had rained again that night, the trail was even more flooded and the rocks were just as slippery if not more. The bugs were out again in full force, mostly mosquitoes. They really love the dark flooded areas along that trail. Trekking poles were our friends when walking along those flooded slippery areas, taking a spill in that muck wouldn’t have been fun. We made it back to DF and took a short break before proceeding towards Three Mile. Along our way here, I was on point, leading the pack. Just before getting to TM, I rounded a corner and just as I was about to take my first step on the wood planks I saw a very large bull moose standing overtop of the planks with two legs on one side and the other two on the other side. The rack on the moose wasn’t huge but looked to be covered in velvet still. I was about 50 yds ahead of the next guy in our group, I just stopped and stared at the animal, it just stared back and lowered its head. I remained still and he just looked at me then trotted off into the inland brush. I wasn’t able to get a shot of the big guy because I didn’t want to make any sudden movements to startle him but it sure is a great memory. The second guy in our group got a glance at him as he scampered off and the third guy missed it all. Once at Three Mile, the site was pretty busy, lots of hikers/campers. I wasn’t a fan of the site but I could tell that this wasn’t really supposed to be a destination on the island but more of a convenience stop. We found a shelter here because we had to hit RH in the AM for our return ferry. The dock here was nice though, offered a decent view from the dock and a great spot to get water. It rained yet again that night and yet again we were glad to have that shelter.

[7/14 TM->RH]

This was a relatively light hike and since it was mostly along the shoreline it offered a good breeze to keep the bugs down. Suzy’s Cave was a nice snack spot, nothing crazy, just a small cave but still cool to see nonetheless. We made it to RH pretty quickly and were very happy to spend the $6 for a warm 5minute shower. We then grabbed a few Oberon and Two Hearted from the trading post and celebrated our trip. We then hit up the restaurant and enjoyed a burger.

Summary:
The trip itself was amazing, the RH staff was very helpful and the people we met along the way were friendly. I will most certainly be headed back there in the future. Isle Royale is a great example of pure unadulterated wilderness.

Tips:

DO NOT GO TO ISLE ROYALE WITHOUT RAIN GEAR!!!! The weather was so unpredictable, as we’ve read already. One minute it would be sunny and the next rainy. We went to bed at night with crisp clear skies and woke up to heavy downpours. I would recommend a rain jacket/pants and gaiters along with a trusted rainfly for both the pack and tent if applicable. Drymax socks are your friend, even in those wet boots the next day, my drymax socks made them feel very very dry compared to my buddy in his wool socks and wet shoes or other guy with cotton socks and wet boots. Both were miserable and I was just fine. Bug nets are nice to keep the annoyance down and Permethrin was great to keep the ticks and bugs at bay.
Tightlines01
May actually live on IR
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Re: TR: 7/9-7/14, 2014

Post by Tightlines01 »

Great report. Sounds like a great first trip to hook you.

The shelters are so nice in the rain. Stretch out and dry gear.

Moskey is amazing to star gaze.

Glad you enjoyed your trip.
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Lucky Chicken
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Re: TR: 7/9-7/14, 2014

Post by Lucky Chicken »

Great trip report, thanks!
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NancyT
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Re: TR: 7/9-7/14, 2014

Post by NancyT »

Thanks for posting a trip report, I enjoyed it.
I'm looking forward to going back to the island again this fall.
~ISLE ROYALE INFO~
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tree rattt
May actually live on IR
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Re: TR: 7/9-7/14, 2014

Post by tree rattt »

Thanks, nice report. Glad it all worked out for ya :) that IR weather sure is something,it truly has to be experienced to be loved ;)
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