TR 5-28-14 to 6-5-14 Win >Dsy Frm via Hugginin &Minong

tree rattt · Post by **tree rattt** » Sun Jun 08, 2014 9:03 am

Hello all, we survived the Minong

! I will post this in sections as my time allows, I will post pics as soon as I find my camera cable.

WHO: me, Jason ,Daughter Madeline 5 yrs old, Dad Gail

DISCLAIMER
Before I get started, We thought the Minong trail was a very rugged and in spots a VERY BRUTAL trail, it lived up to our expectations

! As for the decision to take my daughter on the Minong I will say this.I in no way recomend even slightly that anyone try this with their children! That being said she earned her right to go on this trip with us.She was well trained in her full pack and I fully knew her abilities and had no doubts that she is a capable hiker and backcountry camper!
NUFF SAID!

DAY 1:Grand Rapids to Minong Ridge backcountry zone 20
We boarded the V2 at the usual time and had a very smooth crossing. The temps were quite warm I would guess 70's in Windigo. We recievel our LNT orrientation from Ranger Katy...I believe.Soon after we had to hunt down a potty .....the water was not on yet in windigo....Ranger Val helped us with that.By that time we were able to register our trip.Ranger Katy was very helpful with our Backcountry site info.We weighed in first,I was 38# Madeline was 5# Dad was 36#.We were walking by 10:30 and headed off to the Hugginin cove trail.It was a nice hike,but nothing special in my opinion untill we reached the cove.The cove was very beautiful as well as the next mile or so that skirted Lk Superior.Made me wish I had my yak!We took on water before we left the cove ....it was warm and we were out of water by this point. So it must have been about 1:00 when we left Hugginin cove then we headed up the trail to intersect with the Minong.We found the second half of the Huggin cove loop to be a more beautiful and interesting trail.Beautiful cliffs and the old log cabins it was very nice! We stopped for another break about 3:00, we enjoyed a coke ....It would be the last for days

.This day My dad was having a good day...we could barely keep up!Madeline spent the say trying to find her Isle Royal legs.At this point we were not clicking as a group,with Dad running and Madeline tripping there was a bit of tension.I felt that to expect adult performance from a 5 yr old was a bit unrealistic...considering I couldn't keep up either! We averaged at least 1mile per hour, so I wasn't worried that we would reach our backcountry site in time.....he was.Soon after we reached the Minong tr.and we took in a full load of water for the night and morning meals at the first stream we came to.We hiked for about another half an hour and decided it was time to start looking for a spot to stay.We found a nice spot way back in the woods and set up camp.It was hot and very very dry! We decided on a no cook meal, we felt a spark of any kind would be dangerous beyond belief! I enjoyed a beef and burrito for supper, Madeline and Dad each had a spam sandwich. We turned in about 7:30 it was a beautiful sleep

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tree rattt · Post by **tree rattt** » Sun Jun 08, 2014 10:21 am

DAY 2:Backcountry to North Desor about 8.5 miles

We started early about 7:00 , and skipped breakfast ......the no fire thing again. We had a few snacks on the fly .Cashews, dried fruit,chocolate.After a short walk we came to the first beaver dam......these things are a trip! A few photo and we moved on.We stopped for breakfast on the top of an outcrop ....we felt that fire safety was good here. I used my cat food can alcohol stove to heat water for coffee and hot chocolate.I am a zombie untill I get my coffee! Breakfast was just fruit loops cereal

.Moving on we took water at the next stream.soon after we came to the big scary boardwalk....some planks need some attention, and it would be a good 3 ft fall into the swamp..I am not a small guy and with pack on I was way too close to the 300 # mark

! Needless to say cracking sounds made me nervous! A little more up and down and we came to the burn area.Hats off to the Rangers that marked it!

It was Very well marked! I talked to the Ranger at Daisey farm and he said it would be cleared out this summer....I can't remember his name but I thought he was one cool cat, very good to talk to.Madeline did well here many of the down trees she just went under! We had to go over or around! It was Hot! No breeze and a lot of climbing over trees ...very rugged we thought! Once cleared it will be a walk in the park

! We took lunch at the last bever dam past the fire zone. I had a smoked oyster burrito!Madeline had PB&J Dad had tuna. Dad was very over heated, so a break in the shade was welcome. After an extended break we headed off down the trail,Madeline started to find her legs!I had to keep a good trot to keep up!We were making excelent time, so I didn't take on water at the last stream in the swamp.....BIG MISTAKE! By the time we hit the outcrops before North Desor I was out of water!I carry almost 3 liters!.... did I mention it was hot?

Needless to say the last few ridges tore me up because of it, dehydration is not a friend! The mosquitoes were quite bad up on the ridge..I thought this a bit odd. In the valleys and at camp they weren' t bad at all. Dying of thirst we came into North Desor camp site.Wow very nice......down to the lake we went Dad and I made warer and Madeline played in the lake.Desor was really warm I thought for as early as it was,I could have comfortably went swimming.We soon set up camp and started supper.My tent is a Eureka Spitfire 2,Dad uses a Eureka Solitaire.....both beautiful tents for the money.After some minor modifications relatively lite as well....stock they are a bit heavy. Dad had a Knorr pasta sides for supper ,Madeline and I had Macaroni and cheese.I put Madeline to bed soon as we had a hard day tomorrow.I enjoyed a lovely cup of coffee before bed.....and slept like the dead!!!!

tree rattt · Post by **tree rattt** » Sun Jun 08, 2014 11:10 am

DAY 3:North Desor to Little Todd Harbor...aprox 5.5 miles give or take

Up early again about 5:45, but a slow start.Madeline slept in late so it was a peaceful morning to myself.Dad had oatmeal,I ate a picante ramen noodles, Madeline had Mountain House eggs with bacon.We were moving by 8:00.Truly a beautiful piece of trail...and rugged, rock climbing in spots! A very rewarding experience. We were finally starting to mesh as a great team!I was supprised at the amount of paint blazez marking the route,for my eye I found them very obvious and easy to follow....the cairns were a bit harder for me. Using both cairns and blazez we found the trail quite easy to follow.......Madeline led most of the way on this strech. We were able to hold hands on much of the outcrops and work as a team, so Madeline and I made an easy day of it......Oh by the way it was still HOT!!!! Lunch was Pepperoni sandwiches for madeline and me, tuna for Dad.Another hour or so and we made the Little Todd Harbor post, and began the drop into the campsite.Number 1 I think.Dad and Madeline played on the beach while I did water.I used a Platypus gravity works water filter with a 2 liter resivoir.I also had a chance to try out my home built silnylon ultra light hip waders to get water ....sweet! 6 ounces a pair!Knorr pasta fettucini alfredo for supper with some jerky for madeline and me, Dad had a knorr Terryaki noodle side. Another cup of coffee and off to bed.It was a bad night for me I froze all night long! I ate chocolate put on more warm clothes .....just couldn't warm up!I use a Kelty cosmic down 21degree bag and I have used it down into the low teens last winter with no problem.I could only come up with being overheated badly that day....who the heck knows!

tree rattt · Post by **tree rattt** » Sun Jun 08, 2014 12:02 pm

DAY 4:Little Todd to Todd Harbor approx 5.5 miles give or take

Woke up about 7:00 having little sleep for me. I stood up, SHARP SHOOTING PAIN shot up my back......down I went like a ton of bricks!My back went out!I was worried! Dad made coffee and rolled up our equipment...Breakfast was tylenol and coffee. When the pills kicked in I was able to load my pack and hobble around camp. By 10:30 I was able to cowboy up enough to put on my pack....oddly enough this felt pretty good!Down the trail to Todd harbor it took an hour to make it to the stream crossing.Out with the waders, this spot is why they were built.My croosing went good, Dad snagged his waders when he carried Madeline across.A half mile down the trail I needed a break and Dad needed to empty his boot.While I was laying on the ground starring at my pack I noticed it had something out of whack.I custom built my own pack specifically to my torso. I love a good external frame pack!I could not find what I wanted so I built my own, to fit me and the gear I carry...It was built lite...a hair over 2#.Any way what I saw was my tent hitting my back, and eliminating my back band and hip belt suspention.....a quick field mod and problem solved.Thank god for spare cordage! My Aleve finally kicked in an I wasn't feeling too bad.By lunch at 1:00 I was feeling good and I took back my extra gear from Dad and Madeline.....they were life savers for sure!
Lunch was a tuna pepperjack and horseradish wrap for me,PB&J for Madeline and Salmon for Dad.After lunch Madeline and I were Practically running!She fully had aclimated to the trail conditions and led most of the way for the rest of our trip.We stopped about a half mile before the Hatched lk trail for a little foot repair and some fresh socks. Dad was sporting some blisters as well as some toe nail damage....Last year he lost 2 toe nails! He may loose them again too!I had blisters on my toes and opted to put on my polyester liner socks.What a difference!We covered the reast of the trail to Todd Harbor in 40 minutes.This was a beautiful stretch of trail and easy to boot....so we moved. We took the shelter as Rain was falling, and we watered up at the creek. Macaronni and cheese again, Garlic noodles for Dad.Early to bed 7:30.

tree rattt · Post by **tree rattt** » Sun Jun 08, 2014 12:32 pm

DAY 5:Todd harbor to McCargo cove approx miles

Woke up about 7:00. Madeline had eggs,Dad had oatmeal,I skipped breakfast except for coffee.We watered up and were moving by 9:00.It started raining,out with pack covers and raingear.We were moving along pretty well so I ditched the rain jacket......I HATE raincoats, I would rather be cold and wet!!!!!No lunch to speak of ....just snacks and chocolate to keep up the energy.By 1:00 the weather was taking its toll on me so I reluctantly put on my rain jacket to warm up.Madeline was also feeling the effects of the rain, this was her first rainy day while packing.Just when She was about to say I quit ....and Dad an I were working on a plan to get her out of there.....we saw a rabbit eating along the trail......GOLDEN OPPERTUNITY!!!! I quickly averted a full scale meltdown trail side with a few minutes of bunny watching!Then I distracted her with 20 minutes of talking about cartoons and what was her favorite.We got lucky with a little help from a cute little bunny rabbit

. Then we rounded the corner to the Minong mine and we were golden.The rain stopped for a bit and we did some exploring and photos.We all really enjoyed the mine site .....very cool.Then we rolled into McCargo cove and found a shelter up on the hill.It was here that I realized that other than sleeping, Madeline wasn't quiet for the entire trip....she talked constantly.My dad brought this to my attention when he could hear her in the shelter when he was down getting water.So if you were camped with us in McCargoe during that time .....I am sorry, I tried to get her to pipe down. Supper was difficult .....it really rained, our primary camp stove is a twig stove. The usual tricks to find dry sticks did not work this time.We peeled the birch bark from a down dead rotten tree.....this worked very well and we burned only birchbark.This was very sooty and dirty but worked really well.Supper was totellini, coffee and hot chocolate.Dad had another pasta side. To bed soon after to try to dry out.It poured all night.

tree rattt · Post by **tree rattt** » Sun Jun 08, 2014 12:47 pm

DAY 6:McCargo layover 0 miles

Just a layover day.Lots of sleep eat sleep repeat.We discussed pulling the plug and getting on the V2 if it came in, it did.This discussion was more utter boredom than anything else.Enter the camp fox....who quickly was named Swiper.Any Dora the explorer fans know why!A Dora discussion quickly followed and we talked about how our trip was like an episode of Dora.We went thru the swampy swamp, over the rocky mountain to our campsite, while using backpack and map.Our trip suddenly became very cool to her.The fox never hardly left, it found food someone had left at one point he was only 4 ft from me.I talked a good bit with a man in another shelter about different trails like the ice age trail and superior trail. I enjoyed my talk with him and his friends as always just a nice friendly bunch of folks.Quick ramen and jerkey and off to bed .....hopefully for a drier day then the last 2.

tree rattt · Post by **tree rattt** » Sun Jun 08, 2014 1:20 pm

DAY 7:McCargo to Daisey farm

Awake about 7:00 Madeline had eggs,Dad had oatmeal ...me just coffee.
Walking by 8:30 Tenative plan is to go to east Chicken Bone and call it a day
we were there within the hour and decided that we would press on to Daisey and day hike from there.We quickly made it to the Greenstone Ridge and were moving right along at this point our packs were light hip down to around 22the to 24 pounds by my math....truly a good hiking weight madeline was about 4to 5 pounds .Hiking was effortless at this point.The temp was perfect, a little breeze and no rain.The Greenstone is such a pleasure to hike on ...a sweet trail.We had a quick lunch on the fly and the trail conditions were very wet!Along the way we ran into a few packers and Madeline proceded to tell them that they would have "mad feet" as the trail was really wet!The run into Daisey farm was quick and painless we were there early enough to dry some gear and grab a shelter.Supper was chicken flavored noodles .....Madeline had a total meltdown fit, "I don't like these "it so to calm her down before we were in trouble for noise I made her a PB&J.We finally convinced her that the Park Ranger was a cop and would throw me in jail if she didn't stay a little quiet.She didn' t believe us untill she asked another camper if Rangers were Police. So whoever you are I say thanks!I know this may seem a bit blunt to some, but Madeline doesn't do subtle....It is go big or go home for her.In bed by 8:30 ready for a new day.,

tree rattt · Post by **tree rattt** » Sun Jun 08, 2014 2:11 pm

DAY 8: Daisey farm to Mt.Ojibway tower to Daisey farm.

Best day on the island!Snacks and coffee for breakfast.Off to the tower.Just my shoulder bag so it was an easy walk.Uneventful untill 3/4 the way up the Mt. Madeline was in the lead ...practically running as usual.We came around a corner by a balsam tree and ran smack into a big old bullwinkle!She wasn't paying attention at all and I was about 10 ft behind her.She couldn't be have been 20 ft from it by the time I was able to get her to stop.My heart was pounding.....we were too close! Finally she slowly got back to me and in what felt like an hour, I finally found my camera.we still had not backed off yet.His ears were up and he didn't care that we were even there.We watched for 10 minutes or so and he finally moved off the trail so we could pass.Off to the tower! We got there and up I went ....it was locked

.I took my pics and came down to fix my foot.While sitting there a lady walked up and started talking to us asking about our trip......It was Candy Peterson! She was headed up the tower to look for some moose.....my lucky day! She let me use her binocs and she showed me another moose way off in the distance.We talked a bit and she asked a little about Madeline and how her trip was. I thanked her for the oppertunity and we went along our way.On our way back to camp we saw another young bull moose, he was kind of skitish and quickly moved off. Back in camp I was rinsing my shirt out and she came back to Daisey farm, she reminded us that they would be back to do their program at 8:00. Supper went by just ramen noodles nothing special.We were hiding in our shelter and someone came to get us ......the Mosquitos were thick. Madeline was fascinated with the bones and had a million questions some on topic, and some not so much.

We met Rolf.We had a nice conversation with them and Rolf took some pictures of madeline by the bones. They seemed impressed that she had done the Minong .Madeline was quite taken by Candy and has asked several times when we can see them again. In bed by 8:30 ready for the boat home.Barely a wink of sleep ...spotty at best.up at 6:30 and all packed by 7:00 hurry up and wait! Down to the dock, if we have to wait may as well have a good view.Rolf and Candy, along with some interns were waiting for passage to Windigo to do some research on Balsam trees.We talked some more and he asked some about my equipment and then the boat came. Madeline took a nap on the engine covers for about 2 hours, when she woke up I took her spot and Grampa watched her for a bit.We pulled into Windigo and Ranger Katy took my itinerary changes.I only had a minute to admire the old Willys jeep, particularly interesting to me because I own a 1947 Willys cj-2a jeep.Then came the boarding call, this Isle Royale trip was over.It was nice but I wanted to see home.

Midwest Ed · Post by **Midwest Ed** » Sun Jun 08, 2014 2:55 pm

Thanks for your report. Your daughter sounds like she's a real hoot. Glad you were all able to meet Rolf and Candy. I'm very much looking forward to your pictures. Can you reveal some details on your home made 6 oz. hip waders?

tree rattt · Post by **tree rattt** » Sun Jun 08, 2014 7:36 pm

Well thanks Midwest Ed, yup she is a hoot for sure.The waders are pretty simple I used silnylon I used a 32" square and fold it in half and drew out a wader shape leaving the long seam in back and toes in front.....I made a pattern from an old bed sheet first. Once it is cut out I sew them together and put a hem on top to attach a bungee and hook to for hooking up to a belt or loops.after sewing I turn them right side out and use silicone to seal the seam.I also glue a felt foot pad to the bottom for a little armor....I use silicone for glue once everything dries I pressure tested by blowing them up with a few good breaths. They do leak a little water in,very minor not even enough to wet the outside of your boots.I think the water pressure pushes through the weave a little, but I need to do a little more R&D to know for sure. 1.1 oz silnylon is some flimsy stuff, I forgot to tell my dad to be careful where he stepped. I really felt horrible that his leaked .....until I looked them over and realized he snagged them.He wants me to make a pair out of urethane coated nylon. These could be seam taped and seam sealed ....but it all adds weight!

Updated edit: just a heads up on silnylon material.I dida little reading and research on the fabric and found that is only waterproof to a limited extent. It turns out that it is rated to 1to2 pounds per square inch.This equates to minor leakage with increased hydrostatic pressure. So for those of you, like myself that rely on silnylon as a lightweight waterproof fabric......just be aware it may leak under certain conditions.I was also not overly impressed with its performance as a pack cover under extremely heavy downpour rains.I originally thought that it was condensation ..... now I think it may have Been leakage.My pack cover was made in a fashion that doesnt use sewn seams in places that are critical, so it was not seam leakage.

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tree rattt · Post by **tree rattt** » Sun Jun 08, 2014 7:45 pm