The Park Service docks which are visited by the commercial ferry boats have designated hours during which other boats must not moor there. During those times they are certainly public facilities. During other hours, if a private boat visiting the park is tied to the dock, I would consider the dock ...

To follow-up on my question, I have come across a very close-up image of the murals, and they appear to have been painted on canvas.

There are several murals on the cabin walls of the ferry RANGER III that were painted by Robert Bushnell in c.1958. This art has stood up remarkably well. I wonder if the murals were done by painting on the reverse side of a piece of plexiglass.

Cf: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_glass ...

The audio-video presentation is very nicely done, with excellent images and natural sound.

I have two questions:

--did you catch any fish at Lake Mason?

--how did you identify so many of the plants and flowers? Are you a botanist?

I actually did not see the wolf or take the picture. That distinction belongs to my cruising companion, John. A day or two later, we were visiting the Bangsund Cottage and had the good fortune to meet Rolf and Candy Petersen there. Professor Petersen was keen to hear of the wolf encounter and to see ...

This is not a report, but rather a pointer to a very long, detailed, and illustrated narrative of our August 2013 visit to Isle Royale and circumnavigation of the island in our own boat. Please see

http://continuouswave.com/sail-logs/irnp2013/

for the actual narrative of our trip. There are 85 ...

Re how I, as a boater, use the park facilities:

We sleep on our boat, which is just one notch above sleeping in a tent--it is nothing fancy. We like to stay at a dock overnight so we can use the shore vault toilets. We cook on a small grill, usually on the dock. We do not have 120-VAC power or ...

I suspect that the cost of operating the RANGER III is not completely paid for by the fees the passengers pay. That means the passenger fees are subsidized.

In terms of maintaining a low impact on the wilderness, I do not see that having a 165-foot boat coming into the park every day is helping ...

I don't see the docks as being a "community area" once the park service ferry boats have left. When private boats tie up at the docks, the docks become the campsite of those boaters whose boats are tied to the docks.

As a boater, I do not go around inspecting the campsites of hikers. I don't go ...

A corollary to zims' question: Do hikers have to post their permits on their tents or campsites?

John--Thank you for the kind words about my narrative of our trip. Writing the narrative was almost as much fun (and as much work) as the trip itself.

We were fortunate to be able to circumnavigate the island on our first visit, and we hit all of the A-List places we wanted to see. Over the winter ...

I have published a long narrative of my cruise by small boat (22-foot) to Isle Royale National Park from Copper Harbor, Michigan at

http://continuouswave.com/sail-logs/irnp2010/

The narrative gives details about the navigation, expenses, weather, places visited, and includes 131 photographs.

As ...