I should have mentioned that "crowds" were very light. We saw few people on the trail, Siskiwit was mostly empty and no overflow room for campers were needed. This all struck me as a very nice change from recent years.

a first trip for a buddy of mine, fourth for my son and i’ve lost track of the number for me. We drove up to Grand Portage on Tuesday, August 19 after a stop for a delicious dinner at the Angry Trout in Grand Marais. We also stopped at the Fisherman’s Daughter next door for our sandwich lunches on ...

It works well for me and has a decent flow rate. But, I also keep up on the maintenance of my Sawyer Squeeze by backflushing and disinfecting it after every trip.


What's your method for disinfecting?

I like the idea of squeeze systems (because I don't like the taste of chemical treatments ...

Just back from IR—trip report to follow. My MSR gravity filter is ripe for an upgrade. It holds four liters, which is great, but it is finicky. Prone to air locks, tricky to back flush and, lately, sloooow. Any recommendations?

Heading to the island this week. As far as folks know, does every site now have food lockers? Specifically, Feldman, Siskiwit, Island Mine and Windigo? Are they easy to find? Thanks!
I called the headquarters in Houghton last week to ask that question, and I was told that each of the camp sites ...

from NPS site: “ Food Storage Lockers: Food storage lockers are not yet allocated in many campgrounds. Helicopter operations dropped food storage lockers at inland campgrounds over winter; many have not yet been placed in their final location. Staff are working to get lockers in place and usable at ...

Heading to the island this week. As far as folks know, does every site now have food lockers? Specifically, Feldman, Siskiwit, Island Mine and Windigo? Are they easy to find? Thanks!

Certainly not surprising. I suspect that, once conditioned to humans and our food, there is only a small chance of correcting the behavior. I worry about the other “problem” wolfe. Thanks for the update.

Well, you folks inspired me. I am down to about 1.25 pounds of food per day. I strongly suspect i will not eat it all, but not sure what else i can cut.

I imagine everyone has thoughts on this and rely on different rules of thumb, so here goes!

i head to the island in a week for four days. My total food ( not including water) is 6.7 pounds. That includes the outer Ursak bag. I think i could cut my breakfast weight by a third or so— i have pancake ...

Me too! I go August 20. Hoping a recent hiker can offer us a report

A friend had a wolf encounter near Siskawit this spring. Sniffing around their tent and stole some trekking poles. It sounds like his travel partner was less than diligent with his food prep at


Good information. Thanks. It is really concerning when a wolf is so comfortable round humans that ...

There was toilet paper in the women's bathroom at Windigo, and it was clean. However, I don't believe the park service handles the bathroom cleaning there—in the past I have observed employees of the concessionaire cleaning the bathrooms.
We hiked Windigo>Feldtmann>Siskiwit>Malone and ...

i am also curious how adequate the staffing appeared to folks, given budget cuts. Had trails been cleared? TP and cleaning at Windigo bathroom/shower buildings? I guess none of this is really actionable information; my plans won’t change at all based on the answers, but i am curious. Thanks

It’s funny. I had not expected any issue finding the food lockers. For some reason, i figured they would just be put next to the camp site maps. I guess they are too heavy to lug up to those places?