Beautiful. What time was this taken at? We tried waiting up one night for the stars, but the civil twilight was still pretty bright at 12:30 am. Didn't really get a chance to enjoy the night sky. Maybe next time!

We also came across a pretty crazy beaver dam on the Ishpeming trail (Picture below). The boardwalk was completely dismantled by what I can assume to be the change in flow of the water and the beaver colony. Don't think they'll have to touch the dam to reconstruct the boardwalk, but I also think it ...

The Ishpeming trail was fun with the nice weather we had. I enjoyed the challenge of finding routes around the deadfall or other obstacles like the beaver dam. It would have been an entirely different story if that was the rain filled day with low temps. The NPS people in Windigo didn't seem too ...

Couple of moose close up. Beaver dam after crossing. The washed out planks are visible down below the dam.

Hey Everyone,
Our group just finished our first trip to Isle Royale and we had a great time (for the most part). Due to some uncontrollable weather conditions we had to cut our hiking adventure short. Not ideal, but we're already thinking about another trip back!

June 2nd: Houghton to Rock Harbor ...

I picked up Frogg Toggs Ultra-Lite2 off of Amazon. It comes with a jacket and pants. It's only $25 (Currently on sale for $17 in some colors) and weighs roughly 12 oz. Not the strongest material, but I tested it in some good storms and it does the trick.

Our group heads out on Sunday. First trip to the island for all of us. We'll be sure to report back with lots of pictures and stories.

Hey Matt,

I'm with his group. The person that booked our water taxi was emailing info@isleroyaleresorts.com. They also provided us their phone numbers, (866)644-2003 for the Winter and (906)337-4993 for the Summer. If you are just looking for general information, their website is rockharborlodge ...

Let's hope for a repeat of this weather! Were headed in June 2 this year for our first trip to the isalnd. I'd rather take cold than bugs. Any tips or things we may not be thinking of for this time of the year? What was the conditions of the trails? We're planning on watching the weather closely ...

Hey Keith!

My buddies and I will be on the island the first week of June as well. Our trip plan is more focused around the south side of the island, but maybe well cross paths somewhere!

See you out there.

Thanks everyone for the opinions, tips, and advice. We are all looking forward to the trip!

Thanks Ingo. I should have probably been more transparent. There is actually a sixth day and we will be staying in Windigo overnight to ensure more of a cushion/pickup time. Didn't add it to this list because it required no traveling, but without it being mentioned it looks much more tight.

So the new route is looking like:

Day 1: Seaplane > Rock Harbor; Water Taxi > Malone Bay
Day 2: Malone Bay > South Lake Desor
Day 3: South Lake Desor > Siskiwit Bay
Day 4: Siskiwit Bay > Feldtmann Lake
Day 5: Feldtmann Lake > Windigo

There are still some longer, unavoidable days, but nothing like ...

Thanks everyone for the input/advice. We are rethinking the route and probably will incorporate the water taxi to Malone Bay from Rock Harbor. That would allow us to "skip" a couple of the long days up front to pace the rest of our trip out better. I'll post another version here in the next couple ...

Thanks for your advice Jerry! We are all fairly new to backpacking, but have done hiking and camping trips separately. I love the hiking, exercising, exploring aspect of it, so the longer days don't bother me. Definitely something we will have to talk about collectively as a group though.

I see ...