We used a thrift-store Rick Steves backpack; it's super light, has side pockets for water bottles, and enough room for whatever you want for your hike. Folds down really tiny. You can make anything work! After shrugging off my 40-lb pack, anything in the day-pack continuum would have felt like ...

So, fake reports: no. Fake hips: possibly. Roger that.

Thank you, torpified. I consider you to be the master of the genre. In fact, is it really required that you describe actual, IRL trips to the island in your trip reports? Couldn't you just put out a new one, cataloguing an imaginary trip, every few weeks? This would be especially helpful in the off ...

Those crow-size red-headed woodpeckers are the Pileated (pill'-ee-ate-ed) Woodpecker. generally uncommon, but if you hear one drumming on a dead tree you will recognize the sound! They may be common on IsRo, I am not sure. They are on the "Birds of the Great Lakes" ID card I took with me on my trip ...

JHammer1 wrote: ↑Fri Sep 06, 2019 10:07 am Read your every word. Thank you thank you. Garrison Keillor tips his hat. My trip begins tomorrow and I hope it mirrors yours.

Thanks! Hoping your trip goes swimmingly as well!

Hard to believe I left anything out of that enormous wall of text above, but a few things that ought to be in trip-reports was left out. In addition to the wildlife mentioned in the report, we also encountered: 1) one red fox, with black feet (I always thought they were white?) at Moskey Basin ...

Great report! I believe we were camped right next to you Wednesday night! We were also first timers and located in central Ohio. We were in shelter 21 if I remember correctly, right next to the Objiway trailhead. We saw the garter snake as well but left it undisturbed. The trail to the Objiway ...

dcclark wrote: ↑Thu Sep 05, 2019 6:20 pm
And finally, in answer to your question: Traditionally, I start planning my next trip about 2/3 of the way through my current trip. I think some others plan 2 or 3 trips at a time.

Well, by that accounting, it seems I'm way behind!

Sadly, my Coolpix is a version with a permanent, rechargeable battery. At least, I think it's permanent. I should probably look into that.

Thursday 8/29/19 Up earlier than had been our habit; we thought it was prudent to arrive at Three Mile early, in order to improve our chances at grabbing a shelter. I had done a decent field-repair job on the tent pole, I suppose; but I knew more rain was coming, and I didn’t want to test my fix in t ...

Monday 8/26/19 The reason we settled on Moskey as our “destination” and a good place to spend a zero day, or two, was that we heard it was such a lovely place. And part of what made it so lovely, we were told, is the sunrises. Moskey sunrises, it seems, are legendary. But first things first… So ...

Please accept this standard apology for the length of this report. The following is a description of my (our) first visit to IRNP, and perhaps some future first-timer may benefit from the details of our successes and failures. With that out of the way: let’s begin. The drive from central Ohio to the ...

Thanks for the report. My wife and I just returned from IR, and your words make me want to hurry back. Especially your descriptions of Moskey Basin. We, too, stayed - for two nights - in one of those shelters that has a private rock 'landing' that slopes gently down to the harbor. My wife once ...

Just returned from IR on Saturday, and we found pretty nearly all latrines had TP; some were running low, and some looked like a hoarder's bathroom. Hit or miss, is what I'm saying. All had some, and some had all. (This was all along the Rock Harbor campgrounds - RH, 3M, DF, MB - and also LR.)

Thanks for the report, Bobcat. Very sorry it had to be cut short - somewhat selfishly, since it would have been nice for us to have been able to meet you in Rock Harbor on the 23rd when we arrived. Hope you're healing up.