Lights from the Canadian shoreline, and particularly a light dome from the city of Thunder Bay, are usually visible from, for instance, Huginin Cove campground. That would account for the lights on the horizon to the right

Nice capture of the Milky Way!

+1 for Huginin Cove loop! I did the loop for my first night about six weeks ago. Just be aware of the time zone thing - your ferry is on Central time. Windigo will be very quiet this time of year - no showers, maybe no drinking water although you have plenty of water available to filter.

I would take your trip the summer after - you can take a toddler in a baby backpack and plan a relatively easy trip! My very first trip to Isle Royale, there was a young family on the inbound ferry with me that did McCargoe Cove to Chippewa Harbor in 4 days and by their account they had a wonderful ...

This year, I was in and out of Windigo a couple times on my ten-day trip and I noticed several families base-camping (complete with coolers, suitcases, and garden carts to haul it all) in the campground, including a multi-family gathering of cousins in one of the group sites. That was a new twist fo...

I use my dehydrator all the time, and usually have several meals of grab-and-go stuff waiting in the freezer. One of my favorite lunches is hummus on crackers, and I dehydrate the store-bought hummus, throw it in the blender to get a fine powder, and it's ready to go. Breaks up the monotony of summe...

Thanks for the report! And the pictures. That stretch of the Huginnin Cove trail is one of my favorites too - along with the Greenstone going east between Hatchet Lake and Chickenbone Junction. And the Feldtmann Ridge near the observation tower. And Mt. Franklin views..... I still tend toward Scovil...

Depending on how you route yourself, there may be ok water at Lake Lesage or Lake Livermore, or McCargoe Cove, within 2 miles of WCB campsite. Maybe you can work with that and manage your fill-ups to have essentially a dry camp at WCB?

Just another option - the municipal campground in Grand Marais MN will let you drop in and use their showerhouse for $3. If you have a large group, coming off the island to Grand Portage, you might consider the cost savings (and the ability to leave towels, clean clothes, and toiletries in your vehi...

Was mostly hiking inland two weeks ago and mosquitos were terrible for this late in summer. It has been a cool, wet summer and as of two weeks ago has yet to get hot enough to discourage mosquitos. They were also bad (considering the date) in the Boundary Waters last week.

The "unknown location" slide above looks like Duncan Narrows - did you get there in your travels?

SLD-TH, while not overly difficult, is a pretty lengthy chunk of hiking, so I am assuming you are aware of that and ready for that. If it were me, I would take the zero at Todd Harbor, because of the much lower number of other hikers. McCargoe Cove seems to be a lively place in recent years, and oft...

The time I was in Rock Harbor for three nights injured, people arrived at 7am from 3-mile to bag a shelter. Another time, when I was windbound in RH and meticulously following the rules, I left my kayak (full of most of my gear) on the public canoe rack behind the ranger station and walked to 3-mile...

Ok, now I am curious. What will happen to the GRT traffic if blooms start happening at critical water sources along the way (Hatchet Lake for instance)? Will this effectively split the island”culture” in two as hikers have to carry two days worth of water, or hike extended distances between good wat...

Tannic acid is soluble in water, so you get a 100-percent homogeneous solution(theoretically). A filter wouldn’t make much difference. Some chemical adsorption (activated charcoal, ion exchange media, etc) would be needed, which is how a home treatment system would typically work. I always like the ...