The old Feldtman East trail was officially abandoned about 1990. My first trip to that part of the island in 1996, the trail was still on the map, and the unmaintained boardwalks were still there but decaying, and the trail junctions were still very obvious leading to the occasional hiker mistakenly...

yah, Torp is an English professor or something like that, she knows her grammar and would not make that mistake by accident..........

I can address some of your questions. Camping at Copper Harbor - Ft. Wilkins State Park is close by. There is a municipal campground in Houghton/Hancock that I have stayed at when taking the Ranger III from Houghton. Plus Houghton/Hancock has a lot of churches. With a group permit, your campsites ar...

W. Chickenbone to Moskey = straightforward. Moskey -Daisy Farm is an unexpectedly rough 3.5 miles or so, up and down off rock outcroppings, little shade, etc. This will be at the end of your day. As long as you know that, and manage your energy accordingly. I've met many hikers who are exhausted and...

Everclear, some dried fruit, and Gatorade Fruit punch flavor mix=Quite a cocktail!

Yup, I had to make a trip to a neighboring state to buy 190-proof Everclear to take on a ferry that does not allow flammable liquids or gasses, to visit Dry Tortugas National Park and camp overnight. They encourage campers to bring charcoal for cooking and allow consumable alcohol of any kind and qu...

Another possibility, and this will likely be my next backpacking trip, is to go Windigo-Feldtman Lake your first day, then overnights at Siskiwit Bay, South Desor, Hatchet Lake, North Desor and Windigo. This uses the Hatchet Lake Cut-Off trail to hike the western part of the Minong, while hiking the...

Lol. Our faculty meetings have been, and will continue to be, virtual. Flapping arms might not even be seen, as our platform seems to work best with video off for all but the meeting chair, if there’s more than about 4 people in the meeting.

Thanks for the report. Also regarding bug spray, I sometimes leave the chemical spray behind, but I always bring a headnet - for 0.5oz, it may save my sanity sometime. The view from Mt. Franklin is a favorite of mine too!

Last year I discovered that the city of Houghton has webcams too, and several of them give views of the Ranger III coming and going from the HQ dock.
https://www.mtu.edu/webcams/view/

In 2018 (?) late in the season (right around Labor Day) there was a norovirus outbreak on the east end of Isle Royale. A number of people got sick. In 2019, one of the seasonal rangers was telling about having been evacuated from the island two weeks early because she was one of the people who got s...

I read a trip report with pictures of a guy (I think it was an off-duty park employee) who located and verified the marker point on Mt Saginaw about 10 years ago. If I recall correctly, it was under a spruce thicket and a pile of rocks. This guy set up a surveying tripod and used some electronic nav...

Re those benchmarks, if you dig around on the internet, there are several great trip reports of people searching for and finding those markers on isle Royale. I know of one on Saginaw Hill, one near Malone Bay CG, one on Caribou Island, one up by the Mt Ojibway tower, and a missing one that is ripe ...

I use a dehydrator and do most of it myself, partly because of food allergies I have. However, I am not a chef, not even close! I usually make about four different dinners and just do them over and over in a 4-day rotation. All the work at home turns into easy meals on the trail, and relatively light.

Sandhill cranes-maybe, but Great Blue Herons would be more likely. If they were white, then egrets.