June 2010-Feldtmann>Island Mine>Hugginin Cove Loop

Reports or links to reports on trips.

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Blackdog
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June 2010-Feldtmann>Island Mine>Hugginin Cove Loop

Post by Blackdog »

I’ve been wanting to get to Isle Royale for a couple years, but couldn’t get my hiking buddies to go. So I finally decided to plan and make a solo trip. I’ve been on solo backpacking trips before, but was a little nervous about going to the Island. Turned out to be a great adventure!

I left my home in the suburbs of Minneapolis on June 18th. Drove to a Superior Hiking Trail trailhead in Hovland, parked my van and crashed in the back (always looking for a way to save a few pennies).

June 19th---Arrived at the Grand Portage dock and we started loading the gear onto the Voyager II at 6:45AM. After a quick roll call, the boat left the dock around 7:20. The boat ride was good and we arrived at Windigo in less then two hours. We went through our ranger orientation and then I went up to get my permit. The plan was to hike to Feldtmann Lake which is roughly 9 miles from the ranger station. The hike was fairly level, but turned out to be challenging because of the overgrowth of vegetation. There were areas of the trail where the overgrowth was over my head, granted I’m not that tall…but ay carumba! When I got to the point of the trail that starts to turn east, thanks to a downed tree and overgrowth, I briefly lost sight of the trail. After a quick peek at the map and verification of my coordinates from my GPS, I was able to determine I was actually standing on the trail and just needed to continue southeast for another 15 feet and the trail reappeared plain as day. I arrived at the Feldtmann Lake campsite around 1:30PM. I set up camp on site 2 which is right on the lake. As I was organizing, I looked out at the lake and saw two moose swimming about 100 yards away. I took out my binoculars and watched them for about 45 minutes until they meandered off into the brush. After camp was set up, I put on my trunks and went for a dip myself. The weather was nice, about 65 and sunny. The water felt great. As the day went on, I’d scope for wildlife and just enjoy the views. I had the campsite to myself until around 5PM when a couple hiked in. Around 7PM, I spotted three moose about 200 yards away swimming across the lake. I watched them through my binoculars as they gracefully glided towards the other side. One of the moose started to fall further and further behind and right about the middle of the lake, it decided to turn back. The other two moose swam to the other side. The moose that turned back was standing on the shore looking over his shoulder as the other two exited the water across the lake. Around 12:15AM I heard a big splash and a moose grunt, I didn’t hear much after that. The moose must have set out across the lake.

June 20th---I didn’t get a lot of sleep and woke up around 5AM. I took a picture of the sunrise over Feldtmann Lake (sorry, no pictures to share as I don’t own a digital camera…maybe someday I’ll get out of the stone ages). I also saw lots of tracks on the beach. I was pretty sure I saw wolf tracks along with moose. Started hiking at 5:30AM. The vegetation on the trail headed towards Siskiwit Bay was wet and overgrown, but I made good time heading to Feldtmann tower. I climb up the tower, had a snack and snapped a few pictures. It wasn’t crystal clear so my pictures didn’t do justice to the view. The tower is a great place to get a panoramic view of the island. As I got close to Siskiwit Bay, I saw another hiker heading in the opposite direction. It turns out he was a ranger at the park and he was doing some hiking on his day off. We chatted about his job for a bit and believe it or not…he really seemed to enjoy his work! I arrived at Siskiwit Bay around 10:30AM. The bay was beautiful, so I just dropped my gear, took off my boots and head into the water. It felt great on my aching feet. I stayed at the beach for over two hours, just enjoying the view and resting. It was another beautiful day, around 65-70 degrees and sunny. After everything was dry and I felt ready, I started off for the final 4.4 miles to Island Mine campsite. The trek to the campsite was quite a bit tougher then the earlier 10.2 miles. It had more up and down and the heat was taking it’s toll. I was glad to get to camp around 3PM. Nobody else was at the site. I loaded up on water at the little creek, made something to eat, started a little fire to discourage the bugs and just relaxed. Not much going on at the Island Mine campsite, it’s tucked into the woods and not a lot of views, but it didn’t matter… I was spent after 14.5 miles. I crashed real early.

June 21st---Had a pretty good nights sleep so I was up early and ready to hit the trial by 6AM. It was another gorgeous day. Ended up being mid 60’s again by mid day. As I was hiking the Greenstone Ridge trail, two moose came crashing onto the trail about 40 feet in front of me. They ran the opposite direction as me, but it sure did get my heart pounding. Got on the Hugginin loop which had nice views of the lake. It was around 11:00AM when I got to the Hugginin campsites. I rested for about an hour and a half, snapped a few pictures of the cove and refilled my water. Hugginin Cove would be a great place to camp, there were awesome views and it was really peaceful. I did see in the forecast that there was a good chance of showers that night so I decided to forge on to Washington Creek for a shelter. Before I left, I met a girl from Florida and her friend from Minneapolis. They were on their first hiking trip and were on the boat with me. They had brought so much stuff that they stopped hiking once they got to Hugginin Cove…but if you’re going to spend a couple nights at one site, that might be the best one. We had a good chuckle over the amount of gear they had and chalked it up as a learning experience. As I headed towards Washington Creek, I ran into another solo hiker from Ohio. We talked about trail conditions and had a couple laughs. I told him about my new blisters I had gotten over my 35 plus miles of hiking and he said “well, at least they are good blisters.” I thought that was a very profound statement…blisters obtained by hiking are certainly not as bad as blisters gotten through other means. I arrived at a Washington Creek shelter around 1:30PM and I was really tired. My feet were on a new level of hurt...let’s just say “the dogs were barking“…badly. I laid on the picnic table for about 15 minutes and thought about how great the last three days have been. Around 7PM, it started pouring and rained for about 2.5 hours. When the rain stopped, I hear some splashing in the creek. A big moose was feeding from the bottom. When he would put his snout in the water, he would blow bubbles, it was hilarious. I thought it was some master plan to stir up vegetation, but when I later asked one of the biologist on the island about it, he didn’t think that was the case.

June 22nd--Around 4:45AM, I heard more splashing in the creek so I got up to check it out. Another moose was feeding so I got my binoculars and watched. After about 5 minutes, twin calves came out of the brush. I couldn’t believe my eyes. They looked so tiny. I watched them for about 30 minutes as they moved down the creek. When I went to Windigo to turn in my permit, I mentioned to the ranger what I had saw and he took an observation report. As I was waiting for the boat, I ran into the solo hiker from Ohio again. We talked about other hiking trips and bear encounters we have had. Nothing better then trading hiking stories. He mentioned that he was carrying some plaster as he wanted to get a cast of a wolf print. He was heading to Feldtmann Lake the next day, so I mentioned I thought I saw tracks on the beach. I hope he got lucky and got his cast.

The boat came around 1PM, I was in my van by 3PM and headed back towards Minneapolis, but my first trip to IR is one I’ll never forget. Next year I hope to tackle the Minong trail.
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Re: June 2010-Feldtmann>Island Mine>Hugginin Cove Loop

Post by johnhens »

Glad you enjoyed your first trip to IR, it can be habit forming. Your TR was very detailed, I could feel the cool Feldtmann water!!
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Re: June 2010-Feldtmann>Island Mine>Hugginin Cove Loop

Post by Tom »

Thanks, Blackdog! It seems you've discovered what we all love about IR - Seeing the moose (I love how humans don't affect their patterns much), and meeting new friends. I'm sure, like many of us, you'll have difficulty retelling those stories to your other hiking buddies about just how close to a moose you really where.. Just wait for the "yeah, rights" until you can finally get them to join you!
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Re: June 2010-Feldtmann>Island Mine>Hugginin Cove Loop

Post by upnorthjeeper »

Thanks a lot for sharing! You seem to be lucky to have seen soooo many moose. I went for a week by myself last fall at the very end of the season. The island was practically deserted, yet I saw not a single moose. I did get some video footage of squirrels mating, while a 3rd party attacked though! :lol:
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Re: June 2010-Feldtmann>Island Mine>Hugginin Cove Loop

Post by Backpacker534 »

Blackdog, it sounds like you had a really nice trip, except for the "barking dogs" and blisters (although , I guess they were good blisters...). My buddy and I just did that same trip this year between May 15th and May 20th. We too had a great trip with excellent weather, however, we didn't see nearly as many moose as you did. We actually camped at Huginnin Cove for a night, and of all the places I've been to on the island, that is probably in my top three favorite places. I was doing a lot of reminiscing while reading your T.R. Thanks for sharing.
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Re: June 2010-Feldtmann>Island Mine>Hugginin Cove Loop

Post by Blackdog »

I felt pretty lucky with seeing so many moose. I have hiked 215 miles of the Superior Hiking Trail and haven't seen anything other then a snowshoe hare, bear & moose scat and deer bones. The binoculars helped a lot. The three moose I saw swimming across the lake didn't look like anything until I put the binoculars on them. I think all the wildlife spotings at IR have spoiled me. Hopefully, I'll get lucky again next year on the Minong trail or maybe I should just be happy not getting lost :D
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Re: June 2010-Feldtmann>Island Mine>Hugginin Cove Loop

Post by jerry »

When doing the Minong next year make sure you count how many beaver ponds you cross. Its important when going east to west. Only do two of them. Boot tracks took us to a third one (you can say we were lost at that point in time). Look for the trail going uphill almost immediately after the second one.
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Re: June 2010-Feldtmann>Island Mine>Hugginin Cove Loop

Post by Blackdog »

Thanks Jerry! I'm taking notes and reading all the trip reports I can on the Minong. I think I'll have a note in big letters saying 'GO LEFT' after the second crossing
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Re: June 2010-Feldtmann>Island Mine>Hugginin Cove Loop

Post by jerry »

Go left if going west to east, go right if going east to west.
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