Isle Royale Forums

Beginning at Windigo on Sept. 2, we hiked in beautiful weather to Feldtmann Lake Camp where we spent our first amazing night on the island. Before going to bed for the night we did a packless hike to Rainbow Beach to watch the sun set. The beach was a gorgeous, water-formed bed of rocks we had all to ourselves. We had to laugh a lot though as on this evening, it seemed as though the sunset never really happened. This, likely because we got there too early. Day two on the island greeted us with a moose swimming and eating its way towards us across Feltdmann Lake. That day we backpacked in an all day rain to Siskiwit Bay Camp where we were fortunate enough to land a shelter. From about half way to Siskiwit Bay the trail was very overgrown, but by paying good attention, we were able to follow the trail. Though we both had the best rain gear one could have, we were both fully soaked. Day three had us hike to South Lake Desor Camp. A treat to our ears, the call of the loons was spectacular. On day four we hiked to Hatchet Lake Camp to spend the night. I don't remember a lot about this camp, but the call of the loons was a constant on our trip. Day five was awesome, taking us to W. Chickenbone Lake. Descending the trail as we neared camp, a HUGE bull moose was just inches off the trail about 30' from me. I slowly moved behind the safety of a tree to take in the moose in all it's full rack majesty. Only later while I was watching the moose did I think to bring out my camera. When I did, I tripped a bit over a rock, scaring the moose deeper into the woods. None of my pictures are great, but at least you can see this moose really was there as I described. A few steps further down the trail there was a large female moose deeper in the woods. As I stopped and scanned the woods I saw at least six moose in this location! As I was making dinner in camp, Sara quietly got my attention and pointed towards the woods at the edge of our camp. Here there was a sweet, curious fox that trotted calmly into our camp, taking time to stretch and yawn before it did its rounds within our camp. He was beautiful! About an hour later, he returned to make his second round through our camp! Lovely!!! Day six we hiked to Moskey Basin where we again got a shelter for the night. The sunset view over the lake here was nothing short of spectacular. On this night, in addition to the loons, we heard the wolves howling and yelping over what was almost certainly a kill. Being there had been rain on just about every day of our trip, on day seven we decided to not do a short day, passing up Daisy Farm to spend the night at Rock Harbor, again in one of the shelters. Here people, I should say very clean and neat looking people, were plentiful. Still, our final night spent in camps was fantastic. On day eight we checked into the Rock Harbor Lodge, dropped our packs and did a loop hike from that location. The views of Lake Superior we brilliant!

What a fantastic trip!!!! With 30 pounds in each of our packs, we packed just enough food for the duration of our trip. As an added bonus, I lost 13 pounds and Sara lost seven!!! (I have more to lose than she does). TIP: Order the fish sandwich from the Rock Harbor Grill. YUM!!!!! In total, 62 miles hiked.

Thanks for the pictures! I can almost smell the moose . . . .

Thanks for the report. It's so good to read that people are hearing wolves again.

Thanks for the report!

awesome that you heard wolves!