TR: 9/2-9/5, 2019 Rock Harbor to Windigo via Greenstone Ridge

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yanman2008
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TR: 9/2-9/5, 2019 Rock Harbor to Windigo via Greenstone Ridge

Post by yanman2008 »

Day 0:
We drove from Duluth to Grand Portage. Stopped for lunch in Grand Marais and ate at the Angry Trout Café. It was in the mid-50’s, but we still sat outside to eat. Food was delicious and we finished off our lunch with 1-oz. shots of pure maple syrup, definitely a fun and tasty little shot of sugar. Multiple people around us were laughing as we downed the syrup. While in Grand Marais, be sure to check out the Lake Superior Trading Post for any last minute supplies you might need. We ended up buying toilet paper here just to make sure we had some if the outhouses were empty.
We visited Grand Portage National Monument. We really enjoyed the kitchen tour and the discussion about the fur trade from a ranger. Highly recommend taking a couple of hours to visit the national monument.
We drove to Grand Portage State Park and did about a 4.5-mile hike to the middle falls. Looking back on this, knowing we had 40+ miles ahead of us on Isle Royale, we probably should have just gone to the main falls and left the hike for another trip. It was still a very secluded hike and we thoroughly enjoyed a little warm up.
We stayed at The Grand Portage Lodge and Casino. There was another group literally across the hall from us at the hotel who were also going to Isle Royale the next day via the Voyageur II. We ate dinner at the casino restaurant which decent food and service. We packed up our backpacks and got a good night sleep before our journey to Isle Royale.
Day 1:
It was a cool, but comfortable morning when we arrived to the Grand Portage Isle Royale ferry dock. It was a pretty full boat, but it was fully loaded and we departed at exactly 7:30 AM. The boat ride to Windigo was extremely choppy. There was a storm in the forecast for the next day (more on that to come) and it caused some major waves on Lake Superior which slowed the trip across the lake. Once we got to Windigo, everyone left the boat for ranger orientation. Those going to McCargoe Cove had to go to the visitor center to get their permits and then got back on the boat. We were bound for Rock Harbor, so we had a couple of minutes in the camp store and visitor center then got back on the boat.
It was a long and slow boat to Rock Harbor. There were only 5 people total that went the whole way. We got there at about 3:30 PM. We stopped in the Rock Harbor camp store and picked up a bag of chips and a bag of Muddy Buddies as our guilty pleasure and filled up our water bottles and bladders. My packed weighed 44 lbs and my wife’s pack was 30 lbs when fully loaded with water (hanging scale available on the side of the Rock Harbor camp store).
We were officially on the trail by 3:58 PM headed to Daisy Farm, by 4:15 we were stopped by 2 moose. The female moose took off immediately, but the bull simply stood in the middle of the trail. We waited about 20 minutes and saw no movement from the moose, so we went off the trail to go around him. We were back on the trail with no signs of the moose. This section of the Rock Harbor trail was very rocky and had a lot of roots, so we made sure every step was secure. We ended up at Daisy Farm a little bit after 7:00 PM. We saw a beaver swimming in Lake Superior right next to the pier and we watched him do his work for a little. All of the shelters were full, but we were able to fit in a shelter between another couple in a tent and a solo backpacker who didn’t pitch his tent in the shelter.
Day 2:
The skies were grey in the morning and the weather forecast was not great for our second day. We didn’t get going as early as we wanted to because we were trying to be quiet for our shelter-mates, but we were fully packed up by 7:15 AM. We ate a quick breakfast and filled up our squeeze bottles from the pier into Lake Superior. The water was extremely choppy so filling those bottles was not the easiest, but we got it. It was about 8 AM when we finally got moving.
Because the weather forecast was not good, we decided not to add any extra miles so we skipped Mt. Ojibway and went up Daisy Farm trail to the Greenstone Ridge. At about 10:30, the sky opened up and it began pouring. It rained hard, almost non-stop, until about 5:00 PM. Some of the views that I read about on Mt. Siskiwit were not there because of the rain and fog, but it was still really beautiful to see the fog behind the trees. We literally could not see more than 20 feet in front of us through the fog.
It was about 3 PM when we got to the Hatchet Lake campground spur and we decided to call it quits for the day and not push on late in the afternoon with 7 additional miles to South Lake Desor. Again, all of the campsites were full so we ended up sharing a site with 2 other tents in the same site. Needless to say, with all of the rain, we were fully soaked head to toe. We used the foliage in the campsite to hang our clothes to try to dry them out overnight. As we slept, were heard a moose stomping through the woods.
Day 3:
Thankfully, the weather was so much better on our long day. According to my wife, the hardest part of the entire trip, physically and emotionally, was putting on our cold, wet pants and clothes that didn’t dry at all overnight. That being said, we were on the trail by 7:15 AM. It took a little bit to climb back up to the Greenstone. As soon as we were on the Greenstone Ridge trail, a big bull moose was coming directly towards us on the trail. We quickly jumped off the trail behind a couple of trees. Our movement caused the moose to veer off the trail and that was the last moose we saw.
One of our favorite activities on the last day was eating as many ripe thimbleberries as we could find. We were sad as we got to the west side of the island and the thimbleberries were far less frequent. Our goal on this day of about 20 miles was to get to Windigo before the camp store closed. Most of these miles were easy for us and we had a great time. Our clothes dried out and we were able to get to Washington Creek by 3:30. After we dropped our packs in a shelter, we could barely walk upright, our bodies had grown accustom to carrying our packs.
Unfortunately, we had pictures of the Rock Harbor camp store in our heads and the Windigo store is definitely not the same size. We were still able to find some food to feast on such as ramen noodles, saltine crackers, French fried onions, and hot chocolate. This hodgepodge assortment of food was certainly a feast for us.
Day 4:
Our flight to Grand Marias was at 9:00 AM, so we had enough time to visit the visitor center and view all of the displays. We left our camp fuel at the camp store and waited for the plane. The flight was a real treat and we were able to spot a ship wreck under the water from the sky. We landed at about 9:50 and with in 5 minutes, Harriet Quarles had shown up in her van. She had another hiker heading to overnight one of the state parks and his dog in the van. She is eccentric lady to say the least, but offers a great service. She suggested the Naniboujou Lodge for lunch as a welcome location for dirty, smelly hikers. After we got back to our car, we changed quickly and went to Naniboujou for lunch. It was great food, and the placed got packed almost immediately after 12 when they opened.
All in all it was a great trip and as we continued on our journey to Voyageurs, we spotted a wolf off the side of the road.
bobcat
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Re: TR: 9/2-9/5, 2019 Rock Harbor to Windigo via Greenstone Ridge

Post by bobcat »

A quick trip! Did it whet your appetite for another trip to Isle Royale? And I am also interested in your impressions of Voyageurs NP.
yanman2008
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Joined: Mon Aug 19, 2019 2:00 pm
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Re: TR: 9/2-9/5, 2019 Rock Harbor to Windigo via Greenstone Ridge

Post by yanman2008 »

Bobcat1 wrote: Wed Sep 18, 2019 5:36 pm A quick trip! Did it whet your appetite for another trip to Isle Royale? And I am also interested in your impressions of Voyageurs NP.
We definitely will want to get back Isle Royale again in the future! Next time, we for sure want to get some kayaks out there and do some paddling and maybe splurge for a night and stay at the Rock Harbor Lodge.

Voyageurs was great! We spent a night between Isle Royale and Voyageurs at an AirBnB in Orr, MN where we were able to pack up our dry bags and refill our backpacks. At Voyageurs, we rented a canoe on Kabetogama Lake. We paddled out to the Ellsworth Rock Garden and then paddled to our own "private island" to camp for a night. It was so much fun to load up the canoe with food and gear and firewood and have a nice fire in complete isolation from literally anyone. The water was pretty choppy though and nautical navigation with a small map and compass was not easy. We did paddle to the wrong island once (or twice!). I would bring my fishing gear here next time as well. Would have been great to hook a nice walleye and filet it up.

After we paddled back to shore the next day, we headed to Rainy Lake and took a guided boat tour from a park ranger. It was nice to learn about the Minnesota "Gold Rush" and the commercial fishing industry of the past. We also saw a ton of bald eagles. Ended up spending that night in a motel in Fort Frances, ON, CA. Great place to eat and drink was the Flint House in Fort Frances. Highly recommend it if you find yourself on that side of the border.
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